Tokala

qwazse, I agree with your points. The return on investment to attend Jamboree just isn't there for the majority of our youth and volunteers. I know many units that can put on a better trip for fewer $$$. Attending a Jamboree can have a big impact on a Scout when he experiences the magnitude of a Jamboree and Scouting in person.

I have secured my staff position with the OA Administrative Services group. I have no idea what is expected of me other than I'm there to support the 3-4 different groups that they have serving.

I don't think the Area and Region folks know that I have connections at the National level that deal with these matters specifically. I can try to apply pressure from both sides and put the squeeze on the Area/Region guys

Our Executive Board voted down any discussion concerning merging. Apparently the region really wants it to happen and has threatened us with holding our charter until we agree. We'll see how this plays out.

At our Executive Board meeting last night, our VP of legal asked the SE if National was sharing the names of people from our Council. The SE had asked National and was told that they would not be sharing the names. Guess instead of allowing their local SE to prepare for any potential media inquiries, National prefers the locals to remind blind and ignorant. National just doesn't seem to concern itself with local affairs until it relates to income for Irving.

I see afew for each candidate. Honestly, neither has a catchy slogan that works with bumper stickers. I see more Ron Paul stickers than anything else.

I find a thread beginning with a tantrum about tantrums...amusing.

I haven't heard anything or been asked about it by any volunteers or general public. I haven't seen anything 'pop' in the local newspaper/media. We had a previous case that was brought by the lawyer from the Portland case. Cost the BSA about $400K. I've heard about another being filed from a case that was circa 1981-82. I'm not sure where that case is headed. I have talked with my SE about a couple of people that are on the ineligible list in case he hears anything so he will be aware. All of them are from the 80s.(This message has been edited by Tokala)

Congratulations! I used to be a bobwhite, That's Mr. Bob White to you.

Off topic...but have fun with Cabeza. Hope he doesn't convince the folks he can run a capital campaign.

Our SE is making noise about shutting down the summer camp business. We can't make our FOS goals. I want to see how he replaces the $20K we make in 2-1/2 weeks running camp.

My dealings with the Southern Region folks the last 3-4 years has shown a keen interest by them to coerce/convinve local Councils to sell property. The Region Director wanted us to sell Sand Hill in Brooksville Florida and then buy property in Polk County. This is farther away and would require reinvesting millions in infrastructure...again. The property he proposed we buy was about 5 miles away from Flaming Arrow. Apparently the Region has no concept of geography or economics.

When people tell me that summer camp is about earning merit badges, I tell them that it is not. I explain that it is a week where a group of boys learn about their abilities and how to work together...with merit badges to fill in the time.

Our nominating committee met today (I am part of that group) and I spent some time with my SE discussing this. Seems to be a lot of pressure from the Region to do this. The Region was not happy that I contacted another option and disrupted their "plan". I like a good clean fight, but I'm ready for a dirty one this time

We still have our old camp that was opened in the 30's. It's now just a little less than 50 acres. It sits in the middle of a county of about 1 million people that is completely built out. We have added some Cub World-type areas and have just remodeled the kitchen and dining hall. We will replace the roof and add airconditioning to the dining hall and that will probably be the last of any capital expenditures other than maintenance. This camp is full all of time with Troops camping, Cub activities, training and even District events.

If merging was in the best interest of the youth in my community I would have no problem supporting it. This one however dates back a few years ago when the Region started to push us to sell the camp. This property is jointly owned by the 2 Councils that would merge. My Council has invested millions of dollars in buildings, roads, utilities, etc while the other has contributed nothing. Any sale of the land requires the monies to be split 50-50. This push to merge is driven by the bean counters and financial guys, not the program guys. It makes no sense whatsoever to merge.

eisely, I looked at the 46 page document that your merger committee put together. I'm not entirely opposed to merging, I think we need to look at all the options not just the one desired by the Regional Director. Every time this talk comes up, I tell all the volunteers to "do our job" and it won't matter.

There is little or no interest from people in my Council. The larger, neighboring Council has always eyed us a cash cow to be merger and property sold to build there endowment. They have a sympathetic ear with the Regional Director, who previously served at a Council where he sold off their camp. I'm just snooping around looking for information to make sure that uninformed Board members don't think that they must follow along.

If our Regional Director gets his way, Sand Hill Scout Reservation will be on the lst of sold properties.

Anyone have inforamtion about guidelines or criteria for merging Councils? We have a an individual or two who would like to see us merge with a neighboring Council. My conversations with the National Commissioner indicates that National has no opinion since our finances are very solid. This seems to be a push by the Deputy Regional Director. My Council is bordered by 2 Councils and I feel if we investigate merging, we would best serve the youth by looking at both Councils, not just the one that the Region professional is encouraging.

Each of our 3 Districts typically holds an annual Boy Scout camporee and a WEbelos crossover. That's it. We hold a Council-wide camporee every 3rd year. We try our best to keep the District and Council stuff to a minimum to allow the Troops to plan their own calendar.

I'm involved in our annual pre-camp inspection. Our Scout Executive regualrly invotes folks from our risk management team. There report usually has items that need attention such as loose railings, loose decking, etc. I always ask if anyone has explained to them limited budgets and priorities. The risk management people aren't ever involved in any Scouting activity and have no idea of the finances of the Council or how it's managed.

My Council has found that a week long course doesn't work out because of people required to take vacation. The weekends work out where folks only need 1 day of vacation for each weekend. Boy Scout Leader Wood Badge ran over 3 weekends and we had skills and presentations presented to us at patrol meetings during the breaks. That schedule was basically a Wood Badge weekend every other week with the patrol meeting on the weekend in between.

I was awarded the Hornaday Gold Badge for adults this May. I was greatly honored. It's actually a Council level award and not that difficult to earn. I was awarded it for my service ar ArrowCorps5 and serving as incident commander for FourCorps2010 which Southern Region Section 4 of the OA hosted in 2010.

Agreed TT