Pack18Alex

The standard GSUSA Troop is basically a single level patrol, similar to a Cub Scout Den at the younger level, a Boy Scout Patrol at the older level. GSUSA is "girl's decide" at all levels, basically a sort of girl-led approach. GSUSA has a multi-level "group" where they could all be "Troops" within the same numbered group. They are often smaller, but occasionally they run more like a Pack/Troop, with age level Patrols doing age-specific activities. That's how my wife's Troop plans to operate. They registered as multi-level, but started with Daisy's because she required two leaders/lev

We had a Venture Crew come out and teach some Scout Craft to our Cub Scouts and Girl Scouts. It was great for all involved. I was chatting with the advisor, and we were talking about how, in some ways, Venturing is more like Cub Scouts. Not the parental involvement, it's WAY less, but in the outings. In Cub Scouting, most of our campouts are connected to an activity, we don't camp to camp. We do one hiking/camping trip/year, and the rest are more activity, oriented (Camporee, Cuboree, etc). At the Venture level, you're camping for an activity. Sure it's high adventure and not a yo

On a BoR, I asked about Scout Law, in general, in their life, and I asked about Reverence specifically. I'm not looking for a particular answer, but if they are going to give a flip answer in the Troop's BoR, I'd rather flesh that out then than during an Eagle BoR.

Fred, I disagree, it was a letter about a specific Unit with 100% going to Scout Accounts with no controls. I think BSA would like to ditch Scout Accounts and have everything go to fund Unit programming under the belief that this will strengthen unit finances and free them up to charge Council Dues on top of National Dues. Scout Accounts make this harder. I mean, banning Scout Accounts is extreme, while it's possible that a restricted form could be okay. Look at some of the 501©4 nonsense… Cannot be primarily "political" defined as endorsing/supporting candidates has been

My Pack Uniform says Pack Committee Chair. Our Troop CC wears a uniform every week to the Troop meetings with a Troop Committee Chair Patch. Adult leaders should be in uniform. Our treasurer doesn't wear one, but she's in her Girl Scout Uniform since she's also the Girl Scout Leader.

We had a great Unit Commissioner. Motivated parents to get more involved, came to our summer committee meetings, came to Pack Meetings, spoke for a few minutes. All in all, a great a positive contributor. I was told we were EXTREMELY lucky. Unique circumstance, as the only Jewish Pack/Troop in our District, a senior Jewish Scouter was thrilled to serve as a resource to us.

We had a great Unit Commissioner. Motivated parents to get more involved, came to our summer committee meetings, came to Pack Meetings, spoke for a few minutes. All in all, a great a positive contributor. I was told we were EXTREMELY lucky. Unique circumstance, as the only Jewish Troop, a senior Jewish Scouter was thrilled to serve as a resource to us.

An IRS phone rep just gives you an answer, not always a right answer, and they take no responsibility for it. An IRS letter ruling is a different beast, and has some degree of validity. You don't want 5 people calling the IRS, you want a Tax Lawyer drafting a careful and specific letter that gets them the answer they want, that people can rely on.

I know my CO's troop really struggles with some of the intensive camping stuff... not because they are parlor scouts, but because the numbers are small, and the Jewish Unit, plus Florida's weather, presents a bunch of challenges. Can't setup a camp or cook after Friday at nightfall, so it's often a race to get Campsites up. Can't build/construct anything on Saturday, carrying items becomes an issue in Back Country, etc. So the obvious thing would be Winter/Spreak/Summer Break. The Jewish Day Schools are on a different calendar than the Public Schools, no overlap for breaks. S

What I find frustrating is that IRS issues vague letters, with words like substantially in there. It would be nice if the BSA would draft a CAREFUL letter to the IRS governing what is substantial. Often the IRS picks thresholds like 50%. It's possible that a request that would permit 40% of the money in the Scout Account, to be used towards that individual's participation in Scouting, and 60% in the Scout Unit general fund for the mission, would fly. Substantially, the money goes to the unit. The 40% isn't an excess benefit, because it's limited to Scouting. Somewhere in 8 fi

I would expect the DE to pass it along that way. Protocol in my district is any sort of "council/district" requests generally go to him who funnels it to the right person. He is council to the units. Since it's a cross-district issue with paperwork submitted to Council, there may be more people involved than just the advancement chair. Caveat, I have no idea what is actually involved in an EBOR. But I'd be worried with crazy CC Mom holding back advancement paperwork and sabotaging it, so I'd make sure higher ups know that something is going on and make things work to not screw over

Again, I have a weird dynamic. Most of my youth will go to local "Jewish" summer camp programs. Those camps run from $160-$240/week. Cub Scout Day camp costs $115/week if registered early. So it's the few broke parents that would benefit. I just don't have the energy for a third fundraiser. It a good idea from the "a Scout is Thrifty" point of view, it's a non-started from the Pack18Alex spends plenty of time on Scouting and doesn't want to spend more. But I'll consider it, it's worth looking into. The boys in need of Campership are also the ones traveling 30-45 minutes to be

Well, I assume that the troop has an Eagle Rank Chart or similar thing. Having done all his BOR there, and earning his Eagle there, he likely wants to be listed with other Eagle Scouts that he came up in Scouting with. Sure, some of it is the friends since Cubs that will also be there. He might be with the new Troop going forward, but he wants to be an Eagle in the same troop as his friends. I would suggest reaching out to the two DEs. Tell them that your son is having problems with another Scout, that Scout is the son of the CC, and attempts to resolve have failed, and your son has tr

The only possible issue is the sign off. There is nothing unethical in have the cash fronted and the loan paid off. When I took over pack finances I and a few other leaders bought things before the fundraising money was in. Booked it as reimbursements owed, and when cash came in we were reimbursed. I'm not sure why a teenager should be held to a cash only funding model. Funding overruns and securing loans is part of real world finance. Nothing unethical about fundraising and the cash going to the parents to pay off the loan. They can choose to write off the note as a donation or not. B

When I did the Pack budget, I put subsidies in the events out of the Pack Budget. Our fundraising goes towards capital needs, and $150-$200 per event, so essentially we undercharge for food/registration and eat it from the Pack Budget. The Pack Budget comes 50%-50% from dues and fundraising (up from 100% dues two years ago). One of the leaders asked me about this, didn't understand why we were subsidizing the campouts from the fundraising. I told him that the people working the fundraisers, serving as leaders, and attending the campouts is largely the same people. The boys that go cam

Scouts should come and have fun, or they'll leave. That said, there is a purpose to this program, and we should be asking ourselves, are we accomplishing the purpose. Young kids LOVE television and video games, it's a quick and easy brain stimulation. The harder work, going out and helping others, is more work to get the same stimulation. We push the latter because it makes them better people. Other ways to get hormone dumps and brain stimulation? Smoking, drinking, drugs... all will stimulate the brain as a quick and easy fix. Getting the same "high" from clean living is m

The average American moves every 5 years. That average includes people like myself (one location for 9 years and counting), my parents (29 years and counting), and people that move every few months. Given that BSA needs policies for everyone, it's a different story. That said, while they insist that you fill out a new application for each position, it isn't real. When you put in re-charter, you can assign new positions to people. Since the Charter is signed by the Unit Leader, Institution Head, and Council, that is the equivalent of a re-application. Now what I can't figure out is wh

I'm lucky. We charge just over $100 in dues, and we charge it in September. Almost everyone gives me a check in September. A few reminder emails and the money comes in in October. A few parents can't pay, I budgeted "Campership" for them, we planned to not fully collect. For our parent body, it's more effective for the unit to just write off dues from a few people than come up with convoluted structures around Popcorn sales.

12 year old boys are learning to be men. Puberty is taking its toll, and girls have gone from something of limited interest into completely sexual objects. Part of our molding boys into men is to help them shape their views during this time period. 1st Class is a serious rank, from there it's straight on to Eagle if he wants it. Whether you do a serious 6 month delay, or a slap on the wrist for a few weeks delay, you'll be communicating that this is not how men behave towards women. Teaching him that this behavior is not the proper behavior for a gentleman is a great thing you can

We end up with a fresh round of recruiting in January, there is a big Jewish Community event then. As a result, we sometimes get new Scouts. So we're all wrapping up our Rank Advancement in January/February for Blue and Gold (was scheduled for mid-Feb, we moved to late-Feb to give one Den a little more time). This way, if new Scouts join in January, they can do Bobcat for Blue and Gold. For us, February - May is filled with our Council Camporee, our District Cuboree, Pinewood Derby, Space Derby, Camp Cards, and electives, etc. So our Fall Semester is rank advancement, our Spring Semes

Doing Popcorn, the fundraiser is taken care of, and it's easy to plan for. For cubs, where I need family buy in, it's easy to give them an order form, some Show-and-Sell Popcorn, and send them off to sell. For the Troop, where the boys are more autonomous, you can do more advanced fundraisers. That said, if I want to run a business, I'd rather put the time into my business than a low margin "Scout Business" to fund the troop. Popcorn was easy, a volunteer managed spreadsheets to track, the Scouts sold the items, and the money just flowed in. That required less business development tim

There are a LOT of costs that go into these things. I know we get per-person costs for using BSA facilities or parks. We also have costs for security, etc. If you are curious where the money goes, join the committee that plans the events, you'll see where it goes. I know that our Council and Districts makes money on the Camporees/Cuborees, but they tend to lose money through the year. We did a bowling night for Cubs. It was a good price (10/participant), and the money was split with the bowling ally. But Council takes money to run. They pay our DE who works his tail off. The

A Constitutional Convention could in theory offer a new Constitution... The original Constitutional Convention was called to amend the Articles of Confederacy. I'm not sure that you could call a Constitutional Convention for the sole purpose of offering Amendments and NOT have it be open ended. I think that if you repealed Direct Election of Senators, the whole situation would solve itself within 10 years. That one was a well intentioned reform that has totally destroyed Federalism.

In our Council, they get companies to offer a discount to put on the card. We sell them for $5, we remit $2.50 to council. Well established groups put up to $2 in each Scout's Scout Account to pay for camp. Less established groups like ours keep more of it for the Pack budget. One of the items on our camp card is $5 off at a supermarket, so the easiest sale is to stand in front of the supermarket and sell them. It's a good fundraiser, and since the cost is pennies (to produce the card), it's a good one. 50% payout to unit, 50% to council, it's a good way to fund council. Since the

Having done budgets for Council/District events, the money doesn't go as far as you think. There are lots of costs that go into it. Look at the 990 for your Council.