Tron

Your numbers seem quite accurate; however, the depiction of needing to do so much is not. The problem might not be the cost of scouting, but the expectation that scouts go SO far above and beyond to qualify for rank advancement, OA membership, etc ... Do I want my kids to go to Philmont and other high adventure bases? Yes, do they have to? No. Over the span of potentially 7-8 years of being a scout in a Troop most scouts only need to camp 3 nights a year. I think bad units make scouting too expensive; poorly trained leaders adding to the standard make scouting too expensive. In my area the average scout could easily get by and make it to Eagle on $300 a year if their unit doesn't add to the standard.

Most people have no clue what it takes to get onto a college team. The first thing people need are genetics; when both parents walk up with all of their 5'9" or less height and unimpressive body mass index I find it hard to believe that they think their kids are going to develop much differently and have any chance of playing sports at even a varsity high school level. I shall diverge from scouting a little to illustrate a point that I run into with parents in my area all of the time. So many parents just have no clue how sports work because so few people have ever participated in sports, any sport; even if they supposedly participated in one. Here is a great example! I've got a parent at a unit who has their kids in scouts and XC. The parent supposedly had a XC scholarship to a BIG 10 college. Parent routinely complains about the cost of scouting. Parent has never complained about the price of running shoes (I'm a runner and I go through about 4 pair a year at $100 to $150 a pop; my son had a gait analysis done before we purchased his new XC shoes and it was $165, and that's just shoes for an 8 week season). Same parent who is supposedly a runner thinks their one kid is going to run 4min miles (4min flat) and thinks that 5min miles are slow. I'm no expert but I do watch the Olympics and the top middle distance runners in the world are struggling to run faster than 4:30 a mile. This is a supposed subject matter expert in the sport and the parent can't even reconcile reality of cost comparison of an 8 week program vs a 52 week program; and the parent can't even reconcile realistic sport expectations vs some fantasy. FYI the top 13 runners in the world comprise less than 0.0000002% of the 621mil runners in the world. Somehow this parent thinks their kid is going to end up better than 99.9% of the runners in the world. Don't even get me started on the baseball parents; I played at a high level and some of these parents pull their kids from scouts for 6 to 7 months of the year thinking their kid is going to play professionally some day and I don't know how the kids made the no cut teams.

The price is nothing. Literally super cheap compared to most anything else. It's $80 a year, councils can match that and bring the total to $160. In comparison it's the heart of high school football season right now and the average family spends $671 a season on football; that's right $671 for 12 weeks of participation(about a million participants a season). The couch potatoes are about to spend $167 a year for Disney+ (just over 147 million subscriptions in the US). Scouting is cheap compared to just about anything else you want to compare it to; sports, gaming, tv.

That website is localized and I believe a Massachusetts based program. What I have heard rumblings about is a BSA national wide program called Catalyst BSA which is targeted at "scouts" in their 20s and 30s. Do other countries have adult scouting programs that BSA might have been looking at to extend the program longer/continue to grow membership revenue?

Does anyone know what project "Catalyst BSA" is? I've heard of it before, but no one seems to have details. Yesterday I heard it mentioned again and this time in reference to the "new program for scouts in their 20's and 30's" rumor that came out of the national meeting this year.

Messenger of peace carries over. There is also debate about recruiter patch crossing over. The rules state that the badge can be earned twice, they don't say that the badge has to be earned twice.

Troop shopping is GREAT if units are running the program instead of doing their own thing. If everyone is running the program the only difference between units would be personality and driving distance to unit meetings.

What do we know about this mechanism for the public to search for YPT violations? Is it a website? Do we enter the state/council/unit number and a list of YPT violations (potentially redacted) populates? I am curious as I would just like to know, and I am also curious to know if a unit folds and a new unit replaces it at the same CO with a different unit number will the search return zero results on that unit?

Training is key; however, it doesn't matter how well trained a volunteer is if they don't want to run the actual program AND it's all about "their kids" and not providing a good program. All of the dying troops in my area have the same things in common: no relationship to a pack, cadre of key 3 leaders who need to rotate out, doing their own thing. All of the dying packs in my area have the same things in common: only have a relationship with 1 troop, do not run year round programs, doing their own thing.

I think its the value or perhaps lack of value that is keeping people from volunteering as camp staff. How many people who are going into the navy or merchant marine that would benefit from having lifeguarding time on their resume ever get asked to spend the summer after high school as a BSA lifeguard? How many old door kickers down at the local veterans club or witty old rascals at the local hunt club ever get asked to pass on all that bushcraft and woodcraft to the next generation? Those guys live for sharing their knowledge and experience, giving back to society is what kept a lot of them in the service. How many trade unions (which are constantly lamenting the lack of youth going into the trades) are getting calls to help out run a MB station at a camp for a week to give a scout a chance to learn what working in the trades can be like and do for them? How many gun clubs get visits from council shooting sports chairs? These guys are all big 2nd amendment types who believe the only problem with guns is that not enough people have proper training. I'd bet that my uncles gun club has more certified shooting instructors than every council in my state combined, but I've never heard the local council talk about recruiting any of those people, and some of them are RICH, they would pump SO much money into BSA shooting sports because they want share their love of shooting sports.

I would say no. One of the major points of the uniform is common appearance that creates an in group. Everyone in uniform also strips away displays of social class and allows the group to more closely bond and see each other as part of the in group. Whether you realize it or not, by not wearing a uniform you are signaling your social class and subconsciously telling the group that you are not really part of it. From a BSA specific standpoint by not wearing the uniform you are sending the message that it is ok to not wear the uniform. You're also inadvertently teaching the scouts that it is ok to cherry pick which rules to follow (when you sign your membership application each year you are attesting to follow the rules and regulations of the BSA, and the rules and regulations of the BSA include scouters wearing their uniforms to set the example for the scouts).

There was even scuttlebutt about this on reddit a while back. Bringing that council fee down to match national was a good move. Why did it change from Council Insurance Fee to Local Council Fee ? Being vague always invites question and suspicion. Breaking it down 12 council insurance fee, 68 council operations fee would make this much more palatable.

So the question you need to ask is, who are the coaches and club sponsors; are they school district staff or outside entities? If any of the coaches and club sponsors are outside entities the school has to give you the same recruiting access as those sports and clubs.

You can go camping and not do any scoutcraft. It happens all of the time, the requirements for camping and such even include statements like "If a tent is already setup and provided" so some scouts are not even learning to set up tents on their outings. Real scoutcraft is learning how to build a fire, and why certain methods are better, scoutcraft is learning how to tie knots, knowing their strengths and their weaknesses, etc ... etc ... Adventure is nice; it's definitely part of the Enable part of edge, but its not at the root or core of the program. Go read the national charter from congress and show me in the purpose statement where it says adventure. I am not at all concerned about any of this peripheral stuff going away as long as it means we're getting back to the core of what scouting is supposed to be. How many scouts with one of these awards or membership in the OA freeze up when you ask them what their good turn for the day was? How many scouts lose their words when you ask them at a BOR to describe a situation where they exhibited an act of courage? How many times have you seen a scout lock up like a deer in the headlights when you ask them about the last time they participated in a patriot ceremony?

You can absolutely do this. I believe nationals published stance was go ahead if you want, we just do not guarantee availability of loops and pins.

It's really easy, teach the SPL & PLs to lead by consensus/try to lead by consensus. The process will force them to seek input from all stakeholders before advancing something along.

So even clubs and regular sports are not allowed to use any of the school districts facilities?

I guess you could say that some other scouting association that does not have an incorporated unit overseas is excluded; however, GS and many other associations that are here in the US also are incorporated overseas. As I understand it, if the scouting organization is on this list it counts: https://directory.scout.org/contacts

Sou Sounds like you need to find a way to replace him.

Are other groups (including rec leagues) allowed to recruit in the schools at all?

I don't see anything wrong with not advancing if the a scout does not want to advance; I would say that you should sit down and talk with each one of these "not wanting to advance" scouts to make sure they understand the program and the point of advancement. A buddy of mine "accidentally" made 2nd class, he was never interested in advancement, just MB, camping, and camp cooking. His SM just noticed over time that he had completed so much rank advancement by accident by just being out with his patrol and at camp with his troop. Same guy cranked through his undergrad in 2 years and jumped to grad school at 19. Mysteries of the universe unfold.

I'm a little late to this party; however, I was recently asked to find the official answer by my COR for a scouter who is a Girl Scout Gold awardee. A locally produced knot is not authorized from what I can tell; councils can make local awards, but it has to be documented and vetted, I understand it to be a process. More directly to the gold award recognition aspect of this, the Guide to Awards and Insignia is very clear that awards from other scouting associations are authorized for wear above the left breast pocket (page 9). There are exceptions for non scouting organizations (religious awards, etc ... ) and they are also worn above the left breast pocket.

Scout B, the ASPL is the functional SPL in the absence of the SPL at all unit functions under the auspices of the BSA. This is all handled in the Troop Leader Guides, the SPL handbook, the PL handbook, etc ... Your question makes me think that there is something else going on here.

Sounds like you should volunteer on the district committee. Also reach out to the director of camping services; those people always need volunteers to come out and run MB sessions, provide 2 deep leadership at ranges, etc ...

The program is changing, I think it's going to get streamlined and I think we're going back to our roots. The first mission of the BSA is to train scouts in scoutcraft, maybe we're getting back to that.