Abel Magwitch

Very interesting....

Jhankins and Eagle, I am disappointed to say that the shenanigans continue even now. I know this as I am part of a district in a council that is located in a weak city where reaching out to youth is practically impossible anymore. The only way a professional can succeed in my council is to do some fancy finagling of their membership criticals. And any volunteer that gets in their way will be villainized. My district continues to suffer without many real units. There continue to be no district Boy Scout activities. The district is still without a district commissioner, and the district ch

Roundtables should remain roundtables; a place for leaders to share ideas; a place for comradery between leaders; a place to learn about the next Camporee or Klondike derby etc. In my district, a very good roundtable commissioner finally quit after being told the night of the roundtable that this person wanted to give training, the DE wanted to do re-chartering, etc. This RT commissioner worked hard on planning his roundtables well in advance and felt he was simply being used after being told by the DE that he had other plans for the RT. If you want training, have a training night.

I have to agree with basementdweller. I too am part of a district; a very small urban district with only 7 troops and maybe 15 packs and a few crews. We have had a DE and DD to "serve" our small district. As a "volunteer" run organization, it amazes me that these two professional salaries are lumped in with "program". It is not the professional who runs the Klondikes, Camporees, Webelos activities, it it the volunteer. The volunteer provides the program. Why we have to have two professionals assigned to this small district, both on the payroll, both receiving benefits, yet the distr

I guess I was a bit stunned to find out that some councils do not offer insurance. It was never an option in the past, we were always required to purchase the supplemental insurance. When things were done the old way, (not on-line), the insurance fee was always included on the paperwork. This year it was not. I wonder how many newer units when they re-charter this year will completely miss this altogether. I know the clerk did not offer the insurance to us until we actually questioned the issue. (This message has been edited by abel magwitch)

This year our troop for the first time registered online. After all the paperwork was printed out, it was turned in to the Scout office. But I noticed that the total fees did not include the customary supplemental insurance fee. The additional $1 insurance fee was always added to the total in the past when we received our re-charter packets. When our Scout office clerk was questioned about this, she stated that since online re-chartering was a national thing, the insurance was not included. We would have to pay the additional monies for insurance separately if we still wanted it. She als

Because it's fun.

Sounds like the council should sign this guy up to run the council's FOS drive. This SM will soon be chasing away all the parents (and Scouts) from the troop. I'm with shortridge on this one - time to speak to the cor and institutional head. They alone have say in what they allow or don't allow within thier building. The chartered institution owns the unit.(This message has been edited by abel magwitch)

http://www.seattlepi.com/specials/scoutslogging/map/ In recent years there has been some substantial logging at my council camp. There have been some major areas clear cut leaving a huge scar in the earth. The council put a cope course in one of these areas. Cope becomes pretty tough with the sun beating down on the kids due to the lack of trees. What a shame. Abel

At least in my council, training = $ Abel

Hi Eagle, I have posted before - there are currently only 5 district committee members in my district who were appointed by the DE, my district no longer has a district commissioner and has not since last February. My district was totally without any district committee until July, the new district chair was appointed by the DE and approved by the council president without any input from our last district nominiating committee (which was also appointed by the DE), (they only met once) - the new district chair was already approved before this last nominating committee was even formed.

Has anyone out there in the Scouting world ever heard of a nominating committee consisting of 11 members none of which are registered scouters? None of which any current district Scouters have ever heard of? Has anyone out there in the Scouting world ever heard of making suggestions to the nominating committee through the DE rather than the head of the nominating committee or District chair? Just curious. Abel "Procedure Ninety days prior to the district annual meeting, the district chairman will submit suggestions for members of the nominating committee to the counci

I forgot to add this - in the city where my council resides, during the Scoutreach days, there are county housing complexes. There was a push within my district to get more units started within these complexes. One of the district members at large informed us that they were steering away from churches as sponsoring institutions intead they were going to target these county run facilities as he stated "there is money the council could get from the county if they concentrated their efforts on the county housing complexes. Needless to say, the packs and troops never really existed, but they were

...I find it interesting that the BSA makes it much easier to segregate than to include... ...Don't get where you're comin' from, sherm. In this case the BSA isn't doin' anything, the CO is... Beavah, the BSA is simply closing its eyes and allowing its chartered organizations to exclude if they so choose. In essence they are washing their hands while still allowing things to happen. Do you not find a problem with the BSA opening the camp for a particular religious group of Scouts while excluding all others? (by the way this only happened once. Now the LDS units camp with the non-LDS

Just adding my 2 cents - the BSA allows a charter organization to discriminate. (I know, discriminate is a bad non pc word). for example - a unit being sponsored by a Catholic church could state that only Catholic boys may join that particular unit. Is this discrimination? My council has a Hungarian troop where they will only accept members who speak Hungarian. All others need not apply. (They even where different uniforms and follow a different Scout program, yet they are allowed to be registered with the BSA). There are in school units in my council who will only accept memb

I have to agree with BadenP.

Shortridge, thanks for the input. I haven't heard anything about any changes either, though my council has added their own rules from time to time and they usually let you know when you show up to camp. Abel

My troop has traditionally had a cabin camp in November as a first time camping experience for the new Scouts we recruited in September. The cabin is at our council camp ground. We have always opened the camp to fathers; expecially the fathers of the new Scouts. With the new youth protection guidelines and training that is now required for registered leaders, has anyone heard anything about allowing non registred fathers to participate at Scout camp? Has there been any new policies or procedures relating to visiting adults being allowed to camp with a troop? Abel

rules, shmules. In my council, the professionals trump any national rules, regulations, policies and procedures and they have the support of the executive board in which most members don't really know or understand Scouting. Currently, (and for most of the past year), my district committee only has 6 volunteer members and a district executive. The district committee consistis of a MIA district chair, a popcorn chair, an activities chair, an advancement chair, a camping chair, and a training chair. There is no district commissioner as the last one resigned last February. The district

I'm sure that this has been discussed before on the forums, but I will bring it up again. Can a boy who is just visiting a troop go on a weekend camp while not a member of the BSA? Here is an example - a boy visits the troop to see if he wants to join that troop. The troop has a weekend camp coming up at the end of the week. Is the visitor allowed to go to camp with the troop? Or does he first have to join the unit?

RememberSchiff, Please keep this forum informed if you can on the outcome in this matter. I would like to know how the BSA will come through for this family. Abel

None. Popcorn started years ago and was offered as a supplemental help to a unit's fundraising efforts. Prior to popcorn, units did all their fundraising by themselves. If your unit belonged to a chartered organization that supported the unit, there was no need for the unit to require help. But there were units associated with sponsoring institutions that could not financially support their unit. So the BSA stepped in and offered popcorn as a solution. But the popcorn thing morphed as the BSA professional corps realized that there was money that could be made and many units now belie

Guy, you nailed it right on the head. That old curmudgeon Scoutmaster; giving the professionals a hard time. Thanks for your thoughtful post. The thing is the professional is a transient. His loyalty is to his job. He will be moving on when he gets promoted to another council. But it is the old loyal SM who the professional is supposed to support. The old SM isnt just complaining; he knows what he needs. He knows how things are supposed to work. The old SM is focused on what the program is supposed to be for the boys. If it werent for serving the boys, there would be no BSA. If ther

After reviewing my council's annual reports going back to the late 70's, the only time I see huge declines in membership was when a new Scout Executive came to town. Membership declines during these times are 5000 to 8000 members. Then there is a steady increase in membership during the SE's tenure. It has happened 4 times in my council since the 70's. Facinating stuff. But for anybody in the general Scouting community outside the executive board to notice it, one has to keep last years annual report or have access to annual reports through the years. thoughts on this?

Indeed Eagle, I agree with your humble opinion. In my State, there are no gun restrictions based on age. It is a situation of a council who does not want to invest in the program for the Scouts. It is a council where we have an abundance of DE's and professional staff that are serving an inflated membership. There is no need for the amount of paid staff in my council. We simply do not have the membership that is being claimed.