qwazse

Great announcement. Also fits in "Scouting Around the World."

It was an issue of, "What can we use by way of marketing doublespeak to avoid speaking plainly?" The plain-spoken answer would have been, "We now have girls and their parents by the thousands begging us to work our program. Either start insisting that a quality GS/USA troop inculcate a vision of the pinnacle scouting experience of hiking and camping independently with one's mates or we will have no choice but to step in and fill that void. Oh, and by the way, how would you all like to join us hosting World Scout Jamboree? Your cookie sales could launch through the roof!" But, we all were subject to decades of double-speak, and there were precious few execs who would get anywhere by speaking plainly. (Consider the convoluted excuses made for female venturers being kept from O/A or Eagle Scout or recognition by NESA for earning Silver.)

This is pretty old news. As in 60 years old. West had a chip on his shoulder over Gordon Low’s refusal the rebrand as Girl Guides. That bitter root has only grown fat. There’s no secret about executive animus between the two organizations. Many boots-on-the-ground work around executives who try to keep members of the two organizations from any collaboration.

It's always been a mix. There are precious few people who hike and camp as often as the average SM. My SM was a church organist, so he counseled me for Music. (The downside: we always returned to the scout-house by 8:30 AM Sunday.) I earned 1st Aid from a neighboring SM who was also an EMT. Dad was happy to drive me and a buddy through the countryside to his house -- which was down the street from the least expensive barber in the county. A couple of my other counselors had responsibilities as cub leaders, etc ... so being "already bothered" wasn't an issue. Adults had room for "one more boy." The crux of the problem is the modern paperwork burden. One hour a week is fine when directly working with a couple of scouts. That's 12 hours a month. But when you pile on an hour of training and an hour paper chase on average every year, and reduce hours of availability because you need to align schedules to fulfill youth protection -- it deprives volunteers of the coveted time mentoring a youth. So instead of 12 youth helped, its 8-10. On the district side, the commissioner goes from collecting a handshake and contact info to making sure a half dozen t-s are crossed and i-s dotted. So, instead of the commish and his/her buddies going around neighborhoods shaking hands with dozens of prospective adults every month, they are probably pushing paperwork for a fraction of the people who they would have on-boarded for the same effort in the past. So, instead of recruitment being a fun exercise of growing a fellowship of caring adults -- it has become an administrative hot-potato.

What do you all think about an auto-eligibility for any adult who is registered in any other position (besides MBC) and completes YPT (and whatever other state-mandated paperwork is required)? I could imagine an E-memo going out from a district inviting someone with completed paper work to take a few more steps involving watching a MBC-specific training video and filling out an online form asking which MB's they'd like to counsel. The memo could be sent to all eligible scouters or Key-Three could be sent a link to the list of eligible adults in their unit, and they could check off who should be invited to become MBCs.

I'm trying to nudge my people to path #1 because they are really capable and would enjoy helping any scout who would get sent their way. That won't happen for them until they push the paperwork (again). They seem to want path #2 because in their mind, registered, trained, and paid (to be Committee or SM/ASM, and for some once-upon-a-time MBC) is good enough for our boys. From their perspective, they don't see asking them to do more than what they've already done will help youth protection.

Sorry for the contested circumstances that lead to your moving on. But, this is a unique opportunity. It sounds like you started to work your ticket and came up against things you couldn't control. So you got some real-world experience in writing tickets! And you have an encouraging counselor. What would you like to accomplish in the next six months? What stuff did you start doing in this new position that you'd really like to give a boost? Answer those questions and you'll probably have enough ticket items for four MBC's. or 92U's. Hopefully your counselor will help you prioritize.

@scoutldr, I think that's the prevailing attitude around here. Pitts burghers aren't much for pleasantries. They aren't mean, but their sense of equality-through-work-ethic leads them to shrug off titles. All that said, my second job involved collaborating with cardiologists throughout the country. That involved a lot of phone time with receptionists. There was one in Georgia who insisted on using "Sir", but in a way that was incredibly friendly -- real southern hospitality style. I felt so good after getting off the phone with her, that I started using "Sir" and "Ma'am" in normal interactions around here in Steeler country. I only got push-back once ... a bus-driver called me out. I explained, "Ma'am, you got me through town safe and sound. For that you deserve my utmost respect." She said she'd make an exception for me, but I'd better not let it catch on. I think I only really infected Son #2 with the mannerism. It worked quite well for him.

Our council spent the year making some long needed repairs and improvements to camp facilities. They are planning to be open for the summer.

At the moment, I wouldn't consider it smart-alecky if our boys chose to do that. We have had rotated different adults into SM, and addressing the leaders as SM (first name) and ASM (last name) might help boys understand who is fulfilling what role now. However, that's just not our culture, so I take it in stride. The kids at church call me Mr (first name), and I'm good with that.

I’m a first name guy. Period. But, that’s not the culture I live in. So, if scouts are compelled to address me as Mr. Q., I try to address them as Mr./Miss. My problem at the moment is our troop is chock full of siblings, so I’m using first names more regularly.

I'm calling BS on this. At a very fundamental and traditional level, recruiting counselors is a district/council responsibility. Blame the units all you want, but this but if the council doesn't have the personnel in place to handle the additional paperwork, what makes them think units would have any more capacity? And, to be frank, for a while we had a registrar who basically chucked our unit councilors ... all fine people ... all whose YP is current ... all who are registered in other unit positions ... all who have paid to maintain their registration. Why aren't they still also registered as MBC's? Basically because we were victims of someone who didn't give a crap about their volunteers. So, why would they want to complete an application when they suspect that sooner or later someone is going to drop them from that position for no good reason? So, sure, I'll nag my fellow scouters to fill out one more form, and maybe after a year or so, they will. But if other qualified, trained, and caring unit leaders are like mine, blue cards will be pushed anyway. It's going to take a unit commissioner, with applications in hand and ready to process on-the-spot, talking as sweetly as possible to my scouters who should be MBCs.

Not sure what’s going to be worse: the long dead remaining on MBC lists or the most competent in their field being removed for lack of officiousness.

I've worked with boys and girls and their tracking of things is indeed a high order of chaos. I'm not saying that the "blank ticket" approach is the way to go. I'm just using it to point out that there is a lot of non-essential print in BSA's supply chain. And much of that exists to make adults' life easier, but actually has ensnared adults in a vicious cycle of increased bean-counting. Compare how many adults in an average troop are involved in tracking a scouts' advancement today vs. how many when we were kids. But, given printed media, what has BSA done over the years, especially recent decades? It has used the power of print to pack more words on a page and create an increasingly convoluted series of checklist requirements. We've uncorked a Pandora's box. If the underlying principle is, according to congressional charter "to teach boys to do things for themselves", then the ticket approach is one way to push back against the piling on supposed "skills". Besides, there are a lot of unused envelopes out there!

So, tracking advancement is a different animal than listing each requirement for every award that a scout could earn. Frankly, one doesn't need any pre-printed material to track advancement. Lined paper or graph paper would do. The date goes in the left margin, the scout writes the award and requirement number, and the PL signs in the right margin. If all that matters is lists of req #s and PL's signatures, it could literally be as small as a membership card for each rank. The scout comes to the SM and says "Sir, I've worked my ticket for ___ rank and am ready for my conference and BoR." Those Scout and Tenderfoot tickets will look gnarly, but as scouts mature, we'll see their upper-rank tickets look sharp. As I've mentioned in other threads, the killer app would be the tech that could photograph the card to a cloud drive, scan the writing, and register requirement completion. The other "universal scout tool" that I've mentioned before, is a standard-issue notebook designed for working MB's. This would replace those MB worksheets. The scout records the MB at the top of the page, lists the requirement in the margin, and makes notes relevant to the requirement in the body. The real value is that library of specialty MB pamphlets. Fewer troops means fewer libraries and less demand. The contents are swell, but it if they were exclusively online, it would be a hassle for end-users to print and bind the 23-136 pamphlets they'd use in their career. The issue of oversupply is an indication that BSA needs to move to print-on-demand and direct mailing. This would also enable every scout-shop and trading post to resupply with exactly the inventory that they needed.

@MattR, most scouts probably have already earned one in each of the "outdoor" categories in summer camp. The Public Health MB is probably the toughest to earn right now. The best counselors for it are currently swamped. My pandemic guy is busy figuring out where to send each shipment of vaccine. On the other hand, Son #2 is building and testing a wastewater prototype for communities, and his company is small enough that I bet we could arrange a walk-through, then go camping someplace nearby. If the PLC okay's it, we can find the people to make this interesting. It's just a matter of getting them their shots.

In case you're the kind of scouter who doesn't want their scouts to find out on their own about any awards, be sure to add this to your meetings' agenda ... https://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2021/01/19/scouts-can-help-protect-the-environment-by-earning-the-new-environmental-protection-agency-award/ Seriously, it looks like one for this year only, and it requires earning a constellation of MB's that would appeal to many scouts.

What's "real" these days? Print? Does my registration fee pay for the ink and paper that I'd need? Illustrations are not requirements. Professional? Like the Project Workbook that many scouts have trouble loading on to their devices? I get nervous any time someone asks BSA to doll anything up. More importantly, this is a game with a purpose. And, like a game FAQ, it needs to be rapidly scroll-able. The requirement's file should be minimal so that it can be comprehensive. All hyperlinks are ASCII. (Well, technically, everyone has gone UTF-8 ... and doing so might aid language translation services.) Plain text is amenable to free-form search and if it uses tags, standard apps can read it and generate the TOC, and image links. We're talking about the base file from which all other material is drawn. The pretty pictures of all the patches aren't going to go away. They just won't be a distraction for anyone who wants to scan a large volume of data quickly. Full disclosure: I do save all of my output for work as .pdf if possible. But our product is tables and charts, so formatting goes a long way in communicating to others, including my future self. The only down-side is when I want to machine-read some output, then ASCII is my friend once again.

On my honor, I have never withheld any information from a scout that could, one day forestall death (the scout’s or other’s) and generally make the world a better place. I dunno, why would I place an orienteering control in the middle of the woods and not give a scout turn-by-turn directions to it? Neither you nor I can be exauhstive sources of information on every path a scout may take. If you think you have been, you’ve deluded yourself. And, there is a risk, like at the start of this thread, of bemoaning the requirements of an award because it emphasizes something your scout doesn’t want to pursue. The next step is we fall into a Dad-shame trap. I “knew” Venturing Silver would be an ideal path for my daughter. She, like 99% of Venturers didn’t see the value in it. She didn’t even take VLST until she had to teach it as part of her VOA responsibilities. Then she had the gall to complain about why I hadn’t told her about it earlier! She had the Leadership Manual on her shelf for three years! Well, absent BSA bling, she started college early, got a full ride somewhere just across town from @Eagledad, and commenced extracting oil and gas for everyone until you all stopped driving around last year. Then she came home and started in freight logistics, and just moved to her house across town that she bought with her nest egg. There are a couple life skills her brothers picked up that she missed out on by not perusing a personal growth award, so I’m a little sorry for that, but I’m not sorry that and all her friends have grown strong and good nonetheless. And now, award requirements are online (even if they aren’t in plain-old-ascii like the game FAQs that Son #2 learned to read by). A youth’s journey can start before he/she even cracks open a handbook!

I'm of the opposite view. It is the scout's responsibility to read his/her handbook, magazines, and other literature and learn what awards they might wish to earn. It is the adult leader's responsibility to inculcate a vision of the pinnacle scouting experience of hiking and camping independently with your mates. Sure, if a scout is an avid camper I might tell him, in passing, to look up the NOAC. If he's a good shot, I'll let him no about Jr. NRA. If he swims like a fiend, and is very conscientious, I'll encourage BSA Guard certification. If he masters a knot, I'll probably tell him to demonstrate it to his PL and get a sign-off. Those are obvious "next steps." But my job is not to let every scout know every award. My job is to teach him to discover the lay of the land, observe, and report. I encourage other adult leaders to do the same. That jobs hard enough, most days.

My only wish is that all requirements were in one plain-old-ascii file. Same thing for annual reports.

Regarding youth supporting basic council operations: my crew had lots of interactions with professional staff at council HQ and at VOA activities. We considered those interactions as part of their leadership training. The pros were mostly positive role models for my crew. One DE even had a spare sleeping bag for a venturer who had forgot hers. (He explained that he had just come from a cub event, and having such stuff was par for the course.) So, if put upon, I think my youth at the time would have been open to fundraising to support what you all consider "basic operations." The the boys in troops, however, have less interaction with pro's so they can't put a name or face to who they'd be supporting. When I was a scout, the DE was father of kids in my youth group. So, I could see us also fundraising to support him if folks told us he needed it. But, back the deep pockets proudly giving to BSA were ubiquitous.

My gut (and I think this is in the spirit of most regulations): if you've kept the pack running, you'll want to wait until you can share B&G with parents and grandparents, etc ... Sure, you could do something online, but folks are hankering for a celebration to look forward to. Postpone until everyone in your circles has had the vaccine. (Mrs. Q and I got round one yesterday. She's a little bit more sore than me -- but more sore that she had to wait this long. I'm only sore that my facility only doled out a sticker the size of my fingernail.) A June B&G picnic would be nice. If the AoL's have crossed over, it's all good. Invite them back. P.S. - If you all can afford it, book a caterer and maybe a local band or act.

So, here's the advantage of a Unit-collection: Volunteer labor spent presenting (and, from your parents' perspective, listening to) FOS presentations. As you mention, those costs are not trivial. Here's the disadvantage: Youth labor spent raising funds for other troops. The whole point of FOS is supposedly to provide facilities and camperships to scouts who couldn't otherwise afford them. It's one thing if your youth want to do that. (GS/USA youth seem to be quite proud that their cookie sales do such things.) But perhaps your youth have other charities for whom they want to raise funds . Your council (and, in turn, those other troops) will want its cut first. The disadvantage to council: Collection from willing individuals once they have left scouting. A lot of our folks who pledged at FOS presentations, kept doing so for decades.

If this were a scout in my troop, I would have paid for the registration in exchange for some treats (or at least a post-card) from your overseas placement. Do you use scoutbook? Does anything there say something about rechartering?