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News from National Meeitng no knots, no DEs


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Volunteers to replace DEs? No way. Even the most dedicated volunteers could not be properly compelled to raise the "proper amount" of money from their community and send it to National. Not DE bashing, just reality.

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As hard as it is to believe, not one dime that is raised in FOS or even a percentage is sent off to the National Office.

 

Local Councils simply have a charter fee, which is actually pretty small.

 

National makes thier money off the Uniform cash cow, registration fees, and unit charter fees. Not to mention the cash cows of the Jamboree and the High adventure bases.

 

In most councils, 99% of FOS money is raised by volunteers. DE's serve as campaign managers to support the effort, just as they serve as staff advisors to a host of other activities.

 

The BSA has made a huge effort over the past 5 years to move the ownership of the BSA into the hands of the volunteers.

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Fund Our Salaries......I think most of us on this board know where the FOS moneys go....To pay the $200k salary of our SE and the $70k salary of our good for nothing DE.

 

 

Well BOB since your not gonna tell us who you are............What is your role???? Pro or volunteer and what is your job title.

 

 

We have a lot of pro's masquerading as volunteers here.

 

The only one that works for national is that RichardB......

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First of all Bobwhite89, I see you only have a few posts. Welcome to the forums. And forgive BD, he just happens to be the most miserable person in Scouting.

 

BD, not sure Bob's title or volunteer vs. pro status is any of your business. If he is a friend to Scouting, he is welcome to me. I never knew this was an "us vs. them" forum. If my DE, who happens to be fantastic, wouldn't be welcome on these forums, then perhaps this is my last post. A real shame too, because I thought Friendly was one of those 12 things we were supposed to worry about.

 

And for those who might think the Scouting word would be a better place without DEs, well some food for thought. You may have a bad one. The one prior to mine now was a real piece of work. But if it is ever changed to "no pros", someone still has to be in charge. I prefer to be a unit volunteer doing the best I can for my unit. I don't have the capacity to put in the volunteer hours to do what a high level district volunteer takes on (or at least what doing the job properly requires). Now, think about some of "those" people a RT. You know, the ones that if introductions are done, start rattling off their 18 different positions they currently hold and finishing off with a "And a Good Ol whatever from class blah, blah, blah" These are the people drooling for that VDE (Volunteer DE) position.

 

Good luck with that.

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Fellow Scouters,

 

Greetings!

 

I was hoping for some good news and beneficial programs coming out of the National Meeting. Currently it sounds like some difficult rumors are spreading.

 

I am glad that BSA is looking at safely allowing Waterbikes, Jet Skis and ATVs. Beyond that, I haven't heard of any new programs that will attract boys and families into Cubbing and Scouting, and not much that will attract teenagers into Venturing.

 

I have seen a flyer for "New Venturing" Vision for the Seabase Conference in January, but only wish they would publish emerging ideas much faster.

 

Besides the rumors, anybody with good news from the National Meeting?

 

Scouting Forever and Venture On!

Crew21 Adv(This message has been edited by Crew21_Adv)

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Bobwhite89 - I realize fundraising and membership are the ugly things that a DE is basically required for in order to make sure they happen, but are those necessary to the mission?

 

What can the BSA do better than anyone else?

 

- Are there better youth programs for citizenship and values?

- Are there better run camps to provide outdoor programming?

- Is there another youth program in the country with the brand recognition and resources capable of letting them recruit the raw numbers each year that Scouting is able to?

 

If those are the things that BSA can do better than anyone else, we need to ask ourselves if professionals are necessary. I think looking at that list that the first two can be accomplished without DE's. However, that third cannot. Without DE's a Council will lose resources quickly, which will drop off the number of boys joining. Lose the recruiting campaigns and you lose a lot of brand recognition within even a few decades. Look at what's happened since the Dale case and BSA backing away from the spotlight on most fronts.

 

If it's not necessary for Scouting to bring its program to as many youth as possible, there's no point in having DE's.

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We need scouts, uniforms or not! We sent out 3500 invites for a fisin derby. 9 kids came! One DE I know as never returned a call or email. If DEs are all alike, do we need em? Knots- any scouts really impressed? I mean scouts not adults...

 

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Bobwhite89: As hard as it is to believe, not one dime that is raised in FOS or even a percentage is sent off to the National Office. Local Councils simply have a charter fee, which is actually pretty small.

Those two sentences are contradictory. FOS goals are higher to raise the funds to pay the National charter fees.

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Tokala - Chartered Organizations pay the charter fees each year at rechartering time. That along with all membership fees collected at the same time all go to National.

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Israp.....

 

I already live in the world of mini kingdoms and scouters that will spend 5 minutes introducing themselves during Round Table intros.......

 

 

My DE is terrible, so a terrible volunteer doing the job would save my district $70K a year.

 

My district has 59 units total.....So that would reduce our $1k FOS expectation to zero.

 

 

Far as who bob is, is relevant to the conversation......

 

Bob said he was at a national level meeting.....Good to know who the players are and what the stake in the game is.......

 

I was gonna list forum member name and what their presented roles are, but whats the point.....Senior forum members know roughly who each other senior forum member is and what their scouting role is.

 

Far as miserable.......Naw, just my world isn't as fluffy and neat as yours. I enjoy my boys and young ladies for who they are and what they bring. Their decisions disappoint me at times but they are a product of their environment.

 

I get incredibly frustrated with Scouters who fail to see the bottom line. The kids. I frequently speak of the last awards dinner I attended....The district folks spent an hour awarding themselves.....then 5 minutes with SM, CM and volunteer of the year.......

 

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BD: "Far as who bob is, is relevant to the conversation......

 

Bob said he was at a national level meeting.....Good to know who the players are and what the stake in the game is......."

 

I'm not sure what the qualifications or restrictions are, but a volunteer buddy of mine went to the national meeting.

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With Wayne Brock taking over as the new CSE and who has a long history of just being a yes man to Mazzucca do any of you really expect any significant changes or new ideas to come out of National? If you do then I have a bridge in NYC I can sell you real cheap.

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The best part of these forums is I come away everytime realizing how lucky my boys are. We are in the Fishawack District of Patriots' Path Council and our DE is Al Thomas, a fine man who works hard at everything he is supposed to, especially delivering a good program. Dennis Kohl, our Scout Exec has done a tremendous job at the helm. Professional and volunteer staff throughout our council seems to be universally awesome and I truly believe it would negatively impact our program if we lost our DE's. I appreciate everything you have done for my boys!

 

As to the knots, just yesterday "BSA Volunteer Training Team" on Facebook announced the coming updates to Training Award Requirements.

 

Do the boys care? some do, not all understate that most adult knots associate with them having a good program though...

Do the Adults care? in my Pack they are typically not aware knots exist until we recognize them with one because they have already done the work. They do appreciate the recognition for the effort they have made. In my troop, it's the same thing, we submit the people who have done the work it is just far less frequent, less knots available and longer tenure in their positions.

 

I am of the opinion that a piece of cloth motivates an adult as much as it does a boy and we end up with a good program, why do I care what got them to classes, and roundtable and planning sessions and camping trips...

 

 

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So what I am sort of picking up about the knots is that the "real story" relates to the consolidation of some of the "leader", "training award" and "key" knots (which I believe had been announced previously), and that there is not expected to be a general elimination of knots. So knots for Silver Beaver, District Award of Merit, Arrow of Light, Eagle, will all remain. Right?

 

I personally could take or leave the knots, although I do wear my modest little single row of modest little knots (Arrow of Light, Cub Scouter and Scouter Training Award.) I think it's kind of neat that I get to wear a knot at the age of 50-something for an award I earned at the age of 10.

 

As for DE's, I don't think anyone in my troop would notice if they were gone, but I think they will remain.

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