TAHAWK

The distance is, manifestly, a tool to help maintain patrol independence. The goal may be harder to achieve without it, but if the understanding and commitment is there, the youth can still have Scouting. Tarps?

The SE has not told the Council yet. All training is now by Council.

Since we reorganized six districts into two, about five years ago, we have never had any Roundtable Commissioner - Cub or Scout. Now we are eliminating districts altogether. This last may be driven by our SE's belief that anything poorly done should be eliminated, rather than fixed.

Yes, Government wastes money, regardless of who supposedly leads the bureaucracy. "You deserve more, and they should pay for it." Remember "budgets"? "The president’s fiscal year 2010 budget proposal amounting to $3.55 trillion in spending was released on Feb. 26. According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the president’s proposals will add deficits of $9,300,000,000,000 over the next 10 years—many times more than the inflation adjusted cost of all of World War II. The budget proposal sets record levels of annual spending between a minimum of $3,556,000,000,000 in 2011 and $5,139,000,000,000 in 2019. The budget raises taxes by as much as $1,600,000,000,000 over the next ten years."

Management change can drastically change the experience from on year to another. I like to take a week 3-> and ask those from 1 & 2 how it went.

But Flynn is on the other side. You 're not suggesting applying the same standard?

A month is a blink of an eye if the objective is the Patrol Method. If the objective is something else, a month is surely better than a week. How would Little League do it? Hpw

I introduced myself to Professor Tuckman, who answered his own telephone at Ohio State, solely by name and recited what I had just been told about his "Stages of Team Development" (at Wood Badge). He chuckled, and said, "You must be with Boy Scouts. I wish they would read my article. Did you?" I assured him that I had, and that had also taken Blanchard's week-long "Situational Leadership" in 1995. "Then", Professor Tuckman said, "can we assume that you know I never said that." I told him that we could use that as a working assumption and that I was calling to be sure I understood his theory. We talked for about forty-five minutes. In Tuckman's theoretical model, "stages" are simply descriptions of where the group can be at a given point, for use as guidance of the group "leader" in "supplying what is missing." (If, then) There is no necessary or inevitable order. There may be other stages. Stages may repeat. The leader must adjust his/her efforts to the situation in which the group finds itself. (Hence, "Situational Leadership.") Most "productive team I was on at "work." 1. Started ignorant and depressed. "We are scapegoats" was one comment. "Doomed" was another. Seemed very united in this view. Said, grimly, we would nevertheless fight the good fight. "No one will be able to say we didn't try." One member of the team pretended to be very ill to drop out before our first meeting. Some "refused" the assignment (Not sure how they got away with that.). As we started our work, calls and emails were not returned by persons with critical information. 2. As we learned some relevant and material facts, energy increased and morale rose. We might not crash and burn. 3. As we learned more, hope turned to optimism. We started to believe we could "win" (with no shared definition of "win.") At this stage, as word of progress leaked out, people who had studiously avoided any association with the team fought to get on it. The team started out all management - not "bargained-for" work, you see. Towards the final days of preparation, hourly employees were helping without pay. CWA union stewards were helping or asking if they could help - without pay - BIG DEAL. Managers who had previously failed to return calls, showed up with donuts and pizza. ("Victory has a thousand Godfathers. Defeat is ever an orphan.") 5. Our stated goal from top company leadership (also at Stage 1) when we were ordered to be part of this team was to keep the verdict under $30,000.000.00. The verdict would then be tripled by statute to determine the damage award. As we waited for the verdict, @250,000.00 sounded good to them. 6. The verdict was for $1.00, trebled to $3.00.00., a good payoff for thousands of hours of work. The opposing team (sixty-attorney law firm) dissolved after revoking partnership of their leader. Tuckman's reaction to my report: " Real life is only approximately like models. " Reminds me of Psych 101: "People are not like Coke bottles." Professor Tuckman passed away in 2016, ending my hope to get our council WB Coordinator to talk to him. I was the leader of this team (expression of confidence or ???? ) Like many teams in real life, some members of this team had related with one another before being placed on this team, some for many, many hours over up to eight years. Other team members, although in the same department, had never worked together. Others had never even met. One of my team was higher in the company hierarchy by one level and three pay grades. I am convinced he joined up on his own initiative because we were friends, Cubs joining a patrol are not a twelve-step group (Tuckman's subjects). They are likely to have been teammates together for years as Cubs, well along in sorting out relationship issues, but there could be an outlier or two or three. It's only a tool.

One patrol in T83 burned its chicken stew the last night of summer camp. KP? Deferred! The pot was next opened in preparation for the August campout. Interesting blue-green color. REALLY interesting smell.

Remember the BSA "spokesman" who, during one of the suits by atheists, explained "A Scout is ...Reverent" in terms of talking to trees. That was pretty far from the party line, even taking Buddhism into account. "Professionals."

"[F]lopped" is kind.

BSA on the results of the "Improved Scouiting Program" of 1972: "While well-intended, the plan flopped,...." "Hillcourt’s biggest impact came after he retired. In 1972, the BSA revised the Boy Scout program, de-emphasizing outdoor skills in a bid to become more relevant to America’s urban population. While well-intended, the plan flopped, and Hillcourt stepped in. He saw the need for a new Scout handbook, one that would capture the romance and excitement of Scouting, so he offered to write it for free. It was an offer the BSA couldn’t — and didn’t — refuse. That handbook — the ninth edition —appeared in 1979 and went on to sell 4.4 million copies. In its opening pages, 78-year-old Hillcourt described the same sense of adventure he had first experienced so many decades ago: hiking and camping with friends, following the footsteps of the pioneers, staring into the glowing embers of a campfire and dreaming of the future." Scouting, January, 2018. (available on line at https://scoutingmagazine.org/2017/12/scoutmaster-to-the-world/)

And one message of "semantics" is that words have power. When he stopped calling leaders "Leaders" and started calling adults "Leaders," things got worse, not better.

This seems worth noting (from the BSA announcement of the change): "Once Scoutbook Lite is released, the Scoutbook database will become the official record of advancement for the BSA." Do they mean Scoutbook Lite, or is Lite a way into the sole and only official advancement record, Scoutbook?

Still, we're going to give it a go for my daughter.

I was an SA twenty-five years with the same troop. The districts had their moments, and they had periods of dysfunction. The council was largely dysfunctional for all twenty-five years and it remains so. The dysfunction at those levels was irrelevant to the troop's program. We had forty to seventy Scouts involved in an active program of Boy Scouting - tenting every month, sun, rain or snow. We did our own summer camp more years than not because the PLC decided we did a better job overall than any of the many council camps we sampled, and we did. After all, the troop was a going concern for four years before BSA arrived in the area, as the troop in which I was a Scout was a going concern sixteen years before BSA arrived in that area. The old, superior literature and ideas are still easily available. Who do you want as Wilderness Survival "counselor," a sixteen year-old who only "knows" what's in the pathetic BSA pamphlet or the assistant course director of a U.S. Army Ranger survival course? "Many times "Teacher of the Year" biology teacher or another kid with a pamphlet who could not ID a Barred Owl when it was siting on a branch twenty feet away in plain sight? Units, given the right leadership, don't need district or council. Few units have that leadership, and council, through its districts, is supposed to train the adults and the leaders. When council fails? Our troop did leader training when BSA basically abandoned it, other than the week-long variety few attend - in 1971. (Still waiting for the "new" JLOW syllabus? No. Why wait? We have a volunteer in the council who has prepared a unique SM Basic syllabus, and that is what we have been using for several years. The trainees love it - don't want to leave after the closing ceremony. The clueless council Training chairman has no idea. In my life, I have lived trough the regimes of a number of useless political office-holders. I distinguish living my life and doing the best I can from what is going in in city hall, the state house, and the cesspool on the Potomic. If a Soviet officer could save German children in Berlin as it fell in April, 1945, what really stops you - now - from doing good in Scouting now? I have fifty years in Scouting June 8th. In all that time, program has never been B.S.A.'s top priority, as it says it is. So what? The change I see is fewer dedicated volunteers. We are not prevented from doing our best in the vast majority of cases in Scouting despite what goes on at the district, council, or National. They an make our Scouting lives easier or harder but it can only stop you, 99% of the time, if you allow it. So we have some more female kids going to be in the program- not after over forty years of having some in the program. Want to keep bemoaning? See ? It's the words smallest violin playing "Woe is you." The council to my south offers all the old training, and the new, as the "University of Scouting." Anyone close to Akron want to help us?

There. Fixed. In the first line that's, stri' ped [rhymes with keds'] We're here for fun right from the start so drop your dignity, Just laugh and sing with all your heart and show your loyalty. May all your troubles be forgot, Let this night be the best. Join in the songs we sing tonight, Be happy with the rest. Tune: Auld Lang Syne

Who is represented by these numbers? Youth only, perhaps? In terms of total membership, the level in the last year before the full implementation of the "Improved Scouting" program (1972 - 6.5 million - the actual peak) have never been reached since by B.S.A.'s own account in the Annual Report. Chart seems to be an illustration of Disraeli's Razor. Above was added by forum software when I clicked on reply box. Once there, such things cannot be removed. Happens repeatedly in last few days. I propose that there is at least a third possibility teach the girls how to master it so they can do it easily and well it in the organizations already in place who allow for outdoor program

The software attached the above attribution to NJC when I cut and pasted from T2EAGLE's post T2, I don't despise the announcement that I posted. I thought it was funny -- nothing darker than that. Maybe all the way to kids trying to play grown-up. It is no worse than other verbiage I came across working for what was then the world's largest company with over 1,000,000 employees. Indeed, the "System" had books full of "Bell Speak" that amounted to a code and/or cipher when addressed to anyone not a "Bellhead," such as our regulators. Bell engineers writing to non-engineers in Bell Speak could often confuse non-engineer Bellheads. It was one of my jobs to "fix" such garbage by turning it into clear, more-or-less standard English. Fortunately, I had a super "Administrative Assistant" to proof MY work (I kant tipe gud.). (At AT&T, it was "Bellhead" and not "Bell head." [Add to dictionary.] ) (The problem of jargon did not improve when AT&T decided to get out of the local telephone business and offered to break up the Bell System in return for being allowed back into "general trades computing"(like IBM) (at which AT&T failed badly). The "Baby Bells" were still full of Bellheads who would NOT stop calling hanging up on a telephone call, "going on hook." ) (And "going off hook" = ? [hint: Think candlestick telephone set.) Communication. It might be important sometime.

Hanlon's Razor again.

They probably meant to say that maintaining confidences is a job requirement.

Hanlon's razor

B.S.A. is somewhat famous for its IT travails.

Position: Associate Organizational and Leadership Development Compensation: Exempt Level position Department: Human Resources Position location: Irving, TX 75038 Job Overview: Supports the strategic priorities of Organizational and Leadership Development through close partnership and guidance from the Team Leader, Organizational and Leadership Development. Serves as an integral member of the business unit’s team with responsibility for supporting all key functions, to include: Organizational Culture, Succession Management, Change Management, facilitation and other needs, as requested. Primary Responsibilities: Provides daily support (e.g. communications, scheduling, facilitating partnerships, managing administrative aspects, initiating processes, etc.) within scope of authority, to all the business unit’s areas of responsibility through close partnership and guidance of the Team Leader, Organizational and Leadership Development Works closely with Team Leader, Organizational and Leadership Development and team members to ensure that all reports, schedules, and other deliverables are accurate and complete. Supports communications to varied stakeholders. Schedules work sessions, meetings, and events in accordance with functional needs and related timelines. Supports the success of scheduled events. Communicates with varied stakeholders pre, post, and during all scheduled events. Serves as primary person responsible for and coordinates projects in support of key strategic initiatives as identified and/ or requested, may be self-initiated. Makes recommendations to improve or develop processes, programs, tools, and interventions to support the work and goals of organizational development. Coordinates and supports implementation of approved changes. Assists in the preparation of bi-annual budget and monitors expenses with Team Leader, Organizational and Leadership Development. Orders supplies, approves and/or processes invoices for payment (within scope of authority). Supports financial accounting for all OD cost centers to include monthly report generation, account validation. Creates, validates, and generates monthly reports. Initiates and implements processes (within scope of authority). Creates companion reporting to measure impact, effectiveness, and Return on Investment (ROI) of goals and initiatives. Other job-related duties as assigned. Qualifications/ Experience: Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, Organizational Development or related field from an accredited college or university is required. Master’s Degree preferred. Two or more years of work within Organizational Development, Leadership Development and/or Human Resources required, with an emphasis on Organizational Development related tasks. Expert level proficiency using Adobe Creative Suite. Ideal candidate will possess the ability to maintain confidence with sensitive and private information. Exceptional written and verbal communication skills. Compensation: The National Council, Boy Scouts of America is an equal opportunity employer. In addition to offering a competitive annual salary; the BSA offers benefits to include major medical, prescription coverage, dental, vision, life-insurance, short and long-term disability, accidental death, and a defined benefit retirement plan. We also offer a generous PTO policy and 11 holiday observances. How to apply: Qualified candidates must email a resume and cover letter to: Resume.Exempt@Scouting.org . The subject line of the email should state Associate Organizational & Leadership Dev. . (Internal applicants should also include the word Internal in the subject line.)

Who is represented by these numbers? Youth only, perhaps? In terms of total membership, the level in the last year before the full implementation of the "Improved Scouting" program (1972 - 6.5 million - the actual peak) have never been reached since by B.S.A.'s own account in the Annual Report. Chart seems to be an illustration of Disraeli's Razor. Everyone from bowling leagues to the PTA have seen serious drops in membership - even in absolute numbers. The market share numbers are far more awful.