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Jameson76

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Everything posted by Jameson76

  1. No BSA President ever seems to speak, or be the driver for the program. Same at the Council level. Overall BSA Marketing is non-existent. The very few efforts seem to be aimed at I am not sure. They are not trying to excite young people to join, they do not seemed to be aimed at parents to entice to get their kids involved.
  2. This reminds me of every sales forecast meeting I have ever attended. Yes, sales this year are down or flat, but in 4 to 5 years they will increase. Skip forward 4 to 5 years and they basically just change the dates and use the same data and slides again. To assume there will be modest growth in 4 to 5 years, when there has been a steady decline in membership for 40 years is at best a fantasy. There has NOT been a concrete plan presented to change the trajectory, and my thoughts are that "increase membership fees" and "increase the burden on volunteers" is not a winning strategy.
  3. Sort of kind of - but there is the privacy rule. It is specific but also broad. Not sure a unit would want to go down the road of requiring something and requiring proof of said something. Not 100% sure how this would apply to a Scout unit and I going to bet a CO would not want to have to find out HIPAA Privacy Rule The Privacy Rule standards address the use and disclosure of individuals’ health information (known as “protected health information”) by entities subject to the Privacy Rule. These individuals and organizations are called “covered entities.” The Privacy Rule also contain
  4. We have tried to have meetings in the summer, but with local swim teams in June, vacations, holidays, other camps, etc etc it just did not work. We are somewhat active in the summer with week long camps in June and July. We have meetings prior to the camps and do HA each year. Basically from the end of school (Memorial Day) to First week of August (when school starts) we do not have regular meetings.
  5. For reference our troop has +/- 60 registered Scouts and +/- 20 leaders We restarted out troop activities in July of 2020 holding our own weeklong summer camp. 35 Scouts and Leaders, we did not require masks, but you could wear one if wanted. We were 100% outside, 1 Scout / Leader per tent, no carpooling. The troop started meeting in person in August, again 100% outside, at a park pavilion near the CO, masks not required. Also we started outings in August and have since then had 8 outdoor events; aquatics, kayaking, backpacking, AOL / Webelos visit, Winter trip to coast, more ba
  6. We held our own summer camp last year (don't know if you heard but there was some sort of pandemic or somesuch) and I did the Cooking merit badge. Prerequisite was the home cooking, or they did it after camp and we reviewed. The class planned the meals, good discussion ensued. Then we loaded up the Scouts and headed to the store, shopped for the goods from a list, looked at budgets, and secured the food. They cooked some of the meals for the camp (35 Scouts and leaders). For the backpacking part we looked at stoves we took a hike and cooked meals. There is a lot to cooking. Ju
  7. Average age for Eagle Scouts is (I think) 17.2 years of age, and that has been fairly consistent
  8. Agree, likely not that many, but, how many times can there be not that many? Sort of death by a thousand cuts? At the end of the day, the BSA is an organization that "sells" the program to the "customers" who are adults and youth. If a business puts in a change that may alienate some current customers, that is weighed against how many new customers will come and what will the net change to the customer base be. Also will the change improve the profitability of the customer base, helping the health of the business. Change and updates are inevitable and necessary. How they are hand
  9. Sadly the DEI merit badge will be the straw on the camel's back for many volunteers / scouters. Not saying that some items occurring in society currently may need to be highlighted and the units could be venues for that effort. Most not happy with the handling of this will just fade away. Another loss of experience to the organization. Could aspects of the intent of DEI merit badge be rolled / updated into Cit in the Comm, Cit in the Nation, maybe Family Life .... absolutely. Was the DEI mb initiative a knee jerk reaction and viewed by some as attempting to play to and placate some consti
  10. Agree. I continue to state that the BSA's reason for being in business cannot be solely to protect youth. It is vital and it is important. YPT is a critical component and as you noted it needs to be common place best practices. Our reason or "mission" is to prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices over their lifetimes by instilling in them the values of the Scout Oath and Law. We do this with experiential learning, a game with a purpose, letting them fail and letting them figure it out. That is what we need to go to market with. If our "Go To Market" is we provide yout
  11. Don't worry, there's always room at The Summit (do we capitalize The??). It's on the books for $345 million...and a bargain at that no doubt 😀
  12. Cubs were at 649,284 for 2020 I'm sadly thinking overall BSA will be under 1 million
  13. We had a WB beading ceremony (??) that was done at a troop meeting. Ran, I kid you not, 45 minutes. I too felt like we were hostages. Most leaders input was "and that's why I will never go to WB"
  14. I continue to find it interesting that organizations, such as NOW, at various times called upon the BSA (as was an organization's free speech perogative) to open the membership to girls. The press release article qwazse noted was headlined - "Boy Scouts of America Denies Equal Opportunity Access for Girls" Yet, I am not able to find the same organizations, then or now, calling for the Girl Scouts to admit males. Please do not perceive this observation as being against the inclusion of Girls into Cubs and Scouts, it is what it is and honestly has not effected our unit at all. I hope
  15. I work with our Life Scouts. They know who the SM is (title and name) but reference him only as Mr (name). I refer to getting the CC signature, they say who it that, it's Mr CC. Oh Adult to Adult is first name. Youth to adult is Mr (last name). Agree with others, if I am conversing with a Scout and they need something from another leader, it's see Mr (last name) If we're being smart alecky (which is often) it's title and first name - Scoutmaster Bob...ASM Pete
  16. We ran our own summer camp and had monthly outings AUG through NOV. Maybe average of 24 Scouts and 6 leaders per outing. Did aquatics, kayaking, backpacking, and AOL visit. We did have our annual 3 day Winter trip last weekend, to the swamp, visit to a National Seashore Island, and some other side trips. We have been meeting outside since August, but we always met outside so no difference. Been some challenge due to CO (church) being closed at times so went to park across the street. They close at dark, so winter is iffy. We have picked up some additional High School aged Scouts. B
  17. 1972 was the BIG change. Many of the core badges (swimming / camping / cooking) were part of the group that could or could not be earned. That was the change wherein one could become Eagle and not have camped at all and basically not have gone outside at all
  18. Maybe they have learned to give the expected answers, please the questioner. I typically get they feel first aid, the shooting sports, climbing, and camping as important.
  19. My hope would be (though not likely) is that they actually take one of 2 paths for this new set of requirements. Whether one thinks the DEI initiative is a good thing or a bad thing, it is likely not going away. BSA National has opened the door, so they will not be able to close that door 2 Hopeful Paths Restructure the Citizenship Merit Badges to include some new items. Some of the DEI requirements could relate to community, nation, or world. Remove the Citizenship in the World MB from Eagle required and insert the (obviously reworked) DEI merit badge in it's place Dou
  20. My thought is everyone read the floated proposed requirements and said WTH, this is worthless. Must have been a lot of pushback. The language was suspect at best and agenda driven at worst. They decided to punt.
  21. If you recall Surbagh's Town Hall video, he as much admitted they (National gang) was pretty much out of ideas on how to add members to the program. The adding girls was a hail Mary. In reality they did not want to do the hard work of figuring out why some units succeed and others fail, that would require maybe a real reflective look at the program. Nope, it was the easy route they took "let's add girls". Not saying it was a bad idea, just need to be honest on WHY.
  22. I had one of my Scouts ask me about some of the musicians (that they all seem to listen to now) from the late 70's and 80's. Specifically Bowie, Elton John, and Freddie Mercury. Did we care they were bi or gay, was that an issue, what did we think of them. My answer was that (and this sort of shocked them), they were more defined by their talent and what they actually did than their persona. Did not recall if they were openly out or swinging at the time, but everyone sort of knew it, but we accepted that they were talented, that is what mattered. I see the challenge today is that
  23. There is no way to leave personal politics out of the discussion. Each of us brings our own experiences, political beliefs, personal beliefs into everything we do and express. To deny that is naive, we can try, but it is there. Also to deny the WHY of this merit badge is akin to putting one's head in the sand. It is being put forth as window dressing and to show compliance to an agenda. Now, can we as a nations do better, absolutely. Are we as a nation as bad as many have made it out to be, absolutely not.
  24. I am not the one using this term (see below) in requirement #1 - Intersectionality. You speak of no politics, yet it is in the definition of the term Intersectionality is a theoretical framework for understanding how aspects of a person's social and political identities combine to create different modes of discrimination and privilege. Examples of these aspects are gender, caste, sex, race, class, sexuality, religion, disability, physical appearance, and height. What exactly do you think the goals of this merit badge are? Are they to "broaden horizons" or are they to prove to many
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