ParkMan

I think the BSA's National marketing today is in line with what you'd expect. Marketing is expensive, so they limit it to specific locations and times. Today I think this means more and more online marketing. While this is fine, It strikes me that what Scouting needs is something with bigger impact. Something designed to change the conversation about Scouting and help get scores of youth excited about it. I don't know how it's done in other countries and would be interested to learn more. I think it would be interesting for the BSA to do some sort of marketing experiment with 10 of the best marketing firms in the country - even perhaps national corporations that do marketing just for their company. Places like Apple & Disney. Get them each to produce one advertisement. Keep the BSA marketing folks largely out out it (not because BSA marketing has bad ideas) so that these experts in marketing are not restrained by traditional thinking about how to market the program. I'd also have the BSA then put the challenge out to local councils. Have troops around the country develop and submit their own BSA advertisements that can be released on social media. Get real Scouts selling the program to their peers. Perhaps doing these things around the World Jamboree would be a good reason.

Agreed. While I can understand that he believes opening Scouting to all is a noble thing to do, I agree that it won't fix the membership issue. It's really an issue of needing to increase the number of youth who want to be Scouts. Marketing, local recruiting, and program quality are the key things here.

I'm 99% sure you'll be fine to attend. I cannot imagine them not accepting your medical condition. If you're still concerned, find out who the course director is and ask. He or she will be able to work through it with you.

So, I got to wondering. Why would National tell councils to stop printing these? This is done by council employees at council expense. Why would National even care?

Most certainly they deserve to be heard and compensated. It would be wrong to interpret my comments as suggesting otherwise. I fully, wholeheartedly, and without reservation believe in supporting the victims of child abuse. I know victims of child abuse and grew up in the era when the scandals in the Catholic Church were happening. I grew up Catholic and I vividly recall allegations that it happened at my church at the hands of a priest that I knew. From what little was shared with me as a kid, that priest abused one friend of mine and perhaps more. I remember my parents having to ask me if I'd been abused. I absolutely take, and have always taken, child abuse very seriously. Sorry if that seems strong - but it's something I believe strongly in. It still saddens me though to think of a day when the lawyers start trying to sell off the properties of our nation's Boy Scout program.

This quote just saddens me. I just wish we could find a way through this without having to carve up BSA assets. I'm struck by the fact that the people who suffer from a BSA bankruptcy and carving up of 100 years of assets are not investors or hedge funds - it's millions of Scouts today and in the future. Yet, those who were abused clearly deserve compensation. What happened to them was reprehensible. I don't know how to make sense of this.

Good to know. Thanks it occurred to me while I was sewing patches that I should have waited. Glad to know there is probably no big change coming.

Thanks @walk in the woods. You've hit on something I've struggled with. Please let me get your take. I'm a firm believer in the inverted triangle of Scouting. Scouting happens in units and the district is here to support that. My whole Scouting career has been 95% unit level service with the occasional foray into district or council things. Where do you see the balance between district as servent to the units and district as Scouting community leader? For example - if I look around my district today, I guarantee that each units has different goals and objectives. Most, I expect, don't give the district more than an occasional thought. I know that as a unit volunteer, I didn't. I 100% get improving district services for unit and also improving commissioner service. But, if filling out the commissioner team needs to be done prior to even attempting this, it seems like this is a very long process indeed. I guess my point is - I don't see any of the units as being the position to grow Scouting community wide. So, taking something on like that seems like a district task. Yet, with the idea being that the district is really just here to support the units - how do you accomplish community growth?

As we try to compare, I think the other reality is that there really is no equivalent of a pack/troop in the GSUSA system. In essence, I think this is a big part of why the GSUSA has less of a camping & outdoor focus. Many adults gain confidence in camping as part of the pack structure. The pack knows how to camp, newer parents and leaders tag and learn. Since the GSUSA doesn't have that, it's harder for their leaders to develop those skills. I'm guessing this is why two organizations that started out pretty similar are now so different.

For sure - not nationals best idea. Most unit leaders I know are never going to bother to print either. This might as well be the end of each.

Thank you all so much for the feedback. I'm reading it all very carefully and think it's very helpful. From this, I think I'm assembling a picture here. 1. Start with a core goal. In this case - we want to grow Scouting in our district. Use this as the basis for why we're doing things. 2. Rally the district committee around that goal. Next, sit with each member and operating committee and figure out what they are motivated to do to advance it. Work with them to establish their own goals. From the discussions here, I'm walking away with the impression that the best benefits come from: increasing the visibility of Scouting in the community - marketing, social media, & community activities working with units to increase their own ability to recruit & market focusing on quality program. A quality program sells itself - but that people do need to know it there. As a side note - the specifics above on how to do these things are awesome! 3. Build an environment within the district team, but to an extent the entire district, where members can be successful. Celebrate those successes. Create excitement and build momentum 4. Within the district committee, set a specific goal to grow the team this year - 30% sounds like a good goal. Bring more people to the cause, thereby enabling the team to have a bigger impact. As the team grows, we'll be able to do even more things. Close?

Seems like a while back there was lots of discussion and prototypes of new uniforms for Scouts BSA girls. Anyone know of they decided to change them? Any idea of when?

Merry Christmas @JoeBob!

In the spirit of @LeCastor's post on positive thinking, I thought I'd start a discussion on how to grow Scouting in a community. Here's the premise. Say your district is like many districts out there today. Membership slowly declining, the number of units maybe two-thirds what it was 20 years ago, round table participation dropping, volunteers helping organize things outside of the units are decreasing (camporee, day camp, etc). Let's further assume that the community itself is doing well - population is growing, people are generally well employed, etc. You have some units that are going great - so you know it can be done. Imagine you're a district committee. You can invest wherever you want - but just recognize that you've got limited volunteers already. For example - you've got a district membership chair, but certainly no membership committee. You've got a day camp chief, but no camporee committee. Say that you set a goal to double the number of youth in Scouting in 10 years. How would you approach this? You're a district committee, so everything is on the table. I would ask - let's try to keep it positive.

Time to make this a problem for a bigger audience. Bring this to the DC and district key three. If you don't want to lose the unit, time to escalate.

Thank you @Cambridgeskip - you're description is intriguing. I can see how that would work. I do think Scouting in the US would look different here in the US if we did that. Not neccessarily a bad thing, but it would be different. I'm kinda imagineing that we'd see fewer, stronger units. in my Scout district here, we've probably got something like 30 Chartering organizations. Some of those Chartering Organizations have very strong units with well developed leadership teams and lots of Scouts. Others are just a few Scouts that meet infrequently. I'm thinking that something like this would discourage the very small groups and encourage them to join on with a bigger group.

In both the pack and troop, leaders pay their own dues. I think we'd like to pay them for folks, but we've always tried to keep dues low for the boys. I've never had a leader balk at it. *EDIT - sorry, didn't catch that this was an old thread*

I wonder how that would work in practice. How do you find meeting space, etc? I think @Cambridgeskip said they owned their meeting space. I'm trying to envision how even our biggest troops around here would do that.

That's reasonable. I don't really need to know why someone failed - just that they failed. I'd be happy with a description of what the BSA background check process is with an affirmative or negative result. i.e., The BSA background checks look for the following things: - prior criminal record - a check against a national BSA database for removed leaders Recent applications you submitted resulted as: Joe Smith - FAILED Bob Jones - PASSED

This is the weak link the system now. The BSA really should: 1) Not consider a leader registered until after the check is done 2) Provide details on the results of the background check to the CC & COR.

Perhaps, but I think it's addressable. These lawsuits are from events of 30 years ago. The BSA has significantly stronger YPT training today The BSA has significantly more stringent YPT rules today The BSA has a much more thorough adult vetting process today.

Lots of good advice in this thread. @Eagle94-A1 Since you're the UC, I think you have an important role here. The problem I see in this troop is that the SM & CC are allowing families to run amuk. They need to understand that they are empowered to take the actions necessary to keep the program functioning correctly. This statement is crazy: What? This drama is destroying that troop. The CC may feel that he can't do anything about it. But - frankly - he's not doing his job if he doesn't. After all this, I think the CC ought to just ask them to leave now. Time to set the example. Both the CC & Scoutmaster each have the right to determine who camps. Both have the authority to remove any Scout from the program. No letters to council are needed. That the COR had to step in here is a failing of the unit's leadership. The COR is the person from the CO who ensures that the unit is operating a program that is in line with the expectations of the church. It's not an operational role. As their UC, you are in the best position to sit down with them and empower the heck out of them. The buck stops with them. If you're too close as a former member and friend, then ask your DC to come join you for that discussion.

Out of some fairness to the BSA here. This seems to be a generic problem facing any youth serving organization. How do you make sure that your adult volunteers do not abuse youth? The BSA's error was that they had a list of known offenders yet were loose enough in vetting the new volunteers that they didn't catch the problems.

I wouldn't be surprised to see some additional transparency around volunteer background checks. Today we fill out an application and send it in. We really don't get feedback on that application. I could see something where national will have to process the application and acknowledge the volunteer passes before they become an officially registered adult.

Makes me wonder... Where does a Scoutmaster need to jump in inject some bigger thinking? At some point don't you have to jump in and get them out of their rut?