Eagle1993

Just 1 example here: Boy Scout OA Dance Teams - PowWows.com Forums - Native American Culture Just one of many negative quotes from various forum members from tribes about order of the arrow... Then there are articles about BSA and NA: Boy Scouts ‘have been one of the worst culprits’ of cultural appropriation - ICT News Order of the Arrow is a ‘secret’ scout society ‘in the spirit of the Lenni Lenape’ - a Lenape leader disagrees - ICT News Personally, I think we make a mistake when we generalize or even reference "Indian" culture. There isn't an "Indian culture

BSA v Dale .... BSA has the 1st amendment right to revoke membership of someone who is gay. I am 100% certain they have the 1st amendment right to revoke membership of someone who violates their policy on usage of regalia. BSA has the power to set the policy for their organization (with some limits on protected classes in some cases). If they decide that usage of regalia in the OA would violate their principles, they could kick them out.

Good timing ... we actually have some movement. Looks like 2/9 & 2/10 there will be appeals hearings.

When I took over for my pack several years ago it had a negative balance. I had to loan the pack $1500 to pay for room reservations, etc. that were due before we were able to collect annual dues and complete the popcorn fundraiser. Running negative or close to negative is a bad situation. I fully agree, stick to the budget. Cash flow per year should be 0 (assuming you depreciate your equipment to ensure that can be maintained). $35 per scout seems a bit high and a nice to have. We purchased a real arrow for each scout and wrote their name & date on the arrow (someone with g

My Troops interest in the OA is now gone. After seeing two camps sold a few years ago and various council mergers, OA service was limited to one of the two remaining camps and meetings were a 1.5 hour round trip commute. Now we have sold the camp the OA spent the most time on. I see no remaining interest in the OA from my scouts. I think there are ways to save it (change OA to districts, perhaps align to closer to venturing (with service/leadership)). There are options. If it remains unchanged I expect it will be a footnote in my council.

100% agree ... GSUSA has 1.7M youth ... far more than BSA (who as everyone knows allows girls in). While in my area, GSUSA is still going strong, girl troops and girls in packs are languishing. I see perhaps 1 girl patrol at Klondike and other camporees and a few girls there and there mixed in with boy patrols. Many girl troops in my area are struggling to hit the minimum 4 girls to register. I talked with a leader of a council next to mine ... same situation. While it is great to see a few good examples of girls doing well in scouting, it does not appear to be widespread. I would lo

It failed. BSA declined to barely 1M youth served after admitting girls in 2019 (when they were over 2M). Outside small pockets of success, there was no mass groundswell of families or girls joining BSA. It caused dissention in the ranks just before we needed everyone all in as we entered bankruptcy. All in all, 4 years in and if I had to give a grade, it would be an F. Now, can BSA recover? Perhaps. Just not with the current national leadership.

This is required to earn their top award (Chief Scout's Gold Award)

I think many of us would agree the aims of scouting including citizenship development. The question is the how (methods). In order to achieve the top rank in UK Scouts, you have to complete 9 challenge awards. Of those, 1 is similar to BSA's Citizenship list. Below are the requirements of the "World Challenge Award". You can see all of our 4 Citizenships in this one award. I also notice that it would be tough to earn this sitting in a classroom (in fact, there is almost no classroom aspect to this award). This is about taking action (6 of the 7 requirements are about taking action,

The merit badge program for Eagle is not designed well. I think it does little to keep youth in scouting, is redundant, boring and not aligned with the "outing" in scouting. It is what it is. National doesn't seem to care. So, either scouts slog through it or Eagle factories pump out the clinics for youth who want to add Eagle Scout to their resume. I've heard more positive feedback about Society than other Citizenships. However, given the group setting and Troop size, we have only had one chance to earn it... So it could catch a lot of youth by surprise if they procrastinate.

I think this is true for the whole of scouting. The lack of girl troops in scouting is because, for the most part, the bulk of citizens don't care. Same reason why scouting is falling for boys ... because the bulk of citizens don't care about scouting. In 1960, 20% of boys were in scouts. Just talking about boys, if the same ratio existed today, we would have 6 million scouts. Since we offer services to girls as well, we should have close to 12 million scouts. We are under 1 million scouts across boys & girls. I think BSA can help change this, but National Leadership is mute.

From what I can tell, the case is going to District Court for appeal. District court accepted the case and layed out various ground rules. I could not find any dates or schedules yet.

Boring meetings: What do they want to do? Maybe focus the meetings on what fun activities you can do on your monthly weekend. This one has been mentioned by multiple scouts in many Troops. You are definitely not alone here. My son's best friend, who dropped out of scouts (from another Troop) said Boy Scouts is 10 hours of boring meetings for every weekend of camping. His thought ... just skip the meetings and go camping. His Troop had gone from ~60 scouts to 9 in the last 4 years and are on the verge of collapse. I've talked with several parents in our Troop who were scou

So could tripping down a few stairs. However, AK47 propel a larger mass at a higher velocity resulting in far more energy. .22 is around 250 joules ... AK47 are closer to 2000 joules. There has been studies that show ... larger caliber weapons increase likelihood of death. In Boston, if individuals were shot with only smaller caliber bullets, their gun homicide rate would have dropped nearly 40%. Simply put, higher caliber is more deadly. The Association of Firearm Caliber With Likelihood of Death From Gunshot Injury in Criminal Assaults | Emergency Medicine | JAMA Network Open |

An RSO AND an instructor is required for every 8 scouts. I struggle to see how this could happen with this ratio in place. It sounds like there was lack of oversight of the range; however, it could happen if a scout purposely ignored orders ... so we need to know a bit more before casting final judgement. If the adults broke BSA rules, they should be held civilly liable and pay. They should also be removed from BSA. If the adults broke the law, they should be held criminally liable. If we want shooting sports to remain in BSA, we need the leaders to follow the rules. The fast

What I find interesting, is that Circle 10 signed off on their targets in October of 2020, and at that time, predicted they would have 44,000 scouts by the end of 2020. Now, nearing the end of 2022, they see 33,000 as growth. I can't imagine that is a good sign (they were targeting 46,000 scouts for end of 2022 only 2 years ago).

I found a strategic plan online from a Circle 10 discussion in late 2020. Their goals then: 2020 - 44,000 2021 - 44,700 2022 - 46,000 2023 - 48,000 33,000 is concerning, at least vs the plan 8146795-StrategicPlan-2021-2023-1647373160710.pdf

My district is short it's goal by about 50% or just over 160 Cub Scouts. That is as of October. They will probably close the gap a bit, but will end short of plan. I am concerned about Troops. Several are down to 1 patrol in my area. One Troop in my town who always had 50-60 scouts even as of 2018/2019 are down to 9. I talked to that Scoutmaster who said a former SM took over who was really strict and a rules guy to the point most of the scouts just quit. My pack recruited well and our Troop is fairly healthy. However, I am seeing some dark clouds on the horizon. BSA will need

A bunch of filings hit over the last few days. BSA financial update ... unrestricted liquidity now at $73M (as of end of August). Down $11M from July and down $161M since start of bankruptcy. Notice of Appeal to District Court filed 9/22 & 9/23 5afa7f6b-ff0b-4f3b-be07-7ddd14903ae9_10466.pdf (omniagentsolutions.com) c2df4ef0-e46e-4f47-9fde-73c0837abd91_10472.pdf (omniagentsolutions.com) Then several detailed filings of those appealing the order... So far, I don't see the DOJ; however, I'm not sure if they would send anything or just argue in court. In general

Don't forget the scouts who do not renew membership fall off the books after recharter (early 2023). The number I am interested in will be posted in February. I have seen a big uptick in scouts dropping during recharter. I think in the past, parents would see $25 and figure they would renew even if they don't participate much. Now scouts who rarely participate drop off. We need to continue to see growth feb to feb every year or BSA is in trouble.

These companies do not need the BSA. Why would they pay the BSA? Rocket League has, on average, 90 million users every 30 days. Madden sells about 150 million copies and has even more users. I don't understand how an E Sports tournament ties into the BSA, but if setting up an E Sports tournament allows BSA to advertise their offerings and helps recruiting I'm all for it. Now, if there was patrol based e sports game that would be a much better path.

I'm curious is they expected us to be closer to the goal by now.

I'm curious if these were 22s and a variety of shotguns or something beyond what is approved by Scouts BSA. It sounds like the guns were not stored properly. There should be no chance a unsupervised scout should have access to firearms at camp. Hopefully a warning to anyone who doesn't take the shooting sports rules seriously. I've never seen anything close to this at any camp I attended. Firearms are always secured when the range is closed. Sad story, hopefully never repeated.

@ajherkert Welcome to Scouter.com. Sounds like you have a lot of great experience. I'm sure others will provide guidance as well. As a former leader of a pack, the best way to help a pack is to be a great den leader. Personally, I think having great energetic den leaders is the most important aspect of a healthy pack. Perhaps watch how den meetings are run and get a sense of the pack culture. Find some areas where you may be able and provide some suggestions. If you see a need for major changes, that is a whole different topic. In terms council, attend the district me

We had Lions in 2016. They started a pilot program for Packs that were willing to jump through some hoops.