malraux

This seems like an issue the troop committee could address.

A fair number of the esoteric merit badges are really basic introductions to a subject. Sure, the camping MB is a long term badge, but the painting or geocaching MB is easily done with pretty minimal work, or retention.

There’s a reason the bsa sells blank patrol patches.

While it does take adult effort, it also takes less people and it’s more rewarding.

If I were to magic wand change the cub scouting program, I would break k-2 and 3-5 into separate programs/units. The little kids would meet much less often and have the tighter adult participation requirements. Then 3-5 would expand the webelos program such that they could camp somewhat independently, have looser safety rules, etc. really 5th graders and k are very divergent in their capacities.

Oh yeah, I'm not going to disagree with that. If you want an official patch for uniform wear, then that's what the approval process is for.

I think there needs to be a distinction between official and unofficial patches for sure. But we certainly give away lots of other trophies or recognitions that are unofficial all the time.

The one issue I have with the current Cub Scout belt loop program is that way too many units want to hand out belt loop awards at the pack meetings. Its boring for the kids and breaks the immediate recognition design of the program. Belt loops should be a fast end of den meeting thing, not a ceremony at the pack meeting. Pack meetings should be fun events for all ages, not awards ceremonies.

While the BSA has a monopoly on BSA patches, they really don't have a monopoly on patches in general.

What is the right number of staff then? Looking at my council, its just under 30 employees, but that's counting all the DEs, the camp rangers, etc. Looking at the list, I dunno who I would cut next to improve financials. Plausibly either a DE (eliminate a district), or maybe one of the two program support positions. But of course that would push more of the work to the DEs, Field directors, or camping director and just result in less stuff getting done. Its also the least costly of the positions listed, not saving any real expense. Looking at your examples of needed work, recharter and summ

That’s really unfortunate because they really should have a method to do managed logging to help improve the financial situation of the council while also managing the health of the environment.

I’ve said this before but looking at other countries scouting programs, they tend to have a k-2 program, a 3-5 program, a 5-9 and a 10-12 or higher program. That might be a better structure long term because the variances are so high otherwise. What’s appropriate for a first grader is not the same as a 5th grader.

That seems bad. Especially with everything being semi-shutdown for 6 months, it’ll be really hard to justify another fee increase.

I’ll be shocked if more than 20% of summer camps run.

That seems like an underestimate or an out of date count. This past Friday saw a bunch of cancellations.