InquisitiveScouter

@SSScout, Hope I catch you before you fire off a note (pun intended) to BSA... Please check your notes (pun #2), and you'll note (pun #3) that 14 of the 15 bugle calls required, indeed, only four notes. Only Call to Quarters requires five (the fifth being the single low C, see link) http://www.usscouts.org/mb/bugle_calls.asp Now, it is a travesty that they dropped the requirements to play 10 of the 15. Just more signs of the times, I guess...

With this, I am in complete agreement. Thanks for finding some good common ground.

LOL, who downvotes the asking of serious questions? And that, by the way, is a rhetorical question 😜

WAGGS and WOSM are not the only organizations in the Scouting movement.

What is the right amount of global heat? What is the goal of this effort? Is it to create some kind of climate stasis? What is an "acceptable amount" of climate change? (Because, it has changed across the eons...) Whom are we to believe? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6GS2HjCg-M&ab_channel=MallenBaker https://www.lobservateur.com/2023/08/20/experts-say-climate-change-is-a-hoax/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/markhendrickson/2012/09/16/climate-change-hoax-or-crime-of-the-century/?sh=4e2a06df76d3 https://www.prageru.com/video/is-there-really-a-climate-emergency https://www.wsj.com/articles/climate-activists-disasters-fire-storms-deaths-change-cop26-glasgow-global-warming-11635973538 I'd rather have questions that can't be answered than answers that can't be questioned. - Richard Feynman

...mind-boggling and enraging.

Isn't "corroboration" up to the police investigators? And the decision on whether to press charges and pursue the case is on the DA? Victims or families do not get to decide whether to press charges. That is up to the DA. At least in our state. Not the job of BSA professionals to determine if there is "enough to go on"... Defamation (with libel and slander) involves making statements which are not true, or can be proven not true. "Truth is widely accepted as a complete defense to all defamation claims." https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/defamation

Choosing to be offended again?? 😛

Thanks for demonstrating my point. Be the friend at the door. As the one correcting cousin Tommy, send @Ojoman a private message.

It's a balance, and a coping skill. As a survivor, I find nothing offensive in @Ojoman's post. I find the perspective very different than mine, and much more sympathetic to BSA as an organization. I am not blind to what is offensive, because, for me at least, I look for intent. I see no intent to offend in those remarks. Hence, "...even when it isn't there." Being kind works both ways.

If you are on a continuous search to be offended, you will always find what you are looking for, even when it isn't there.

LOL, mine is "Loud Talker" (a reference to my "command voice"... military types will know what I mean...), maybe should be "Loud Writer", if there was such a thing... Now, why, on Earth, would he do such a thing? At the DE level, agreed. But I am of the opinion that an SE would be much more effective if they were a locally-connected person. Most funding for a council comes from local sources, right? As a local corporate entity, I am much more likely to give my money to someone with "skin in the game", as alluded to earlier...

And they have "skin in the game". Please continue with the long version.

Thanks, that's a great start. Do you believe the current model of moving folks around and pulling talent from outside of a community, especially for SE, is a prudent one for BSA? I am of the current opinion that it is not. Please convince me otherwise.

@Ojoman, thanks for the input. However, that isn't what I was fishing for... You gave great tips on how a DE can be successful. Instead, I was looking for better ideas for Councils and National to improve the professional corps. That is, councils and National are responsible for recruitment, training, retention, development, and promotion of their personnel. They arguably have not been successful at meeting these responsibilities. What would you do differently to ensure our organization has and keeps the DE's (and therefore the successive leadership levels) to make the mission of BSA happen?

So, I'd love to know, please... after being on the inside, what adjustments would you make to put the professional corps on the track you think it should be on?

Trim SE salaries to fill this gap. Will aid in retention and longer term corporate health.

- A focus on unit service. And everything viewed through that lens... - Recruit, train, and support COMMISSIONERS to implement the unit service support. This is the Unit Commissioners' purpose. But in the eight councils I have been involved with over my adult years, only one did this well, and Scouting was most successful there, of all others experienced. (But that was also in the late 80's and early 90's.) - Low cost, high impact training for unit leaders. (And encouragement/recognition for unit leaders who complete more advanced training.) I know it is hard enough to get program leaders to take Introduction to Outdoor Leadership Skills (a misnomer, because it is about outdoor program elements, not leadership), but there should also be more advanced skills training available. Most adults I work with in Scouting have very little outdoor experience, and so they do not have confidence to take kids to the woods, nor to teach and train older youth to become outdoor-savvy instructors and leader-trainers . I encourage adults to take a merit badge at camp, Pioneering or Orienteering for example. However, most come away from that experience greatly disillusioned with the merit badge program, for a variety of reasons... Better, when offered, to take advantage of adult-friendly programs in camp like Lifeguard BSA, or Swim & Water Rescue, or Paddle Craft Safety (all great programs) I have also steered many adults toward National Camping School/Philmont Training Center/LNT & TREAD Level 2, etc, to gain additional program exposure to bring back to the unit program (few are willing to give up a whole week to do this.) - Transparency on council finances. 95% of the people I have shown our IRS 990 to are genuinely SHOCKED at the pay our Board approves for the SE. They do not see value for the money spent. Most professionals I have encountered are extremely uncomfortable talking about finances to volunteers. - Steer our district and council activities, and our local camp (including Summer Camp) to be more PATROL focused. Campsites and program offerings are set up to cater to an individual or to a unit. About the only patrol focused event we have anymore is Klondike... I'll search for a previous thread which covered this same topic... there was a lot of good stuff there from others, IIRC.

From that Atlanta article, "Eight Scout officials are believed to have participated in the false record-keeping, said Tom Gay, president of the council's board of directors." I know the articles are from 18 years ago, but in this digital age, black eyes take much longer to go away... And, you know there were more involved in both councils... just didn't get implicated in it... And other councils did the same. Think any of those folks are still left in the organization? I do. Yet another shining example for the mission of BSA, "... to prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices over their lifetimes by instilling in them the values of the Scout Oath and Scout Law."

I know at least three Troops in our area have notified council they will not be rechartering. Do not know their membership numbers, though. My guess is that they were somewhat small.... <=10 Several Scouts who want to continue are moving over to us. And we are getting some gear to help fill in a few of our gaps. Our attrition was normal. We had 53 on the books before recharter season... have gained 5 from Troops not rechartering already (so now at 58). (Expecting a few more in the weeks to come.) We will lose 6 who have been pretty much no-shows, 1 who is moving into multiple sports, and two (Eagle Scouts) have turned 18 this year. So, we recharter with 49 out of 58 total... that's 84.4% Not bad, but not great either. We have seen about a 10-12% attrition rate each year over the past seven years. That has been holding our numbers fairly steady. I look at differently... splitting hairs, maybe... I see 7 losses out of 51 "eligible" (not counting adults Eagles or new arrivals) that's a 13.7% attrition. Somewhat normal... Gold Level JTE metric met, which is 85% retention...

This is a fundamental truth that escapes much of the organization. Expand your net, please, to include National Service Territory and National volunteers, and professionals at all levels.

We invested in North Face Stormbreak II tents... Great for local camping and some shorter backpacking trips. But, has some drawbacks... - Footprints are extra cost (probably the same with most tents) - Vestibules are a bit small and make getting into the tent a bit of a yoga exercise - Scouts must be trained well on correct set up (this is an ongoing issue). However, once set up correctly, these can endure really bad weather and keep you dry. - Tent bag isn't big enough (nylon tents needn't be folded... just stuff them into the sack, as the fabric has no "memory" this also saves lots of time and heartache. The bags that come with the tents aren't really suited to other than near-perfect folding (a pain), and certainly not stuffing. Scouts have ripped them up in no time. After market bags (add to the expense) work great. Overall, we will not be purchasing this type of tent again. I am holding out hope for a Hilleberg one day 😜 https://hilleberg.com/eng/

Yes. And this formula works at the unit level within councils as well...

Jobs... and feeding at the trough of donations...

Welcome! The very best starting advice is to ask your questions here, and ask for the source material for the answer. Most diligent posters will give you a link to the source in some BSA material for the answer they are giving. If it is something that is a matter of opinion (and there is much that falls into that category), then be prepared for a wide range of answers. 😜