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There is the other side: 1) You have a boy (girl) in scouts. 2) You slowly get sucked into the myth and re-discover your inner boy. 3) Some old scouters or real boy scouts teach you som

I think this whole thread illustrates why National is interested in membership numbers. The number of scouts is going down and the overhead is not. The result is economic stress and thus everythi

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On 2/5/2018 at 2:25 PM, Col. Flagg said:

I think many can get behind all of this.

The reality -- and I think the point of the OP -- is that culturally, BSA at the national and local levels, have created such a problem for themselves that they cannot possibly reach your excellent vision of what is needed. Why? They are too busy doing their usual stuff -- stuff needed to keep the juggernaut afloat -- that they don't have time to stop bailing to work on the ideas you suggest.

I suspect this is the very reason why many of us have decided to focus on our units and not do anything with council and national. 

Yep.  All council is not bad, but really different objectives.  The challenge is we (volunteers and leaders) are focused on one element (they are called scouts and fun) and the "Council" is focused on other elements (called money and numbers)

You hit the nail on the head in that many of use will continue to focus only on our units.  As one who is a former professional (lasted a couple of years, way too much Sustaining Membership and numbers while not near enough program), former district volunteer, etc etc now focus is my unit.  

Sadly I am torn.  I know the value that scouting brings, I can see challenges within the district, but do I want to put up with the hassle and group think to try and change it?  We have two district scout events, attendance is OK, but they really need to be revamped and brought up to date, be more engaging.  We are the largest troop in the district and the Greenbar came to us during planning and asked do we have to go to the winter one?  We had stopped attending the Spring camporees a few years ago.  Our input was, that is your decision, if you want to do something else, that's fine.  This year we are going backpacking and while a couple of weeks out still, we have more Scouts signed up for that than went to the winter event in any of the last 5 years.  We are in the southern US so winter event just means it may be below 40 for part of the day.

The council runs a great summer camp and we enjoy that.  We use the council properties (and adjacent council's) each year.  They can bring value and can serve a purpose.  Yet when I look at the council staff and see SE, and Asst SE, marketing staff, development staff, safety staff, mystery staff, multiple FD's, etc etc I seriously wonder what these folks do all day.  Honestly I see our DE once per year at our troop FOS event.  Never seen them or their FD while we were at camp, at any of our meetings or events.   True we run a good program, but you would think if numbers are the end all be all, maybe go out and actually see what makes a good unit.

If you need me I'll be backpacking with the scouts.

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1 hour ago, Jameson76 said:

You hit the nail on the head in that many of use will continue to focus only on our units.  As one who is a former professional (lasted a couple of years, way too much Sustaining Membership and numbers while not near enough program), former district volunteer, etc etc now focus is my unit.  

Sadly I am torn.  I know the value that scouting brings, I can see challenges within the district, but do I want to put up with the hassle and group think to try and change it?  We have two district scout events, attendance is OK, but they really need to be revamped and brought up to date, be more engaging.

I will add that our PLC runs a gear drive once a year to collect gentle used Scout uniform items and gear, which we donate to the district to disperse to disadvantaged units (cannot recall the official name BSA uses for this effort). District does not have an official (working) program of such. Neither does council...at least not one that is readily discernible from anything I have seen or heard.

We also have an outreach program, run by our Guides, Den Chiefs and a few ASMs, that help local packs with anything they might need. Guys get service hours for this and the packs get Scout help. Again, nothing I have seen the district or council do really.

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1 hour ago, David CO said:

My school's Outdoor Education program works better for me. I prefer it over scouting. But so long as there are boys interested in scouting, my school will probably continue to offer that option.

Well as you say, it is not the Scouts unit it is the CO's. So just make the change, right?

Or if the IH prefers Scout then quit being the CoR. Clearly the way BSA operates does not work for you. All things district and council are bad, national are all liars.

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2 hours ago, HelpfulTracks said:

Ridiculous horse hockey.

But if you believe that perhaps Trail Life or BPSA would work better for you.

Not very scout-like; are we repressing dissent in BSA now too? I always thought the rights of the workers to gripe about the "man" was  as american as apple pie.  

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30 minutes ago, HelpfulTracks said:

Well as you say, it is not the Scouts unit it is the CO's.

Yes, it is the CO's unit. The CO makes the decision on whether or not to re-charter the unit each year. 

My CO doesn't much like BSA. It only re-charters the unit each year out of consideration for the few boys who still like scouting. I think it is very kind and generous of my CO to do that.

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1 hour ago, HelpfulTracks said:

Well as you say, it is not the Scouts unit it is the CO's. So just make the change, right?

Or if the IH prefers Scout then quit being the CoR. Clearly the way BSA operates does not work for you. All things district and council are bad, national are all liars.

 

4 minutes ago, David CO said:

Exactly right.

I was quoting your sentiments, those certainly are not mine.

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4 minutes ago, HelpfulTracks said:

I was quoting your sentiments, those certainly are not mine.

I think everyone understands that. I was indicating that you paraphrased my sentiments exactly right. I couldn't have said it better myself.

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54 minutes ago, Tampa Turtle said:

Not very scout-like; are we repressing dissent in BSA now too? I always thought the rights of the workers to gripe about the "man" was  as american as apple pie.  

Calling horse hockey and recommending someone find an organization that fits them better pales in comparison.

Many of the comments on a myriad of subjects are not descent, they are down right nasty

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