carebear3895

The problem with National professionals reflects a bigger problem with BSA professional in general. I would wager 95%-100% of the pros working at National were SE's in like 2000-2015 and are pretty out of touch. They were DE's in the 80's and 90's and have no idea the problems facing DE's today. The talent is limited because they purposely limit the talent by not trusting the young professionals...the guys and girls in the districts right now. I mean I met the guy in charge of BSA IT. Never worked in IT in his life, but he was a professional scouter and former SE. The guys who are

Been saying this since the very beginning. I cringe every time I see national say what a resounding success it's been.

Nail on the head. National never really freaked out about membership that seriously because they always had the LDS safety net.

Good for them. Looks like they are starting to realize that STEM is, IMO, a waste of time for an "outdoor character and leadership building organization"... Ironically, BSA allowing girls in was probably the best thing to ever happen to GSUSA programming. I think the last few months are the first time I've ever seen them promote something outside of cookies.

Boy would I!

BSA is doing the ole "trying to please everybody, but end up pleasing nobody" tactic. Coming from a rural council, where most troop can barely keep 5 boys as is, I can guarantee linked troops won't work. Maybe in the suburbs/cities where ALL of the national execs come from it will work, but for us country folk it never had a chance of working the way it was designed.

*cough* Scoutreach *cough* but boy isn't that the sad truth...We lose a lot of morally straight pros because of this. It's the never ending cycle

Never should've moved from Dallas in the first place. I get the idea of putting it by Philmont, I really do....but why move it from one the largest growing cities in america to Cimarron, New Mexico. If they really wanted to move it that badly, should've gone to the summit. Lord Knows they need more attention.

I fully support girls in scouting. I think allowing youth females in the Order of the Arrow has been very long overdue. I disagree with the Lion program. I'm not really sad to see the LDS leave scouting. The summit was doomed to fail from the beginning. I think national has dropped the ball on pretty much every decision that has to do with allowing females in. Their lack of transparency and "secrets" has really, in my opinion, been a huge driving force in why people are against this decision. I think whoever came up with the idea for the skorts needs to be fired immediately. Backgr

BAH GOD...That's carebear3895's music!!

So pretty much do what Scouts UK did. They awarded the title "Chief Scout" to Bear Grylls. Doesn't make any key decisions, but acts as the ceremonial head to the organization. National will never go for it. They love their key 3 setup too much

The unofficial rule for professionals is one row of knots. Its super super super extremely mega rare, but a professional scouter can earn the DAM, but only while simultaneously being a volunteer. My guess is Surbaugh joined up with a pack or troop back in the day.

you'd be surprised...National, Region, and Area executives can't force a sale, but they can be very "persuasive" to Scout Executives and exec boards

Sadly that now how BSA executive positions work. For any position in professional BSA, you need to start as a DE and work your way up. You can't laterally transfer to any position without "paying your dues" as a commissioned DE first.

Actually I was told there was no plan to change the name. And this was a couple weeks ago.

I actually asked someone at national the exact question "are you going to keep calling it boys life" and they told me yes. I feel straight up lied to by National.

I'm actually upset with this..... Boys Life was actually one of the only magazines I knew geared towards young boys. There was 0 need to mess with it. Add a "girls life" if you wanted to be inclusive.

I think you're going to see A LOT of council mergers in the near future. For some reason, and I can't wrap my head around why, national seems to like the GSUSA "mega council" approach. The days of small councils are going to be long gone, unfortunately. I also think your going to see a lot of council camps close. National has made it no secret they think the BSA owns way too much property. I predict more than half of council properties will try to be sold off. As for the Summit, yea that's gone.

ahhhhhhhh, I think I have my history backwards then. Thanks for clearing that up

Didn't ask for it, bud. I just think some who are very negatively biased about our jobs and I'm trying to clear up some misconceptions. Thank you for your service

wow.....lets not beat around the bush anymore. You just straight up dislike the whole idea of professional scouters, no matter how much good they do You should really check out our salary broken down hourly.

There's a lot of hate for those in the profession, including me when y'all don't even know me. I mean I get it, there are A LOT of bad, even crooked Pros out there. Whatever, it's not gonna stop me from doing my job of trying to grow scouting and give kids opportunities. Again, I believe we work together and have the same goals in mind... I'm sorry if that's not the case in your council. Thank you all for what you do for scouting.

Unfortunately, National has it's own "volunteer force" that make a lot of these decisions. Believe me when I say there is a HUGE disconnect between those in Dallas and those in the field. We all feel that, pros and volunteers alike. There are a lot of things they do that make all of us bang our heads on our desks. I think Volunteers have every right to complain, the program happens with y'all, but taking it out on Unit-Serving Executives is not the right way to do things. Believe it or not, we all want the same thing; to provide a quality program to youth. Refusing to give to FoS or se

I'm sorry but this is incredibly shortsighted and frankly insulting to a lot of good professionals out there. We work TOGETHER to provide a program FOR THE YOUTH. Do I think National execs and some SE's make too much? Yea, i kinda do. But to think cutting their salaries is the magical fix to all the problems with the BSA, that's just silly. I try to be humble about our jobs because this truly is a volunteer driven organization, but to say we do nothing to support the units pisses me off to no end. Don't for one second think i'm doing this job to give my boss a bigger paycheck, I do it bec