Jameson76

The BSA has never been overly transparent on their numbers or their math. Lately they don't seem to report their numbers or generate an annual report. Their math is suspect at best. They always report that only 5% of Scouts get Eagle. This number is generated by XX Eagles in a year divided by YY Scouts registered at that time. 50,000 Eagles, 1,000,000 Scouts (now Scouts BSA) and you have 5%. Challenge is that a good number of Scouts are Scouts for multiple years. Not a big deal but I think it speaks to the casualness the BSA has with actual data. No way diminishing the Eagle rank (I am an Eagle Scout), but let's report the number honestly. Now with the bankruptcy / LDS / COVID and other impacts that have been long in the making the total membership is well under 1,000,000. Some basic numbers from press reports middle of last year Decline in membership in the Boy Scouts of America from 2019 to 2020 From 1.97 million Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts to 1.12 million Associated Press reports that BSA membership has fallen even further since 2020—to about 762,000 For purposes of comparison in the BSA peaked in 1972 at 6.5 million members As recently as 1998 membership was 4.8 million If as noted in the slide that membership is under one million, a lot of work to do

Our unit has had some discussion on this requirement. In our mind the key phrasing and verbiage is "who has an identity that’s different from yours" At it's most general, the definition of identity is "the fact of being who or what a person or thing is". This really could quite literally be anyone, other than an internal dialogue. All of us have some different traits, beliefs, or characteristics than someone (anyone) else. It is not saying a person of Christian faith must speak with an atheist. That would be enlightening no doubt, but not required. They (the scout) should have the conversation with someone else, no more, no less than the requirement asks

Has National BSA just stopped publishing annual reports and membership numbers? Last one I can find is 2019 CUBS - 1,1176,119 Scouts BSA - 798,516 Ventures - 42,571 Explorers - 101,243 Learning for Life - 145,463 CO's - 80,756 My council does not seem to publish any numbers. If you are lucky enough to hear one of the chosen professionals (the great unwashed and holy) they seem to determine success by money raised. Also they all seem to be getting promoted. I guess that means more cash for them. Never see them and not sure how they positively impact the program, but I digress. So how many Cubs / Scouts BSA / Ventures / Explorers are there now (or end of 2021). I guess that is a state secret

One observation is that our local soccer / baseball / basketball youth sports leagues do not do any marketing, but seem to have a bunch of participants. Honestly the best marketing is word of mouth, youth having a positive experience, inviting their friends. Our troop runs an Instagram account with 1,000 followers and a Facebook page with close to 500 followers. Not sure this translates to youth joining. This does give us a positive image in the area. For the Scouts it does give them a platform to show their friends what they do in the Troop. For the BSA we do face image headwinds after several years of lawyer ads asking if YOU were abused by the BSA. That is a tough one, and while probably not front and center for families, it is in the back of their minds. Overall it would be good to have some central marketing and (dare I say) brand awareness. Focus on what we do well. In our council we seem to have waaaay more council staff working on raising money than raising awareness. That may be the root of the issue. Volunteers and "pros" have a different idea of what Scouting is about. Is it a program (volunteer mindset) or a cash cow (pro mindset).

@ScoutcrafterHave you read Lord of the Flies by William Golding? The patrols should sort of work like that. Though I would suggest to try to avoid the Scouts dropping boulders on the other Scout's heads. Truly the SCOUTS run (or should run) the program. In the case of the new / crossover Scouts it is tough to have one them be the patrol leader due to lack of experience. In our unit the crossovers are in the new scout patrol / program and older scouts from the troop are their "patrol leaders" for the spring and their first campout. First meeting in the fall they get rolled into the regular patrols. The bestest new scout gets to keep the replica of Piggy's glasses to start fires with. SPL keeps the conch

Which will then become ALL dens are coed (who doesn't like families right??), which will then morph to "piloting" coed troops (and there already are they are just separate on paper), and then ALL troops will be coed and it will not be an option to be single gender, because that's not inclusive. Should just get on with it and let it shake out

If only Summit had squirreled away some of the +/- $750 million ( yes they squandered that much) spent on the Disney Scouting Land into some T-Bills or interest bearing bonds, maybe they could afford staff. That balloon payment looming is not paying for itself

Not really digging the Council Fee option in the hand dandy graphic.

For my council you cannot find the information. Any stakeholders report just note Scouts at camp. Most of this is extolling the wonders of all the fundraising they do. Fully 25% of the staff employed are involved in fundraising. Ask how the council is doing, you will get fundraising numbers

No more silent swimming or stalking. Good times. Also enjoyed the start a fire with no more than 2 matches and then cook a meal on said fire with no utensils We also had to hike uphill both ways to the camp, in the snow, carrying a canvas tent

@Cecille25 To be clear Your son was at the camporee with his troop He was wearing a troop shirt that was pink This troop shirt is from the same troop he (your son) is a member of at this time The SM and ASM for the troop (your son's troop) harassed him for wearing a pink troop shirt The adults involved are the SM and ASM for the troop that produced the pink shirt Everyone involved is in the same troop (your son's troop)

This is always the question, doe we raise money in order to have Scouting, or do we have Scouting in order to be able to raise money. I am in a large council and largest part of the professional staff is fundraising, development, etc. Yes During the challenge with the Chartered Organizations (UMC) the BSA did nothing. Our council did nothing. Basically they don't care about the units. They would much prefer to not even have actual units out doing things. Much easier and less messy just to have some photos of Scouts doing things. All that is needed is a some cub packs (they're always cute) and some Troops to generate an Eagle or two to trot out. Then all is good, donors are happy, and the cache of "Scouting" pays off. There was an event for a troop and the council field director (one of many middle management types in the council) who told everyone that he knows Scouting was strong and growing due to the amount of money raised at the council dinner. That's the metric for success, cash. Not units, not participants, not nights camping...it's cash Hardest number to find is how many actual Scouts (Cubs / Scouts BSA / etc) is the council serving

As has been noted, the challenge is the Council / District feels the units are there to support them, not the way it should be; the Council and District supporting the units. In our unit we have asked the question, what value does the council actually bring to our unit on a regular basis. There are the normal answers DE support (we never see the DE), ability to bring Scouting to the under served (that seems like a good cause until you really dive in and see what that actually is) In recent years there was the pandemic and the Council offered little to no input or advice, during the bankruptcy there has been zero communications on what is going on, with the issue with Methodist Churches as continuing chartered partners no guidance or support, when the registration basically doubled there was not real input or details on why. We are a large council, staff of close to 70, and the marketing and support is non-existent. An impossible task would be to find out how many ACTUAL youth are in the Cubs / Scouts / Explorers. That data is nowhere. I was at a celebration of a troop's long tenure a couple of weeks back. They had a Field Director there, and he spoke and was talking about how he knew Scouting was strong. I expected some details on new units, youth involvement growth, nights camping....nope...indicator was about how much money was raised in X hours at a big council dinner. That's your metric, money being raised. You owe them nothing and you were generous to make a donation. DE deserves no further thoughts on your part.

In the 80's we did the sunrise and were in basecamp about 8:30 or so. When we walked in they thought we were trailbound, what with packs on and whatnot. Then they sniffed us They did let us go in and grab breakfast. We had to loiter about to check in. My crew was an older group, hiked 3 to 4 miles an hour and I was much much younger. We arrived at many trail camps early., Good napping and hanging out with staff that trek

Always entertaining discussion on towing the trailer. Have run across units held hostage by the Trailer Haulers that are able to dictate when and where the troop camps due to their "contribution" Glad our troop trailer is smaller, our gear is stored in a shed, and can be hauled by any SUV / truck. No extra requirements for hauling.

Camped at a state park. The troop built survival kits, we built 'boats out of boxes, painters tarps and duct tape and there was a race. Also played putt putt, and also ran a cross country compass course. The weather was perfect and much hammocking. When we got back on Sunday had an afternoon Eagle Court of Honor for 5 of our recent Eagle scouts

Southeast - council camp is $350 for the week / $360 out of council. Includes most MB fees and off site whitewater rafting

10 years, huge evolution? I am just a realist, and the BSA has continually lagged. National has been way behind since the 80's and 90's. There were computers and ways to link things, they just were inept and inexperienced. Not sure what all those board members are doing, obviously not offering advice. They were way behind the ball on on-line applications, most councils were still booking weekend campsites manually in 2010. When just a spreadsheet would have been better. Most summer camp registration software is home grown or at best cobbled together. The BSA has over 230 franchises (local councils) and thousands and thousands of PAID professionals, regional staff, and national staff. No coherent plan or ability to link things. Scouting.org is cumbersome at best. Scoutbook as has been noted is a 3rd party program the BSA bought, but does not support. We only sort of moved to on-line recharter last couple of years. Eagle applications are still handled manually on some BSA system, why isn't that on-line? As I noted, at no time has BSA leveraged their size and experience. Do not blame the bankruptcy on technology lapses, it had been that way for a years. What it comes down to is the professionals that run the organization appear to not care about the customer experience of the volunteers that deliver the program.

Completed 2 Eagle Boards last night. The advancement chair was updating Scoutbook, 1 went fine, the other advised they needed Cit in the Society. Checked some other Scouts and it is showing now as required The date is supposed to be 6/1 or 7/1

BSA continues to operate as if they are still in the 1970's about how things work. In our council, big office, at least 5 levels of management from DE to SE. I think at the main camp the ranger has or can answer to 3 or 4 different staff. At no time has BSA leveraged any of their size or experience to provide a better customer experience. They basically do not care about our experience as volunteers having to interact with the BSA at the District / Council / National levels. We are not worthy or their worry. That may be harsh, but it is pretty much how they operate.

Let me guess, if we paid more FOS, then all of the system issues would be resolved. Local council staff wandered by a recent meeting, showing the colors I guess. They did get around to asking about when they could do the FOS song and dance. I asked about the council salary structure (available from IRS 999 form), I asked what real value the council actually brings at the unit level, and beyond building the bank of money the council has, what would the FOS fund? We don't have a DE and not sure what they would do and what value they would bring if we had one. Crickets

My understanding is Beginning July 1, 2022, the Citizenship in Society merit badge will be required for any youth seeking to achieve the Eagle Scout rank. If a Scout has not had their EBOR by then, it will be REQUIRED for Scouts having their EBOR after 7/1/2022.

I always am intrigued by the discussions on Scouts having trouble getting 20 nights camping, and why oh why can they only count 1 summer camp. That seems to be such an easy thing, summer camp (6 nights), that leaves about 5 nights camping annually over 3 years. And you can include ANY camping you do. The goal is not to check boxes, goal is to have fun. If Scouts don't want to go on outings, figure out why, not game the system

From a risk perspective they love the online, day events, heavy classroom. No outings no YPT issues of chance of an injury. Also this meets the STEM (STEAM / whatever) that some feel they youth want. Agree that we are now dealing with kids who do not play and roam outdoors. We did not do a biking outing as so few of the younger Scouts rode (or knew how) to ride a bike. It is very hard, especially for those of us that grew up in the old old days of scouting. Back then Second Class - Take 3 hikes on a different day, not less than 5 miles each Second Class - Follow another scout that knows you are stalking him fore 1/2 mile without being seen Second Class - build a fire with no more than 2 matches, cook a meal without utensils First Class - point out 5 constellations First Class - send and receive 20 words using morse code First Class - on one of your overnight campouts carry your gear on your back for at least 1 1/2 miles

Very true. The Eagle Scout rank should be the OUTCOME of a quality Scouting program at the unit level, not the GOAL of the program. Many of our Scouts are 16 /17 and realize, wow, going to camp and outing lo these many years, and doing some of the troop offered MB classes (scheduled before the regular meeting), I've pretty much completed this Eagle thing. Just need a few merit badges and the project. Now, if you could get a 17 year old to not procrastinate on the final items to wrap it up.....