hippychik42

this website seems to have alot of information and ideas from an experienced, successful, scoutreach troop. http://geocities.com/yosemite/meadows/3855/index.html

i only hope that they intend to give the district a better name besides the one in your profile. that name singles those boys out as different. it screams minority, poor, broken home or dysfunctional family. scouting is supposed to make all boys equal on a level playing field.

the purpose of the scoutreach or urban scouting program is to bring the values of scouting to underpriveledged boys in the inner city. according to the grant application of our council, they request the funds to financially support this program by assisting these new troops with troop equipment, uniforms, camping fees, etc. i would find out via a foia request what that council provides in support of urban scouting. then i would use those resources to get the troop started. with parental involvement issues, it is true there will be little to none. the committee will have to consist of members of the CO. with the one urban scouting troop in our city, the scoutmaster and assistants usually have to provide transportation to and from meetings as well. it all depends on how committed to the values of scouting the scoutmaster is. what is more important: bringing the program to the boys who need it most, or having the picture perfect troop running the way the books say it should. this isn't a perfect world so you have to ask yourself what's the bottom line, and why do you want to be involved in the program in the first place.

I did try to work within the system. The system had something to hide, so they would not work with me at all. Regardless, they were doing wrong, and I exposed them. I will never regret that.

read my post "we got fired". urban scouting is a joke and a PC smokescreen for councils to swindle money for their own agenda.

oh, by the way. Another scouter contacted me via telephone, gave me our council's CPA name and address and asked me to send a packet to them, which I did.

This is what happened: Where I work, we are in direct competition for the same grant money. A city council member who is retired from where I work, knowing my affiliation with BSA, left the book of every agencies request on my desk. It is public information. After reading our councils grant, it was apparent that it should have been titled "Creative Writing 101, Creative Budgeting 102". I began a series of inquiries through our scouting email network as to who at the council the grant author was, and how to contact him with my concerns that my economically depressed scouts were not benefitting from this grant as was claimed. I have copies of every email and every reply, including the ones that are self-incriminating to the council. Because I do the grant reports for where I work, I was aware that the answers they were giving me were bold faced lies. I finally had an opportunity to meet the grant author in person and introduced myself, shared concerns. He made a few notations on a pad and assured me he would get back to me real soon. I never heard from him again. So, I went to city council, whose job it is to decide how to distribute the funds. There is also a city council member on the scoutreach committee, and another whose son is the scoutreach executive (and therefore indirectly financially benefits from the funds received-making him ineligible to vote on the distribution, which he had in the past been able to do because no one checked him on it.) So, I publicly addressed the city council, gave them all packets of email communication, pointed out all the discrepancies, and at the end of the city council meeting they voted on the distribution of funds. The first thing they did was cut my BSA councils grant award by $5,000.00, then took another grand from each request and gave it to my employer. Then things started going downhill. It was not published in a newspaper. It aired on our local cable government TV channel. But, I still have the packet I made, and if you would like I could scan it and send it to you as an attachment.

Did you know that if you make political waves for your council and expose their misappropriation of federal block grant monies, and if that costs them part of their grant for "urban scouting" or "scoutreach", they can easily convince your CO (who has no concept of their role and authority to choose leaders) that the troop needs to go in a different direction and replace its leaders? Happened to us, because of me. They named our troop in their grant request and then refused to spend the money in the way they stated. I brought the issue to a public forum, and forced them to follow through. They convinced the CO to replace the leaders, and with much sincere thank yous and gratitude, asked us to resign. Now, all I want is to find a way to let "good prevail over evil" and not go away quietly like they are hoping I will do. Thoughts, anyone?

I am in Mid-Michigan. The non-profit group that offered the idea was founded and is run by two K-9 officers (from the department that I work at{civilian emp.}). They recently purchased property to administer the program out of (Anti drugs, gangs, violence) which uses the dogs and muppet type puppets. The program has not only been in the Michigan area, but also several states around the country. The K-9s are working dogs and attend required twice monthly training at a Detroit school. Two of the K-9s were at ground zero. So, the officers know what is needed. I just need to direct my Eagle candidate to some sources... Thanks for your responses! Keep them coming...I want to offer him choices, it's his job to make the contacts!

I have a life scout beginning his Eagle project. His plans include the construction of a K-9 obstacle/agility course. The area is 40'X60' and in order to determine the materials needed, he needs to locate some construction plans. Can anyone help? (his computer is in the shop, and any links/info will be forwarded to him when he is back online). Thank you!