Krampus

Mine is on year seven. Decent condition for 100 days camping, 6 summer camps, many high adventure trips and a few hundred troop meetings.

This might insult someone. Better not.

For us, #1 and #2 can be combined into one application. #4-35 do not apply. YPT is needed for doing anything in our troop and that's also required for CS, so no added requirement. We "suggest" they take the MBC online course. Council suggests the in person course but is not required. Seems we have fewer hoops. What concerns me is why you need the criminal offender information. In my state the councils does a background check that includes such information. I assume your state does not? If they do, wouldn't this be a redundant step? Couldn't they just be MBCs, forego the adult fee but complete the other steps? That would be one step less at least. If they want less hassle send them my way. We will take care of them.

@@RememberSchiff, thanks for the detail. Besides filling out yet another form to be MBC and taking a brief online training, what other obstacles did they encounter?

Unless they've changed binders the perfect bound ones eventually wear out. The spiral ones seem to last a bit better. This assumes proper care and reasonable usage across both types. Lastly, it's much easier to insert a lost page in to the spiral one than the other books.

Did I miss something in the OP. Did the parents say BSA paperwork was the reason for their only wanting to work with their kids? Or are they just control freaks who only wanted to work with their kids?

Spot on. They miss the point, they can still work with their kid on things; HOWEVER, the point of scouting is to develop self sufficiency, not to be Lawnmower parents for another 8 years. J-in-KC, for some darn reason my fat finger neg repped your post.

@, If you are paying $250-350 for Toopmaster and SOAR there are some gaps in you research. SOAR's cost for their top of the line service is $99 a year. Discounts for multi year use. When you compare SOAR to troop tracker they are pretty similar. Troopmaster is less than $40/year for the software and dotnet platform on a three year license. Remember, TM is not intended to be a website so comparing these features is a bit unfair. When you look at what these two services together offer -- and the time they save -- their costs are far below these other services. When you add to it that your data is safe and stored in more than one location their value is even greater. Sure you need TM+SOAR to get what you do in Troop Tracker, but you get a robust interface that allows you to work with your systems off and online.

Developers work off of business and functional requirements (or should). Knowing BSA systems development, their business folks don't have a clue on how to develop systems.

In case anyone is interested, you can help the folks in eastern Dallas affected by the Boxing Day tornadoes on the links below. Duck Creek District Tornado Relief for Garland/Rowlett This happened a few miles from where our troop members live. Our unit has sent volunteers to help the clean up and we are organizing aid to various units and locals. I know we all support various causes so don't feel obliged to help out, but if you have the urge the info is above.

Sounds just like my six years on the island. Living in Seattle comes close to my recollection of living in London. Rain all the time...but when it is nice, it is BEAUTIFUL!!!

Not so much misinformation as folks not familiar with the software. All too often we see people everyday saying something can't be done, but what they really mean is that it is easier for them to do it one way rather than the way that might be correct. Having seen the BSA system from the inside, I can say that the process of transferring an ID is pretty silly. I have no doubt it is easier for the end user to create a new user and "fat finger" (re-input) the data in the system than to merge and transfer a record. Thank God for these people. It is why most of us in IT have jobs.

I thought this was going to be a thread about Mr. Arthur Frampton.

I think we've discussed this (use of a DE and/or district) before. I have no clue what a DE could do for me. All I have ever seen them do is hassle me for recharter paperwork (when it has already been submitted), request my JTE form (also already submitted), hound me about FOS, request attendance to RTs that provide no help or assistance, etc. Just no clue what he would do for me.

The BSA ID from the mysocuting.org is a NATIONAL number. It CAN follow you. The problem is how councils choose to implement use of the system. For most councils, the people are too lazy to correctly transfer the BSA ID from one council to another; mostly because they don't know the system. For them it is easier to simply create a new record than to transfer a record. We see this all the time. I've seen the national system's data schematic. Trust me, it SHOULD be able to simply transfer you from council to council. They fact it cannot is not a system problem, rather a USER problem. @@JasonG172, jsut keep your ID active and have your new unit/council pull the record from national. It can be done, the council people just need to give a darn and do it.

ROFL, why? I don't need him for anything. I have 80+ scouts and families to manage, a slew of volunteers, recruiting, advancement, training, SMCs, scout issues, etc. He's been in the role for several years. He doesn't attend any RTs. He doesn't email anyone. He doesn't call anyone. Using the logic of simply contacting him to say "Hi", I might as well contact anyone I don't know to say "Hi". He gets paid to develop relationships with units. It is literally one of his paid duties. Not sure why I should help someone do their job when they obviously could not care less about me, my unit, my CO or anything related to our well-being. There has to be a line drawn at some point when trying to help others otherwise 1) they will never learn to do things for themselves, and 2) everyone has a limit to which they can help someone.

Your BSA record follows you. That is, assuming the system itself has not deleted you (see other threads on that subject). Your BSA ID will continue to be linked to your log in on myscouting. When you cross over eventually your records will be "redirected" from your Pack to your Troop. This may take a while. Usually a few months after your Boy Scout application is filed with your council and the paperwork is processed your record will eventually be changed from your Pack to Troop. At that point you are officially on your troop's roster. Your training record should always be attached to your BSA ID, so any training you take now (while still linked to your Pack) will be assigned to your BSA ID. When your ID gets transferred to your troop, your training will show up on the troop's training dashboard. Until then, simply print off your training certifications and send to your troop's training chair to make sure they give you credit. You may have to supply proof of leadership training to your troop as part of chartering with them. The unit may also ask for you to submit training proof for their own internal system if they track such things. I always print off proof of my training history whenever I take a new course as BSA has been known to lose training records. I have found, though, that if you can present physical proof of completed training they (council, national) will always give you credit.

You mean at the council level? They'd have a hard time selling that. They've made such a big deal over the years of their "cost of scouting" transparency that any such increase would be soundly beaten up by the units. Not to mention, I suspect now that it is a fee (rather than a voluntary contribution) the whole aspect of the deduction is not taken away. I know no one in my unit would give anything if they were forced to pay a "make up fee" of any kind. If there was better campaign management I think FOS would have less of an issue meeting their goals in my area.

I am not sure having him there is a good thing. Have never seen him or heard from him. If he can't bother to even communicate with his units -- especially on of his biggest units -- then I really don't care to have anything to do with him.

Actually, in my area most troops scale to the size the CO, the adult volunteers and the unit's gear can handle. Too many boys and too few adults and the program won't work. Sad, but that's the way BSA and the regulatory authorities have made it. Just reading the hoops PA volunteers have to go through to simply drive a car load of scouts to a camp out makes my head spin.

Never seen my DEs. Ever. Couldn't pick them out of a police lineup. For all I know we don't have any.

Can't say the situation is so bad that the scout merits replacement. And his patrol members likely are unaware that the meeting plan is going undone. This is a communication and training point for the adults and SPL. We need to obviously do some remedial training to remind the PL and the patrol that they have an obligation to complete the plan. Several good suggestions here so far. Two key points I see are: 1) Allow more time for the patrols to finish (and submit their finished plan) during patrol corners at the troop meeting, 2) Train the patrol as a group on how to research, use the tools and complete the meeting plan. I wasn't looking for a silver bullet like some of my parents. They seem bewildered that we need to keep reminding the scouts to do certain things. My response is, "Do you have to ask your super Scout at home more than once to clean his room, take out the garbage, how to clean the dishes in the sink more than once?" Their reply is usually, "Yes!", to which I reply, "So why would you expect them to learn it once and remember at Scouts?" The boys will eventually learn the skill AND be able to recall it proactively. It is not that they don't remember, per se. It is the ability to use their skills proactively without reminders that's the challenge. But I have co-workers that have this issue at 35+ so who is worse?

@@Stosh the PLs are doing their jobs most of the time. It is just in the area of meeting planning development that a few PLs have fallen down.

@@Hedgehog we replaced ours with something more heavy duty. Saved us from buying globes all the time.

@@Stosh adults are not managing anything. It is the SPL that is.