Cburkhardt

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 an Auxiliary Flotilla because of that. And, the Ship was able to benefit from existing opportunities to participate in boating activities with the Auxiliary without having to arrange the purchase and maintenance of very expensive boats and equipment. This is an example of a very effective combination where each organization is bettered as a result. The comparison to the LDS creating its own Venture Scout program and adapting the Boy Scout program to serve its religious and missionary preparation objectives is just not relevant. The Coast Guard Auxiliary will assist the Sea Scout program as it is currently configured. They will be a perfect national Chartering Organization.

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 I think they are on-task and doing reasonably well, now that they have withdrawn from social policy development and enforcement — and now that they are conducting YPT effectively.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 greatly. My long term experience is that the principal determinant of how well a council hoes to these priorities is the quality and engagement of the volunteer council board — and not the professionals. The priorities of units, like the 30-girl Troop I am Scoutmaster of, is to vigorously provide an outdoor program and, while there, foster leadership and self-sustainable among young people. I think volunteers do an excellent job at the unit level no matter the status of the unit —because we are usually doing the best we can with available recourses. It is striking just how many of the above comments stray so far from these fundamental priorities.

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 tell" policy. Adding all-girl troops and dens (demanded for decades by Scouters and others -- including SMs I met as a camp staffer in the 70's. Program: Going back to the Green Bar Bill way of doing things. Pushing executives into unit-serving positions in the field or getting rid of them. Yes, a lot I happened in the last 3 or 4 years. I could go on for hours.

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 effort, including girls. In our council of 13,000 Scouts BSA members, 800 are now girls -- in 75 Troops. That will swell over the next few years as the Troops naturally grow and more troops are added. The program works for girls as-is I am a Scoutmaster of a new 30-girl Troop and know that first-hand. Program? The BSA now has Al Lambert in charge of the bases and program -- he is about the finest outdoor programmer we could ever want at the very top. I'm not some Pollyanna either. I have all the top awards as a youth and served simultaneously in council and national roles for 30 years. I have indeed been in the dark valley and we are no longer in it. We are climbing out to a new and better circumstance and many of the commenters here are just blind to it. If you want to go off and be all alone in the woods with a few kids to have fun, then go do it. I will be with the BSA and that is where we will continue to serve millions of Scouts.

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 someone migrates over this, they are leaving for other reasons. Some of this will be solved when the financial restructuring bankruptcy is filed. The BSA will offload the costly liability of the Youth Protection fails of earlier years and insurance rates won’t be subject to such big swings. And, that process will probably result in a right-sizing of overall council/national cost structures as well. I will stay put and all the families in our troop will too.

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 the 10 interested parent families), and activated in February. I would not get overly concerned about your order, because many steps blend into each other. It really is complicated but ultimately works if major steps are not skipped.

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 many good suggestions. We used every one of them. Note to Liz: There is no girl-specific Web Site template out there at this point. We wrote ours from scratch after we figured out how we would operate. Then we did our best to determine what an 11-13 year old girl and her parents would want to know about that implementation and wrote to that specific interest in our very-urban environment. We talk directly to that girl except for my “Scoutmaster’s Letter” to the parents — but even that is very specific to our urban all-girl implementation. I will say the writing of the site turned out to be the way we ended up understanding our challenges and deciding how the Troop would launch and operate. The site has been a huge hit. Our new parents love it because it is beginner-friendly and explains the basics without using any Scouting lingo or abbreviations. While not relevant to our use of our site, it is interesting to note that it has been viewed by 2.2K discrete visitors since going active on October 1, 2018, including viewers from 40 countries. Maybe this is just a typical result for troop web sites — I just don’t know.

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 experience from Scouting. We realized we had great comfort in what we were doing and started by forming a Webelos den linked to an existing Pack in Spring of 2017. Things worked so well with our 10-girl Den that we decided we would harness that success to form a Scouts BSA Troop for girls that would feel as if it had already been up and running for some time. We also wanted to form a somewhat larger and non-linked Troop that could do some early testing of what works best for girls. Finally , we were willing to depart from some of the standard Troop operations that many of us have experienced for decades -- but keep the standards and quality the same. The result is that we agreed on an organization format and wrote most of the web site you see now about a year ago. You might not have noticed, but the entire web site is written in a voice that speaks directly to girls age 11-15, because we wanted girls to understand this would be a place particularly welcoming to them. Don't be intimidated in the slightest by anything we have done. This is just very standard Scouting "by the book". On meeting length and frequency, we gambled on this and won "big-time". The families love Saturday morning, the longer meeting and the fact that this time does not typically conflict with girl-centric activities. We probably under-estimated the best length for our meetings. What has happened is that girls are showing up about 30-60 minutes early to work on advancement sign-offs with Assistant Scoutmasters. So, many actually spend about 2.5 hours or more on Saturdays with us. The other thing about Saturday morning is that it ended up being crazy-good to encourage parents to attend troop meetings (which we hold simultaneously in a different room from 10:30-11:30 during the first Saturday of the month). I am now in the position of having to look for things for people to do. We have co-chairs for just about everything. You are catching me at an interesting time. Our gamble that we would raise our budget through fees and a once-a-year coffee reception will be shown to work (or not) this very weekend. Our chartered organization is a church that suggested they would host our fundraiser between church services. We are seeking to raise $4,000 by having the Scouts operate displays. And, a bulletin board with cut-out tents, ice chests and other "camp stuff" will be on display so potential donors can "buy" items for the Troop. Then, the 11:00 service will be a "Scout Sunday" -- during which our Scouts will usher, sing and read the bible verses. Check back next week and I'll let you know how it went!

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.

Just spoke to the local pros in our council. Of 13,000 youth members in Scouts BSA, we now have 800 females. In over 75 new all-girl Troops. There is no comparable circumstance in my 50+ years of association with Scouting when we have experienced an opportunity like this -- which is available to every council and chartered organization willing to act. As these Troops swell in membership over the next couple of years and are joined by additional ones, our collective future will be a lot brighter. Our new membership directions are much better than our recent decades spent focused on excluding categories of people -- and then unsuccessfully attempting to sell such practices as being good for the country. I don't know how many following this posting have actually gone out and helped for a new unit this last year. If you have not, you have not experienced the welcome we now receive from potential COs. They are very happy to see us again.

Like most who comment on this site, I have a good amount of exposure to the ups and downs of Scouting through the years. In my case it is 54 years since I became a Cub and I have served in just about every role as an adult leader since age 21. I have carefully read the fine thoughts shared by all on this particular string and must say that despite some of the current issues, the BSA is going to come out of this 5-year workout in reasonably good shape. We have faced many other seemingly-existential matters before and handled them pretty well. We are now just needing to address the YPT fails of earlier decades and finish the normalization that once again, all are welcome in the BSA. After all of this discussion I will go to our Troop meeting tomorrow and deal with the big, real issues of the BSA. When will my daughter make Second Class? Why can’t my daughter go to Philmont at age 12? We don’t make enough money to purchase hiking boots for our daughter, can the Troop help us? My daughter has anger management problems and yells at the other Scouts. What should we do? ASM Jones is being tough on my knowing the outdoor code. Can you tell him to go easier on me? Yes, these are the questions that we all will continue to answer as we continue to help families form good decision-making habits and character in our Scouts. so for all of you pros and volunteers reading this, have faith and confidence that all will be well.

Surbaugh is right because we are actually doing (and hopefully, about to do) what is actually the best that we can do. If the BSA does not file a Chapter 11 bankruptcy and reasonably soon, it will be unwound financially and operationally over a relatively short time. The trial attorneys who have filed hundreds of cases since the lifting of the statutes of limitations (maybe even thousands of cases by now) will pick the bones completely clean and the BSA will exist no more. All that will be left will be a few restricted trust-held properties, but even those will be abandoned because there will be no movement left to actually use the places. The alternative is to settle by putting the insurance proceeds and proceeds from unnecessary assets into a trust and have the trial attorneys fight among themselves over that asset. Councils are not immune. That's because trial attorneys will go after their assets as well in a blizzard of case filings and lifting of statutes of limitation that will exact a take-down of defenseless council organizations. It only will take 4 or 5 horrific cases from the 20's through the 80's to take it all away from the typical council. Without a solid Chapter 11 our professionals and volunteer board members will be managing a hurricane crisis unparalleled in US NFP experience. That is what you affirmatively choose if the BSA does not file a Chapter 11. Bankruptcy will allow us the clear, fresh breath to move forward and lay to the side the fight over assets among the trial attorneys. The victims will receive the justice they seek under a managed and businesslike bankruptcy proceeding. The BSA that is left will be leaner and better able to handle its program and financial challenges without the existential legal threat. As for the many potential policy disputes the BSA can have with parties in the future, I have no doubt that we will face those issues or ones like them. However, just because those issues are out there does not mean that we should become frozen with fear and not take the actions we need to survive. We will never be popular with everyone and never were. We just need to be focused on what we do best for youth. None of you took up the substantive overall point of my posting. We would not be in the position we are in right now if certain parties had not allowed or arranged-for the BSA to adopt and enforce positions of social policy that were not central to Scouting -- and which were not agreed-to among our membership. As a result of those catastrophic decisions we are now exhausted from 25 years of having voluntarily served as a cultural punching bag. We put ourselves into a no-win situation and are now navigating out of that circumstance. Yes … we are very much headed in the right direction. I want to read the book that will be written about this in about 5 years. It will conclude that the BSA (as it exists at that future moment) was able to make clear-eyed and effective decisions that were able to pull it out of its existential crisis.

I am more of an optimist and I take longer view. Surbaugh is doing exactly what is needed and the BSA is succeeding. We will be much better-off. Over the past 25 years the BSA has faced increasing market competition in the form of the explosion of athletic and other options for youth and high-paying parents to choose. Simultaneous with that time, the BSA was made into a cultural punching bag when an internal group forced adoption of "don't ask don't tell" (DADT). For the first time in our history the religious dogma of certain entities was being mandated on many units which, until then, had no particular views on the social issues at stake. Overnight we went from be a society-wide organization thought to welcome everyone into something different. Our brand popularity plummeted and we began to lose significant numbers of units and membership. This was not the sole cause of the losses, but it changed our image across society just as younger and more socially-inclusive generations were starting to determine if their children would become affiliated with the BSA. So, what to do? It was clear that we were going to continue to rapidly shrink into a more specialized organization serving an increasingly single-minded and socially conservative population in the suburban areas. Or, organization-sustaining changes could be made, which changes would require breaking some eggs. Continuing our DADT policy for Scouts and adults was causing more-rapid shrinkage and increasing legal blockades to the formation and maintenance of units and council programming. We were just about to face local human rights agency administrative proceedings that would have laid waste to our operations. Eliminating DADT was the first action of what has become a multi-year work-out of the BSA. The second and much smaller step was dealing with the "trans" issues. Not much of a ripple happened when that was done. Incorporated into these decisions was the entirely-unstated recognition that we would lose numbers of our most socially and religiously conservative membership, and some of that is occurring right now. If you want to be in a boy-exclusive environment that excludes all but triune-believing Christian adult leaders, you can do so and that is fine if that is want you are looking for. In fact, those kinds of church-specific organizations have been around for decades and I applaud them for filling those youth service markets. These departing elements no longer exercised veto power over establishing all-girl dens and troops. So, the long awaited encouragement to form all-girl dens and Troop was announced to great success. We have credible numbers of these girl units already formed and forming, and now are concentrating on growing them from single-patrol appendages of existing boy troops into truly stand-alone (even if linked) and high-quality units. I am a Scoutmaster of a new Scouts BSA Troop for Girls and understand first-hand just how successful this is going to turn out. Now we are about to undergo the final "big step" in the work-out. We will file our financial reorganizational bankruptcy and get beyond the legal perils overwhelmingly caused by the Youth Protection fails of the 70's, 60's and before. That should be the final step and will be a difficult one for many of us. Why? Because it will offer detractors on the left and right an easy opportunity to tear at us to promote agendas. These detractors are generally not members or supporters of our organization but they have giant-sized and simplistic opinions about how we should teach ethical decision-making to young people. Why is this? Because we indeed are very good at teaching ethical decision-making through BSA programs to millions of children and these people are angry because we might not be doing their particularized bidding. The BSA is important because what it achieves is important and highly-valued. I look forward to getting past the bankruptcy because it will, finally, provide clear ground in front of us. We will be a bit smaller at first and will have shed some of our unneeded assets. Those who were harmed will have received a sense of justice. Our numbers will begin to swell as our then-new circumstances are recognized as a wonderful and open invitation. We will be … just fine. In fact … much better-off. We will continue to provide the ethical decision making education in our outdoor classroom that is in demand by families of boys and girls. We will once again be the large cross-society organization that welcomes everyone and is not perceived to harbor a political agenda. We will be Scouts and Scouters and can totally focus on what we have chosen as our avocation.

Our troop is at the 8-month mark in doing exactly what you are now beginning. We are not linked and have a very supportive CO. We are not perfect, but I would say the reason why we now have 15 adult leaders and 30 girls is that a group of us developed a vision for an unlinked girl-centered troop at an early stage. The program and standards for advancement are exactly the same, but we were especially mindful of the schedule and other structural preferences of girls and their families in designing our troop operation. You can visit our site at http://www.ScoutsBsaDcGirls.org if you want to see our take on this. For instance, in our particular area we determined after surveying parents that twice-monthly Saturday morning meetings were better for scheduling and safety reasons. We also determined that our meeting could be longer (we go 2 hours), given the longer attention spans of girls at the critical 11-13 year-old ages. Another item you will face is that when you start, you will have all inexperienced girls at the same time. Our solution for this was to elect Patrol leaders but have the Scoutmasters provide more direct leadership for the first 4-5 months. After all, you cannot expect an inexperience 11-year-old to be an SPL and lead planning of a year-long program. You also need to generally assure that the early meetings and weekend campouts will be reasonably successful, otherwise you could have a mass exodus as parents and girls are disappointed due to disorganization caused by over-reliance on girl leaders who are just not ready. We were harshly criticized by some for taking this approach, but on the back side I can tell you that it was a very successful start-up strategy. We just elected our first SPL and she has now appointed her full compliment of troop officers. Our campout this last weekend was a bit challenging for them because for the first time they were really "in-charge" and the Scoutmaster Staff is now appropriately "advising". However, the girls are thriving in their leadership activities as a result. Include in your vision a good means by which to encourage good summer damp attendance. We sent 23 to camp this last summer and are now very advantaged organizationally as a result. Another thing we were harshly criticized for is that we do not do product sale fundraising, such as popcorn with our Council. We wrap the total cost of the annual program (except for summer camp and weekend campouts that are paid individually) into flat dues payments made each semester. We subsidize the dues payments of under-resourced families by having an annual fundraising reception our CO will conduct between their early and late church services. WE are also going to make a bulk contribution to our Council from these proceeds. This was in reaction to the survey of parents saying they did not want their girls or themselves engaging in product sales. Rather, all want to concentrate on program. After 8 months, not a single parent or Scout has complained about either our dues or our not selling items. These organizing tactics may or may not be appropriate for families with girls in your area, but they are examples of organizing things that differ specifically because in our particular market this is what these families want in a girl Troop. I think our having done these things explains the difference in outcomes between our troop and most of the other all-girl linked troops in our area -- most of which are functioning as single-patrol appendages to existing Troops. A new Committee Chair and her/his core organizing group should first figure out what organizing template works well for families in your area/market and structure your approach accordingly. Good luck with this very worthwhile endeavor you are starting.

We have 25 girls in our Scouts BSA Troop and are adding 10 more due to a successful recruiting event last Saturday. Probably 1/3 of our girls used to be in GSUSA, and a few still are (being registered in both programs). I am not familiar with GSUSA, I believe the principal difference is that we in the BSA use the outdoors as our principal classroom to teach our ethical decision making and Scoutcraft skills. A Scout in our Troop who does not camp and hike would not be much of a participant. It is clear to me that he other program does not have this same degree of emphasis. I am sure there are exceptions, but our girls who have joined us share that there is minimal actual outdoor activities like in Scouts BSA. I offer this not as criticism, but as an observation. While some of the YPT and safety practices have some parallels, it is hard to imagine a combination of the organizations. Their approach to organizing, financing and program is very different, but apparently works for their participants.

You are, absolutely, better off. Move forward as a brand new Troop. Pay no attention to anything other than the great Scouting you will provide to your son and his peers. This is now going to be fun.

The public position of the LDS Church did not identify the allowing our gay/lesbian/transgendered members (they have always belonged) to disclose their status as the reason for the mass departure. It further has not stated that our welcoming of all-girl Cub Dens and Scouts BSA Troops would have caused them to depart had this occurred before they made their departure announcement. I regard the departure of our LDS friends as unfortunate and regret knowing there is unavoidable economic disruption for those families of former BSA professionals. However, like any other national leadership of Chartered Organizations it was their right to do so and I wish them well. If you want to use our camps and if some of your children want to participate in our program, you already know you will be warmly welcomed. What is regretful is that there are many who regard the BSA as an organization that should conform its national program in a manner to express a more-specific political, social, religious or other point of view. A large bulk of public commenters on these issues over the past 5 years were not even members of BSA programs. Well-informed or not, that so many argue so loudly about the BSA is proof by itself that we do important work on a large scale -- we count in American society. The BSA would never be able to conform to so many specific views. Rather, in our increasingly-fracturing society groups of large organization membership are encouraged to break-away into smaller focused groups of similarly-minded people. When this happens our country loses capability to bring together people with varying points of view -- sometimes views that are not capable of resolution -- so we can glue together as a free society. The far right, far left and groups with focused expectations have attacked the BSA incessantly and hope for our demise, but I predict we will be around as a vital organization because what we do is important, unifying and building. We have to take one more action (the financial restructuring/bankruptcy) to provide some justice to members damaged in the BSA's past, after which we will no longer function as a cultural or legal punching bag. I look forward to the aftermath when we can confidently look to the future and breath freely. Our long process of eliminating exclusionary practices, implementing fortress youth protection and restructuring financially will combine to be one of the finest organizational work-outs in US history. I wish our LDS brothers could be there in large numbers to help see this though, keep American youth and society firmly united and benefit from the outcomes with us.

You bet. And no room service!

Cheers to Philmont and National! The upgraded tents for families sound great and are exactly what we need at this time. We need more of this across the BSA property footprint where appropriate and soon. The Philmont Training Base is not the back country, and never has been. Wade Phillips built his magnificent mansion complete with its own small row of hotel rooms before the BSA was ever a factor. It was used to bring in people from around the world to experience the American West who otherwise would not have ventured there. The result? The land and wildlife was experienced, preserved and eventually became the iconic and beloved place of youth. And, most of those folks indeed experienced the rough wilderness as well. Some of the griping, in my view, is just plain silly. Al Lerner and his staff engaged in extensive research to determine how to significantly increase awareness and usage of the high adventure bases — and by extension and example the equally-important larger council properties like Goshen, Ramsberg, Owasippe and Ten Mile. I know it is true because many other current and front-line Scoutmasters like me received and responded to the surveys and asked for this in overwhelming numbers. The rustic experience of youth crews trekking across Philmont will continue as always. The fact that many more thousands of families with spouses and younger children will delight In the experiences of the training centers and associated natural beauty at Philmont, the Summitt and (hopefully) the Sea Base, canoe Base and (eventually) our best council properties will support the appropriate growth and upgrade of the BSA. Count my family and me in.

Owls Are Cool: At some point in these kinds of dispute-prone circumstances a Scouter has to ask whether the potential task is worthy of what the Scouter brings to the table. You have energy, Scouting experience and a great heart. I cannot know if you are at the point where you need to ask and answer that question, but surely you have some local confidant you can download with. I think in your case the question is: "Is it better for me to exert the next 3 years of my volunteer time building a great new Troop at a different location without meddlesome interference, or is it important enough for me to spend the same amount of time salvaging an existing Troop through a series of managed disputes?" Said differently: "Why not start fresh somewhere else where I can immediately begin to implement great Scouting instead of delaying that time to a point when a series of disputes are mostly-resolved and troublemakers are mostly-gone?" I spend a good amount of time in my career circumstances dealing with unavoidable disputes and I am pretty good at it. However, I do not resolution of disputes to dominate my volunteer life. Earlier in my Scouting activity I did not ask that question as often as I should have. You have nothing you need to prove other than that you are a fine father who wants to assure a great Scouting experience for his son. If you determine to form a new Troop, do is with a fine spirit, providing compliments to everyone at the old Troop. It never, ever, helps to share what will be regarded as negative comments by those left behind. People on this post are never going to understand more than 20% of the relevant facts here, but I'm sensing that you might be holding on too-tightly.

Every Scoutmaster should develop and maintain a strong key-three relationship through regular communication and the full sharing of all disputed issues. In our case the CC and COR are officers in our CO. And we regularly consult the CO CEO on key decisions, who also stayed 2 nights with us during summer camp. Such a relationship makes very clear to parents where the adult authority lies in a unit and prevents the rise of abusive “parent clubs” that attempt to micromanage. I wish you luck in your further efforts to reformulate authority lines within your troop, but believe you need to have the relationships described above if you and the new SM are going to be able to steer in a new direction. These are the legally-correct authority structures as well, which should ward-off litigation-threatening circumstances. I sense that your COR will likely face a confrontation with one of the trouble-making adults. When the first significant incident occurs, the COR will avoid years of continued trouble by firmly dealing with the person.

You are far better off to start fresh instead of trying to overcome that kind of resistance. I endorse Barry’s essential approach, which is basically what we are currently doing as a new troop. You can check out our advance-planned yeast calendar, which our scouts will truly “take over” this fall (we started in February). Www.scoutsbsadcgirls.org. Putting out your calendar for the coming year becomes a big thing for parents and potential scouts to consider.

I have over 30 years of engagement as a Scouter. I take on things for three years, find my successor during the fourth year, then take on a new three year challenge. This has worked well for me above the unit level, where there is often a need to get a specific task figured-out and achieved. My current “gig” is forming and optimizing an all-girl troop. The change has always been refreshing.

I did a quick Google search, and there are hundreds of media accounts on this that will be present over the next several days. Most seem to be written in a manner to lead the reader into thinking that there is a current problem (couched as an "epidemic") with sexual abuse in the BSA, when the suits are related to events from the 60's, 70's and apparently some from the 80's. We have had our YPT act together for a long time and those who read this blog know it. Individual reporters on the far right or far left can be motivated to allow such a misunderstanding for reasons previously and fully discussed. These suits will continue to be fled in the hundreds over the coming months. The point of importance to me is that this makes very clear why we need to support a financial reorganization bankruptcy to deal fairly with the situation and prevent the BSA from being forced into liquidation over the next couple of years. I have confidence that the national organization is appropriately considering the matter and will act in the best interests of children.

I would like examples of an annual health/consent form. This is obviously about making sure the parent/guardian has notice and has given specific consent for activities and events a Scout engages in. There would be precise ways to do this in a document. Some might list every pre-planned date and activity for the year. Others might reference categories of activities. In any case, please post some links to documents or web sites.