Abel Magwitch

This question is primarily for the pros out there. Volunteers who have knowledge of the subject, please chime in. When a new adult application comes in and the background check is compete, what are the procedures to be followed if the background check reveals that the adult will be rejected? How quickly is a background check completed? I have been told it takes about 48 hours. How long does an adult application sit around at the Scout office until it is processed and a background check initiated? If the background check comes back where a person is to be rejected, who is n

1 What was the reason(s) that your unit decided not to sell popcorn? When popcorn was first introduced as a way for units to supplement treasuries if they were not getting all the needed support from their sponsoring institution, we had no need to supplement our Troops funds. Even today years after popcorn was introduced, our Troop is still supported by its sponsoring institution so it has no need for selling popcorn. 2 What changes (if any) do you feel need to be made to the popcorn sale? We have no answer as we dont sell popcorn. 3 If the above changes are made would yo

My district has some convicted felons who are adult leaders. One easy way to discover this is to look up the court dockets from your county court of common pleas under criminal section. It's all public record. I was suspicious of a guy in the district. Did a quick search on the court docket and found he was a convicted felon. I took my concerns to my then DE. She also looked and found what I did on the docket. I asked her the same questions - how did this guy slip past the background check? And what constitutes being a crime that would prevent an adult from being registered. It been a few year

Shortridge sums it up in a nutshell.

All that I expect is for the camp (and the program if its summer camp) to be as the council has promised for the fees charged. I expect the facilities to be that of quality. The facilities and the program are for the boys we serve. The camp should be in as good of condition as the renovated Scout office.

So KC9DDI, you consider the pro to be a visitor. Interesting.(This message has been edited by abel magwitch)

My troop is volunteer run. Monies are collected for campouts for the purpose of buying food and to pay the scout camp fees. Everybody pays including the adult leaders. At least in my district and council, it is the volunteers who organize and run events such as training, camporees etc. And in my district and council, its the volunteer leaders of these events that collect the monies, order the patches, get the food (many times they actually do the cooking) etc. Training is many times held in various churches at no cost to the district or council. Churches here generally open their do

Kudos to you Eagle. I know that you were an honest pro who decided to not want to be part of a corrupt administration during the time you served as a pro. I am sure that your former SE either retired with a lot of benefits or got promoted to ever higher paying positions in the BSA. And I am happy for you that you are part of a council with good pros; where the youth program is thriving. I have said many times that I know that the problems I have in my council are not inclusive to every other council. It is evident that Scouting is thriving in parts of this country from the posts of others

Why do you need council? Why to serve your unit as they agreed to. Service with a smile ;-)

Perhaps the BSA could hire those putting on the training as paraprofessionals - like those who get paid to be unit leaders in some councils.

The uniforms of late are no longer made in mainland China. But I find it notable that when the uniforms were being made in mainland China, China forbade Scouting. At that time, China was one of only 6 countries that forbade Scouting in the whole wide world according to the World Organization of the Scouting Movement. Out of all the countries that could have produced uniforms for the BSA at a discounted price, the BSA chose a country that did not allow Scouting. Sad. Below has been taken out of different Boy Scout handbooks over the years concerning the uniform: "Your uniform is part

BS-87, I am a COR and an active one at that. Been in Scouting a long time. Part of an old troop that still serves city youth, a troop with very dedicated leadership who also give of their time and resources. Scouting thrives in my church where it has died in the majority of other churches. The Scouting program that the troop delivers is one of quality and fun. Yes, I am a COR with as much voting power at council level as those CORs in the Chicago Area Council who were eventually told that their vote really doesnt count. Pro's come and go, but this troop along with 6 others left in the

There is something missing concerning quality unit awards and jte. The programs in theory are supposed to be a help for the unit to succeed. But there is an underlying purpose to these awards as well - they are used by professionals to show that they have met their criticals which of course leads to promotions and raises. What has happened in some (not all) councils and districts is that the service the unit receives from the district and council is not one of quality or excellence. And some volunteer leaders realize how this program also benefits the professional and they don't like it

Congratulations Basement on accomplishing gold without even lifting a pen! Simply amazing! I know your DE is proud of your Pack ;-)

I need to point out that I am not suggesting that outsiders contact these folks; my hope is that perhaps some of these folks happen to post on the forums already and would be willing to comment. It is likely that there are folks on these forums who are actually part of the Boonslick district. I always look forward to explanations from the management when national policies are in question. But from my experience, I have also found that many times such a request is generally ignored. If anyone thought that I was suggesting folks from the outside to contact these folks that was neve

Perhaps someone from the Great Rivers Council could shed more light on why the council is allowing girls to join Cub Packs using the LFL program only for registration purposes. Perhaps the membership chair of the district or even District Director, Jon Wilson and/or District Executive Andrew Gronauer of the Boonslick District would be willing to comment on this technique here on the forums.

The kid should win his appeal. He is obviously being held back by some extenuating circumstances the EBOR only meets monthly. As a former district advancement chair, I understood that there are many Scouts who wait till the last minute. I am sure you leaders out there know of a few Scouts who procrastinate. And I knew that there would be times I would be inconvenienced because of this. But we volunteer to serve the boys. Yes, I had to drop what I was doing sometimes for a last minute Scouts. If I was unavailable, I would have another from the district advancement committee handle it. Wh

http://www.bsalegal.org/gender-cases-226.asp And yet in other parts of the country, girls have been turned away from Cub Scouts. People have actually taken the BSA to court. The BSA maintains that its Cub Scout and Boy Scout programs are for boys only.

I predict that the BSA will turn a blind eye to the breach in their policies concerning girls not being allowed to join the Cub Scouts as this is the first Hispanic Pack in the city and the BSA is pushing their Hispanic Initiative and will not want to make waves by putting the kibosh on this new Hispanic Pack which is obviously thriving. It is also apparent that the council must feel that it is ok to break their own policies by allowing this girl to be a Cub Scout while registering under a program that the BSA emphatically states is NOT a Boy Scout program. This girl is not receiving the

The following is a statement that has been used several times by the BSA by different spokesmen: "Learning for Life programs are not Boy Scout programs and Boy Scout membership requirements have no relevance to Learning for Life programs." So with such an official response coming out of national to the media, I cannot see how this Cub Pack is getting away with having girls participate in the Pack and registering that member as LFL, a school based program. (Deron Smith, a spokesman for Boy Scouts of America, wrote the above in one of two e-mails to the St. Petersburg Times)

LFL started out as in school scouting from what I recall. Then the BSA decided to morph the program into LFL when local chapters of the United Way stopped funding Scouting because it was considered discriminatory. Some United Way chapters only donate funds to the LFL program instead of the BSA program, yet those funds still go to the local BSA council. Exploring now falls under the LFL division. In some councils, the LFL membership outnumbers all the traditional membership combined, but it certainly brings in the dough. But some school districts are starting to catch on that LF

Moosetracker makes some interesting comments: ....Yeah, makes me curious about LFL too.. All I know about it is that is where they now have placed the Explorer group, and it allows them to be more open to homosexuals and (I believe) athiests.. So although LFL is just that I always think of the Venture age youth.. I would imagine they do though have programs for younger & older.. But, can signing up fo LFL allow you to work on the cub scout ranks??? Hmmm... I think only if LFL has a way to award them officially.. Because as a cub scout you can not earn boy scout rank. But, then as a Ve

Yep, seen it happen in my council. one SE retired and the membership dropped. New SE came and was able to start his tenure with a lot less members. It was then easy to raise membership every year using his special programs membership. Council membership grew by the thousands (supposedly) and when it was time to get promoted, and the next SE came aboard, the membership again dropped by thousands overnight! The next SE told the executive board that membership numbers had been manipulated and that the problem was taken care of. Executive board was happy but they chose not to tell anybody else in

Shortridge, I have also noticed that the 990's usually do not match up with what is posted on the annual report given at the annual council business meeting. Very interesting stuff can be found on the irs 990. There are some better sites out there besides guidestar that provide 990's going back about 10 years. Then you can really see some interesting numbers.

Our troop does it that way. Usually a quick breakfast of a danish and milk. We usually are out the gate by 9:00am on Sunday.