Abel Magwitch

I am glad that others found this FOS request to be "cheesy". I also need to clarify that our DE was a District Director overseeing two districts and our Scoutreach, In-school Scouting and LFL program. He had to take over our district for the past year because the previous DE was promoted to another district. This DD has no tact or couth. He hand picked the district chair and district committee. He does not follow district committee election procedures. He is not well liked. He came with our new SE two years ago. So he is not a green behind the ears DE.

I have watched this guy at several Eagle COH. Before the COH, he would say his hellos and then ask the SM if he could do FOS. I have seen one SM tell him no and another said yes only to regret it after. It is the Eagle's day, not the DE's

Our DE has decided when invited to Eagle Courts of Honors to solicit FOS. I find this to be really cheesy. This is the Eagle's special moment and the DE wants to solicit FOS. Thoughts?

Our council has always been good at getting the unit charters and membership cards out. But not this year. Currently no unit has received their charters or membership cards even though rechartering was done at the end of the year. Now I have heard two reasons for this. First reason - the council did not order the new membership cardstock (paperstock). All they have are 2010 100 years of Scouting blanks. The DFS reason - council has up to two months to issue charters and membership cards. Anyone else out there been waiting two months after rechartering to get their uni

UCEagle72 cites directly from the current Rules and Regulations that there is nothing written about a cor actually being a member of the co. Yet the national website states otherwise. I have seen dual sets of policies and procedures before in the realm of advancement. I have personally experienced the SE making his own rules under the guise that he is interpreting an official rule or regulation. The SE made up rules actually contradicted the official rules and regulations but alas, it wasnt convenient to the council to follow the rules. And the volunteers aren't capable of understanding

Unit commissioner? What's that? District commissioner? Been without for over a year.

I wish I could contribute but alas, there is little to no communication in the district or council. We continue to not have a district commissioner for over a year now, and have yet to meet the new DE who started in early January.

I would like to point out that on another thread, there was discussion concerning the council making a profit from training. I would like to add this - (at least in my council) training is organized by volunteer training chairs and their volunteer committees (both district and council. The trainers are volunteers. The facilities used are usually churches (with no charge to the council). And there is always a fee so the council can make a profit. What really bothers me is that during FOS time, on the flyer called the true cost of scouting (a council flyer) it mentions that FOS monies

I agree with your assessment. It is not me who is eager to abandon the church, it is the way my council is now doing business in the city. One by one as units sponsored by churches are allowed to die in my district; the council newsletter every other month boasts and welcomes the new units formed in the schools. Problem is you never see these units participate in any district activities. Perhaps one day the city school district will decide it can no longer sponsor Scouting. The city school district where I'm from is projecting a 60 million deficit for next year and teacher layoffs are be

Perhaps you could move your pack to a public school where the utilities are paid for by tax dollars. I know that is happening in my council. Council executives have no interest in churches anymore. Executives have even started moving units into county assisted housing complexes because there are county tax dollars that can be tapped into. (yep, an actual executive said this). Or perhaps some of the council's fos dollars could be used to support your sponsor church.

SeattlePioneer This sounds like its time for the paid professional DE to have a meeting with the institutional head and COR. In fact, the DE is supposed to meet annually with the institutional head especially at charter renewal time. The DE gets paid to be in contact with his units sponsoring institutions. Its not your job as membership chair to organize a unit committee. If the pack is failing, where is the unit commissioner? Where is the district commissioner? Failing units fall in their realm of service. Hawkrod is correct. Its the COR who needs to take action. That is why he vol

SPL1Warwick, are you the SPL of your troop? Are you an Eagle Scout? You mention that the Scout new about an upcoming campout, but decided on doing the project during that time anyway. You brought up questions in your posts that I myself would ask if I were an Eagle board member. I would ask the Scout if he planned for his fellow Scouts to help him with his project. If yes, I would then ask why would he schedule his project when he knew the troop would be camping. I would ask why he would ask his fellow Scouts to not go camping to work his project. That sounds a bit selfish to me. I would

Eagle732, I was reponding to your question. And from what you have written, you are doing things right. As a SM, the Scout needs your approval prior to starting his project. Kudos to you for maintaing a high standard before approving the Scout to begin his Eagle project. I recently served as district advancement chair. And yes, I have been on some EBOR where the board did not find that the Scout had demonstrated leadership. And of course, the Scout appealed and received his Eagle from national. But in those cases, I was asked to be part of a board by another district advancement chair.

Not at all. From what SPL1Warwick has written, the project was competed. Which to me also indicates that the SM already approved the project. Now of course when a Scout brings his project idea forward, it has to be approved prior to even starting the project. It is approved by the SM, the troop committee, someone from the group the project will benefit and the district or council. It appears in this situation that the Scout went ahead with his project. So now the questions are - did the Scout have approval prior to starting his Eagle project? If not, then it wasn't an Eagle project

Infoscouter writes - For years people complained about the cost of Scout uniforms, which were made in the U.S. Now they complain because they're NOT made in the U.S. And now that the uniform is made in the thrid world, it's interesting that the high price of the uniform had not gone down.

Welcome to the forums. Sounds like a perfect situation for the district commissioner to address. Have you been in contact with the DC?

It's up to the Eagle board of review to decide if the Scout demonstrated leadership.

Good post BadenP. I have also noticed that many disagreements happen on the forums because some do not wish to believe that there are problems out there in the Scouting world. I have had the pleasure of corresponding with some folks; folks who had issues with Scouting - those folks who are told by others that they are just sour grapes. But I have personally found out who some of these folks are. Some turned out to be the ones who were directly affected by membership fraud and other council funny business that seems to happen at the professional level. They are usually the ones who were d

Your COR is the place to start if you are having problems with the SE. Your COR should stick with discussing the problems with the volunteers first. Get your district chair involved. Get your district commissioner involved. Your unit should not have to put up with a bully SE. Go as high as the counicl president (a volunteer). Again the COR is your unit's voice in these types of matters. You wouldn't be part of a Florida council would you?

Well said Eamonn

Then quite frankly, the BSA should not tell the SI that they "own" the unit. If the BSA is unwilling to be up front with a SI when organizing a new unit with the rules and regs, then it has no business telling folks that they "own" something. It needs to be pointed out that the BSA in my neck of the woods has never stated to my SI that it has "limited" ownership; that word is not used. The "owners" need to be informed of the limited nature of their ownership especially concerning funding when the unit is formed; during the DE's annual visit; at COR training.

thanks again SN ;-)

thanks ScoutNut for the info, but as far as my comments, I never implied that Scouting is a money making vehicle for the Sponsoring institution. My concerns dealt with a unit treasury if a unit dissolved. Scouting is many times used by a church as part of it's youth program. Should the church itself decide to help fund the troop and or pack, then these rules and regs should be made known up front to the sponsoring institution when the BSA decides to grant them a Scouting charter. By the way, none of this information is part of COR training and now DE has never ever mentioned these rules a

AlFansome, thanks for the link. I wonder if the BSA made some changes which they are just getting around to getting the info out. And yes, what you posted is word for word. Even the troop equipment is put on hold by the CO to await another unit to be started. Sounds like the BSA is wanting to control everything. From AlFansome's link he provided - [EDITOR'S NOTE: This advice was provided to Boy Scout councils in August 2008 by Russell C. McNamer, Tax and Legal Specialist for Boy Scouts of America. Be warned: since White Rock District does not own this information, we cannot guarantee its

Avid SM writes - If the CO dissolves a unit, then that unit no longer exists - it's charter is dropped. All of the units things and money belong to that CO, no matter what. I have always been told this. In our latest council newsletter, I was surprised to read this... "What happens to the unit funds should the unit dissolve - In the event of the dissolution of a unit, or the revocation or lapse of its charter, the unit committee shall apply unit funds to the payment of unit obligations and shall turn over the surplus, if any to the local council." Thoughts on this? Abe