Pale Horse

You're right, it's a donation to support Scouting. We're fine with that; we know it, and our customers know it. Nobody is "lying", if they want cheap popcorn, they know it can be bought inside the supermarket we're selling in front of. Yet for some reason, his Pack still sells thousands of dollars outside supermarkets. My son isn't trying to run a business. We're out funding our adventure in the most efficient manner possible, so we can get back to doing Scout stuff.

Depends on weather & planned activities to a big extent. I would suggest a minimum of 1 gallon of water per participant per day.

As I mentioned in my post, people gravitate towards the cheapest option. By standing right next to the kids selling popcorn, the meat sticks will of course sell more. Our Pack of 38 Cubs will sell $65k in popcorn. My son is on pace to sell $8k in popcorn, and will barely crack top 10 in our council of 60,000 scouts. Do people reach those levels selling meat sticks?

I'm a shill for Popcorn. Even with the slightly better commission (before Council gets a cut), my son would have to work 5 times as hard to raise the same amount of money selling meat at $1 (even if people bought 5 at a time) versus what he does selling popcorn. Our problem isn't customers saying "No" to popcorn, it's catching people when they're home. Those that aren't home or don't answer the door aren't going to buy. But with meat, the ones that are home are now just going to buy a couple bucks in meat sticks, meaning my son has to visit 5 times as many homes to reach his average sale total of $20. The number of people saying "Yes" isn't going to explode enough to offset the loss in gross revenue. Those who are willing and able to support Scouts at $10-20/bag more than makes up for those that are only able to support at $1-$2. Currently, those people who only have a couple bucks but still want to support typically end up offering this as a donation. By converting that to meat sales, you've effectively lost 58% of the bottom line donation. This theory has been proven to be true. Numerous people have even gone so far as to entirely eliminate the $10 popcorn options from their lineup and sell only those $20+. Their sales have increased substantially. Even though people know popcorn is overpriced, they still want to help support. The problem is they still gravitate toward the cheapest option. By making the cheapest option $20, that's what they take. Make it $10 or $5, or in this case $1 for meat; that is what they choose.

I'm in favor of a statute of limitations to bring suit. What happened to those kids is a terrible shame; but after a certain point in time, what sense does it make to punish those that had nothing to do with it? After 30 years, are any of those responsible for the actions or knowledge of the concealment still around? You're asking today's families to pay for the transgressions that happened before many of my Scouts' parents were even born. We're 2 generations after-the-fact in some circumstances.

Who else is going to coordinate for FoS to come solicit for money?

If National registration was the "all-in" cost of Scouting, I could easily sell an increase to $75/year. But it's not. To most people all that fee gets you is your name in a database. Registration fees don't cover the cost of one badge or pin, much less a camping event. Anyone that has done an actual cost study on the true cost of Cub Scouting, knows that it already takes close to $200 to put a kid through a year of Scouting. That's just to run a bare-bones program for Cubs (no trips, no campouts, etc.). That's $600 in popcorn sales before we even begin paying for outings and adventure. Outside the cost of trips and camping, it's actually more expensive to run a Cub program than it is a Scouts BSA program. New neckerchief and handbook every year; the cost of 2 or so pins/beltloops each month and the cost (time or money) in planning fun pack meetings. The most complaints I get from parents are when their older kid crosses over to Scouts BSA and they start to wonder why they're paying more for Cubs than they are the older Scout. To top it all off, I'm still not sure why I need to pay national insurance fees on top of my own council's insurance fees. They say each council is a separate and unique entity, so why do I have to pay the insurance costs and abuse payouts for incidents that didn't happen in my council.

It's great that this is available, but it does nothing to help the vast majority of Scouts coming from middle class. These families are not considered "low-income", but certainly don't have a spare $1,000/year to throw at BSA; and the families that do, have higher things on their priority list.

Not at all. I prefer Cole Canoe Base. Only reason we go to D-Bar-A is because Cub families refuse to travel more than 90 minutes.

I'm not sure how old you are, but D-Bar-A has been around since 1950 and is just 45 miles down the road. Silver Trails had some fine programming, but utilization just wasn't there to keep it open. We're hoping most, if not all, of that can be relocated to relocated to D-Bar-A.

Thanks for your thoughts. However there's a huge difference between "victimless crimes" like drinking and swearing in one's own home and mutilating an innocent child. See my previous post. There is no disputing that the FGM occurred, but it's technically not a crime. I have a hard time getting past that. Legal or not, it's Child Abuse.

FGM was illegal because of a Federal Ban on the practice. A federal judge struck down the ban citing Federal Government's lack of jurisdiction in the matter; determining it to be a State issue. That's the sum of it. I bet you didn't know only 35 States have bans on FGM. I didn't realize that mine is one of those that doesn't. That means however despicable the act is, it technically isn't illegal, so charges were dropped. Whether the procedure was done or not isn't in question (it was). Just the dispute on whether it was acceptable. This isn't a person that's repentant for past actions, but one that's convinced what was done was perfectly acceptable.

Sorry, I'm not following you with "permissive sexual ethics", please clarify. What this boils down to is, the Dr. abused young children (sexually or otherwise). You would welcome this person?

Thanks for your view. Personally, I view FGM as a form of abuse. Just because it's under the guise of a "religious practice" doesn't lesson the impact. Many of my leaders share this opinion. We're open to allowing child to join the pack, of course. But were considering to ask that only the Spouse attend. Curious if you think it'd be ok to allow a parent who's a "former" sexual predator to attend.

CM

Looking for advice and opinions, I'm sure I'll get a shortage of neither. We had our Pack JSN recently, which a New Parent and Youth attended. The parent is a Doctor who was arrested and charged with performing illegal medical procedures on young girls. Think genital mutilation. Most of the charges have been dropped, not because the Dr. didn't do what he/she was accused of, but because of federal jurisdiction and legalese... Needless to say, our current leaders and parents are uneasy with the Dr.'s presence, especially the parents of girls. What are my options here, and what would you all do? Yes, I'm in process of contacting my USE/DE and Unit Commissioner.

Nothing is "odorproof" but they do reduce the amount of odor significantly. They're also designed to be semi-disposable. I've been using them in my ursack and get a season's worth of use out of them.

I like the Ursack, much more packable. That, and in Northern Michigan, while we do have black bears, we're much more likely to lose our food to raccoons and squirrels. I'd also recommend their opsack for sealing the odors. https://www.ursack.com/product/opsak-odor-barrier-bag-2-pack/

Back in the day, civilians used to buy Military surplus because it was typically the best stuff available for the outdoors (and often cheapest). Nowadays, those in the Military buy civilian gear because it's usually much better than that issued to them (though never the cheapest). Obviously there are exceptions, especially when we started getting issued cold- and wet-weather gear made by Patagonia.

We complain that training centers are underutilized and "we'll never be able to pay the balloon payment on Summit" Then we complain when we make accommodations to lure more people to utilize those facilities. This has zero impact on Treks.

Obviously for new units, you simply replace the words "at the end of the prior charter year" with "on the initial charter." You therefore have: Number of youth members on the most recent charter renewal (A) divided by the number of youth registered on the initial charter (B) minus any age-outs (C). Total = (A) / (B-C)...

I agree, so our pack chose to rebel a bit to build community spirit. We bough custom unit patches like this (that's not our Pack/location though). The kids like them, and parents love them since their easier to sew than 3 separate numbers & veteran bar (and including the Established year instead of the veteran bar means they don't expire every 5 years).

Pessimistic question: which will get their response quicker?

Fair enough regarding the "professional" (white collar?) vs. trades professions. However, plenty of trades (most?) don't require a degree; the apprenticeship path is still the way to go. For those that do, a 2 year certificate/degree from a vocational school is still a fraction of the cost of even the lowest in-state University. I'd disagree on 2 points. The first is that nursing isn't a trade profession. Besides, I think it's all in our best interest that health care providers have a bit of formal schooling and education. Secondly, most vocational trade professions have absolutely zero degree requirements. You can go from apprentice to master craftsmen with zero formal education. This doesn't even take into account the entrepreneurial opportunities that abound for those so inclined.

Except for the thousands of in-demand trade skills positions that pay premium wages without needing to go into debt for six figures.