Abel Magwitch

Narraticong, Here is a thought. Ask your COR to find an answer for you. They are a voting member of both the district and council committee. The COR and the rest of the district committee and anyone else who voted in the district slate should be given an answer.

Not working Eagle, Here is my email AbelMagwitch100@gmail.com

So in other words, in council planning meetings, the SE made his own policies that may have been contrary to national policy. This begs the question - Did the SE have the authority to make his own policies even if it went against the National Policies for council operations that are available at the Scout store? Please Eagle, tell more. As I said in my last post, we are without a District Chair currently. The reason that was given was that her term had ended at the end of the year. Funny thing though, the rest of the District committee officers still have their positions. Their terms

BadenP states: "Abel, I agree with you and that is why I left professional service after five years, disgust over the type of training we received at National with such topics as , "How to Manipulate your Volunteers", "How to exploit all your district resources, people, service organizations, and companies to make your FOS campaign a sucess", "How to get rid of problem volunteers with little effort", to name just a few." Are you serious BP? Those were the actual names of some of the topics? We have had an interesting situation develop in my council. Our district failed to have its

The Blancmange writes: "who would you rather lose, a scouter who wants to make up the rules as he goes along, or a scout who plays by the rules?" Great Post!!!

A Scout should do the requirements, no more and no less. And no council, district, unit or individual has the authority to add to our subtract from advancement requirements. Get with your commissioner and District Advancement Chair if all else fails.

Does anyone know of the final outcomes of this scandal? Was Dr. Willis allowed to get back into Scouting?

In my council, Cub Scout recruiting is held at the public libraries. When potential cubs show up, they are immediately encouraged to pay their registration fees. Then they are given a list of Packs in the area to visit. There are some who are shocked to find when they visit a Pack that there are additional dues to pay. Then they never really join a Pack. But as far as council is concerned, they have another member on the books for the fiscal year.

And let's not forget there is an ongoing metamorphosis of the urban programs. In the 90's, there was the Urban Emphasis program which later morphed into Scoutreach. And now Scoutreach has been dissolved as a national division of the Boy Scouts of America. The Multicultural Markets Team will now encompass some of the core elements once supported by Scoutreach, along with expanding its service to more specific populations. ( http://www.scoutreachbsa.org/ under message from the multicultural markets). There is also In School Scouting. This is done mainly in the urban areas where ro

Eamonn writes - If a District is not operating as it should and not doing things by the book, I would hope that any DE worth his or her salt would do everything in his or her power to change things and bring it around to where it should be. My DE is aware of the shenanigans going on at the professional level, but is unwilling to make any waves. She told me that her family really needs the money and she cannot afford to lose her job.

I have to go with BadenP on this one. His words reflect my own council to a tee. Are there good council's out there? Most likely. Are there good professionals and volunteers who are in the program for the sake of the Scouts? Undoubtably. But there are council's out there that reflect BadenP's own experiences. I am part of one.

BadenP, If the "right way" is not being followed, and if is "common practice" by the professional to not follow the written policies and procedures of this so called volunteer organization, then this organization has become a salaried organization under the guise of being a volunteer organization. Voluneers spend money to be trained. Volunteers read and learn the policies and procedures. Volunteers don't get paid to work with youth. But from what you have stated, perhaps it's time for the volunteer to quit spending money and reading BSA literature. Perhaps it's time to quit wasting

Manipulation. You nailed it. I have been noticing recently that in my council, the volunteers are in fact being manipulated. I have been in this program awhile now. I have found that if one actually reads the books - the district, the council, advancement policies and procedures, etc, to see how the program is supposed to work, you can really see the manipulation. Should you mention that things aren't being done correctly and try to implement things the way they are suppose to work, you really run into some major resistance by the professional staff who were happy with the way thin

BadenP, dc handpicked by the de? What happened to the policies and procedures? What happened to the nominating committee? Hmmmmmm. District nomination and election procedures, the de is simply an advisor. I thought that this was a volunteer program, but what you are implying is that the professionals are running the show.

Shortridge, you are correct. Apparently your council is doing things right concerning its summer camp. Bottom line - youth instructors can assist the MB counselor but not actually counsel merit badges. This national policy is in no way followed in my council. In our council, the area directors are the merit badge counselors for every badge in their area. Our council professional staff dictates to the advancement committee that NCS is all the area director needs to be qualified as a MB counselor for all the MBs in his area. Our council is not willing to let the council advancement com

Here is a follow up on my councils summer camp woes: A meeting was held in September with some members of the advancement committee and the director of program service to address the advancement problems at summer camp. The professional informed those members attending on how things are done in our council and then brought up some unknown established council policies concerning how advancement would be done at summer camp in the council. I was just informed of the results of this meeting two weeks ago. Prior to this meeting, another advancement committee member, concerned with the

Hello Beava, I have to tell you that my DE along with several other professionals in my council have actually told me that the BSA is business. Funny, I always thought that businesses were out to make a profit. I have a feeling that the times they are a changin somewhere in Irving.

I believe you hit the nail right on the head when you posted this: National's policy make sense if you're sitting in an office in Irving and are trying to avoid conflict and keep your job easy. But it STINKS as a way to run a Scout troop.

The current definition of active though weak does allow for a Scoutmaster to use his discretion in relieving an inactive Scout from his leadership duties. (Eagle requirement 4: While a Life Scout, serve actively for a period of 6 months in one or more of the following positions of responsibility) and opening the leadership position for another Scout who will actively perform the leadership duties. In this way, an inactive Scout can still remain a member of his troop. I believe that Scouting can still be a positive influence on even an inactive Scout who may only attend a Troop meeting on

Back in January of 2007, our council advancement committee gave a Scout an Eagle Board of Review on appeal for a Scout. The Scout had already been turned down by his initial EBOV. He appealed and was given a District level EBOV where again he was denied. The reason why this Scout failed his EBOVs was he was not active. The Scout had not been active for over a year. He did not show up for meetings; did not go on camps; did not show up for service projects or other activities. Why? The Scout was busy playing high school sports. He was required to be active by making all the practices and games.

I believe the swimming requirements for the lower ranks need to be revised a bit. Just as a Scout has options when earning merit badges - Hiking and Cycling instead of Swimming and Lifesaving, a Scout who cannot swim should have some alternatives. I live in an urban environment. I can tell you that there are many kids who do not have the opportunity to learn how to swim. Our city has some rec centers with only basketball courts instead of pools. And the city pools we do have are mostly outdoors and are only open for 4 weeks in the summer. So does this mean that the Eagle badge can be

Boomer, the OOC troops just lost their summer camp two years ago due to an EPA issue. That particular council no longer has a summer camp at all. But it just happens that our council camp is located within the other council's geographical boundaries. The merger is a coming boomer. Prior to two years ago, we had as few as 40 units using the council camp for summer camp. During one recent year, there were only 5 troops in camp during the 4th of July week. The problem is council is supplying the same number of staff members as they did back in 2006. They did not hire anymore to handle

Shortridge - Council has yet to post the actual attendance numbers. What council did post were the numbers of units that used the camp per week. The camp offers 17 sites and 4 cabins for summer camp use. Thats 84 sites over 4 weeks. Two troops formed a provisional unit and shared a site during one of the weeks. First week 17 troops Second week 14 troops Third week 13 troops Forth week 16 troops Total of 60 troops. 33 from council, 27 from ooc. At the pool, the aquatics director required all members of the BSA lifeguard class to be at the pool and the lake all day.

I would really like to see Roundtables function as they should by offering quality resources, knowledge, and skills to help unit leaders to deliver outstanding programs to their Scout troops. I would like roundtables to be fun and exciting while offering practical Scouting skills. I would like Roundtables to focus on the program highlights of the upcoming months. Yes, that is what I want to see. What I dont want to see is Roundtables being taken over by the training committees so the Roundtable becomes simply training. I dont want Roundtables to be taken over by the DEs when they u

Hey fish, When I was writing my reponse to you, I was responding to your 3:02 post. I didn't realize you had posted another response at 3:12. I was in the middle of writing my reply. I didn't get your additional details from the 3:12 post until just now. Happy Scouting!!!