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t158sm

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Posts posted by t158sm

  1. John, Lisabob - great advice. There's no excuse for anyone in the troop acting in such a manner, certainly most of all not in front of the Scouts. Running a Scout troop is difficult enough without someone trying to play the big tough guy who runs over anything in his way.

    I'm willing to bet this one caused problems in his old troop and maybe even in the Wood badge course as well.

  2. Since this is my council, I'll follow Fred's example and let everyone else have the discussion.

     

    http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/news/1149326370170920.xml&coll=2

     

    Scouting audit indicates rolls vastly inflated; top exec quits

    13,000 phantom members identified

    Saturday, June 03, 2006

    KELLI HEWETT TAYLOR

    News staff writer

     

    Membership in the Greater Alabama Council of the Boy Scouts of America was inflated by more than 13,000 youths over three years, according to details from an audit made public Friday.

     

    The departure of the council's top paid executive, Ronnie Holmes, also was announced Friday. Efforts to reach Holmes were unsuccessful.

     

    John Hayden, the 2006 board chairman of the Greater Alabama Council, would not discuss details of Holmes' departure.

     

    The council, which serves much of central and north Alabama, said nearly all the questionable memberships were linked to a program that is supposed to serve inner-city youth. The council's executive committee approved the audit Thursday night.

     

    Hayden said the audit was given to both the U.S. attorney's office and the FBI. Efforts Friday to reach FBI agents in Birmingham who are conducting a separate membership investigation were unsuccessful.

     

    That probe began in December 2004 amid allegations that high-ranking Scout officials were padding enrollment numbers to boost government and grant funding.

     

    The Scouting organization's highlights of the audit showed most problems were with inner-city membership forms, involving incorrect birth dates and lack of addresses or parental signatures.

     

    "Our report did not find any cause for criminal misconduct," Hayden said.

     

    A Scouting news release also says the report, covering the years 2002 to 2005, shows the Scouts had accurately adjusted their membership rolls to 21,000 by December 2005.

     

    "We have to continue a lot of internal investigations, but we are already setting up systematic, periodic spot-checks to look for things that may be a little unusual," said Hayden. "We are just happy we can find a way to deal with the issue."

     

    Hayden said the report was not sufficiently detailed to determine whether entire "ghost units" had been fabricated, but said the council will continue investigating.

     

    The audit of the membership forms was conducted by Summerford accounting firm in Birmingham. Findings show:

     

    In December 2002, 5,619 Scouts, 13 percent, were not verified.

     

    In December 2003, 4,265 Scouts, 11 percent, were not verified.

     

    In December 2004, 3,518 Scouts, 11 percent, were not verified.

     

    Hayden, of Huntsville, serves in a volunteer position for the Greater Alabama Council, which serves 22 counties, including Jefferson and Shelby. The 2006 executive members and other representatives met Thursday night and are instituting the new procedures to build public confidence. Along with the spot-checks, the procedures include stricter monitoring of enrollment forms.

  3. Nldscout:

    It is totally within Ma's discretion if to pursue legal recourse or not. She is the one involved with the Scout and the situation. Ma feels that this situation can best be handled without judicial involvement. She has chosen not to have a warrant taken out, the matter should continue to be dealt with internally.

    IMHO Ma, you could have an officer talk to this young man about the ramifications of his actions though.

  4. O.K. folks I need a little help.

    Our troop will be traveling to Charleston, SC to stay on board the U.S.S. Yorktown during the first weekend in August. We usually take a slow and relaxed pace when driving so I anticipate this will end up being a 10 hour drive or so. To make things easier and not have to be on the road for such a long time just prior to arriving at the ship, we plan on leaving out on Thursday and driving for 3-4 hours and staying on the eastern side of Atlanta. Here's the problem. We need a place to stay for approx 20 people. Due to space limitations we will not be taking tents or the other usual camping items. I've failed to find a Scout camp (Bert Adams is closed the first two weeks of August) in a suitable location. Nor have I found a state park that has an available facility to house us. ( Most have a cabin or cottage capacity of no more than 4.)

    Anyone have any suggestions?

    I appreciate your help in advance.

  5. First question I'll have to ask is - Does your troop have a functioning troop committee? If so then a member of the committee should oversee fundraising. If not then this would be an area to work on - build the committee. In an ideal troop a Scoutmaster or an assistant would not have responsibility over finances. Their concern would be with the implementation of the program and with development of the Scouts themselves.

    But, things don't always go as planned in the real world.

    Glad you enjoyed the course, Jon (your course SM) and I went Through SR-33 together in 1994.

     

     

  6. Welcome to the forum Brooktrout.

    Your easiest move may be to simply let your charter drop and register as a new unit in the council you want to move to. Your old council may try to give you some static or hold things up if you try to transfer an intact unit to another council.

    What has been said or done about your request so far if anything?

  7. Ed:

    I think Longhaul's point is - how much did the BSA pay the risk management firm for the work they did? From the looks of it the work the firm did was minimal and mostly useless.(This message has been edited by t158sm)

  8. Greetings (most interesting name I think I've seen) glad to have you join with us. Welcome to the campfire. Scouting is a wonderful adventure, hope you have a great time. There are lots of great folks here that have a wealth of information and experience to draw from. Feel free to ask or share whatever you feel inspired to.

  9. There are many people I consider good friends who are no longer involved in Scouting. Perhaps we met in Scouting but that really doesn't form the basis of our friendship. There is a difference between a friend and a acquaintance. Just because you know someone doesn't make them your friend.

    Magic is seeing someone you haven't seen in a few years light up and cry tears of happiness upon seeing you even though it was at his wife's funeral. Your true friends are your friends forever.

    Magic is having a "lad" who only came to a few meetings and never spoke up, never really took part in the meeting come up to you several years later and thank you for the great time he had.

    Magic is having a Cub Scout give you something he just made and was so proud of just because he wanted you to have what he made.

    Magic is being very ill almost to the point of dying and having everyone else rally around you to make sure you know what you mean to them - just in case.

    There are so many ways to describe the magic in Scouting - I wish I could list them all.

    Eamonn, I'm sorry but I think you missed my intent.

    There are many people who do take Scouting too serious, who give to much of their time at the expense of other more important things in their lives. They I think fail to feel the magic. Scouting becomes more than a game to them, sadly it changes into something else.

     

  10. From its me's last post:

    "You people are over selling scouting to the point of exaggeration." All I've seen are honest reasonable answers - You're the one taken to exaggeration.

    You asked a group of people who are dedicated to Scouting for THEIR answer to a question and then chastise them for THEIR answers. Sounds like you might have other issues that you haven't told us about.

     

    "To express that scouting is the unsurpassed program for developing youths is fictional." And soccer would be that program to you? Chess? Piano? Swimming? Get real. Name another program that even comes close.

     

    "Its foolishness to consider that pulling him out of scouting will do irreparably harm." Let me read over this thread again to see if I've missed this... Nope, not there. No one said any of the such. Now you're just grasping straws to attack those who you asked for help to begin with.

    From what I've read on this thread people have simply just given their honest reply to "Why stay when there appears to be so little return on the investment?"

     

    " In my opinion Webelos II scouting is hardly the magical rewarding program that all scouting is billed as on these forums."

    You seem to have taken issue whit my use of the word "magic" to describe Scouting. For me, I feel the magic. I am a better person for having been a Scout. THERE IS NOTHING ELSE THAT COULD HAVE GIVEN ME WHAT SCOUTING HAS GIVEN ME. It gave me something in my heart that made me want to be a better person. To help other people. To do the right thing even when it's not the cool thing to do. It makes me want to give hundreds of hours a year to other peoples kids in hope that they'll find the same thing. Despite problems encountered from broken homes, kids with ADHD, parents who don't care about their own kids or see them as just a means to their own selfish end. I've had camping trips where I was a babysitter and everything possible went wrong. The magic comes when 10 - 20 years later one of those kids comes up and reminds you of that trip. Then they say "That was the best time I ever had, Thank you." Then you know it's all worth while. Then you feel the magic. I'm truly sorry you've never felt this, and probably never will.

  11. Event riders are a part of the norm for our camporees. We've had to plan this into budget for all of the camporees I've been involved in running.

     

    Sounds like we're getting off cheap compared to some out there, a camporee usually runs about $7 per person for folks around here.

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