Mark Hancock

Our vision for Summer Camp is different. We call it "Summer Adventure" and it has nothing to do with advancement. There are hundreds (I said thousands earlier. Not sure I could qualify that, but it wouldn't surprise me...sorry if I misled) of Christian Camp facilities and we have many adventure camps competing for our attention and offering great deals. I am staying at one in WV in a few weeks with my boys to see what they offer. You are probably familiar with the neighborhood.

We don't think we could compete with some of the camps and stay true to our Core Value of being debt averse. You can get in trouble with property real quick and we don't want to be in the "summer camp" business. There are plenty of folks who do it very well.

Overall, although our awards and advancement program is quite robust (including Trail Badges the boys can design themselves and offer for others to earn), we de-emphasize the race to our pinnacle - the Freedom Award. Boys cannot earn it until 11th or 12th grade, at the earliest. Most of our members are embracing this, except for some former BSA folks who perhaps saw advancement as the primary goal of BSA and are adjusting to a different philosophy.

Thanks, again, for your kind words.

Here's a link to our Core Values that I reference:

http://www.traillifeusa.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Core-Values-Doc-8.5x11.pdf

Thanks, gentlemen. Fred, I'm thankful you haven't seen any change for your family. We HAD to make a change. I was not in leadership or part of this decision, but my sons' Troop was shut down by the decision and I'm glad we had a place to go. I suspect we are not the only ones. At the same time, it is not our goal to harm BSA in any way. BSA has enough to deal with from both sides of a very intense debate. At least we only offended one side! Your former General Counsel (drafted the policy, I believe) is our National Director of Administration and, now, one of my best friends. He attends Mass daily with his wife and draws his strength from there, also. Almost daily we talk about the maelstrom BSA must be in at a national level. We don't talk with glee about it. He served them for many years and is very proud of his service there. He's an amazing man of faith who cares deeply about the direction of BSA. I don't have nearly the history, but I can sense in his voice and hear clearly in his words the sadness around such a great organization being attacked from all sides. Who knows what the future will bring? We hear all sorts of speculation, as I'm sure you do, too. We just want to provide a place--no matter how small--for folks who want a Christ-centered option. We are (by default, not intention) extremely politically-incorrect and realize that and our restrictive adult membership and charter requirements don't favor huge growth. That should allay any fears that we are trying to "take over" the scouting market. We are much more restrictive. That would be a terrible marketing move in this environment. Thanks for your kind words. Walk Worthy.

AZMike:

"Anecdotally," about 60% of the folks registering for more information on TLUSA had some involvement with BSA. About half were leaders. This is the only place we gather this info; only because we have found it helpful to know if they have had scouting experience. Some may key off on this as being competitive. It is the best way we have of determining how familiar someone is with a boys' adventure program, which is what we have. We recognize we have many folks from BSA. It helps to know which as we are setting things up.

I don't think the reasons for changing over would surprise you; membership being the most frequently heard. Some tell us it has been a long-term dissatisfaction with vision and mission. All say it was a very difficult move, as it was for me and my family, too. My oldest earned his Eagle in December. We were sad to leave but, ultimately, felt that it was BSA that left us. Many will disagree. I don't have any issue with them. We each have to prayerfully make our decision based on what we think is best for our families.

We have chosen our compass.

All of our chartering and membership is accomplished online. Troops don't collect a penny on behalf of the Home Office. It's a complex process, but we are managing to get Troops through daily. It's not as bad as the Affordable Healthcare website, but it has given us challenges! Our Troops have been extremely patient with the process, much more than I would have been in their predicament. I thank God for them every day.

Chartering info is on our website. Basically, we have 5 leaders that complete background and CSYPT and references before we issue the charter. Our vision draws a very high percentage of churches as Charter Orgs. It's somewhat difficult to receive a charter any other way as we consider that partnership to be vital to our vision. We consider them to be more than meeting places.

Our Trail and Travel shirts are offered to give Troops latitude in their requirements and dress standards. Many Troops will use the Travel (polo) shirts as a meeting and "field trip" shirt, while reserving the "Troop" shirt for ceremony. We will be revealing our "Troop" shirt soon.

I understand the points made about being competitive. Honestly, we are tiny tiny tiny compared to BSA and can only hope that we will have the type of impact BSA has had on so many. It will be many years before the Freedom Award will have the luster or respect of Eagle. We are realistic about that. It's not even our goal. We just want to guide generations of young men to honor God (of the Bible). lead with integrity, serve others, and experience outdoor adventure. We heard the countless stories of men and boys feeling abandoned by BSA, recognizing that the membership decision didn't really reflect the wishes of the rank and file. We hoped to provide a place for the disenfranchised and to recognize their accomplishments by providing "credit" in our system. It's easy to interpret that as competition, so I won't debate that. We are here for those who left or for those looking for a Christ-centered (this is different than BSA) adventure program for boys.

In reality, I'm really not interested in that debate here. I was just hoping to respond to some questions. You will likely see me just leave the forum rather than debate. I have all the time in the world for answering questions, but very little time for contentious debate. This is not a core value in either org, as far as I know. Believe me, even among our "faithful," I have plenty of debates to keep me busy!

Thanks, again, AZMike. These are great questions. In case I disappear from here because I'm not interested in debating points we have satisfied to our satisfaction, feel free to email me at MarkH@TrailLifeUSA.com

Thanks for the warm welcome. We are committed to remaining debt averse which means we will not accept or take on any properties that are not self-sustaining. We don't envision owning our own camps since there are thousands that are very well-managed and can offer some very good high-adventure experiences. Our growth model is dependent on our membership growth which means we will not rely on corporate or any types of donations in order to build our staff and facilities. Therefore, we envision staying very lean in terms of Council offices and certainly in terms of our personnel. Our membership fees are nonrefundable. That means that when someone signs up they're committing to us for a year. They will receive a notice to pay their dues again one year later. Again, we do our registrations based on individual anniversary dates, not any calendar or seasonal date. I don't believe we have a prorated refund system in place. That's a good question but it just hasn't come up yet. Our adults register each year. They are required to complete their child and safety youth protection training and background checks every two years. This is all automated and tracked in our systems. It is very clear to the troops who is registered and who is not. They do not need to reregister when they change positions. All of our adults, at any level of participation (even parents that are active in the troops) are background checked and complete child and youth protection training. We are sure that we have boys that are dual-enrolled. We would prefer that they not split their time between two organizations, but we understand that some want to complete some rank advancements before they transfer over to Trail Life. Plus, many continue to enjoy the wonderful traditions in Boy Scouts of America and may have no reason to change over. We aren't releasing any details on a jamboree as of yet. We have multiple invitations at multiple facilities. I'm aware of that facility in West Virginia. Quite a place. Probably too big for us.

I think you would be surprised to find out how little interest we have in our numbers as compared to other organizations. We are not for everybody. We have a defined purpose and recognize we will not have mass appeal.

Interesting enough, though, former BSA Troops that charter with us find their membership increases after they become TLUSA Troops. This was a surprise to us. We had no idea there would be so many people who would not be interested in BSA that see something that we are doing that attracts them. Still, though we consider our growth to be significant (over 10,000 members in less than 5 months. We've released these numbers many times. Media reports don't always carry them.), this is not our focus.

Nearing 400 Troops (with charters that cover what other groups may cover with 3 separate charters), we know we have a lot of boys that are not yet registered.

Because many Troops functioned unofficially until their charters were complete, we know some families are slower in getting their boys registered since they were attending for free before chartering. We don't have "seasonal registration." Since all of our chartering and member registration is online, Troops and members join and rejoin on their anniversary date. We do expect the real numbers to be reflected once our online advancement modules are fully operative (within a few weeks), as boys will need to be registered to be in the advancement system. They won't progress without being official. And joining is a simple click away (Troopmasters LOVE that they don't have to register boys!).

Our Troop chartering process is quite intense, which is why we have almost as many Troops waiting to charter as chartered.

Anyway, I enjoyed reading your comments.

In the interest of transparency, I'll be glad to answer questions here. But I suspect you might not find me here long!

Some people think we are competitors.