Tokala

smalltroopSM,

Campersoft is a private software that a camp can choose to use for registration. It's not a National BSA software. Our Camp Director purchased it and uses and claims that the unit leaders like it better than using DoubleKnot. I asked how he knew that when he has never asked anyone their opinions on the registration software. Maybe the Campersoft folks would like your input on how to improve their product?

When I was inducted in 1977, it was proper uniforming to wear the OA sash over your belt and there was a specific way to fold it and hang it. Somewhere along the way, that was removed from standard practice.

As a Lodge Adviser, I do not police people and when they wear their OA sash. I limit my input about uniforms to adults and encourage them to wear it properly, i.e. no patrol patches and the Lodge flap for my Council if they have paid their dues. I do it in a courteous manner and sometimes joke with them about it. I'll explain to them National policy regarding membership and insignia for OA flaps and leave it at that. If I see them again and they haven't replaced their flap, I'll remind them.

The camp where we hold summer camp is used regularly by units, Districts and the training committee. Once we complete our short summer camp season, we rent the camp the the YMCA. Units can camp there and use the ranges, COPE/climbing and swimming pool; however, they must have the proper training and the ranges & COPE/climbing require Council level volunteers that are certified to operate those programs.

Since I just renewed my youth protection training...

It states that only adults are to discpline Scouts.

Professional or volunteer?

I currently hold the positions of Lodge Adviser and Vice President of Program. There are days that I spend 4-5 hours on Scouting business. It could be meetings, emails, dealing with patch companies, reviewing the latest National revisions to whatever they decide needed a tweak this week, etc. If I didn't work from home, I would be overburdened. Since I work from home, I can manage the commitment. I am fortunate that my associate lodge advisers, camping committee chairman, training chairman and activities chairman are all very capable people.

Now if I can get the VOA straightened out....

It seems that people are starting to become selective about who's 1st Amendment right has more influence. Not much difference between the Tea Party and Occupy for me. Just different sections of society using what means they have available to make a statement. Neither one is really more righteous or law-abiding than the other.

With the RNC coming to Tampa and I live in Pinellas, my local area is going to become a zoo. No way in Hades that I go anywhere near the Tampa Bay Times Forum. There will be just as many nutbags inside the building as there are outside protesting.

I laughed when I saw that the local government that is pro 'stand your ground' type laws is now requesting that the Governor temporarily ban weapons. They managed to limit people's 1st Amendment rights inside the "zone" but not the 2nd Amendment. Sad day when we value our guns over our right to free speech and assembly.

I'm not too concerned. More are earning and I do believe that the advancement necessary is not as strenuous as it was in the 70s and earlier. I see some Scouts that are what I would consider barely qualified for Eagle Scout and I see others that absolutely astonish you with their leadership and skills.

I remember when I became advancement chair for my troop. I'm a longtime Scouter locally. They rushed up and asked what I was going to do to help the 17yo Scouts in the Troop get their Eagle Scout. I calmy replied "Nothing. They know the advancement program and how to do it. My job is to get the new Scouts to First Class. Those are the important guys." Dead silence from the assembled parents.

We have a loose knit Silver Rodent association. It doesn't meet or have any officers. Each year for the Council banquet, anyone with the Silver Rodent is asked if they would like to contribute monies to help pay for the cost of the Silver Beaver reception and awards. That's it. There is no other need or purpose for an association in my Council.

Perhaps you can sit down with the "Chief of the Fire", your Scout Executive, and discuss concerns with this band of adults? While they may be helpful with camp service, their hindering the youth development. We have a group of adults that are very eager to help fundraise and do projects at camp, but they went and formed a Sertoma club specifically for that purpose.

I've noticed in my decades of service with the OA that there is an ebb and flow of youth leadership and it has a correlation. It really seems tied to highschool graduation. We get a group of young, enthusiastic leaders who work well together through highschool. Once they graduated within a year, there is usually a regression until the next group forms and takes over. While it's painful for a year or more, it is tolerable when you consider the alternatives.

A year or so ago, National changed the Council Advancement Committee to the Youth Development Committee. They quickly backed off. Pretty so we'll see the Youth Development Coordinator term spring up.

As I tell me Scout Executive: "National is shuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic"

I was Lodge Chief in 1982. I am now the Lodge Adviser for the same Lodge. I know for a fact that when I was Chief (I never use that term around our youth), the Lodge leadership spent more time and effort ensuring that the Lodge was functional. I now find that the youth leaders seem to think that the Lodge only exists on weekends or activities. No amount of prodding, reminding or demanding has made them realize this and step up.

It's a fine line between what is best for the organization: program or youth leadership. I always try to stay with youth leadership. The critical components of elections and inductions must be maintained. If the Lodge youth leadership fails to plan and prepare program for a weekend, so be it. If they fail to determine a patch for a weekend, they may not have a patch.

I would be embarassed if I was demonstrating the "leadership" that kids demonstrate nowadays.

This adult committee sounds like a horrible idea. Why do they need to become a special group with a name and prupose? What is wrong with attending the weekend and volunteering to be the adult adviser for a work project? Once those adults are assigned projects, then we'll lump the others into small groups to go do other menial projects like fixing tents, cleaning the window glass and screens, etc.

My Lodge membership is about 50-50 youth-adult. Thankfully, none of our adults have this horrible idea. As a Lodge Adviser, I would disband this "adult committee" immediately.

They definitely serve a purpose, but need to be organized so it makes sense. My Council went to 4 Districts in 1998. Since then our youth and adult volunteer membership has declined. When I became VP of Prgram for the Council, I found out that we didn't have adult volunteers to draw to fill positions. Since this was becoming a Council issue, I proposed reducing the Districts to eliminarte duplicating positions and freeing up top quality people for other positions. Being a geographically small Council, only about 10 miles wide x 50 miles long, travel isn't a major issue. Based on membership, 2 Districts would have been the best scenario. However, 2 Districts affected the Council Executive's ability to be promoted, so he used the Council Presdient to campaign for 3 Disticts. He got his 3 Districts and we still have problems getting enough volunteers. He's grumbling that 2 Districts don't have finance chairs yet, but doesn't seem to realize that part of that problem is available volunteers and duplicity throughout the Council.

Our Districts seem to have good program and participation from the units. The Council level Program folks that work with me, help the District-level volunteers with determining camp fees and scheduling.

If I didn't have Scouting, I would have never learned how to use a chainsaw, sweat copper pipe, or do anything with electricity. My father wasn't mechanically inclined even thougn he was a topnotch machinist/mold maker and could grind something to within .0002". I always tell Scouts now that the men I had as leaders helped teach me things that I couldn't learn from my dad.

Now we have kids that center their activities indoors. I couldn't wait to finish my homework so I could go outside and play with my friends. We also have a majority of parents of Scouts who have never camped. If camping and the outdoors aren't important to the parent, they're probably not going to be for the Scout. I fear that we have a program that is slipping into an entitlement phase. As in, every Scout is entitled to his Eagle Scout and we're all here to push him along. Bullcrap. I push them to First Class and then let them figure it out. We've doubled the number of Eagle Scouts awarded each year and National seems to be proud? Lunacy. Numbers don't necessarily equate with quality. Just go to WalMart for evidence.

Ranting about the ones that are disrespectful, wimps, etc makes us miss the ones that are just absolutely amazing in their behavior and leadership. That one kid is what makes it worthwhile.

Your analysis of the numbering system is correct. I don't think that the region drops the -1 on the end. Our Council does because we only hold a course every 18 months.

Talk with your Chapter Adviser or Lodge Adviser about where they need help. As a Lodge Adviser, I can tell you that at any time I have the need for some motivated and dedicated adults to advise the young men. The best thing that you can do is to promote the OA and it's programs. Encourage the young leaders to get involved with Chapter and Lodge functions. You're limited being in a Cub Pack though in that respect. You could always explain to the Cubmaster that the OA can do some pretty cool ceremonies for Arrow of Light awards and Crossovers.

Congratulations!

West Cemtral Florida Council started selling them this year. We got a late start by not having cards available until March. I haven't heard any reports on sales except that enough had been sold that the cost to produce them has been covered. They do have great potential for both units and the Council. I hope the units get onboard and sell them.

We give them on consignment. Take what you think you'll sell. Turn in the $2.50 and unsold cards. Other than lost cards, I don't see the Districts or Council getting upset with the cards. It's even better that the units get to keep their 50% up front, rather waiting on some check from Council.

Tampa Turtle, FOS dollars don't go to the capital account; they go to the operations account. Never the twain shall mix in WCFC. Gulf Ridge should be delighted that we sold the 25 acres for $5.4M. That $2.7M that your Council got, saved your butts.

I held the latest project up because our last project to renovate our Service Center needed more money at the end. Seems that they forgot they would have to pay the architect. It got my hackles raised because the Exec Board had just grilled my COPE/Climbing director and myself when we requested $3K to replace a roof and storage building that housed $16K in climbing gear. They debated for 20 minutes and were demanding plans, etc. Immediately afterwards the Council Executive asked for $50K to finish the Service Center without providing plans, documents, etc and no one on the Exec Board other than me asked any questions.

I'd be careful contacting the Chapter or Lodge and requesting an election. That is the Scoutmaster's responsibility. Your SM sounds cranky about the OA already and that might make it worse. I am a Lodge Adviser, and if election requests come from a Troop from someone other than the SM, they are denied until the SM files to paperwork.

I'd suggest getting the youth and adults that have already been inducted to get involved and then show up at Troop meetings and talk about how much fun they had. Once the kids that aren't in the OA get wind of something that is fun, they're going to be pestering the SM to hold and election.

My Council is financially doing OK. I do cringe when we approve the Council budget because 50% of our costs in the operating budget is salaries. That's professionals, office staff, and 2 camp rangers. I know the Council Executive makes over $100K and I find that appalling. Nice guy, but his staff complains that he is never in the office.

We recently had a proposal from our properties committee to renovate our old dining hall. This is a building that was built around 1960 and has no air conditioning. A/C in Florida is a necessity. As a Executive Committee member, I felt it was my duty to review the plans carefully and take my time even though the Council Executive was pushing for a speedy approval. I found some costs that were not defined or included in th bid and pointed it out to the rest of the Exec. Comm. We made him give us those costs before we allowed the project to go forward.

I know of a Florida Council that is in debt...to the National Office. That Council has been given an ultimatum and deadline to repay National or they will be merged by the end of the year. I asked the National Commissioner how that was the best thing for the local Scouts. He didn't answer other than to say National wanted its money.

I think our better option is to close National and allow the local Councils to operate without the giant money sucking vortex that is located in Irving, TX.

Not many universities can handle a conference of 8000 people. I doubt the locations expand beyond what seems to be in the rotation: Indiana, Iowa State and Michigan State. I heard rumors at NOAC in 2009 that they were looking at holding one at Penn State. They haven't been to Tennessee since 2002, so NOAC may have grown too large for what UT can provide for housing.

Help your Lodge/Chapter by getting Scoutmasters to schedule their unit elections and camp promotions visits.

If you can get enough support from the Lodge/Chapter, hold Brotherhood counseling and a Brotherhood ceremony. It's easy to increase the conversion rate just by offering more opportunities.

I think if the economy manages to slightly improve, then people will give the edge to Obama. I think that is more due to risking upsetting the economy again. There is some benefit to status quo, even if you don't like the status.

The biggest issue I see with elections is that our society is becoming more divisive and paranoid.I find it unsettling that people think Obamacare is in intrusion into their freedom and yet they completely ignore the impact of the Patroit Act.

Too bad people will vote against the guy that the media tells them to fear the most. I'd guess that a majority of the American public choose who to vote for based on SuperPAC advertisements and not facts. That only helps push the decline of society along since it only plays on fear and lies.

I've thought about going. It's just about a 90 minute drive from my house. Tico Perez was recruiting me to staff it back in February, but he hasn't followed up.