SeattlePioneer

Finding volunteers to help... Nothing is more common in Scouting, or indeed in pretty much any volunteer based organization. The potential of volunteer organizations is pretty much limitless, except for the perpetual shortage of volunteers. In my experience, you have two basic approaches ---- coercion or finding and motivatinf real volunteers who make the organization and it's values their own. You may need both! Since we can't throw non volunteers in jail, pretty much all leader recruiting begins by making new people feel welcome and in impressing themn with what the organization is doing and can do. This tends to be most effective with people new to the organization --- recently recruited families and parents. The artful dodgers who have avoided doing things for years may have perfected their methods and be very resistant to new appeals. So personally, I aim my efforts at impressing new adults with the QUALITY of the program and the WELCOME they receive into the pack. I organize a Bobcat Den of newly recruited families and have Bobcat Den meetings that go over the Bobcat requirements, have fun projects and activities and a hike and hot dog roast, which includes a half hour selling popcorn in the fall. That also gives me the opportunity to assess the interest and abilities of parents or grandparents, and to invite those with interest and ability to help in some way with the program ---- inviting them to participate and making them feel engaged and welcomed.. In short, my leader recruiting begins with combing out those adults with leadership potential and to give them roles and experience as leaders in the unit. If they perform, they can be invited to do more, and they are likely to be willing to do more. Well, that's a start on this deep subject. I look forward to seeing many more posts and ideas!

< No. I don't use FB and closed my FB account a long time ago.. Not interested.

< >> I agree. Two signatures is a frail reed against financial abuse. And it's a burdensome nuisance, as far as I'm concerned. My preference is to give the CC a copy of the checking account statement with check images each month and allow him to raise any questions or issues he might wish. This coupled with making it clear that the Pack Committee can appoint a new Treasurer any time they wish by adopting a resolution by majority vote (needed by the bank for them to change the person managing the account. The idea is that if the CC decides he isn't satisfied with the job the Treasurer does for ANY reason or NO reason, there is a readily available way to appoint a new person. That's my theory, anyway.

<> Frankly, the Indian stuff means nothing to me, and emphasizing it just gets in the way of doing service, from what I see. But the district leader and Scouts seem happy with it, so I just bowed out and will let them go their way. Seems like a waste of time and energy to me.

"Whither" My latin refernces apparently aren't being understood. << Quo vadis? (Classical Latin: [kÊ·oË waËÂdis], Ecclesiastical Latin: [kÊ·oË vadiËÂs]) is a Latin phrase meaning "Where are you going?" The modern usage of the phrase refers to a Christian tradition regarding Saint Peter. According to the apocryphal Acts of Peter (Vercelli Acts XXXV[1]), Peter is fleeing from likely crucifixion in Rome at the hands of the government, and along the road outside the city he meets a risen Jesus. In the Latin translation, Peter asks Jesus "Quo vadis?", to which he replies, "Romam vado iterum crucifigi" ("I am going to Rome to be crucified again"). Peter thereby gains the courage to continue his ministry and returns to the city, to eventually be martyred by being crucified upside-down.>> So my intention with "Whither Order of the Arrow" was to ask Where is the Order of the Arrow going?

<> My congratulations to the moderators for doing a great job. It's very rare that I see spam on the boards, so someone is emptying the trash before I even see it.

< Unless one knows for sure what a true witness to an event is, it's better to not lower oneself down to the level of the cheater by repeating hearsay and gossip. >> Sorry, I don't agree. I think you misinterpret the biblical quotation, when refers to lying as a witness, in my opinion. I think your standard is unreasonably high. A lower standard would allow POSSIBLE bad behavior to be investigated, and for facts to be accumulated about what happened. There a big difference between the standard of evidence need to justify making a complaint and making a final determination that someone has behaved badly. This is reflected in criminal law by the low standard of "reasonable suspicion" which allows the police to begin an investigation, the higher standard of "probable cause" which allows the police to arrest someone, and the high standard of "beyond a reasonable doubt" needed to convict someone of a crime. While we aren't bound by the standards in criminal law, having a lower standard to justify opening an investigation of possible bad behavior makes good sense, in my opinion.

I was just at an elementary school today, pitching boys about attending our pack Halloween party tonight. I generally find that K-2nd graders don't have much of an image of Scouts, or Cub Scouts. So the image I place there is going hiking and camping, bbgun and archery, games and activities and such. FUN! That does a reasonable job of motivating boys to turn out for our signup nights. I wear a uniform when I'm in schools, and I carry a bigle "Join Cub Scouts!" flag or other stuff I can use to create an image of Cub Scouts. I figure that's a start.

<> DEs work for the council. How does National's priorities make themselves felt?

Hel Polaris... <> So what's your fund raiser?

Unfortunately, blw2s post above summarizes many of the weaknesses in the Cub Scout program. What keeps things going is a fun den and pack program, by and large, I'm afraid. We are having a pack Halloween Party tonight, and it's the occasion for our second recruiting effort this fall. I'm just back from doing stickering at an elementary school at lunch.

That shoulda been WHITHER Order of the Arrow! Moderator Note: Done. (NJCubScouter)

< >> That sounds good, if the lodge will along with it. I sat in the district lodge meeting a few months ago. I was thinking it might be worthwhile to volunteer as an adult leader. The Lodge advisoer is a leading district volunteer, who does a lot and has rebuilt to lodge through his leadership. However, they are really into the Indian stuff --- mdancing, button blankets and such. Personally, I consider that a waste of time, at least for me. So I'm no longer considering being a volunteer. Personally, I think OA should be based on providing service of any kind, and drop the Indian associations.

Wow! I'm really glad my name is Seattle Pioneer and not Spam today....

< Stosh>> Courts usually desire and often insist upon the highest quality kinds of evidence in a trial, particularly a criminal trial. For example, a copy of a record is usually not acceptabole as evidence. The actual record itself must usually be produced to use as evidence. In a trial therefore, having someone testify about what someone else told them is poor quality evidence compared with having that person testify themself about what they were told. But when one is investigating a possible problem, hearsay may be quite useful. You can always get higher quality kinds of evidence at a later time to improve a case. Anyway, that's my understanding as a non lawyer. I think the legal rules of evidence are interesting, even though they can often be rather arcane. If they weren't, who'd need lawyers?

These days Scouting is about the diversity that liberals like to talk about but hate if it doesn't agree with their own ideas and values.

Hey Polaris--- You are 18-21 years in age? Wow, I'm impressed with your methods in managing a relatively complex organization! You are the first unit treasurer I've encountered who does things better than I do, in my opinion! Interesting about the debit cards. Our bank insisted that we have one, so I just cut it up when I received it. My opion was that debit cards add to complexity and make it more difficult to account for purchases. That's true enough, but they also would make things easier for our Cubmaster. I have no qualms about him acting resposibly, aqlthough I might not get reliable reports back on purchases. Probably it's a nuisance for volunteers to save receipts for expense reports if you aren't in the HABIT of saving receipts --- which I am. I'd be interested in other comments about how expenses are reimbursed. < I often get handed a large wad of cash from the fundraising chairs. I do not issue cash receipts for these. I do make separate deposits for each fundraiser and write on the deposit slip what the deposit was for. We use online banking and you can click on the deposit line item, download the deposit slip and see my handwritten note on the deposit slip. I will then email the spreadsheet to the fundraising chair to make sure we are in agreement.>> Can you describe this process in more detail? I'm mainly concerned about losing track of money I've been paid, especially cash, and not being able to account for what I've been paid at a later time. That's why I aim to write each payment on a receipt, even if it's a sketchy one. With a receipt, you know you've bee4n paid money, and you ought to know how much and for what. And you can make later notes on it to record when the payment has been enetered into the accounting system (Quicken for me) and deposited. It would be all too easy to be paid cash and not be able to account for it later. That's one of the things I'm most concerned about and most want to avoid. I do pretty good with that by using a receipt book regularly. But it can be tough when people are shoving money at you and don't give you the time to write up a receipt. Anyway, you have my admiration and congratulations on doing a great job!

I don;t use them and none of the dens in the pack use them. They are a nuisance and get lost or fall apart, in my experience. Also ---expensive. Frankly, I leave keeping track of recognition up to parents, since I'm lousy at that. Of course, so are a lot of parents.

1) I'm reliably told that both youth and adult applications can be completed on the beascout.org website these days. I'm not sure how that's done though --- perhaps someone can advise us. 2) Adults don't have to be registered Scouters to go on overnight outings. You need to have at least one registered Scouter and an additional adult who may or may not be registered. 3) Frankly security about adult leader applications isn't unreasonable, if my own difficulties getting everything together and signed are an example. Haven't had anyone raise that issue with me yet, though. Find out how to do the beascout.org registration, would be my advice for this issue. Might be worthwhile in many cases if it's simpler to do and avoids all that paperwork handling.

<> What's the nature of the "sales transaction" if it's just a scrap of paper which will be discarded, it's not much of a record. A receipt book with a copy or two of the transaction provides a record to the person making the payment, a permanent record in the receipt book itself and a receipt number that can be entered in the accounting record. If you have a record of a $10 deposit --- which $10 payment was being deposited? If you have a record of a $10 deposit for receipt #359213, you know which payment was received and actually deposited. When the deposite is made, I not only enter the receipt number in the Quicken deposit record, but I note the date the deposit was made on the receipt book copy of the receipt. That way from time to time, I (or anyone else) can go through the receipt book and verify that a deposit still needs to be made for a payment. The receipt number can be checked in the accounting record and the deposit slip can be checked to verify that a deposit for the amount in the Quicken deposit record was actually made.

< Stosh>> There are good reasons why hearsay is prohibited in a criminal trial. And good reasons why it can prove useful as a reason for investigating other kind of issues and problems.

<< [TABLE] [TR] [TD=align: center] The mission of the Boy Scouts of America is to prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices over their lifetimes by instilling in them the values of the Scout Oath and Law. [/TD] [TD] [/TD] [TD]>> If you consider the mission statement, I think it's clear that breeding cynicism in a boy by ignoring a cheating problem is not going to advance the mission. I think I'd encourage the boy to report this to the SM, who hopefully would act wisely in dealing with the issue.[/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE]

If someone pays $10 cash to go on an activity, is there an audit trail that shows the payment was made, the money deposited and and activity or other account credited with the payment? From talking to people, accounting for payments made to the unit, especially cash, tends to be lax. If the checks don't get deposited for months ---- what happens to the cash collected?

<<~~Oddly, when there was a Cubbing WB>> There once was a Cubbing Wood Badge? Never heard of that. When, and what was the program like? Interesting idea, although I wouldn't call such a thing Wood Badge, which ought to be reserved for Boy Scouts, in my opinion. That would be interesting to do now for Cub Scouts. Anyone care to propose a name and/or ideas for program for such a course?

Everyone emphasizes controls over EXPENDITURES. That tends to be easier to document than receipts, especially cash receipts, in my experience. I maintain a receipt book and my aim is to provide a receipt for each payment I receive. However, that can be difficult at pack or den activities where people thrust cash and checks at me and don't wait around for a receipt. Receiving cash in particular is slippery if a receipt isn't issued. When I get home I aim to enter each payment in Quicken, detailing the receipt number and listing the date that the payment will be deposited in the bank,. That gives me a good audit trail, even though no one else seems to be interested in checking out payments received. So how does your unit handle payments received, and is there an interest in checking up on those that many seem to have in checking on payments that are made?