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Scouting Forward: A Plan to Lead Announced


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16 minutes ago, yknot said:

I hear you but you are simply being a babe in the woods. No organization today can exist without liability insurance. You can't get liability insurance without infinite safety regulations, waivers, etc. Scouts, like many youth organizations, will never be able to operate the way it has been able to do in the past without significant tort reform.  Every youth organization has to be a safety organization today or the doors don't even open. I don't know why people even rail about this. Fight it politically, lobby for tort reform, but you can't fight it individually or you will just get sued. 

Not saying do not be safe, and risk management is important.  My point is that HEY, WE'RE SAFE is a very poor marketing slogan.  Yes we can be safe, but that cannot be the reason for the BSA

 

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This part doesn't make any sense to me.  Why would we need a separate membership category?  Advancement is voluntary.  If a scout doesn't want to advance, he doesn't have to.  He doesn't need a specia

While @John-in-KC is likely right that this document is some internal document, this thread also contains the monthly how-to-fix-scouting comments. I'm not trying to berate anyone as it is nice to see

THey are missing "stakeholders" and "mission, vision and guiding principles"...

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1 hour ago, yknot said:

No organization today can exist without liability insurance.

A lot of good is does them.  Pay the premiums for decades. Then the insurance companies refuse to pay out.    

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58 minutes ago, David CO said:

A lot of good is does them.  Pay the premiums for decades. Then the insurance companies refuse to pay out.    

What is the alternative? Be on the hook yourself? 

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On 7/10/2020 at 11:28 AM, David CO said:

This part doesn't make any sense to me.  Why would we need a separate membership category?  Advancement is voluntary.  If a scout doesn't want to advance, he doesn't have to.  He doesn't need a special membership category.

I could see some value in that.  As a parent, I would have loved bringing my kids to a scout camp to fish, hike, etc.  The camps have great programs and resources.  

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4 hours ago, fred8033 said:

I could see some value in that.  As a parent, I would have loved bringing my kids to a scout camp to fish, hike, etc.  The camps have great programs and resources.  

I think that may be exactly what the executives at BSA have in mind.  They want to turn their remaining boy scout camps into commercial camp grounds.  They'll sell the ones they can and commercialize the rest.

I'm not sure they are talking about adding new membership categories like exploring or venturing.  I think it might be membership categories like the ones commercial health clubs have.  Weekend memberships.  Monthly memberships.  Family memberships.

This is what happened to the YMCA.  They took an association of young Christian men, dropped its mission/purpose, and turned it into a commercial health club.  

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10 hours ago, Jameson76 said:

Many leaders and professionals continue to over think the safe aspect and literally never leave the porch.  They feel very safe doing Scouting as a virtual idea.  Worst idea ever.  Scouting is getting out and trying to do things.  While trying you may in fact fail.  

This document wreaks of those who have NO CLUE how to run an actual unit or programs that youth want to join.  We need to be inspirational and aspirational, not an organization that is scared of it's own shadow.

True.

9 hours ago, yknot said:

No organization today can exist without liability insurance. You can't get liability insurance without infinite safety regulations, waivers, etc. . . . Every youth organization has to be a safety organization today or the doors don't even open.

Also true.

In our current society, we have to strike a balance between the real purposes of the program and enough self-protection to keep the program going.  BSA is in survival mode (maximum protection) now because it didn't do enough in the past to keep kids safe.  The balance has tipped in one direction now as a result of being tipped in the other direction in the past.  An added complication is that the law (the fulcrum, for purposes of this analogy) has moved in a direction unfavorable to BSA. 

But wait, there's more.

The pandemic has come out of nowhere and changed where that balance will be struck.  It has "lightened" the program by normalizing things like backyard "camping" and "earning" merit badges from the sofa.  Meaning that Scouting is far easier for Scouts and families to participate in (and far less resource intensive for units and for BSA). Just as with schools and businesses, there will be a strong push to keep many of the "virtual" options.  While the sexual abuse litigation and the bankruptcy are merely attacking BSA's finances, Covid-19 is attacking the heart of Scouting itself.

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2 hours ago, David CO said:

I think that may be exactly what the executives at BSA have in mind.  They want to turn their remaining boy scout camps into commercial camp grounds.  They'll sell the ones they can and commercialize the rest.

I'm not sure they are talking about adding new membership categories like exploring or venturing.  I think it might be membership categories like the ones commercial health clubs have.  Weekend memberships.  Monthly memberships.  Family memberships.

This is what happened to the YMCA.  They took an association of young Christian men, dropped its mission/purpose, and turned it into a commercial health club.  

I don't get how this is too much different. I can already rent campsites at my local scout camp for private use. I'm not sure how big the market is for a monthly membership to a campground. It's almost like a timeshare. 🤢. A gym membership is different, people will always pay monthly or annually for use of a gym facility. 

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3 minutes ago, John-in-KC said:

I have the feeling this graphic is not for public dissemination. 

Probably isn't, but I found it online leaked by a high level National training staff person and thought I would share.

And the graphic itself was later confirmed as accurate in a letter sent out by the National Commodore for Sea Scouts who linked to the Reddit item.

How sad is it we are at the point that the only way to get information out of National is via leak?

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2 hours ago, CynicalScouter said:

Probably isn't, but I found it online leaked by a high level National training staff person and thought I would share.

And the graphic itself was later confirmed as accurate in a letter sent out by the National Commodore for Sea Scouts who linked to the Reddit item.

How sad is it we are at the point that the only way to get information out of National is via leak?

Not to worry..National is going to hire another 6 figure exec as the national Chief Communications and Marketing Officer

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OK, this morning I happened to talk to the National Sea Scout Commodore.  He has been asked to be on the two committees to interpret the results of the report and help in the planning for moving forward.

He says the acceptance is just an acceptance that BSA received the report, not an acceptance to follow the recommendations. He said the BSA top leadership is aware of the petitions going around and that they are a good thing to sign.

So it appears this is the recommendation from the Churchill group but not from BSA and there is a lot to still be discussed and decisions to be decided on.

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21 hours ago, yknot said:

Once again, another really media tone deaf choice by BSA. Do they not even watch CNN? Churchill was a great man, but his statues are being toppled because of his racist opinions. What was wrong with Eagle Project? Why are we always shooting ourselves in our media foot? 

 

It's mind boggling. Is this whole organization run by 70 or 80 year old men? 

I think Churchill is the name of the consulting company that made the report. 

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Churchill was selected a year ago. According to the presentation at National Annual Meeting, it was chosen because Winston Churchill was a leader in a time of change.

The discussion of the name "Churchill" is at 49:00 in the General Session Video. They 6 committees are "Churchill groups" and their plans are "Churchill projects".

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48 minutes ago, mashmaster said:

OK, this morning I happened to talk to the National Sea Scout Commodore.  He has been asked to be on the two committees to interpret the results of the report and help in the planning for moving forward.

He says the acceptance is just an acceptance that BSA received the report, not an acceptance to follow the recommendations. He said the BSA top leadership is aware of the petitions going around and that they are a good thing to sign.

So it appears this is the recommendation from the Churchill group but not from BSA and there is a lot to still be discussed and decisions to be decided on.

With all do respect, the pros WILL ignore the desires of the youth and volunteers and do whatever they want.  They ignored the published results on instapalms, and they still have not published the results of the poll regarding membership changes.

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