momof2cubs

Twocubdad: It doesn't surprise me. What angers me the most is not so much that National makes an untold amount of money off of their products, but that they get said products from China. This is Boy Scouts of AMERICA we are talking about.

So I went to guidestar, registered, and took a look at their latest 990 form (2010). I am an accountant, so I think I can muddle my way through a 990 form. The results were interesting to say THE LEAST. I believe that it was Basement that said that FOS stands for Fund Our Salaries and I think I just confirm it. They listed only the salary of the Chief Executive only (at a comfortable six figures) but then listed a couple more executives at also a low (but still very comfortable)six figures. It also surprise me how low the net income from the shop was (200K), I was assuming a lot more. I think I will stop complaining about the prices there. Papadaddy also has it right about the popcorn and sales of assets. But the MOST interesting tid bit of information was the amount paid in salaries. They list a total of 55 full time employes. They don't list individual salaries except those I mentioned, but they spend over 3 MILLION in salaries and benefits and payroll taxes. That averages out to about 54,500 per employee. Not luxury, but I wouldn't call that peanuts either. What's mind boggling is that they need 55 people to run council full time. The OTHER piece of info that I was MOST looking for is how much they grant back to scouts in need. Care to guess? It listed $65,000 in camperships and a total of around $147,300 in other assistance (uniforms, food, registration, supplies, transportation). That's out of over 10 MILLION in revenue listed. I encourage everyone to look up their council's 990 forms on gudestar before making an FOS donation. I think it will be eye opening for sure.

You can't put a price on it. It's invaluable. We are helping to mold and shape the character of young boys and men. We are helping them become contributing and valuable members of society. Maybe even prominent members of society. Leaders. There's no price tag for that. I will be FOREVER grateful to the men and women that have volunteered their time to the betterment of my children. I could never repay it.

In recent months I have become thoroughly disenchanted by council and their FOS campaigns. I am tired of the constant pressure to sell popcorn and donate money. And I don't see why they need/want my money. Everyone I talked to spews the corporate line about "maintaining the properties" and "running the program" without giving me ANY specifics whatsoever. So this year, I raised the issue. I told our FOS volunteer that I wasn't donating any money because I am not taking in good faith that it is properly managed. I went to our council office and asked to see the financial report and got the royal run around. So my friend (the FOS volunteer) made some phone calls and got me so info. This post is two-fold. The 1st question is, why was did I have to jump through so many hoops to get the information? Why did I have to make myself a nuisance in order to get it? Shouldn't it be readily available. The 2nd part is this. I got a ONE PAGE report. It was a top-side P&L. Fine. Except that while it had quite a bit of detail on where the money was coming from (i.e. so much form FOS, so much from popcorn, so much from the shop, etc etc etc), when I got to the EXPENSE side it had two lines. Program Services $8,000,000 (yes that's MILLION) Management 600,000 Fundraising 1,200,000 I was blown away. Are you really expecting me to swallow 8 million dollars as a ONE LINE ITEM listed as "Program services"?????? DO you know how much waste can be hidden in 8 million dollars?? What say you scouters? Should we not have more detail than THAT????

I've seen them at the scout shop. They were not that cheap then. At any rate, I can't buy them .. our pack uses official BSA pants for cubs.

Some people have a lot of scouting e-mail that they send out and they hold different positions. Maybe for them it is easier to just have an automatic signature stamp that lists them all so that recipients know who he is. Personally, I just put my name and whatever position is relevant to that e-mail, just to give people context. So if I am e-mailing the entire pack about awards, I will sign my name and then just say "Awards Chair". If I am e-mailing some district person, I include the pack number.

We usually get the Web IIs to kinda be the "pack chiefs" at pack meetings. They get a charge out of being the seniors and helping out the adults. We try to keep pack meetings fresh and changed every year, but you know how it is..anything a 6 year old can do, a 10 year old doesn't want to. It's a good way of keeping those guys engaged during their last year.

As long as he impounds it before hand, why not?

That's where I got my original quote. From the meritbadge.org site. The way it reads, if he completed 5th grade, he can be in boy scouts regardless of age. I never thought about the homeschooling implications. Could become interesting. EDIT:i just thought of something: PORs. From what I understand PORs are dependent on a)being elected (by other scouts) or b)being appointed by the SM. I have a hard time believing that any SM would appoint a 9 year old to a POR or that he would be elected by his "peers" to a POR. It could happen, I suppose, but it seems unlikely. Unless dad is the SM. And that has been known to happen. (This message has been edited by momof2cubs)(This message has been edited by momof2cubs)

For school chartered units, this would be a pain if true. It is usually the school's PTA that is the CO, which would make the PTA president the IH. And that position changes at least every 2 years, more often every year. I'm glad to hear that it isn't so.

kbandit: not necessarily. The requirements to join boy scouts are be 11 years old OR have completed 5th grade OR earned AoL AND be at least 10. If this boy completes 5th grade, he will eligible regardless. I would ask the parents. If it were my kid, I would fast track the wolf rank over the summer (doable) and then put him in the bear rank with all his friends rather than having him be alone for another year.(This message has been edited by momof2cubs)

I think it may be asking a lot to do it until son ages out. It's a hard job. I am guessing there aren't any rules about it, because it's not like you can force a volunteer to serve if they are done with it. My personal opinion is that it should be a minimum of 2 years, as long as you are enjoying it and are doing a good job, in order to have some continuity in leadership. If you want to do it for longer, that's awesome. Packs have a lot of turnover, since cubbies are only there for 5 years. But if you are burnt out and done, then by all means, step out.

This is one of the most fun activities I have ever witnessed in my pack. Boys had a blast. I want to thank you all again for posting/discussing this great idea.

Having a yearly uniform inspection is one of the requirements for our district specific quality unit award (it's not called that -- it is a district award for units that go beyond what BSA now calls journey to excellence). It includes several other requirements that our district believes are what make a quality unit and that go beyond just raising money for national/council and just adding names to our roaster. Things like, having service projects, training leaders, having summer pack events, etc. At any rate, I am not sure if it really falls under the UC's responsibilities but he does uniform inspections every year for us at B&G. The man is a gem and after reading some of the comments here, I thank our lucky stars every day that we have such an awesome UC.

I didn't see the OP as a helicopter parent at all. Simply a concerned parent. Just because a parent takes a concerned interest in their child's scouting career doesn't make them a helicopter parent. And the 1st year in Boy Scouts is somewhat stressful. There's a lot of responsibility for the kid to learn and a lot of backing off for the parent to do. There's no need to claim that a parent is hovering just because they want to make sure they know how things get done.

While there is NO official BSA rule about being an MBC for your own kid, many troops discourage it, and I can see why (Adult Association Method). Considering how involved you were in your son's CS career (and that's great!), now might be the time for him to stand on his own, to interact with other adults and take charge of his own scouting. I know my kid most definitely does not want me to be part of leadership now that he is in a troop. I promised him that I would not become an ASM for at least 2 years and that I would be involved in committee only. He wants some freedom away from his leader parents (poor kid, he usually has at least one of his parents and most of the time both at any given campout, hike, den meeting, event, etc) Having said that, you could still donate your considerable talents to the troop as a whole. You can become a registered MBC for any MB you feel you have enough knowledge on. I would strongly encourage your son to do his MBs with someone other than you most of the time. That doesn't mean you can't help your kid with his MC work, but it should be mainly his job. But for instance, a lot of MBs require some kind of field trip..no reason why you shouldn't be the one taking him and discussing various things.

It's a local thing with no real national standards. Personally, I believe it kinda symbolizes the Arrow of Light, so we only award it to the ones that earned AoL. However, different packs have different practices.

I know I am probably wrong on this, but I think the Lone Scout program was designed for kids that had diplomat/military type parents that moved around outside the US a lot, for kids that lived in remote areas with no troops, and kids with extreme disabilities that just could not get to a troop meeting. That may not be the letter, but I think it was the spirit. And those situations can occur today just as they occurred in 1912. However, I think it is not the best option in spirit. Part of the scouting experience is the patrol, the sense of belonging, learning to deal with other scouts of perhaps different backgrounds and ages, learning how to talk to adults you do not know, learning how to plan a group outing, leading a group in different settings (i.e. eagle projects, troop meetings, patrol meetings, etc), and all of that. I believe that is somewhat lost on the lone scout set up. As far as disabilities goes, I believe we have come a very long way. Last summer I met an inspiring young scout. He was 13 years old and a paraplegic, in a wheel chair full time. He had the rank of 1st class. When he was asked what he liked best about scouting he said, "That there is something for everyone". He got a standing ovation for that response. In other words, while I believe that the lone scout program has its place, I do not believe that it is the ideal situation in terms of the spirit of scouting.

Haven't the girl scouts dumped the uniform for all but the most formal of occasions in favor of just a vest?

I'm not saying I agree with it, I'm not saying it works. I'm just saying that is is happening. And it is the direct result of the helicopter parenting trend that is becoming common place. It is something that BSA will have to fight tooth and nail. As we can see in this thread, some parents have already found a work around for it.

John, don't count on it. There are plenty of parents today that take a VERY active role on their children's job hunt. Including attending the interview, negotiating salary, and calling HR.

Those tunic style tops are actually not bad AT ALL. I think they could cover a multitude of sins regarding the pants. I like them. Cuz that's another issue with the shirt, they are not tailored for women either, but those tunics look actually pretty nice and could flatter a lot of figures. In the last link, the green shirt (1st on the right), is actually quite nice. I'd wear that. The skorts are really dorky. I wouldn't wear that either. I see your point, but actually dress uniforms in the military for women are not bad at all. I think BSA could do just as well.

My husband told me that when he was a cubbie (this would be in the early 70s) den mothers were very common and were actually leaders, even though they didn't call them that. He said his mom had a skirt and a shirt. So...what happened to the skirts? Why can we not have those anymore? Or are there around somewhere? Other than in dusty attics I mean. And Eagle, you are correct. You are a Uniform Policeman.

So I spun this because we were getting off subject in the original thread. But we touched upon the fact that uniform pants are awful on women. So ladies, how do you deal? Do you tailor them? Do you grin and bear it? What do you wish we had? Better fitting? More options like in jeans (i.e. boot cut, tapered, stretchy, etc)? Do you wish we had skirts or skorts? Personally, I loathe them and not wear them. I had resisted becoming a uniformed leader because I refuse to pay $40 for pants that make me look like a trussed chicken. So what say you female scouters?

I don't think the gay thing has anything to do with it. Well, maybe some, but I doubt that there are millions of parents out there not signing up their kids for scouts because they perceive BSA to be "anti-gay". I think the truth is that kids have a whole lot more options these days in terms of extracurriculars or enrichment activities as they call it. Plus I think sports have gone insane in the last few years. The commitment required from a very young age to become competitive in sports is a lot more now than it used to be. And I don't know a whole lot about AHG. But I have heard of a lot of churches that charter AHG and not GS. My sister in law told me her church has Cubs and AHG and in fact they do a lot of joint activities with the girls, including a Poweder Puff/Pinewood Derby.