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One of the surest signs of membership decline is the lack of Scouters coming to this forum to debate adult square knot insignia. I swear that used to be every other thread around here pre-COVID. 😛

Sometimes I think we are just not getting through... I am an ASM working with a Patrol of younger Scouts. Last night, an older Scout interrupted this Patrol's Meeting to try to take a younger Scout out to work on his Life requirement #6, using EDGE to teach a skill. The younger Scout is the planner for the Patrol's next camping trip, and he was working out plans with his Patrol mates. The younger Scout was obviously frustrated by this demand (from the look on his face) and turned to me for guidance. I dismissed the older Scout and told him this was time for the Patrol Meeting, and that the younger Scout was to stay and finish his planning with his Patrol Mates. This morning, the parent of the older Scout sends a scathing missive to the Scoutmaster, outlining how his son has been trying to complete this requirement for months now, and is not getting any support from the Troop. (This is factually incorrect, and the SM handled the email response to the parent perfectly.) The parent made brief mention of the Patrol Meeting scenario last night, and made a comment in reference to it that makes me believe we are just not getting through... "I understand the importance of patrol meetings, but don’t get why they would take precedence over completing rank requirements." This, followed by threats to leave the Troop if the Troop does not immediately make and implement a plan to help their Scout finish the requirement. Important to note also, this older Scout rarely comes to meetings, and has not been on a Troop outing since Oct 2024. He did not make arrangements with anyone to try to work on the requirement during this meeting... smh https://youtu.be/V2f-MZ2HRHQ?si=ljwnDk_wERNKzhz4

Some of these issues were caused by the councils and how they have things configured in AKELA. For example, one of my units hit "the naughty list" for not rechartering timely and I was confused so I spoke with the COR; the COR completed recharter the first week of December (all online). I then went to the DE and let him know that the unit rechartered online the first week of December, and was promptly notified that "whoopsie" council has an "introduced" manual process that blocks all recharters for a manual review that caused the issue. We're never going to have a smooth process if the professionals are introducing extra steps to try and keep this 1970's style. $237 isn't a lot of money in the grand scheme of things but what are the scouts getting back for that? The fee's are not bad if the scouts are getting value back; I just don't see the value back when visiting these high fee councils. One of the councils adjacent to mine has a $160 council fee; they have 18 more fulltime paid staff than my council and they have several hundred fewer scouts; what value is that council getting?

Insurer's first attempt at getting the Trust's suit against them tossed has been denied: USCOURTS-txnd-3_23-cv-01592-0.pdf Essentially, the insurers started playing their delay game and asked for the lawsuit to be moved to Illinois. The court has said "nice try, but no." So, it's a victory. BUT, expect there to be an apeal of this and any decisions unfavorable to the non-settling insurers. They are masters at delay and even with a trial moving forward it will be years until any resolution. This is a time value of money exercise and insurance attorneys are masters at delaying procedures so their employers hold onto their assets as long as possible. Still, let's appreciate any victory no matter how small, and hope some insurance CEOs start thinking "Okay, the cost of litigating this is starting to cost more than settling."

Possible reply: “Priority is given to skills training, which is primarily done in situ on campouts, which we use meetings to plan. We encourage skill mastery at meetings BY PLANNING IN ADVANCE with fellow scouts to set aside meeting time to do so.” Or, don’t waste your breath and just work for smiles.

There is a 2 month "lapsed" period; however, depending on what report a leader looks at a lapsed scout may or may not be represented. I really hope not; but, if they do decide to go back to pro-rated I hope they have membership at a different time than recharter.

Patrol time; the bane of the main character syndrome parent.

Yep.

It seems like it has ended with a muted thud. SC appeals are over, most people are resigned to getting 10% or less of any award, SOL claimants left behind, Trust doesn’t really communicate anything because there’s nothing to say, SSS issue will work its way through (likely by decreasing to what was originally expected/submitted), IRO unknown but probably will max out 80% of any additional insurance money, a new Scouting entity unencumbered by liabilities associated with decades of covering up sexual abuse, insurance companies slightly less wealthy but still very wealthy… everyone goes home having been put through the ringer of an unjust system. I wish you all the best.

Different experience here... 1. The new registration regime actually caused more work to ensure that Scouts remained registered, and could, therefore, enjoy the benefits of "membership". (I'll elaborate on that in a bit.) Because the transaction now goes directly from family to BSA, the burden of action was shifted to the family. Most families are not fully on top of all the minutiae they have to manage in their lives, and the required action of reading the emails from National (which probably went to spam) and figuring out what to do to register their Scout (admittedly a very low priority), especially around the holiday period, meant that about one third of our Scouts did not have a current paid registration going into recharter. 2. Once the recharter process started, our Troop became "locked" somehow, and no adults or Scouts who delayed could register in the unit until the recharter was complete. Those who attempted got some sort of "Unit Not Valid" message, and the system would not process their registration or payment. Now you have doubled or tripled the amount of work a family / Troop has to do to get on top of this, as they have to monitor the recharter, then notify parents to try again, and then do the payment process again. 3. Even though there is a "grace" period for individual registrations, until the unit recharter went through, adults in our unit/district/council could not manipulate calendars or input advancements (we'd get a message for a Scout that said they did not have a valid membership.) After a huge outcry to District Commissioners/District Staffs/Registrar/Council Staff (folks at our January Roundtable were quite testy), the council office pulled folks from other duties to assist Registrar in tasks needed to complete the effort. Still not done for all units due to adult application issues (for position changes to make sure a unit has the required leadership to recharter), but the majority in our District are now done. Finally, consider the amount of money being wasted on this process... every family has to pay something like a 3% convenience fee to do this online with a credit card. For those who went to the Scout office and paid in person, because this was an option presented to avoid the card fee, their registrations were held up until staff went through that paperwork in office. (Of course, the checks were cashed right away, but renewals were delayed... optics on that not so good either.) I'm with @Tron... these two actions should be de-coupled by some significant space in the calendar. My take: Units should be prompted to renew FIRST. Once a unit renewal is complete for the next year, the demand signal for individuals to renew their memberships in that unit should go out... There are a lot more moving parts to this, I'm sure...

WOW, who could have predicted rolling registration would be a "Charley Foxtrot?" 🤔

Thanks That was the substance of the SM's reply.

I was mistaken for the membership chair of my district this week. I was like, I do know the membership chair; however, I am not even on that committee. But in the persons defense we have not seen the membership chair at any district meetings or roundtables for several months :P

That would make far too much sense.

While we have not seen specifics on how this may be implemented, we have been told that the 'rolling registrations' will be going away and we will be going back to everyone expiring/renewing at the same time.

Recommend you choose tongue twisters that do not twist into profanity Example of a naughty: "I saw Susie sitting in a shoeshine shop" Example of a nice: "Rubber baby buggy bumpers" --------------- Preview the jokes... make sure they are Scout appropriate. I know some ditties on dirty underwear that I learned in Scouts as a kid Not to be told in polite company...

A conversation with the scout might yield some pertinent information.

They can vote with their feet.

Yes, staff driving a units vehicle or towing a units trailer is not normal. I can't say if it is unique to Beaumont; however, I have been to many scout camps and never experienced or heard of this before.

I know when we did how a troop meeting is done with the old SM Fundamentals (SMF) Training, we were told we were to act like Scouts, and work as patrols during our meeting. Maybe because of my age at the time, but I didn't have problems. And I didn't notice any of my patrol mates having problems either. If memory serves, the model PLC used the actual SMF troop PLs with the rest of us watching. But I may be getting confused with BA22 and JLTC. But I agree 100%, training needs to focus more on interaction with Scouts through mentoring and counseling. That was a skill set, counseling PLs while being SPL or JASM, with both BA 22 and JLTC, was very applicable as an adult.

Learning for Life is not a bonus. LFL is a subsidiary that most councils, at least the ones I have been in and work for, don't want to have, because once established, they need that program to grow as well. I got into major trouble for tryng to convert "In School Scouting" units to LFL groups. I don't think they are trying to cheat the system. I think they are tyring to synchronize their Scout's membership renewal with the unit's recharter.

This is a good method if the instructors are clear that "Hey you're doing this pretending to be the members of the PLC, you're learning through their eyes". That's not often clear though right? WB will help if your council actually runs WB correctly. My local WB is so disgusting that leaders are starting to travel out of council in order to try and experience the process correctly. Here's a juicy quote from a fellow leader "I'm going to PTC to do WB because I want to be able to come back and audit the local WB and tell these idiots how they don't have a clue as to what they're doing."

That appears to be subjective on the part of the Trustee. My hunch, and it's only that, that cases where there was ample notice (abuser was known to the BSA prior) and the covering insurance company has a lot of primary liability for coverage, would be ripe for release.

I'd like to agree but I think this is just standard briefing. The insurers will assert their rights and say that their policies allowed the investigation of every claim, something the Trust did instead, but doesn't bind an insurer. It would be a VERY bold step for a Judge to tell the insurers to pay up, and if they did it would be appealed in minutes. Again, the Trustee has 250 IRO claims she can send to trial and start to inflict pain on the insurers. Awards beyond the IRO amount then go to the "general fund" to serve all claimants. But, repeated losses (Juries tend to side with Survivors), would give the insurers real reason to cut deals.

At the BSA National Annual Meeting in Denver in 2019, attorneys representing the BSA assured the volunteers (~2,000 I believe) were told that the Chapter 11 process would be only 90 days. Off just a little. Has been a difficult time for all concerned because Scouting involves passions from all. My concerns remain for the survivors. They have more challenges as the trust works through the claims. Many survivors are of an age that years are a major issue. My prayers and concern for survivors. May the trustee find a way to process the claims expeditiously and there be enough funds that the awards will be acceptable. May the BSA become a shining light to protect youth from abuse and to set the standard for all youth serving organizations to strive to match. Thanks to so many for providing expert opinions on all the many twists and turns. It has made the process understandable.

Oh, but council can add weird fees. A friend of mine's council has a $77 Council fee added to the individual, and a $75/Scout fee added to the unit recharter. $85+77+75 = $237 per Scout per year in that council. Don't forget awards and activity supplies have skyrocketed too.

In my neck of the woods very few of the councils seem to have all of the mandatory committees. As far as I know, at best my council's safety committee(s) [there are technically two required now] are on paper only, I have never heard of them meeting or putting out anything to the various district committees.