Gone

The post from @@andysmom above has me thinking. We hear so much about good districts and bad districts. I live in the latter and it has been that way for a while. They live for the good old boy/girl network, they only want stuff from units, they don't provide any UCs. When they do provide UCs they come around asking for stuff, not offering to help. When they *do* help it is no where near effective or wanted. They seem very self-involved. RTs are nothing more than a waste of gas and time. Stuff gets printed out which could be sent electronically. In short, these districts are a waste. I'd b

Army and Marine Corps manuals. Means the blue field with stars.

In all corporations, people who make that kind of money are on the hook for GENERATING a sizable portion of income for that organization. If you are not a profit center in an organization, and you are making THAT MUCH, you better darn will be introducing ideas and programs that are 1) getting you new clients, 2) streamlining your costs, 3) cutting waste or expenses, or 4) being innovative in the areas of R&D. If you are not doing any of that you won't last long. If these guys are doing any of this -- which membership numbers, clunky IT systems, rising costs and poor quality service sug

We do the following: Build a bonfire and let it burn to hot coals. We then separate the Field of Valor from the Stripes using a special razor. We then burn the strips first and then the Field of Valor. During the ceremony we have a series of readings while we burn the Stripes. When we burn the Field of Valor we play taps. The coals are folded over the burning remains and the coals are allowed to die out during the night (yes, we have an honor guard of two adults and several scouts camping near the fire to make sure it is contained. The next morning we spread the coals and douse with water, t

Not just e-learining but that is what BSA considers "fully trained". So you can have a WB committee member who has a Silver Beaver and all sorts of other training, but if they have not done the Troop Committee Challenge, BSA does not consider them trained as a committee leader. To make this easy we require this training every January for new parents. Makes it easy later on. Easier just to have them send you their print out. That report is designed specifically for units and districts to report up "trained" leader stats as defined by BSA, as well as YPT adherence for registered

I suspect a lock-in overnight would be treated like a camp out with the troop. Cub leaders would need to be around.

BSA seems like those type of ceremonies since there are so many of them. You *can* have flag ceremonies that are crisp and not boring and well-done. By their definition, such ceremonies are repetitive. I think the new Honor Guard concept is a step in that direction. http://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2015/01/27/honor-guard-patch/ EDIT: You can see one council decided to make this a program and make it more repetitive and uniform by having the BYU Air Force ROTC help train the crews.

I like to have a five year plan (road map). I like to have critical mass (enough people to make my efforts worth while). I like to have back-up help (e.g., other adults helping). I trust that inner voice that tells me when to give up or press onward. If that voice conflicts with what the boys need, I try to find the boys another option (i.e., another place to go). I never leave the kids high and dry.

Partner with a local scout troop and do something. We help a few local packs with stuff. One we did a mock PWD. The other we launched rockets. Another we did archery (professional range). Another we just did scoutcraft.

The 2014 increase was announced in September 2013, wasn't it? http://www.ncacbsa.org/news/138293/Membership-Fee-Increase-in-2014--UPDATED.htm

How of his homework or projects at school do you do for him? Hopefully the answer is zero. Scouts should be no different. Unless he's just crossed over I'd leave us to him but with your guidance.

My experience has been the opposite. They can't stay out of the boys' way and need to be kicked in the butt to volunteer for the tough jobs.

A fee hike and a policy change. Sure I bet they're just that silly to do so.

@@ALongWalk I'd find out what your units need and offer to help, rather tha doing the same old thing or pushing what council wants you to do.

[reads as he fills out forms for MBC, ASM, district volunteer, school volunteer, driver's ed teacher, etc.]

We had a rather energetic old time scouter do the same. Just could not get the scouts to wear them. go to any troop in our region and it is about 80% or more who don't wear them. Every year or so we get someone who tries to vote them in to the standard uniform, always fails by a huge margin.

I can't speak for him obviously, but I think his purpose was to distance the church from Scouts and offer options more in line with the church's teachings. He wanted to send a message to BSA that they made the wrong decision. I suspect most scouts in those troops were not Catholic. I know in our CO most in our unit are not of the same affiliation. I suspect the same is true for most units (except LDS obviously).

I think he purposely acknowledged the relationship between the CO and BSA in the way he did. He's basically saying that the church will not be part of BSA. BSA will go on. Church members can join and participate if they like, but BSA now owns those units formerly associated with the church. He's severed the responsibility for those units and put it back on BSA.

BSA won't get rid of the Class A. They make too much money off apparel.

...and BSA wants your troop data? ROFL. You'd think a system based on BSA ID would be linked to your membership and training records and would be available to national, district and council for validation.

Yes let's let it prevail. My healthcare hasn't been the same since obamacare. My costs have gone up, my premiums have gone up, my choices have gone down and I have less money. But by all means let's take care of everyone because that's what America is about. Meh....

He's removed bishops that have overspent or have harbored or ignored child abuse. Kagan's move is seen by many as reducing the exposure of children to issue not currently supported by the church. Unless Francis is going to announce support for the gay life style he'd be hard pressed to justify removing Kagan on any other grounds.

Our DE is MIA. Too busy trying to get cherry council role to care about district ops. Our training chair is good but too overworked to handle such things. Best handled by the unit with the training chair signing, then the unit purchases and awards.

Nope. No adults do. Been a tradition in these parts a while.

We go out of council for adventure. Other reasons are program, facilities, staff, travel and cost.