eaglescout1996

Sorry guys, I've tried to post three seperate occasions since LeCastor orignal post, but I kept getting an error (let's hope this one goes through). I sit on our Council's International Scouting Committee, the chairman is our Council International Representative. We are supposed to have a representative from every district, but that rarely happens. There are a few of us who think this committee serves an important function, but most of us were scouts overseas as youth and had a great experience with it (some through the military, some not). Although we don't meet as often as we once did, some of our duties include promoting the World Jamboree, which includes sitting on the panel that approves the Scoutmaster for the Council Troop that we send as well as promoting staff positions at the WJ. We recruit international scouts to work at our summer camps, as well as the logistics for visiting troops from overseas. We also work to bring in a troop from overseas to attend the NSJ and intergrate their patrols into our troops that we send. We also design and sell fundraising patches, with the money going toward the World Friendship Fund. There is a lot of stuff that can be done, although since we are from a large coucil with a big international airport, it is a little easier.

I don't know why, but as a Commissioner, I totally agree with you. Someone once told me that once you earn the arrowhead, as long as you are still a Commissioner and have that position patch on your uniform, you may wear the arrowhead. For instance, I earned my Arrowhead as a UC, and I still wear it as an ADC, and went through different training for that position and was "awarded" another trained strip to add to my collection....maybe that is why?

When I earned the AAD, our parish priest allowed all the Catholic scouts to do it during CCD for the year. There was about 12 of us, so we just had a AAD class with a counselor for the year and did some individual and group work, with situational role playing, ect. It was a really good way of doing it, but you need the parish priest buy-in. Oh, like Eagle92, I looked at the PPXII workbook and saw that it mirrored the confirmation class and asked my parish priest if I could work on it in conjunction with my class, he said no, so I never earned the PPXII (we had moved, so it was a different parish).(This message has been edited by eaglescout1996)

I am sorry as well, especially dropping on to this thread so late. AAC is in a pilot program (of about 20 councils...it always seems like we're in some sort of pilot program) which requires a minimum of 10 youth to start a unit and will have a "New Unit Commissioner" assigned to it for a minimum of 3 years. That "NUC" will only have responsibilities of that one unit for the three years. Which means, everytime we want to charter a new unit, we have a find a new commissioner, and in my district we have only about 30% of the commissioners we need. Depending on where in the district you live, there are also a few Troops in the Decatur/Oakhurst area which is basically on the district border. Also, contact the OA Chapter Advisor (East, West, and South Atlanta Districts make up one Chapter), he is a really good guy and will help any way he can to get a young man matched up with a troop. Oh, and as you know, the District Commissioner is another great resource, he has worked with the public library system to put resource boxes of all the training and program materials in all the libraries in the district so folks can check them out and make copies of stuff. As you know, that area of the council (about 5 or 6 districts) has a lot of Scoutreach units, and it can sometimes be hard to find a good traditional unit. There is tons of need and no shortage of youth who want to join. The problem is that there is no adult leadership. One of the units I work with didn't renew their charter because of that. It was chartered to a large church with three elementry schools within a mile, but the same two people couldn't keep running the pack. Good luck. The council actualy just had an event last night, called the Next 100 at the VSC. Someone from the multicultural markets office in TX came out to speak, the council is really trying to take this pilot program and produce sustainable units. If you want to charter a unit, find those other young men and get started. I'm sure that these "next 100" units are going to get a lot of help and support.(This message has been edited by eaglescout1996)

How much say does the National leadership have on the matter? At least two on that list have ties to Central Florida Council, the same place as Tico.

Like '92, I earned mine as a Scout. Actually, it was in July of 1989, a week before everyone was allowed to wear it. I still have the card I recieved from my council. Does anyone remember the old insignia guide/inside of the BS handbook that showed the WC was supposed to be 3" below the shoulder seam? I vividly remember that, but I guess it was changed to reflect adults with a ton of knots.

Congrats on the new troop! The loop around Stone Mountain is 5.5 miles, a good easy hike. Don't forget Kennesaw Mountain as well, although, it'll be a bit tougher, parts of the trail are pretty steep. In August/September timeframe, the National Park Service does a living history day that coresponds with the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, a great day if spent hiking the area and seeing the reenactors. If you want some Urban/Suburban/Rural hiking, check out pathfoundation.org You may have seen the signs around town and there are some great easy trails, especially since many are paved trails. Don't forget to checkout georgiatrails.com You could always try to go out to Bert Adams for the weekend, get a campsite on the Jamieson side. You could drop off the troop at the enterance and have the hike in. That would be a mile or so. If you can get a campsite kind of far out then you will be kind of isolated, work on T-1 scout skills and even take a few hikes through the property. There are lots of little spots around camp that are fun to find. Also, try googling Camp 175, it's property leased by a Decatur Troop that is availble to anyone who wants to make a reservation. Sort of primative with a hand pump for water, but it's nice out on the lake.

ScoutBox, not to get off track, but... When I was in TAC as a youth, we all wore the standard TAC temp patch on our shirts. It was a round patch with the map Europe and N. Africa, and the Countries with a BSA presence were in Red. There were little segments that went around it for different things. Spring and Fall Camporees, Camp Dahn, Camp Freedom, Camp Bayren, Camp Tuscany, England (if you went to Camp Baden-Powell), Berlin (if you did the Berlin Historical Trail, the segment had barbed-wire over the word), and tons more. Did they stop doing that?

I was a UC at the time, and mine focused around training for my units/CO I was assigned to. 1. Coordinate onsite trainings (at the CO) for units I was assigned. 2. Achieve 60% of unit vounteers have been trained for their position (due to #1, I was able to get 100%, including the CORs) 3. Give the WB talk to during the leader's meetings I attend to promote additional training events. 4. Conduct a feasability study at a particular CO I was assigned to see if a Crew would be viable to enhance their young-adult outreach. 5. Create a locally funded scholarship fund to send one adult to WB each year from the town in which I was living. I used to be an Antelope.

I agree with alot that has already been said. But POR colors are already color coded, for the most part they are: Cubs: Blue Boy Scouts/Varsity Scouts and Scouters: Tan Venturing: White-Youth Bright Red: Adults District/Council/Chapter/Lodge: Light Blue Commissioner/Professional: Red with Wreath Area/Section: Black Region: Maroon National: Purple Being from a large council, there are a lot of folks locally who sit on Area/Region/Natoinal committees, and it's kind of funny when they come to RT as a CM/SM or what ever, wear their "gold tab" uniforms.

We had a DE working in our group as a vounteer at the last Jambo. He had to pay his own way and take vacation time to do it. I was actually quite suprised when he told me that, I just assumed that even if he had to pay for registration and transportation, it was giving him a broader set of experiences and that it would be benefitual to his job.

If you are just looking for a number, the national average, according to http://independentsector.org/volunteer_time is $21.36/hour. I work for a International non-profit and we use Independent Sector's analysis when we are reporting volunteer labor to the federal government and when applying for grants. The methodolgy they use isn't just the value of your time working with youth, collecting food, or swinging a hammer, it's the leverage value you bring to the organization in additional funding, name recongition, services provided, ect. I'm sure BSA doesn't want us using that number for our hours spent with the youth, working camp, or fundraising, but I'm sure they use some calucation when they present reports of how much funding the voluteers have leveraged.

They don't mind cashing the checks...I just checked the website of the UW I previously volunteered with. 19 employees...that's a lot of payroll and benefits.

The UW I worked with would give you a payment transmittal form if you asked, but it is probably rare. I lived in a pretty "conservative" community, and the UW had no problems supporting the BSA and whose books were open to anyone, with nothing to hide. But I suppose those other UW which are switching dollars around and operating in the other two manners I mentioned might not be so open.

I sat on a UW funding panel for about 6 years, first the Children and Familes panel (that included the local BSA council) and then the Social Services panel (Drug conseling, HIV/AIDS clinics, ect). If you are going to give money to the UW, make sure you direct designate to the organization you want to support. If you do not, it goes to the "general fund" and a portion will be taken out for Admin costs (5-10%). There are a few different ways local UWs divy up the funds. Some, like the one I was involved with, would keep the amount of funds diretly designated to the organization a secret, each panel would make their funding recommendation to the UW board based on the ammount available to that group. We did site visits, looked their their applications, and books. This is the first time I actually saw how much the SE made, and was quite suprised. Now, the amount requested by all the organizations in the group was always about twice the amount of funding available. Once the UW board finalized the funding, they added the amount of the direct designated portion to the total. Some UWs tell the panel how much was directly designated to the organization and told them to make their recommendations with that in mind. Still, some others tell the panel, for example: the BSA has asked for x, they are recieving y, (x-y=z), so you can only give them a maximum of z dollars. I always made sure I direct designated because I wanted my money (and my company's match) to go to the organization of my choosing. Once I left that company, I just including my previous UW contribution with my FOS. Now, the applications we looked through would show what they were going to spend funds on. Salareis for paraprofessionals, Development Director, camp scholarships, capital improvements, ect. But we alway paid attention to the leverage. If it was for Development, and they said they would leverage $4 for every $1 of UW money, we would look through their performance measures for prevous years as well as their reporting documents for the UW. This was in a large council, which was serviced by about 5 UWs, and even then, during our visits we sat down with the SE and DFS and directly asked them questions about their programing. It was actually nice as a volunteer to get some straight answers, espically since I had their audits and other financial reporting. I too, dislike the "mandatory" participation in the UW campaingn. But remember, even if the organization isn't listed and you know it's UW organization, you can directly designate to it and the UW has to give them the money. Because of the "BSA's practices of discrimination" (not my words) a lot of UWs have taken the local council's name of the list. Although if you put them down, they have to give them the money. Same with if you're living in California and your old council as a youth is in Mississippi and you but them down, the UW in California will send them the money.