Order of the Arrow

Chicken or Egg? When adults lead the troop, the Scouts would rather be on their phones.  If the parents are forcing them to be there, then are the parents also expecting the adult volunteers to baby sit?  Its both counter-intuitive and a self reinforcing negative feedback loop. Its especially bad when the SM has a weak ego, sometimes feeling like the parents are out to get him/her. Weak ego usually leads to control issues. Though the weak ego can be the driving factor. The spouse in a key position or supporting position as it could well be co-dependency. Narcissist types also tend to seek each other out for mutual benefit/protection so watch-out if your SM, CC, & CoR are long-time scouters in a adult-led unit with anti-parent sentiments.  And... “Boards of Review Must Be Granted When Requirements Are Met” though my interpretation is scheduled to occur promptly. The overarching issue to not intentionally delay advancement. 

Heard second hand that a member of the national executive committee was at a council leadership summit and told people that the membership for scouts from military families was something they had already been working on and that there were large donors lined up to cover the costs.  If accurate this should actually help with overall membership numbers, as I am sure there are a lot of kids out there who would like to join but the program is out of reach on a military salary.

I guess that all depends on where you are located. The goal here is for each of our districts to add at least one new unit each quarter, with an emphasis on every current charter having both a pack and troop. We are also putting an emphasis on contacting every family who had someone not renew their membership, find out what caused them to leave, and see what we might be able to do to bring them back into the program. If units, districts, and councils continue to just look at declining numbers and not look at why they are declining and work to mitigate those reasons, the decline will continue.

Some minor good news, sort of.  Received email from Trust that they tried to send me a modest wire today, but it was rejected because of who knows what at the bank.  Will call them tomorrow.  But something is moving.

Add those numbers to the loss of formality paying military members, and the shortfall gets worse. Looks like we are in a death spiral: fewer members lead to higher dues, which lead to more member losses.    We will likely follow the Girl Scout lead, with maga-sized councils and less council contact. Single units covering large areas