Cburkhardt

We are in the midst of a start-up of a major nationwide roll-out of a new youth organization. Fortunately we do not need to master a new program or operating techniques. What we do need to do is use our wits and negotiating skills with fellow volunteers on these basic implementation matters. Our discussion regarding equipment is a great illustration and is easier to deal with than some of the other issues because it deals with easily understood "hard objects". Because this is a start-up, and because there are infinitely different fact variations (boy troops with a lot of assets, boy t

Ultimately the capability and advisability of the new girl linked Troops to use existing equipment stores and benefit from the bank accounts that have been built-up by historic and linked boy troops is a matter of sensitivity that can only be properly handled by the CO and unit leadership having appropriate conversations in good faith -- and up front.. If I were in one of those conversations and I was a leader of the all-girl linked Troop, I would want to offer complete and enthusiastic participation on the part of the parents of girls to join in the overall effort to raise, funds, etc. Of c

Let’s have some fun. I predict that the November 2022 membership numbers will reflect that Scouts BSA will have net grown boys very slightly compared to year end 2018 — effectively replacing the 65% of Church of JC of LDS Members I think will depart. And, I believe we will have no less than 200,000 girl members. This is because we will no longer be carrying cultural war baggage and the family scouting approach will have been proven to draw membership. Okay folks, what do you think? Don’t just make wild predictions. Have rationale for your views.

What I mean is that the CORs should insist on effective change in the failing council or advocate merging with a nearby council that is well-run. We need to avoid irrational attachments to the status quo if there are better ways to run Scouting. Doing more of the same gets us to membership and financial bankruptcy in those situations. What has been proven to be very difficult is for CORs to expect that they themselves can substantially correct organizational deformities in a consistently failing council. We are volunteers and do not have the time and resources to do that. We do not want t

I am really glad to hear that people are making those kinds of changes. That is so much better than insisting on continuing under-powered councils and seeing them go down in membership and financial bankruptcy.

The 40+ all girl Troops in our council are almost all linked troops. What we are seeing is that the girl troops are getting access to the equipment as long as there is sufficient supplies to get around. It also depends on whether the girl and boy Troops are camping on the same weekends. The experience is that sharing the program equipment has not been much of an issue in my observation. The girl Troop parents should be obligated to help raise funds for the additional equipment that is necessary. As I noted elsewhere on the Forum, our own Troop is one of the few that are not linked,

The capital acquisition budget is separate. We are modest there and are going the "minimalist" route. Less than $10K over 2 years for the basics and no trailer. We are an urban Troop with some under-resourced families and are accessing a lot of contributed individual equipment for their Scouts. We are really blessed by having established troops willing to lend us things as we ramp-up and a very generous group of scouters who gather, organize and re-deploy used uniforms and equipment. I hope those reading this who have access to lendable equipment proactively reach-out to these new all-gi

Our $40,000 yearly budget includes everything for 40 Scouts. So, the all-in expense to the Troop of a Scout is about $1K/year. Includes all program and recognition, weekend campouts, summer camp, but not the annual special trip. This is less than the cost of a single "travel team" away game where a child and parent fly somewhere. Scouts BSA is truly a bargain in comparison to just about any other youth activity. We can all be very proud of this. Our special annual trip is modest. This year a 4-day camping trip including a day visit to the World Jamboree (will probably charge somethi

There is a very balanced, intelligent article in Bloomberg today. It is, perhaps, the best factual and neutral piece of reporting on Scouts BSA I have seen in months. Just google Scouts and Bloomberg. Highly recommend it.

I will comment as a former council and area president who spent 30 years on the front lines of these issues. Those membership declines are catastrophic and not sustainable. The units in this council should favor moving into a functioning council. Unless there is a one-time disaster that explains this, I'll guarantee that this is a council that either has been issued a "conditional charter" or will soon be issued one. These councils are given a year or two to turn things around or they are merged into better-performing councils. More recently another technique has been to remove the chart

We used our Webelos II Den to jump-start our all-girl troop. We started with about 6 Webelos girls and had 10 by the end of the year. All crossed-over into our new all-girl troop in February, which now numbers 26. Those 10 Webelos were the ones who provided the basis for our new Troop open house/welcome parties. Through them we gained another 10 girls and have picked up another 6 over the last 2 months based on word of mouth. It is easier to get girls to join the Webelos group, so I urge you do recruit them now. It will make your planned new troop a lot easier to start. One thing I lea

Our own Troop received about $2,000 cash from two Episcopal Churches to help pay costs of under-resourced Scouts. The volunteers who started the troop absorbed about $5,000 of start-up costs. Starting brand-new Troops is expensive and time-absorbing. Our first year budget is $40,000. There are good reasons why so many new Troops fail in their first five years, but the principal reasons are lack of experienced Scouter involvement and failure to plan. New Troops need to raise more and charge higher dues, which puts them at a recruiting disadvantage with historic troop with well-build financ

Our all-girl Troop now numbers 26. Up from 19 that we had on Feb. 1 without any recruitment activity. Sometimes girls and families just show up based on word of mouth. We have 3 PL and 3 APL positions so far. We now have a cohort of 5 girls 14, 15 and one 16. None have scouting experience , but there is good leadership potential there. We are going to begin rotating SPL duties between them now and during summer camp (we have 17 going so far). We will have an SPL election the first week of September with the members we currently have, and just before our big recruiting open house at mi

I think GSUSA is probably trying to get a handle on the number of its youth who are dual registering with the BSA. We’re the results of this survey promised to be compiled in the aggregate only or do you believe this is an effort to develop a marketing list to do “comparative” outreach to the dual-registered families?

I think we are going to first do a minimal version of the rolling tool box (especially in cold weather) and the backpack approach when temperate. I cringe getting back into the heavy camping business.

When a new Troop starts from scratch and the Scouts are all inexperienced 11-13 year olds, I think it is best to delay election of an SPL and for the Scoutmaster Staff to temporarily provide a bit more of the “leadership”. The goal would be to transition to a SPL leadership model as soon as possible, but not so soon as to implode the experience of youth during the earliest months. There is a lot of this fact circumstance currently in the formation off all-Girl troops.

At Owasippe the practice during the main season has now spanned many Scouting generations and absolutely has a vibrant life of its own. I think if there are usable facilities available, councils are crazy not to allow people use them during the main season. I go so far as supporting the idea of establishing carefully-managed trailer use in segregated parts of camps. The Memorial-Labor Day approach is a good introduction to our properties for families, but does not let families and younger siblings experience the wonder of a huge closing camp fire, for instance.

Another approach being suggested is to go ultra-minimalist. Obtain only backpacking-sized stoves and similar lightweight and compact equipment and entirely forgo the “heavy camping” approach of my youth (patrol boxes, Dutch ovens, trailers, etc.). Sounds interesting, but I am not sure it would work with the youngest scouts.

Family camping at our properties is a great idea. A few camps like the iconic Owasippe Scout Reservation in Michigan (the Reservation that serves Scouting for the greater Chicagoland metropolitan area) have dedicated facilities that are run like this for the entire season. That council has been doing it successfully for 55 years. More of this kind of offering will further establish us as the full-family option and will cause Scouts to spend a week with their family in addition to their Troop’s week of traditional camp. At Owasippe the families of Scouters have been simultaneously staying i

Gathering Equipment for New Girl Troops A principal challenge every new all-girl Troop has is to obtain its camping equipment, as well as the other things a troop needs for essential program operations. The list of items needed is extensive, including flags, an extensive first aid kit, tents, cooking equipment and simple materials like rope. For a new 30-girl troop, the equipment needed can easily get in the $7 - $10,000 range. Plus there are the issues of storage and transportation to deal with. And all of this is needed at a time when there are significant start-up expenses such as

Nothing is out there yet on a matter like this, and certainly nothing specific to the advancement start-up of all-girl troops. What I am going to do is post good examples of how an well run all-girl Troops are proceeding right now with their advancement. I have been talking to a lot of people over the last 1.5 years about family Scouting (including being involved at the granular level for an entire year with a Webelos II group) and have yet to come across a single person who exhibited any tendency to generally "go easy" on girls with individual advancement or encourage such a practice b

Before we get to summer camp, we will have been on three weekend campouts, two significant day hikes and 4.5 months of Troop meetings. Ambitious girls who want to earn Tenderfoot by the beginning or end of summer camp in our Troop will have had a good opportunities to learn and prove themselves to that advancement level.

Will All-Girl Troops Advance Their Scouts Too Fast? Great thoughts, SWilliams. Our Troop is programming all of its activities to cover the Scout and Tenderfoot rank requirements, but of course not every girl can attend every meeting or event, so there is variance among the girls after just 2 months on advancement progress. We are following the program to the letter and are not trying to rush girls with their rank advancement. I'm thinking we will have all 28 Scouts at Scout Rank and maybe 6 or 7 at Tenderfoot by our Court of Honor during the first weekend of June. I'm certain the girl

We are having girls simply materialize at our Troop meetings and want to join on the spot based on what they have read about Scouts BSA and heard about our Troop. A 14 and a 15 year old just this week. So we are now at 28 without any specific recruiting activity since January. And, 19 are going to summer camp so far. As I have been at the granular level on this, for about 1.5 years, my intuition is that this is going to indeed be big. It is almost as though a dam is about to break and will flood us with new people — boys, girls and Scouters. This is going to happen in 2 or 3 years and no

Would normally like to do that, but this comes from official reports as of the end of March, the details of which are not published. But, this is indeed the actual number. All-girl Troop unit formation has been incredibly strong — much better than expected for the off-cycle start in February. As a result, the big scale-up of these units will probably take place in the fall when the core girls who attend summer camp begin to really take charge of their troops and bring in their friends. That will also be a very natural time to reel-in additional Scouters specifically interested in sta