Gone

...and then you meet financial problems. If you have adults that can pay rent, cable bills and car payments then you have adults capable of working to a budget, requesting authorization BEFORE they spend money and following financial discipline. When we dumb it down for people you decrease the accountability. If we expect MORE of scouts why would we expect LESS from the parents. You CAN run a troop with sound financial rules, procedures and policies. It takes no more effort than doing anything else right and it should not put people out. People should know when they join what will and will not be reimbursed AND how to get expenses approved prior to purchase. This is how the adult world works...it should come as no surprise to any volunteer.

If the unit is working properly, all events would have a budget with projected costs. These would be managed by the treasurer. Also, any expenses subject to reimbursement would require prior approval. This avoids volunteers going off and buying stuff without authorization.

A quick review of the ip board software says this is a feature covered by either a time based limit on editing or a given number of replies logged between posting and desire to edit. Fix: Read your post before posting.

Yup. The right has no clue what the left is doing. I doubt they have any experience in real world brand mgmt.

With scout scholarships you need to work with your CO. You can run afoul of the IRS if you run that program incorrectly. Agree that any money programs in scouting need tight accounting and policy wording. Most won't take advantage of you, some will. Sadly we had a family take advantage our our program like we were her ATM. Finally cut the mom off.

Yup, these kids know their way around software. Try a local troop. You'd be surprised how good they are.

Nope. Council contingent costs $2500 per person. Too rich for my blood. Can do a week in Disney for that.

I think they're some of the best too. I've never seen more accurate weather forecasting and coverage than in Texas, OK, KS and the rest of tornado ally. Makes other weathermen look like they use a Ouiji board.

We have similar land. The best shelter is allowed to stand until someone builds a better shelter. This gives the boys incentive to out do not only each other, but last year's winner as well. The boys vote so the result is theirs to own. Had one shelter stay up two years. Real Robinson Crusoe shelter. Could have been moved to Disney World and put on the Swiss Family Robinson island.

I've read the books. Been down this path. Still had to sign. Case in point, boys spent 8 hours in a first aid MB course watching power points. No actual hands on work for first aid. Boys hated it, our SM refused to sign because the spirit of the MB was not followed. A parent complained to district and council. We were "ordered" by the council to sign and award the badge. SM refused and said council could sign and award if that's how they felt. Stood behind the very clause you posted. Council threatened to pull his membership if he didn't award the badge. He handed the parents the badge and the blue card and invited them to find another troop.

Yup same with us.

Did Wham- O donate any Super Soakers and safety goggles?

We have the individual pay for their own COH. Any troop cost over $50 are approved through th TC. Anything over $300 requires quotes from three vendors.

I'd ask national. Scouts can wear historic trail awards so this might be in that category. Frankly, there are so many uniform violations that BSA would be hard pressed to enforce anything. I say wear it.

Sorry but the district model hasn't worked in my area for quite a while. I've been here 15 years and units that are successful have tried and failed at making the district a success. It's controlled by the same set of folks going on 20 years and they're content to do so. Therefore units have learned to stop banging their head against the wall. Since districts give us nothing we've lost nothing. As for fun activities, training and good council, the units have found a way to surpass what district ever could do for us. Like I said, I see nothing they give our units. It may work where you are. Great. Here we have no use for them. Units in trouble come to us and we help them. Even they don't need district.

Or put the onus on the council to have develop programs that work. There are ways to reduce the reliance on volunteers and go directly to the members. Beaty every association has a continuing Ed arm run by professional staff. BSA is running model that is not sustainable. If they modeled on how other associations work they could improve outreach and training and still stay within a reasonable budget. Other non profits do it on a FAR smaller budget. If BSA wants to be successful they tilt at the windmills that need tilting rather than focusing on things that don't need adjustment or don't work.

@Eagle94-A1thanks for the reply. It appears that from what most have posted successful healthy units may not have much need for district. TThose less fortunate units might have great need, assuming the districts are well run and do what they are supposed to. I also get for that to happen units have to step up and help. The problem still exists though, that if your unit is healthy most of your volunteers are already too stretched to do more, thus most focus on their unit and not district volunteering. Maybe ddistricts and councils should focus more on getting those units healthy and not relying on other units to make that happen. In many cases you're cannibalizing the healthy unit for the good of the district and other units. Seems a poor model for the mission its chartered with.

@@jlglmg2010, very complicated and I doubt anyone here can answer your question completely. In the end it's the charter org and national that have the say. 1) According to BSA adult volunteers need to pass a background check. Many units require you to be a member to attend events. Everyone must take youth protection training. 2) That's up to national and the charter org. I've seen folks with DWI accepted but barred by the CO from driving scouts. I've seen folks with a battery charge be denied despite have done their time. 3) Usually the kids are not involved. If there's a borderline case where national approves but the CO is still cautious most units will work with the CO on how the parent in question can be involved. Again this is very open since national and the CO have all the day. 4) Not sure what new regulations you're referring to. National and the CO are misty involved in background checks. Councils get involved in other membership issues and may have some say depending on the issue. 5) Can't speak for council but negative checks do go to the unit. At least we got two that got kicked back to us. 6) We got the full check from Lexis/Nexis. Our CO also runs a detailed check. Can never be too careful. Advice would be that if you have something in your past best to sit down and talk to your unit leads and CO so it's not a surprise. http://www.scouting.org/BSAYouthProtection/Media_Center/KnowtheFacts.aspx

I'll reiterate, what services do districts offer that serve the units? Some have replied well. Other just say "you get what you put in to it". That's a cop out. Districts exist to serve units. Unless the district provides my unit something they need they're useless for my unit. I get some units need districts because they cannot do some of the things my unit can. Fine. But let's not pretend that districts must exist at all costs. They are the welfare office of councils. Units that need them use them. Those that don't, won't. But don't tell me I need them or have to support them if they do nothing for me.

To be more accurate, when the forecast says there's a 60% chance of rain it means that on similar days with similar weather patterns and conditions that 60% of the time the outcome was rain. That's straight from the NWS. @@Stosh has it right.

Was on a mobile so could not reply with the full arsenal of tools for weather. they are now below: CONUS loops so you can see what's coming. How to load GIS data in to things like Google Earth so you can have weather layers over maps of where your will be. KMZ/KML files for the various weather products. These are downloaded and opened in Google Earth. Focus on downloading "Real Time NWS Warnings" and the "National and regional mosaic loops". These will help you pin point the weather where you are going. The weather safety page is a great resource for the scouts to pull from for making weather-related meetings. SkyWarn puts on classes every year. The training is free. The NWS Twitter feeds are EXCELLENT (and I HATE twitter, but this is worth it). Once you follow the main feed sign up and follow your regional feed (e.g. https://twitter.com/NWSFortWorth)or the regional feed for where you will be going. All the data you would get at NWS (including watches and warnings) ware tweeted out on all feeds. As @@KenD500 mentioned, get a weather radio. The SAME codes are here. Program it to get all major alerts (flood, fire, avalanche, severe weather, tornado, ice, etc.). I have used this one in back country and around town. It has been everywhere and is rugged. The SPC as I noted above is THE BEST resource for short term forecasting. Check the watches and warnings often. If you can follow it, the mesoscale discussions will give you all the detail you need to know...and then some. These are many of the sources your local weatherman will use for weather prediction, in addition to the various models offered on the SPC site. I would HIGHLY recommend you have your SMs trained up on this stuff. It is easy, fun and WAY more accurate than the Weather Channel.

The storm spotted training offered by the NWS is a great resource for leaders. We put JASMs and PLs through it every spring. Suggested for ASMs too.

@@KenD500 my cousin is a storm spotter in Texas and was on that storm. There's NO WAY this troop if they're paying attention could have missed that super cell!! It was tracking and dropping funnels from TX to OK. If I were BSA I'm not sure I'd be posting this on my website. Shows the incompetence of the leaders in charge IMHO.

Take weather training. Take NOAA advanced weather training. Carry a NOAA weather radio with you and have it programmed correctly to get the appropriate watches and warnings. Always watch the sky and read the weather. Check out the Storm Prediction Centers' website...MUCH better than any weather app. Check the watches and warnings section of the SPC to see in advance if your area is in danger. I'm disappointed the person in that article was unprepared. The BSA basic weather training (which it seems he failed) covers the basics. http://www.spc.noaa.gov

I am okay with this. It was my suspicion as well. I was just curious if better run districts actually have value for every unit beyond the EBOR rep.