InquisitiveScouter

And there is zero desire to conduct a process improvement team here... We did this with the council's L2E process, with great success...project and application returns to candidates is way down... Our MBC process is WAAAYYYY broken. But there is no incentive seen to fix it...everyone seems to have implemented their own "county option" to it. The worst is this...in Scoutbook, unit admins can approve any merit badge. Skip the counselor, and just award Jimmy the badge when you think he has done the requirements. I have talked with unit leaders from other units who, frustrated with council and district inability to get MBCs signed up, use this "stroke of the pen."

Refreshing, although dated... https://thisibelieve.org/essay/16630/

I believe in the ideals. It's the people who work so hard at tearing them down, who seem to be gaining in influence, that erode faith... I, for one, am standing in the gap as best I can.

Well, given events of late, it's not just the BSA's long-term future I am beginning to lose faith in...

???

Initial membership numbers and recharter are not looking good here. My spies tell me our council has about a 50% loss from last year...ouch But, first reports are always wrong... Wonder if the court will request or look at those kinds of stats to inform the decision??

1. I never address or refer to our youth as boys, girls, or kids. They are always "Scouts." They have picked up on this, and notice that it is my way of showing them respect. 2. I call Scouts by their first names until they turn 18. At the age of majority, I refer to our new Scouters as Mr./Ms. in front of the Scouts. This takes some getting used to 3. Adults refer to each other, when talking to Scouts, as Mr./Ms Lastname... Adult-to-adult is always first names. 4. I never throw in a title request...if anyone asks me to use their title, then I ask them to use mine, "Colonel." Only one person has ever insisted I call them a title (outside the military), and I asked for the reciprocal courtesy. They looked sidelong at me for a sec, then complied. 5. Some of our Scouts and adults call me "Colonel". I have never asked them to. They know of my military service, and those who understand what it means show me a great deal of respect by using it. 6. When Scouts ask me what they should call me, I say "Mr. XXXXXX", but because my last name is a bit difficult, "Mr. X" is fine. 7. I grew up in a part of the South where we called adults we knew Mr./Ms. Firstname. It was and is a sign of "familiar respect". If you didn't use Mr./Ms., and only used "Firstname" you'd receive a word to mind your manners. I never got a switching for this, but know a few who did ----- You called the adults you didn't know Mr./Ms. Lastname. 8. If none if the above are suitable for you, you may refer to me as "Your Majesty"

I understand the words...just don't understand why they would imply being at a council camp brings on a different rule set...

Yeah, what the heck does that mean?

I struggle with this daily...Scouts emailing me directly without cc-ing parents. I have a cut and paste now to add to all those emails: Please include a parent or another registered adult on all communications. At least, when they contact me through Scoutbook, the system automatically includes parents. I do like that feature.

The biggest change I see is that the Medical Screening Checklist was updated. follow the link to find the updated Dec 2020 version. https://filestore.scouting.org/filestore/HealthSafety/pdf/680-057.pdf Although, question four is a subset of question one, therefore redundant... anyone see it differently?? Am I mis-reading it?

And again, @DuctTape for National Commissioner!!

I am guilty of this...mostly because of convenience, and to thwart the parents who previously did this on behalf of their Scouts. That is, when I provided Scouts with MBC info, about 75% of the parents would make the call on their Scouts behalf to set it up. I agree with you, and will modify my behavior on this one...putting this back on the shoulders of the Scouts. What do you think about this idea? When Scout asks for counselor info for a MB, I will send an email to the Scout with about three counselors' contact info, and explicit instructions that this is their responsibility, not their parents'. CC the parents, and BCC the counselors. Sets expectations for all three parties in one fell swoop. Couldn't do this before, as our MBC lists had only telephone and address info. Now Scoutbook gives you email & phone for MBCs. Thoughts?

Reminds me of a military joke about government issued equipment..."Remember, your weapons are made by the lowest bidder..."

Darn it, @qwazse, didn't we tell you to stop peddling your pesky common sense around here...sheesh!!

That was one of the most well-balanced, well-told stories I have seen on the news lately. Very glad is was done by Scouts! Thanks for sharing

Agreed...point is, they have to mark up all the other merchandise to help cover the costs of the stuff that doesn't sell. If they move to a smarter model of on-line publications, the cost savings could be translated into lower costs for other Scout Stuff...but you and I know that would never happen

And probably thousands upon thousands printed... Having a close friend who works in a Scout Shop, I can tell you the markup on all Scouting merchandise is high. Some things over 100% (double what was paid to National Supply at wholesale.)

Yes, hmmmm... Stamp Collecting, one of my favorites...only 919 Scouts awarded in 2019. https://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2020/02/17/2019-merit-badge-rankings-which-were-the-most-and-least-popular/ How many books do you think they printed? There are five sitting in our Scout Shop (although I'm not sure they are current versions.) (I did not mention Bugling, another favorite, at the bottom of the list, because it is incorporated into Music MB pamphlet; 12882 awarded.)

Inconceivable!

It's less than half of what our current guy gets... Your definition of similar is not similar to mine.

Cringe...

As a baseline....a suggestion...add percentages based on performance. It's as good, or arbitrary, a scheme as saying pay them a percentage of their expenditures...which seems really whack, especially if most of those expenditures are fixed and they don't control that money anyway... Best comment of the day, @mrjohns2 If I could give it ten likes, I would.

You are a bit ignorant here, brother...O-4's with two years of service are pretty scarce...usually only medical career fields, who are people with their professional degrees already. Doctors, lawyers, etc. The average person is promoted to O-4 at around the 11 year point. So the comparison is an O-4 at 10-12 years service, as you point out. And, sorry for the vague pronoun antecedent, but I meant doubling the E pay for the council level. Hire the O's for Regional/National level...99% of the retired officers I know have more integrity in their pinkie than any council execs I have met.

Don't know. But if you pay me 5 million dollars, I'll be glad to come up with a pay structure that provides adequate compensation for the tasks, while attracting the needed skill sets to meet those tasks. I would trust our local grocery store manager to better manage our council than it currently is. Most separated or retired military officers at or above the rank of O-4, and most separated or retired enlisted at or above E-6 would be great candidates as well. Give them double what they were making on active duty, and you'd have a good start.