Eagle94-A1

Probably because most folks in my neck of the woods cannot afford other youth activities. Any increase in price is significant, despite what the cost compared to other activities .

@Fred8033, I'm with you. After this year, only one of my sons will be eligible to be a Scout. But he is burnt out. He has been doing Scouting in some shape or form since being a toddler, and hanging with his brothers in Cub Scouts. He achieved his goal, Eagle, and may quit once December comes. He may have stayed around if his brothers and a few 18+ friends stuck around, but none of them are willing to give up their friendships per YP rules to remain in Scouting.

One positive out of the MBC fee, now MBCs can camp with troops, ships, and crews since they are in a PAID position.

The split should occur in 4th grade, not 5th. The entire reason why Webelos became an 18-24 month program in the 1990s instead of the 9-12 month program in previous years was the research showed that it takes about 2 years to get the Scouts, and in my experience the parents as well, up to speed with the differences between Cub Scouts and Scouts. Whomever made this decision did not do their due diligence, and I fear this will continue to hurt troops' retention of new Scouts.

This incident was 20+ years ago before all the hype. More recently I know of one case where mom threatened a lawsuit against BSA if an extension was not given to her son to do a new project after turning 18. Long story short, The kid did NOT follow the directions given to him by the benefitting organization (BO) prior to approval, and did NOT listen to the recommendations of his SM and ASMs, one of whom was a professional contractor. He ended up getting kicked off the BO's property, turning over all unused funds to repair the damage he causes, got Scouts banned from ever doing another service

I can testify to this. We had a young man denied Eagle because it was discovered troop's leadership, which consisted of Grandpa SM, Dad ASM, and Mom CC pencil whipped a bunch of his MBs so he could get Eagle at 13 or so. EBOR did what they were suppose to do and gave him a plan to actually earn Eagle. The family appealed to the council and was denied. Family appealed to national, and he was awarded Eagle with the statement in rationale "We do not penalize the Scout for the mistakes of the adults" or words to that effect. The entire District Advancement Committee resigned in protest over this

I would be wary of the accuracy of training reports of Scouters who have been around of while. At least three in the past 19 years, training records and PORs have disappeared. I could understand my out of council records disappearing, but ALL (emphasis) of my training, as well as every single Scouter's training records in the council disappeared. I spent about 18 months getting my district's training records fixed, and was so glad I kept a hard copy and digital copy of all that work because about 2 years later, the records disappeared again. I was able to resubmit the bulk of the records, and

Current troop neckerchief has the CO incorporated into the logo. I do not know how old the necker design is, but it predates me coming into the area.

There is WAY to much focus on advancement in general, and specifically Eagle. EAGLE IS NOT THE GOALS! (major emphasis). Sadly I am seeing more and more "Eagle Scouts" who cannot do basic skills, sometimes stuff that Scouts have a reputation for doing. Best example I can give is the Eagle Scout who at a first aid competition could not do basic Tenderfoot thru First Class First Aid skills. when I asked if he had First Aid Merit badge, he stated he " I took that my first year at summer camp." I'd rather have the Life for Life, who knew his stuff and was able to recognize I had hypothermia an

Yes with all the changes going on, I would not put CO on anything. In fact I would not put any district names or council names in any unit logo. Districts merge, and councils will be shortly. What I have seen done once was a unit celebrated their 25th anniversary by adding a wreath around their unit logo, and the years underneath the logo. That special logo was used just for the 25th anniversary year, and they went back to the normal logo after the anniversary.

I agree, and have seen outside groups using camps multiple times in multiple locations. but at least in my area, it is NOT being balanced.

This is indeed happening in my area. Council is focused on additional programs, and the units are not being serviced. I asked the SE why they cannot help the existing units, and was ignored. Like @InquisitiveScouter, Scouting is struggling in my area. I see 3 more units folding in my old district alone within the next 2-3 years. What really hurts is that I went thru 2 years of hell as a professional building this area up, only to see it slowly fall apart from professional arrogance, apathy, and neglect.

Sadly I have seen professionals focus more on making money from community sources, than serving the Scouts. Rather than supporting an event in their territory, they are at an event that services a community several hours away. And folks wonder why FOS is down. As for squeaky wheel, in the best case you are ignored. In the worst case, they revoke your membership. One long time volunteer in my area discovered some financial monkey business. When he started bringing it up and became the squeaky wheel, the SE revoked his membership.

Seeing it done now. Camp got sold, but in the agreement Scouts can use it 5 times a year for the next 3 years. HOWEVER since the new owners are not maintaining the property, Scouters would have 1 Saturday prior to an event to come in and get everything ready. The last time an event was held there with no ranger onsite, it took volunteers about 2 months going into and out of the camp at our own times to get it ready to meet NCAP standards. One event was already cancelled this year, and the fall events may be cancelled if the conditions are stil in place.

I know one council in TX was using a camp that was owned by a trust. The SE was able to convince the trust to transfer the deed to the council outright, which they did. Within 6 months, the camp was sold. In another council, the PTB waited until certain donors passed away before securing permission from the sole survivor to sell the camp.

If your pros are doing some of this still, you are lucky. Last time I saw a pro involved with training was 12 years ago, and he was assisting me because I needed a 2nd trainer for a break out session. Last time I saw a pro at a district program event, besides roundtable, was 8 years ago. Usually when they get involved, they screw things up. I had camporee dumped into my lap with 3 months notice because of DE interference causing the person to quit.. I quit running events because the DE screwed up the supply order so badly, I ad to get supplies locally and more expensive, going over

Sometimes you will have to ignore it. Unit I grew up in and stuck around with while in college did have some new parents question my involvement since I hade aged out. Scouters and existing Scouts in the troop knew me, and had no problems. But new folks would sometimes have concerns. Once you have kids, you will understand. Two units checked all my references in the councils I had been in, and my work history to verify I worked for BSA. One did their own background check on me. The Hardest time getting trust was not a unit, but becoming a DE. The district i was assigned to had a hig

Having been in your shoes here are some ideas. 1. Find out if your church, civic group, etc has a unit you can be part of. did that in 2 councils i moved to and knew no one. 2. Serve on a district level. I was an OA associate chapter advisor in two councils as well. Aslo served on training staff. 3. Show up to a unit. I did that once. Yes people were skeptical, but after talking scouting and giving references, it worked out. 4. do not give up good luck EDITED yes where ya at. I need help too.

National printed one of those a few editions back. Biggest challenge is that National keeps changing requirements, like some folks change clothes. 5 changes to Second Class requirements since 2016? That is a change ever 18 months or so If national doesn't have control, they will not do it. Look at the template for council websites. You had some really great volunteer web designers doing local council and OA lodge webpages. And national quashed them. One web designer I know worked for a Fortune 500 company's webpage, and that council and lodge's webpages were excellent. Not anym

Yes, uniforms and books subsidize National, and councils. Since they are a source of revenue, I have included them in the value national gives us. My oldest bought a pair of pants that was worn maybe 6 times to meetings, and they ripped within 2 months of purchasing. I still wear ODL shorts, pants, and shirts from 1994. There is a reason why ODL shirts with all kinds of glue go almost as much as a new shirt today.

And more and more folks will not be able to afford Scouting, including those who most need it. In my neck of the woods, arrogant professionals have alienated volunteers and donors. A lot of folks have been burnt by pros. And every time national fees increase, that is less income for FOS. That is an understatement. And all it takes is one arrogant professional to tick off UW folks. My old boss made some rather rude, obnoxious comments about the local UW president that got back to them. Long story short, we lost all UW funding except designations. No., families do not get

At least you have a list of approved camps, even if limited to council owned. Some councils do not have any list of approved camps because some high level volunteers feel "Cubs don't need to camp." So packs are using the OA's Where to Go Camping book as their list of approved camps since it is a council publication. Yes, but some councils do restrict their Cubs to only their own camps. I know of one council that has great Cub programs at the camp, but once they reach Scout age, tend to go elsewhere because they are bored at going to that camp.

Actually some of us predicted this was the reason for the rule change. Actually what your council, and many others I might add, were doing was not allowed by national. However that rule was never enforced. Probably because it made money for the local councils, i.e. pay for the training, pay to rent the range, pay to rent the equipment, buying the ammo and targets, etc. Now it appears national is coming down like a hammer on councils.

Just remember, Venturing has been around 24 years, and folks still call them venture Scouts instead of Venturers, and venture crews instead of Venturing Crews. Girls troops have only been around 4 years.

We are in the same boat, have 3 Packs and 7 in my old district's territory. And 1 is a female troop. In the 7 counties of the current district, that is the only female troop in existence.