Eagle92

HMMM I'm not an expert, and someone with the background please let me know, but I thought Non-profits had to be able to shwo the budget when requested. That said, I think it's guidestar.org that publishes non-profits' tax forms. It may be a year or two old, but it's a source.

I think it depends upon who you work for. I think, stress think, for council employees, you have to pay the national fees and what not. But whether it comes out of your pocket or the council's I don't know. I know that my national scout shop boss was assigned to work at jambo in the trading post, so everything was covered: travel expenses, fees etc. Boss was there for over a month with set up, jambo, and cleanup. Wasn't too thrilled about going, and I said I would happily take their place. Didn't happen. When they came back, lots of complaints about walking, heat, sleeping in tents etc. Told them that it should not be a big deal b/c I do for summer camp. Boss wasn't happy with that comment. What I found interesting at the time is that national policy prohibits national employees from taking off and going to jambo, whether with a cuncil contingent or staff. If you are a national employee, you have to be assigned to work jambo in order to go.

HHHHMMM. Let me get this straight, the purpose of the volunteers is to support "local scouting" i.e the council, and not provide a quality program to the youth now? WOW. I know of units that do not attend council and district functions. I'd probably be in one if those units if that happened. As for this being wide spread, I haven't seen anything like this ever.

While some will say our time is worth nothing, and to a degree they are correct, ask the parent whose child is in your troop/ship/pack/team/crew. Ask the youth you work with. Ask the folks who are putting on the event you are staffing. BUT more importantly, ask your family. My time is priceless. The volunteer work I do makes a difference in someone's life, and for the community as a whole. And if folks do not appreciate that, well that's their problem. If they don't appreciate that, then I will focus on those who do appreciate it.

All I can tell you is based upon my experience working for a national scout shop way back when. 1) restricted items were just that, RESTRICTED. You had to show some type of evidence saying you got that award. Certificate, pocket cert. uniform with the item on it (this was pre-EBAY) pictures from the event getting the award, etc. No evidence, then you either A) had to wait until we got verification depending upon what item it is, i.e. calling NESA for Eagle verification, the national division handling awards, local council, etc. or B) not get the award. National scout shops were required to keep a specific amount of inventory based upon sales if memory serves. And we had to keep a full set of knots in the drawers behind the counters. I think at a minimum, we had to have 3 of each knot, with some having higher minimums, i.e. youth religious knot. I know of only one person to buy a restricted item without evidence he got it, besides leaders buying for Scouts for presentation, and that was me buying a Heroism Award knot for a friend who did earn it as a birthday gift. He was a fellow summer camp staffer, and needed some knots for his second shirt. His knots were identical to mine, except the Heroism one. And more than likely the CD called in advance about it since we talked about it and the asst. manager knew who I was talking about having the award, and what I planned on doing. 2) SEs had influence on what could be sold and could not be sold. SE could state if restricted OA items could be sold or not. At my shop, restricted OA items like the sashes, lodge flaps, Vigil pins, ceremonies, etc, were only available through the local lodge. But items like the OA History, OA dangle, necker, etc were available. CSPs may or may not have been available. Again SEs when I worked could say that the council would only be availble within council territory.

I hate to say it, but from way back in the day, unless you were an Explorer, few DEs in my PDL-1 class knew how the program worked. I was lucky, I was a Sea Explorer, and an AA for a post. Unless things changed, Venturing doesn't get adequate coverage at PDL-1. Worse is Sea Scouts. Kinda sad when you are wearing your Sea Scout khakies, and your SE asks's what's up with the uniform.

Last thing I heard was that BSA has a new guy in charge of IT who is an outsider with heavy, stressing HEAVY, IT experience. If memory he's been in place less than a year. This is good news since BSA has usually hired management folks from within, i.e. former SEs and other professional positions. For example, the guy in charge of giving us SCOUTNET, had so little IT knowledge, that a brand new "Executive Trainee" ( that's the technical term for a DE before PDL-1) had more expereince in the IT field.

Lots of portages eh? HHHHMMMM maybe LaDomaine, Quebec was a better place, 3 or 4 portages over the week. BUT that 1.25 mile portage we did one day was a bear.

Wouldn't write national about it b/c they probably won't get involved. I would write the council president and commissioner though. Also if you have an active COR, them too to have them express displeasure at a district and council meeting. As someone suggested, I'd say "Glad you have enough volunteers." and work strictly on the unit level. This ticks me off.I'm one of those who do not have a lot of treasure, but do give of my time and talents to have a program. Heck a lot of times when I'm doing events, I pay for things out of pocket and not worry about it 'cause I'm thinking it's insignificant. WEEEEELLLLL when doing the taxes, all those "insignificant stuff" add up VERY fast.(This message has been edited by Eagle92)

When the heck did the age requirements change and whose stupid idea was it?!?!?!!?!?! Ok I'm a bit hot under the collar about this because based upon my expereince, again this is my personal experience, the two times I knew of 12yos doing stuff that normally would be for 13+, they turned was a major FUBAR expereinces. First time was the BA22 course. There was an age requirement and rank requirements same as the HA bases, FC and 13 by Jan. 1 of the year attending. They let a scout in that was going to be 13 after the BA22 course b/c he was SPL of his new troop. Long story short, he deliberately infected the blisters he got so that one of them was the size of a golfball, and he couldn't do the backpacking portion of the course, letting the rest of the patrol have to pick up his slack. NOT A HAPPY CAMPER ABOUT THAT ONE! Second time was the 64 mile canoe trip in Canada. Again at the time HA bases has the FC and 13 requirement. We had two on that trip: one celebrated 13 on the trip (my canoe partner)and one who turned 13 afterwards, but dad was ASM. Long story short, ASM's kid caused so many problems that dad intervened (he was in another patrol and I heard about it). My partner couldn't pull his fair share of the work, and when things hit the fan, froze in fear. I admit he did his best to pull his fair share, but freezing with fear resulted in me getting hypothermia. And that was with us practicing for 12-18 months getting ready for the trip. As you can see I have some MAJOR reservations with a 12yo going on a HA trip.

I don't know. But I do know that when I worked for a national shop, we paid the local council rent in the form of a percentage of our net sales. Also I believe online sales are the same, if you go through your council website.

Yep, Campfire Girls WAS the offical sister program of the BSA, and if you look at the 1910 founders of Campfire Girls, you see almost all of the BSA folks who started the BSA, including West if memory serves.

Why not recruit them to be on your training staff? Them them to EDGE, etc and get them on the team to conduct training. What our new training chair plans on doing is going unit to unit, and do some of the trainings. If your pack trainers are on the team, and capable of doing some of the trainings, let them at it. BUT also insist on them organizing it with enough time in advance so that leaders from other units can attend.

I admit I do have mixed emotions on this topic. On one hand, I have used Ebay to replace lost items, when you've moved around as much as I have and had stuff destroyed from a hurricane you need replacements for your memories. I've gotten a replacement BA22 patch, some of my old lodge's OA flaps that I collect still, etc. Heck I even got one of my lodge's mistake patches, i.e. the company seriously screwed up the patch, was sent back and was supposed tobe destroyed, only to find out the company was using them as samples (luckily we caught it in time and those patches are extremely rare as the ones we bought back were destroyed). But I do have a problem buying things they have not earned.

Eng, If your organization is doing what you suggest the BSA to do, then how can you critize the BSA, but not your own organization? Also I do know of some leagues that do overnite travel. And some parents do just the drop off, or if they are there, oblivious to everything as they are in their own world. Not trying to be harsh, but the comments you made were rather offensive. At least as they appear online. One of the problems with not seeing and hearing the person talk to ya.

Usually the unit buys the kit. But you can buy everything individually, i.e. just the medal, patch, knot, and mom's pin. Now I know some council's have a sponsor who pay's for all the Eagle Presentation Kits. I think my council still does that, but am not sure. It was a hefty sum if I recall back in the day as I had to secure that. One year my council also gave every Eagle Scout a James E. West Fellowship. They had a substantial bequest that year, and part of it was to recognize all the Eagles and the office staff with a fellowship.

I know I received a few complaints back in the day when I showed the CS video at a 'Health-o-ree." Some and I admit I felt a bit uncomfortable showing it. But at the time, BSA did hire experts in that specific field to do the video, using the most up-to-date info. And if memroy serves, it was done through an outside agency, not a 'homegrown" video filmed in the national office's studio using employees.

Eng, Do you do the this with your sports teams? Does the various sports federations? I know I have heard a lot about coaches abusing kids, taking explicit photos, ad nauseum. I mean if you and other coaches and sports federations don't have this kind of open communication, then the sports world is just another pedophile farm, like the Catholic Church. Sorry Eng, gotta disagree with you.

it use to be that the HA bases, you had to be 13 by Jan.1 of the year you were attending.

I use an old M-14 magazine pouch as a survival kit. Light, not too bulky, and can clip onto the pack and belt. I have some "extras" that are not part of the 10 essentials in it, i.e. garbage bags, 550 cord, etc. Why do I carry it? To "Be Prepared." Does the wife laff at me when I get it and the 10 essentials together, often. Does it discourage me, not one darn bit. You see I had a friend who taught Wilderness Survival at camp for a few years, then got a job at a national park one year. Long story short, he went hiking by himself, had an accident, and was alone on the side of a cliff in the Yosemite for a week. While he was in a bit of pain from breaking his leg, he was OK overall because he had his 10 essentials and survival kit.

Ok I am no longer CSDC program director. My middle son will be a Tiger, and I need to be with him. So Ive picked my successor, handed over a copy of everything I have, gave some advice, and am working with him to create a program. But I have concerns and I dont know if its me having a hard time giving up something I worked on for the past 3 years, or if its legitimate concerns. Now there was no program to speak of when I took over, as the camp had the appearance of being thrown together last minute. I worked long and hard to create a program that was fun, and avoided repetition of some activities. That was one of the biggest complaints when I staffed the first year: the ones who had been coming to camp had been doing the same things over and over without variation. I made mistakes, but overall the comments from Cubs and parents alike have been positive. I thought the program would need tweaking due to increased numbers. The new PD has his own thoughts on program, some I like and want to see happen, some I have questions on, but am willing to give it a shot, and one or two that I don't see feasible. I've tried to be positive, and offer alternatives. I admit I thought I had a great program put together that could be used over and over since I had each level doign something a little different. I am OK with the program ideas. But again it is hard a bit. And that is where I don't know if my feelings towards program changes may be affecting my major concerns. As you know I've had challenges with the CD the past 2 years, to the point where it was so bad that I ended up doing 95% of the work last year b/c the CD was unreliable. The relationship started out well initially, but it soured very quickly as the CD would not help or cooperate. It was just easier and less frustrating to do it myself than to rely on her. I did tell the new PD some of the challenges I've faced and wished him luck. Now the good news is the new PD and CD have been meeting, are coming up with stuff for camp, and seem to have a good working relationship. That's great, and I want it to work out because that will make camp bettr. But I'm concerned that in the long term, the relationship will sour and it will hurt camp overall.I am concerned that the same things that happened to me, i.e. the lack of sharing information, the lack of help when asked for it, and budgetary concerns, will once again arise, and affect camp. I know I have mentioned this to the new PD, but he is putting it down to "two strong personalities" and "too many chiefs and not enough Indians." But I'm concerned that the administrative side of things will hurt day camp in the long term. So is it a legitmate concern, or me refusing to give up something?

My understanding is that colorguard functions are OK at political events, BUT they have to either leave or change out of uniform once the ceremony is done. If memory serves, there was a Boy Scout color guard at one party's national convention that was booed shortly after the Dale decision.

Short, About 2-3 years ago. But they "ARE NOT OFFICIAL."

Why can't the older scouts create the orienteering course? Back in the day, that's what we did. A few years later with a JROTC field exercise, a few other scouts and I who knew orienteering were the ones who laid out the 3 courses for the unit. Personal favroite was the nite time one we set up in which the ones who set up the course were also the markers. That was a fun nite

I've been fortunate in that groqwing up, we selected some good SPLs, Great SPLs, and 1 lousy SPL that I mentioned in a previous thread. The way it worked out in that case was the ASPL, me, picked up the slack and ran the troop in his absence. Thinking about it, I think I know why he got elected. 1) We had an influx of crossovers who ahd joined the troop about a month or two before that he had been a den chief for, and his little brother was in the den as well. 2) The older guys who knew better split their voting amongst the best candidates, and those two didn't get enough votes to beat the crossover block. Good thing was that everyone realized the importance of selecting a good, dedicated SPL,and the troop didn't have that problem again while I was involved.