Protoclete

It's just curiosity, but does anyone know where to see stats on the number of districts? I have found 262 councils and 99,814 units (though both surely have changed and will change since these numbers printed in 2018 and 2017 respectively). Just curious if anyone ever published a total number of districts.

I'm sorry i missed the call, it was just a little too late in the evening over here. Overall, downsizing and streamlining is a good thing. For the size of the organization, we have far to many layers and levels that don't actually seem to contribute to the mission of the organization. Maybe necessary at peak membership levels fifty years ago, but seeming only to exist because they have always existed these days. I'm glad people are taking seriously the pandemic - and even, if unfortunately, the lawsuits - as a real crisis, a turning point, and an opportunity to redesign and come out lea

Thanks, I get that VISA is parallel to groups like the International Catholic Committee on Scouting or the International FOrum of Jewish Scouts, which regulate the religious emblems for Scouts of their faith. It just seemed like LDS would allow the new organization, more in keeping with how other churches handle it, to continue the same awards. After all, they are awards for scouts of that faith, and it would not seem appropriate to change if their faith hasn't changed. But if that isn't the way it's worked out, i will say this: I like the look of the new ones better! (purely aesthetic).

Maybe I missed something, but why would there be a new religious emblem program? The LDS has an established emblems program, that should really just continue, no? Even if the internal organization responsible for scouting has changed.

I have been part of reviews that were held in the conference room of the embassy, in (very nice) private homes, in the school or church where district meetings and roundtable were held, and in the (also very nice) fireside room of a golf club that some district personage belonged to. There should be a certain solemnity to it - not somber, but serious. The mood should be light but not flippant. You are not there to interrogate the kid, more like a job interview - a conversation about the person and their experiences that brought them to this point. They should be comfortable and not intim

It is time to trash the entire Recharter system. Maybe this is already discussed under the hopes for changes as a result of bankruptcy, but it always seems like this is something everyone at the unit, district, and most everyone at the Council level is well aware, and yet it never seems to change, or even be discussed by the people responsible for this wildly outdated and unappealing system. It is no exaggeration to say that we have lost more scouts, volunteers, and units to the cumbersome approach to registration and recharter than to anything else in my tenure. Not bankruptcy, not

As higher education institutions are moving to online teaching for the rest of the semester because of Coronavirus concerns, it is an opportunity to re-evaluate the availability of some training online that currently is not. I am a college professor. I am fully in support of the value of in-person classes and discussion when possible. As for the overall all debate on in-person vs. online, while I enjoy and prefer in-person when possible - if accredited universities can offer all their classes online, certainly scouting should be able to as well. Especially in geographically large council

I'm out here in Transatlantic Council, Mediterranean Distict. The World Scout Interreligious Symposium scheduled for this week in Jambville (Paris) France has been indefinitely postponed. We delayed our Annual Conference / University of Scouting event set for this coming weekend in Germany. Several of our troops in Italy have cancelled events, and our District is planning an event over memorial day weekend in Florence that is still on - but we are watching carefully and, perhaps a month from now, will have to decide whether it continues.

Thanks - but, when did that change? Or is it that the charter is with the PTA instead of the public school per se, and they simply use the space? I've been overseas for over a decade, but it seems like most of the packs we had were at public schools.

If you are a large and active troop with well trained and very experienced Scouters, a UC might just be helpful in terms of some of the paperwork and reporting, or acting as an outside resource if you have some internal issues in the unit or within the Chartered org, but that's about it. For smaller units or newer leaders, the UC should be a mentor and resource for how to do things well. If nothing else, I cannot tell you how many times I have had unit leaders complain that they never see anyone "from the district". The whole point of the UC is to be the local representative of the distr

Could you expand what you mean by that? I'm not clear what has changed about their role.

Thanks to all so far. Some helpful information and good ideas. I forget who asked, but yes, I'm the district chair, just fairly new to the position. First end of year and JTE review. A bit surprised at the difficulty to get relatively simple information from the volunteer management system. Or correcting it. Or finding out where it is populated from. The JTE resources (https://www.scouting.org/awards/journey-to-excellence/) are informative in some areas, but it's here that i found some of these things were supposed to be manually entered, but not clear who has been doing the manual

I should add, perhaps, i'm not interested much in the result - gold/silver, whatever - as much as in getting the information correct so I have an accurate baseline to work with for the coming year, and seeing that tracked accurately in the system.

Does anybody have experience with and insight into the District-level JTE information that forms the basis for the JTE Scorecard / meters on My.Scouting? A lot of this information seems to be automatically brought in from somewhere - number of new units, number of District committee members, etc. - but it has little to do with the reality. And it does not even seem to match the information in the system itself. For example, there is no correlation between the number it shows are on my district committee and the number who are actually on the committee, nor the number who have posit

I've never run into this as a problem before. One of our international schools, run like a public, non-sectarian school, has been a Chartered Org in the past and was asked to become one again. They seem to be stuck on the Statement of Religious Principle, that if the IH and COR sign it, they are committing the school to the exclusion of atheists in a school sponsored program. I've never had a problem with a public school or an international school before. Usually they 'get' that Scouting is nonsectarian, and that the chartered org gets to decide how much if any religiosity is part of the progr

Wow, this is an old thread! The question came up in another context and found this looking for insight here. Since the thread was last updated, there have been some developments, at least according to this http://www.scoutinsignia.com/cnclknot.htm:

We had the same system when I was a scout, a council or district patch in the middle, with segments for summer camp and camporee and all sorts of things ringed around it. The center patch was supposed to be centered on the pocket, and the segments not to exceed the seams of the pocket. In fact, this example is used on this page, from my old Council: http://www.scoutinsignia.com/tmppatch.htm I think the only badges I remember being set below the pocket were the Arrow of Light (left) and the Recruiter Strip (right).

Some award knots are restricted, and you must show that you have earned it to get one. However, some, like the Youth Religious Emblem knot are not restricted. You can simply buy it along with other uniform pieces. We trust you. (I earned my first youth religious emblem in 1991 as well. I still have the medal, but no certificates or paperwork anywhere. Never had a problem getting the knot when i got a new uniform shirt.)

This is a good practice. We implemented that this year, but with a two-year 'live' period.

After nearly ten years as an adult Scouter, over a twenty-year period, I finally got to do Woodbadge last summer. At Gilwell itself, which was part of the appeal to doing it then. The value of Woodbadge is that it is a leadership development course. It is ideal, I think, for a) Scouters who are relatively new but have completed the other basic training sessions - so maybe around 2-3 years of tenure. The next logical step after IOLS or BALOO. b) Scouters who are returning to scouting after a hiatus for whatever reason (this was my case), a way to jump back in and get reco

Well, FYI, got an answer from National. The database has been suspended because the vendor pulled out and while national is undergoing its staff changes and restructuring. Hopefully will be back sometime in the not too distant future.

For those who have organized district or council awards committees, did you use or discover any really effective tools for helping committee members evaluate and compare nominations? For example, did anyone use a 1-5 rating scale on different aspects of the nominations, or assign points, or create a matrix or written evaluation tool of any kind? Or just get together and hash it out verbally with each other? As I'm organizing our awards committees, I'm looking for good ideas to implement here - which will culminate in a live meeting, of course, but would love to hear some good ideas

At my woodbadge, there was an interfaith service / scouts own planned by the "chaplain aides" of each patrol, many of whom were actually chaplains. In addition, information was given for the local Christian church to attend Eucharist, at a time that made it possible to do before registration; there was a shabbat blessing during friday night's meal; there were juma prayers that everyone was invited to, with a slight time adjustment. I have been to unit events where the chartering organization was a specific church (say, Catholic or Lutheran) and a service of that denomination was pl

So... what happened with the Scout alumni directory update? I see https://scoutingalumni.org/ got a new look and feel, but we cannot log in anymore nor search for alumni. Any ideas what the status is?

Is there still a Roundtable Staff Scouter Training Award? I find it referenced all over the place, but only with the old style progress record, and nothing seems to say it was discontinued. Anyone know for sure?