dk516

good evening @Val. Local Councils or even local units can add additional requirements. The Pack I used to be in for example had the same rule to have to redo YPT every year to make sure you'd always be current and up to date with any changes. Also, part of the CSA settlement is to implement an annual YPT refresher training which could also be that your Council decided to roll that out in the current form by itself already..

The process is neither new nor changed. It simply became transparent because of the electronic applications and the various status steps that are now visible. Realistically a unit was never supposed to let adults join scouting functions before they were not fully cleared. The difference was that units simply assumed that once they sent the adult application to the registrar that the process would take care of it and you're good to go. The larger problem is that BSA, again, did not think this through in practicality. Since it takes Councils 3+ months to recharter units, and since the elect

@AirForceMom welcome to the forum. Your Council may have not given you the full answer to this. The BSA YPT FAQ notes the following: https://www.scouting.org/health-and-safety/yp-faqs/ In Scouts BSA, he will be fully considered an adult and what he "can do" is attend Scouts BSA events as an adult. As noted above, participation in the programs that allow for older Youth to participate, he can fully participate, however, he is still considered and adult. And yes, if you want to take YPT by the book, he would no longer be allowed any socialization with any other scouts younger tha

@Maboot38 we use SB for advancement and the related functions and whatever reporting is required from SB. We use Google because it was an easy platform for all Troop planning, hosting our website from it and for all the documents and leader collaboration which made it a natural to use their email tools as well.

This seems how our Council is functioning and I am starting to get frustrated. Our DE is great. He shows up to District events or is at the (miserably attended) monthly roundtable or other events. However, this is about as far as "professional" Council representation goes. Our Field Director I only hear from when we did not sell enough popcorn every year and our other Field Director when we do not meet our (their) membership recruiting goals. We got a new SE back in fall last year. The only thing I have ever heard/read of him was the introduction from our Council Committee Chair when the

We use Google G-Suite for all of our Troop stuff. It allows you to create email groups for communication. Yes, email is a little old fashioned these days but the only form of communication you can effectively assure that adults are involved in all communication and therefore allow to be in compliance with YPT as much as possible. I accept the fact that there will always be other tools used between the Scouts (Discord, Whatsapp, Messenger, etc.) but the email groups allow for easy setup and control of what is being communicated.

@MattR I don't know if parents believe in Scouting or not. I think they still want it for their Youth but I think there are many factors that affect Parent' willingness to volunteer. I just went through recharter with my units and lost several long standing adult volunteers. These volunteers would show up once or twice a year to provide their expertise to the troop on a specific subject. Our Council this recharter decided to double the adult programming fee. Together with the National increase, this almost doubled our adult cost which I think was just too much for some. Other factor is th

@Jameson76 we actually had this discussion in our district. Your numbers are actually great! Experience in our council has shown that with all attrition on the Cubs level, you want at least 2 full Packs for every Troop in existence in order to cross over enough Cubs into Scouts BSA. Our district/council has seen a steady decline in Troops because they cannot get enough Cubs to cross over and retain to keep the units running. Our current split in my district is almost 50/50 and we feel it every year. This combined with slow recruiting has not been very successful.

Our Council does. It is organized on District level in similar manner as "regular" Cub Scout Packs. The difference is that it is run by a local non-profit that already does outreach / after-school / youth program work and it is slightly different in programming structure. It is run by the staff and volunteers of the outreach organization and supported by a UC like any other Pack. Membership for these Youth is sponsored between the non-profit running it and Council Scout Reach funds. This just recently started again in our District so it will be interesting to see how it will work out. It seems

What is going to happen to the Pack when your Scout crosses over? *Are you going to stay in the Pack forever? What is to say that the current structure isn't going to fail regardless once you leave but maybe just in a year or two from now rather than sooner? And sometimes things have to fall to ashes so the Phoenix can rise again and maybe somebody else will actually come along and bring in a new motivated network to take over. I've seen Packs come and go. With the right group of adult volunteers where everyone is pulling in the same direction it can be great. In the end, you are a volunt

Yes and no. I had a multi-level Den years ago because of lack of numbers. The first year was easy and everyone was working on similar steps for the requirements between the ranks. The second year was actually a lot more tricky to make sure for the "younger" rank part of the Den it did not simply become a repetition of what they already did with older rank during the previous year. Most Troops I know recruit in February March in order to have at least 2 full outings and the spring quarter to bring incoming AOLs up to speed for the summer camp "shock". Wanting to provide a serious

@fred8033 I understand the economy of scale but I think this is not the only factor we should look at. The Council my units are residing in has been merged several times in the past 5 years. It has been in constant decline, even with the mergers and is now less than 3'000 active youth. However, it geographically spans across each half of 3 states! We no longer go to our Council Summer Camp because of programming and distance for our Troop. My oldest did NYLT last year and is looking to staff it next year. The in-Council NYLT which I would have preferred was 5hrs driving away which makes it an

@Cburkhardtwhat do you actually pay with the $400 that you calculate? We finally got to stop comparing ourselves to band, sports and everything else and always advertising what a bargain Scouting is because this is only partially true and highly depends on how you look at. Between National, Council and Troop dues, our Scouts spend $230 for Youth and $90 for adults respectively. Monthly campouts with our Troop probably average about $35 a month * 10 months which is another $350. So, that's $570 a year for the "right to participate" and some monthly outings and couple patches throughout the

@Jenni some Councils may allow forming a provisional unit when you do not have the full number of 5 Youth but can show them that you will most likely reach the goal within a year. By the letters of YPT (and yes they have been enforced more strictly recently) a single Youth could not participate because of the buddy requirement. Also, bear in mind that as a linked Troop, each unit still has to provide 2-deep leadership at each event, meeting, outing, etc. If she's the only one what is your realistic outlook on finding more girls? Do you have enough prospects that it would even make sense

@qwazse having done it myself, Swiss Scouts works closely with the federal government and their accredited national training programs. They provide national training programs for ages 14-Up which is usually when you would start your leadership career with Scouts. The trainings are heavily subsidized to make them affordable and also offer employment compensation for attendees having to take unpaid leave from their profession while attending these week long trainings. Additionally, the Swiss Civil Protection Service can provide gear and infrastructure and personnel support at no cost to Yo