Open Discussion - Program
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LATEST POSTS
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My council is a culture of cash is king. The professional motto is ABF - Always Be Fundraising. Everything the council puts out on any platform are the council sponsored events. If they are not able to monetize something (like promote a unit doing a cool outing or a unit providing good service) they do not care. Quite actually more than 1/2 of the paid employees in the council are "Development" or "Marketing" staff. Now you might think marketing is promoting the program, nope, it's about marketing fundraising. Any DE, when they are hired, the description of duties in the announcement first reads leading FOS, popcorn, and camp cards. Oh, maybe recruiting and unit growth, but that is waaaaaay down the list. My council operates with this question: "Do we raise money to have Scouting - OR - Do we have Scouting to be able to raise money?". They are 100% focused in the latter part of this question. -
By Eagle94-A1 · Posted
Until recently, multiple units could camp together with no issues. I think National tightened the multiple units policy because some were creating their own events like camporees and summer camp even. As long as the YPT policies OF THE DAY (emphasis, YPT has become significantly tighter, i.e. only 21 year olds count towards YPT, parents are not allowed to camp, etc) you were fine. -
By Eagle94-A1 · Posted
@Prime00, 110% correct. But sometimes, just sometimes, the pros are so bad, that new Scouters with kids still in the program back away. As to why it happens? Sometimes the pros move from one areas where stuff they are proposing/mandating/changing is successful, but in the area they move it doesn't work. One example I can give is packs having designated schools they recruit from. Great idea when you are in an area with neighborhood schools. But when you move to an area with forced bussing, not such a good idea. -
I just checked the national map of councils which appears to have been updated 4 Dec 2024 (but does not reflect the realignment of Bay Lakes in WI and MCC in Michigan). That map shows 244 councils. If the settlement documents are binding to any degree that means we're probably looking at a council reduction of at least 100, the low end is at the floor of expectations right? If we look at the cost savings, Scouting America saves anywhere between 18 million and 28 million a year just on council executive salaries (average salary seems to be around 200k) when they merge these councils. This is some EXTREMELY low hanging fruit to find money for program for the scouts. This is just CE money we would save, we don't have good visibility on what council registrars, camping directors, etc ... make those are also all de duplicated roles in a council merger. -
I ran across my councils strategic plan last night. With what I learned from it I ask the question; are toxic district and councils the product of DEI? My councils strategic plan is a decade old, about a third of it has to do with "leadership and membership reflecting all of our community" and a SOLID smidge of "we need to implement plans where 'regular units' take scoutreach units on campouts". My council has been on the chopping block for several years, we're shrinking year-over-year, every attempt to merge with a surrounding council is rebuked because no other council in our area will touch us with a ten foot pole. Is this strategic plan why no other council will work with us? Forget the reflecting our community part; how does the make regular units take scoutreach units on campouts even work with YPT and GTSS? Was it that some maniac wrote this garbage or were the early 2010s a YPT wild west?
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