Armymutt

When I was a kid in England, we had a version of the Klondike derby with a pioneer theme. Each patrol in the district - probably 10 troops total - made a covered wagon of sorts. Our troop had the best by far - actual wooden boxes with bows and tarps. The wooden wheels weren't the best, but oh well. We were given a packing list and when we showed up, there was a list of events. Each event had one competitor from the patrol and we moved as a troop. I remember that they were timed events - like tying a series of knots, starting a fire, chopping wood, making a tent stake, etc. It was a round robin event and you had to pull your wagon from station to station. It was lots of fun and we did the OA call out on Saturday evening.

This is essentially what we do. Everyone has an equal share to pay in the running of the pack - charter fees, adult fees, B&G facility fees. Everyone also gets charged for the requirements for rank, and a pack t-shirt. Your dues pay for all of that. Any electives are not included in the dues and are paid for out of pocket. Fundraising shares essentially go to your pocket for the year. Anything left at the end goes to the Pack pocket. For example, if a Scout sells enough to earn $300 in commission, then they can pay their share of the fees, their rank advancement requirements, t-shirt, PWD car, and then they have $75 left to spend on campouts, uniform parts, Scout books, etc. It's just centralized as a service to the parents. Our Scout Shop is an hour away and many parents don't have time to go up there. The "help everyone" part needs defining. To me, that would be what we might call durable items - things that stay with the pack, like stoves, tents, and cookware. Things that a Scout keeps for themselves would not fall into this category. We don't normally loan out adventure loops and then reward them to another Scout the following year.

I agree it is for the pack, but everyone needs to contribute to the wellbeing of the pack. How is it fair for one Scout to work hard selling the product we ordered, while another does nothing? Our pack fund get used to buy items of use to the entire pack, not just individuals. For example, we need a new flag. We also have no pack cooking equipment or loaner tents. With the exception of 2 families, our entire pack is either active duty military, former military, or worked with the military for a long time. Our organizational culture is that Scouts pay their own way. Right now, we are rebuilding from a mismanaged system.

Schedules - the location was exclusive to us. If a parent's schedule doesn't allow them to spend some time with their kid between 0600 and 2000 M,W,Th, F, S, or S, I don't know what else I can do. No one I know works 14 hours a day, 7 days a week. Tues night is our meeting, but they could sell on Tuesday day. Further, all someone had to do was ask for popcorn to sell and it would be delivered - we didn't require anyone to come all the way out to our house to get popcorn, the table, or banner. I live the furthest out from our selling location, so that's not a valid excuse. There were no families selling with other families by design. Small area to sell - didn't need a bunch of parents crowded behind a 5 foot table. My wife and I both work full time and still managed to surrender our weekends in order to get the popcorn sold. Our next fundraiser is camp cards. We didn't have a good handle on them last year and many didn't sell. We're going to try to do storefront sales of them. Depending on what businesses are on them, I'll try to target those locations. For a $5 card, the bearer gets a bunch of $5 coupons and the pack gets $2.50.

You don't have to sell popcorn. You just don't get the benefits from the work of others either. The first part of a Scout's commission goes toward fees and dues. Anything left can be used toward camp, activities, uniforms, books, camping gear, etc - stuff needed for Scouting. At the end of the year, the balance reverts to the Pack fund. We made it quite clear prior to popcorn sales that this is how it would be. Parents were given ample opportunity to sign up for shifts - only 19% were claimed. We aren't trying to establish a huge pack fund. We ordered enough popcorn to give everyone enough sales to fund their program. When people didn't sign up, the rest of us signed up for extra shifts to prevent us being stuck with popcorn. Consequently, some Scouts have a large credit and some have none.

I kind of figured that Scoutbook was a stand alone thing vs something monitored by BSA. Not that they have the time or staff to be doing that in the first place.

Right now, we have separate dens in Scoutbook for buys and girls. This means we have 2 of each den. On the ground, we all meet at the same location and there is a registered over-21 female always present - usually 2. I'd like to combine the dens to simplify record keeping - or at least speed it up. I want to start recording attendance and having the den meeting plans in SB. The only way I can figure out how to do this is to create a calendar event for each den meeting, which means our calendar is really crowded and the same info has to be entered twice.

I talked to the dad. It's not a matter of not having the money, but more of a lack of just doing it. He said he'll bring it to the meeting, so I picked up the pins. The committee is firm on the pay to play. It may be difficult to sell popcorn no matter how hard you try, but first, you actually have to try. Very little gets sold if you don't try to sell any. We set our dues so that the kids are able to get all of the required items, have a PWD and B&G, and still be able to afford Scouting. Between the national and council fees plus insurance, the program is expensive as it is. Add in a uniform and the price goes up. We rely on the sweat equity of selling popcorn to fund things and it's really insulting to all the kids who worked hard when those who can't pay also won't attempt to contribute in some manner.

Considering dues didn't come into existence until August, there is no chance that the records are wrong. Being the person who covered all of last year's awards with no repayment, I'm loathe to continue the trend. Giving the Scout their award takes the money from other Scouts, meaning they will have to do without later on. Our dues have no padding to them - we have factored in the cost of each item and the tax. If someone gets something for nothing, then someone else will miss out down the line. They didn't even offer to pay anything toward the blue and gold or rank advancement ceremony last spring.

Our pack meeting is Tuesday and we are now at the point where we start awarding adventure loops. We announced at the beginning of summer that dues need to be paid in order for the pack to be able to purchase awards. We have a family who has not paid. They are not new to the unit, and in fact their Scout has been with us for 4 years. Our finances are so screwy from the past two treasurers that we don't even know if they paid a cent toward recharter. The sold no popcorn this year. The awards are being purchased tomorrow. I don't want there to be a scene at the pack meeting when their Scout doesn't receive an award, but it is not fair to every other family that has paid. What would you do?

So the solution is to further isolate the workforce along personal identity lines, rather than figure out the problem and eliminate it at the source?

I see that BSA is deciding to toss out the notion that all Scouts are just Scouts without regard for social class - "for members of the affinity and their allies". The non-Newspeak version of this is "we created group to separate people by identity other than 'Scout' with the intention of try to make people feel special, rather than foster brotherhood and understanding that everyone is different." This is usually followed by special "spaces" and meeting that are only for members of these special groups. It's basically emotional reparations writ large. Seems to me that a more effective solution would be to have commissioners look at their units for signs of exclusion and have a chat with the leadership. One final thought, if we truly examine the "diversity of our society", are we really sure we want to include all elements? Seems to me that the organization should establish its own culture, rules, morals, expectations, whatever, and have its members rise to meet them. A race to the bottom is unlikely to help it survive.

You bring up a good point. We don't ask anyone. Frankly, we wouldn't know the details in this case if they weren't friends of our family. This is a case of ignorance is bliss and knowledge totally throws a wrench into things.

That's the problem - she's not attending. He's completed YPT and she considers him a guardian. She's trying to get with the legal office on post, but of course, they aren't picking up the phone.

We're going to go the power of attorney route. That seems to be sufficient for guardianship in NC.

Yes.

We have a campout coming up for our pack. Two of the Scouts - one Tiger, one Wolf - lost their dad a couple of years ago. They are a Gold Star family, meaning that if mom remarries before she reaches a certain age, she loses all benefits, including the survivor retirement pay, health care, etc. She has a boy friend who is essentially her husband and the stepfather of the Scouts in all but legal status. She can't make it on the camping trip, so he's planning to bring them. We really didn't think anything of it until I started digging into the G2SS and it dawned on me that he is neither their parent nor legal guardian. He is listed as the secondary emergency contact for them in the Pack and at school. He is also listed as her emergency contact, and she is his for the Army. Given that it is essentially a common law marriage, minus the legalities, does he still need to sleep in a separate tent from them?

Since Cub Scouting can be completed without camping 1 night, we always require every Cub Scout to have a parent or guardian present. Consequently, we have a Scout to adult ratio around 1:1 to 1.5:1. I know the rules say Cub Scouts should have a parent and Tigers must, but no one wants to babysit someone else's kid.

Tell me about it. I got the 2017 Normandy version from a guy. He wanted $50 on eBay. Met him at our camp and got several more patches, including the Normandy one, for the same price. My new lodge, on the other hand, creates a special patch for everything. Their NOAC 2022 patch set is awesome.

EBay is probably your best/easiest bet, however, if your lodge is having a tradeoree, you might find someone there with a much better deal than on eBay. My original lodge was Black Eagle and they have put out a lot of neat patches this century - had the same patch for 50 years before that. I got about $100 in patches (eBay prices) for $50 at our tradeoree. Guys travel from long distances to trade. As mentioned above, wearing it on your uniform is ok if you are a dues paying member of that lodge. If not, then you need to ask yourself why you want to wear it.

With the various mergers. the chapter numbers and district numbers don't necessarily align. Our district has 3 chapters, which coincide with the three legacy districts. The OA was allowed to decide whether or not to merge.

Maybe it's normal now, but I don't remember any sex talk going on in my troop from 90-94. There literally was no discussion of girls when Scouting was going on. Seems really strange to me that this occurs now. Even when we met international units that had girls, we just did our own thing. Scouting was an escape from girls. Our parents didn't "open the hanger doors" at dining outs, and we didn't talk about girls. This might also be a new thing. Maybe it was because our troop was so small - about 20 Scouts. I shared my tent with anyone who asked. Mostly because mine was the only tent that wasn't canvas and didn't leak. I had a nice LL Bean Geodesic and it was roomy. Never thought about the age of the Scouts with me.

Two totally different situations.

I got the polio sugar cube in a British high school around 1992. I don't think any sort of record made it into my medical records. It's on my Army vax record, so they probably transcribed it from the form I filled out before entry. If it's good enough for Uncle Sam, it's good enough for BSA, from my perspective.

That's the part that I will emphasize to them. They need to make sure they can build a unit - even if it's just 5 boys. The program has to be fantastic AND visible in the community so that it motivates others to join.