Cburkhardt

And, just wait until the effect of the Coast Guard having designated Sea Scouts as its official youth program kicks in. Properly implemented, it could double that program in just a few years. It will also attract a newgeneration of youth leadership into the Coast Guard and the Coast Guard Auxiliary.

(Continued) but really is not. I believe the long tenure of many of our best volunteers is due to our practice of recognizing adults in this manner. It is a great tradition that provides enjoyment to many. Now, how about talking about how you are going to help form and grow some all-girl troops?

The purpose of my posting was to encourage comment on the membership number progress for Scouts BSA. Talking about the awarding and wearing of knots might seem to be off-topic

Like I said, it is not doom and gloom. We are in the midst of a very sophisticated program, management and financial workout. The BSA is here to stay — just not in the form of a yesteryear format. We have been changing all along and are doing so presently. Have great faith.

UPDATE. WSJ gives good account of a Monday call of the Council Scout Executives and their council lawyers. Ch. 11 expected to be filed for national without councils.

Good thoughts. My female number predictions are based on my 2 year experience of being involved with an early adopter cub group for girls and being a Scoutmaster of our 34-girl and non-linked Troop. About1/3 of the councils did a great job with the female program roll-out, which accounts for the lion’s share of the 150,000 new female youth we now have. Girls love Scouts BSA in a properly-managed unit. Despite the challenges and occasional mis-management, I think we will have about 35% female presence in Cubs and Scouts within 4 years. The financial restructuring through bankruptcy w

After examining the year-end numbers and observing how Scouts BSA maintained membership, cubs lost slightly and venturers/Sea Scouts lost significantly, I have some predictions. After the early-year hit on membership numbers with the LDS departures, and without enough time for female membership to yet replace that loss, we will be down overall 15 to 20 percent in membership after that settles. Income from dues and other revenue streams reflecting membership at the council and national levels will reduce accordingly. We will probably experience a wholesale reorientation of the volunt

Just landed in rainy Paris for a quick business trip and found out that our female youth membership already tops 150,000. So, we are well on the way to building good membership mass with American girls. This confirms there are good reasons to keep faith in the BSA.

Well, standing in line at the United counter waiting to fly on a delayed flight ... so no better time to respond to this. Friends, all will be well with the BSA after a couple of years. The female membership will be largely replacing the LDS and losses, our organization will be vigorously serving the entire family (just like the Scouters with daughters have been praying for for decades), we will have gotten past the liabilities of the YPT fails and bad business practices of the past, and yes — we will still have some great LDS families participating with us and providing adult leadership.

Thanks Barry, but there is nothing visionary about my postings. I believe in following the program and leadership structure of the organization and have found after 35 years as a volunteer that ….. it almost always works. That is how good the BSA program and leadership development process is. When I was a District Chair (crazy as it sounds, I have served in just about every adult role out there from unit leader to our national governing entity) I found that if I just had about 10 great Scouters with me, we could do anything. It just takes good cheer and confidence. We only need to have

None of you took-up my challenge and made your own membership predictions with support. I believe that new growth at this point shows that the female additions to our program are having a great impact on our membership and I further believe this will ultimately more than offset the recent and near-future departures. There is no math to "de-fuzz". We will lose a significant percentage and absolute number at the turn of the year from the LDS departures and there will be doomsayers predicting our demise as a result. But, this will all be offset. Four years from now I predict we will have 35%

While there might be a quick temporary fix to the immediate challenge (created by needing the extra youth protection form and the national fee increase), there is no easy fix when a geography has an abundance of under-sized units and scant unit leadership. If this is common in your locale it means that there is likely a district volunteer leadership fail going on. The councils in good shape that I admire began re-emphasizing the importance, function and volunteer "prestige" of the district chair, commissioner and other district leadership and committee positions a few years back. It really

Membership numbers are out and reflect continued growth for the Scouts BSA program. End of November 2019 is +1.2% for youth Scouts and up 7.1% for units, in comparison to end of November 2018. This certainly reflects the influx of female Scouts and LDS departures. The figures that will count will be year-end figures, as that is when the LDS relationship officially ends. After the LDS departures take effect, I'm thinking we will have a 10% Scouts BSA youth membership drop (comparing 2019 year-end with 2018 year-end). If we continue to grow female Scouts BSA units and all youth at the curre

To the main question. The answer is yes. But, the price we paid by accepting the role of cultural punching bag in a social fight forced on us by group of Scouters who temporarily asserted control was catastrophic. Let's just move on to better and more-hopeful discussions. We chose by an overwhelming majority to move in a great direction a few years ago. The fight is over and won.

In a military matter there is time when the battle is joined. That precise time when strategy is executed and resources committed to effect a desired outcome. Confidentiality is required so as to not tip off the adversary. We are soon reaching that point and a change in our lead general will probably not significantly impact what is about to occur. The Chapter 11 will roll-out, the PR and legal battle will be joined and the realignment of our financial assets and organizational structures will follow. We will be temporarily leaner prior to the full build-out of our female membership. Sur

I wish the Church well with its future program. I also look forward to continued cheerful discussions of the BSA's future without regard or reference to what the Church or we might have done if its institutional engagement had remained. The Church decided to depart and do something which looks quite different for its evolved needs. It is clearly not Scouting-like and seems like the less-structured youth groups in many other churches. We are in a new and better programming and membership world. After we get through the bankruptcy and related financial reorganization challenges we will

A Coast Guard Auxiliary Flotilla was the Chartered Organization for my Ship in 1970's suburban Chicago. I earned Quartermaster in what can only be described as a splendid Scouting unit. The Auxiliary members were our adult unit leaders. Sea Scouts (called "Sea Explorers" for a brief period of time when temporarily combined with the Exploring program) and the Auxiliary was a perfect program combination then and can be again on a national basis. Most of our Sea Scout alumni joined that Auxiliary Flotilla and became its source of new membership -- I think we had the youngest average age for a

To the question: The priorities of National are to maintain a program template that works and arrange for sensible business services and highest-end program experiences unavailable at the unit and council levels. I think they are on-task and doing reasonably well, now that they have withdrawn from social policy development and enforcement — and now that they are conducting YPT effectively. The priorities of councils are to form and maintain units and to provide program experiences to supplement and support units (camp properties, camporee, etc.). The effectiveness of councils varies greatl

Liability: Tightening implementation of YP practices and finally 100% enforcing YPT Training. Better and continuous records checking for criminal and family agency matters. Getting ready to file for Ch. 11 so we can finally pay deserving victims and no longer live under a threat that the next suit will ruin us. Financial: Disbanding financial train-wreck councils and putting that territory into those Councils run by responsible volunteers. Charging fees that recover costs. Downsizing staff not serving units. Membership: doing away with catastrophic and non-enforced "don't ask don't t

I do not agree with the overall negative tenor of comments in this posting. We are in the process of working out our financial, liability, program and membership fails. We have changed more in the last few years than the last couple of decades -- and for the better in my view. We are no longer a cultural punching bag. We are indeed limiting our future liability by tightening-up things and will soon deal with the liability of the Youth Protection fails through the bankruptcy. Our over-reliance on a particular national chartering organization is being replaced by a more-balanced membership

Annual fully-loaded cost to run a Troop with a full program here in DC is about $1,000 per Scout, without high adventure. We raise about 1/3 of that and the families and parents pay dues and camp fees for the balance. Compared to other youth group expenses this is favorable. Travel athletic teams, private athletic or music lessons or even purchasing junky electronics devices/toys Are easily double or triple these BSA costs. In a lower cost area those Annual Troop operation cost figures might be up to 1/3 less. Adding another $33/year by doubling is nearly meaningless in this context. If

Your outline does a great job of capturing the details and tasks needed to be achieved in forming a new unit. Our non-linked all-girl unit had a long lead time, so we were able to have 2 advertised summer “community meetings” for adults who might be interested in involvement in forming a new Troop. We gathered about 10 interested parents and the came up with our vision of the unit. Those people then went shopping for a CO and found the best one in September. We then activated a web site in October, got trained in November, recruited in January via 2 open houses (the core girls came from th

The results of the Troop coffee fundraiser are in, and we netted $7,600 to surpass our goal of $4,000. We probably have another $500 to come in from some stragglers. On top of this we received $6,000 from some institutional sources, so we have what we need to greatly subsidize the costs of our under-resourced families and their girls in our 30-Scout Troop. We will use some for some equipment purchases and make a Friends of Scouting contribution to our local council (something like $1,500). The rest we will save to begin building our long-term fund for stability. Thanks to everyone for the

Thanks for the comments and suggestions. There is always room for improvement and we spent less time on the packing lists when we wrote the web site. Great enhancement suggestions, which we will make. Do not be discouraged about your start-up process -- this is not easy stuff. Your first year will be your start-up and as long as you have a good contingent go to summer camp and have that important bonding experience, things will go a lot more easily. Until then, ask questions and be as cheerful as possible. Our formation group knew up-front that we were pooling a lot of talent and exp

This is just another creative lawsuit opportunity that will be swept aside when we file the financial reorganization bankruptcy. Otherwise we would experience an endless parade of this until the BSA is gone. Fortunately, wiser heads will prevail.