Eagle1993

My council has sold off 3 of its 4 camps over the last decade or so. Each time, they promised to reinvest the funds in the remaining camp(s). I saw nothing of the sort, only investment in new hires whose sole purpose seems to be gathering videos to help fundraising efforts. We had some tremendous volunteers in my district who planned an amazing celebration of our Cub Scout camp many years ago (when the camp was turning 100 years old ... before it was sold off). The idea was a council wide camporee, climbing walls, various scouting events, food trucks, fireworks, etc. Council leadership cancelled it as it had the chance to lose money (ignoring the publicity it would have generated). This led to a few of our key district volunteers leaving, never to return. Our council does almost nothing for Scouts BSA outside of merit badge clinics. They invest heavily in Cub Scouts but seem to think the program ends at 5th grade. Our Troop has a few members of the executive board, but it seems like they have become disillusioned with what they have been able to impact. Personally, I hope my council is absorbed my one of our neighboring ones, which seem to be better at putting on events for Scouts BSA and investing in their camps.

I think one issue is that too many try and recruit from unit volunteers, many if not most are parents of youth. District/council would be best served finding younger adults (21 - 30) before they have kids or former unit volunteers (50+). I used to be more active at the district level, but as my kids got older and their interests were varied, I ran out of volunteer hours to give ... and all of mine will be at the unit level. That said, my kids are aging, one will be headed to college in 2026 and the other a few years later. I could see volunteering at council/district level at that point.

Regardless of the month, all of the numbers show a program either in decline or barely hanging on.

We recently discovered and resolved an issue that had been preventing new users from signing up on Scouter.com. Thanks to @SCOUTER-Terry for their swift response in fixing this! If you’ve recently invited others to join and they had trouble signing up, they can now create accounts without any issues. Thanks for your patience, and we look forward to welcoming more scouters around the campfire! @MattR @RememberSchiff

This looks like a response to a request from a Pack for the IRS to provide tax guidance. I think it has been clear that scout accounts are in the grey area of tax regulations. This is a case of don't ask permission and you will likely be fine. If some kid buys a C8 Corvette with his scout account, the IRS may have some questions. Outside of that, I have never seen evidence of a single issue with the IRS.

Eagle Scout David Montgomery

Knowledge not shared is lost. Thanks for sharing..

Lujan rejected a substantial settlement in the Guam lawsuit right before bankruptcy. Now her clients will receive less than that offer and I expect she is personally and professionally vested in doing everything possible to undo that mistake. The BSA bankruptcy possibility was very well known, I'm not sure why she rejected that initial offer. I give her credit, she is fighting hard to represent her clients; however, over the last four years she seems to struggle to make solid arguments in court and rarely wins substantial rulings. I highly doubt the appeal will work.

I agree. One "benefit" of today's higher fees is that registered members are more likely active members. I remember earlier on, if our Pack didn't hear from a scout, we would pay for their renewal to avoid paperwork if they decided to come back. In addition, we had many scouts where parents would pay the renewal and we would end up rarely (if ever) seeing the scout. Given today's costs, I no longer see this behavior. I tend to believe the numbers today (perhaps except scout reach).

One minor issue with this is that percentage of youth in the population varies over time. It peaked in the 1960s when 36% of the population was under 18. Today it is in decline (22%). Numbers will still look bad... % youth below: 1980 - 28% 1990 - 26% 2000 - 26% 2010 - 24% 2019 - 22% 2023 - 22%

Looks like a great choice. Entertaining high adventure dude, active in social media. UK continues to surge, recognizes the importance of new media and outreach to where you consume today. Their Chief is 41 years old, has Insta and Twitter accounts in addition to being very active on YouTube. First black Briton to reach North Pole. Our Chief is 68, no Insta or Twitter. He is on YouTube but tell me which guy kids will follow...

Good question. From what I can see, copyright ownership is separate from physical ownership. That said, when I searched the copyright owner of various Norman Rockwell Boy Scout paintings, I don't see BSA listed as the copyright owner. Saxon Industries and B&B Communication Corp are listed as the owner of several.

They look tastier than some summer camp meals I have had in the past.

Actual results... Uphold Plan... Kavanaugh, Roberts, Sotomayor and Kagan Reject ... Thomas, Gorsuch, Barrett, Jackson and Alito Interesting as the results have the most conservative members rejecting the plan joined by liberal Jackson and the moderates/liberals upholding the plan. Waiting to read more insights into the ripple effects. Hoping BSA plan is safe.

I doubt it. They had their chance to pause it, and after briefly pausing it, they let the plan proceed. I expect they knew this decision and if they expect to impact the BSA they would have kept the pause going. Just a guess, perhaps hope.

Most of the minorities in my area are part of "scout reach" units who's numbers are suspect. They never appear at summer camp, camporees, etc. There is history of BSA inflating their minority stats by counting kids in scout reach that are never active.

When I go to most camporees and summer camp, the vast majority of scouts are white males. If our scouting organization wants to include other demographics, it may need to have recruiting efforts or events targeted to those demographics. It doesn't mean changing the program or, hopefully, removing standard events. Each year at summer camp, the leaders of the one girls Troop that attends has raised concerns about behavior. Over time, I've seen less girls attending. If BSA wants to remain primarily a program for white males, then don't make any changes. If they want to expand to other groups, then between the choice of changing the program or implementing some special events, Id support implementation of these special events. Over time, I would expect these special events would fade, but it takes a long time for acceptance of new members by existing organization members and for the general public to see scouting as a program for more than just suburban and rural white males. When my daughter joined our mountain bike team, she was one of 3 girls on a 55 person team. She was called slow by the boys. She was called a boy by them and her non biking friends. She dealt with a lot of crap my son didn't go through. The mountain bike organizer created some special events for girls and that helps her feel appreciated. Now, we have 7 girls out of 60 or so total. Over time, if there are more girls, she won't feel she as isolated as she once did. I would also agree we need to do better with suburban and rural white males as well, but I don't think think we need a dedicated event for them as every event I attend is 90%+ that demographic.

Just one example of transparency. UK Scout Association annual report attached. BSAs last report 2019 is here https://ar2019.scouting.org/ UK Scout Association has 3.7% youth and increasing vs Scouting USA has 1.2% and falling. scouts-annual-report-2022-to-2023.pdf

Perhaps for Cub Scouts but absolutely not for Scouts BSA. Scouting isn't for everyone. If a kid doesn't like camping out two nights or wants a day camp experience perhaps just stick with travel indoor sports. Also, while adult leader meetings are a great time for adults to drink and eventually discuss the Troop, scout outings are not. As a parent who has kids in both travel sports and scouts, I find the fewer parents involved in scouting a major benefit. Let's not destroy scouting by taking everything that is bad with travel sports and applying it to Scouts BSA.

That is true for many sports, but I pay fees to be a NICA mountain bike coach. There is an annual background check fee to a 3rd party and annual registration fee. To be a level 2 coach I have to take a specific training course, in person. In addition I have to pay for mountain bike first aid and CPR every two years. NICA tracks the level of coaches and has very strict rules on rider to coach ratios, including coaching levels. It ensures the program is run well and consistently. I do wish BSA used the same background check company as other organizations so and then that fee would be once for multiple orgs.

So, instead of making a simple first class requirement like we had for the majority of BSA history like " On one overnight, serve as patrol cook & prepare breakfast, lunch, & dinner that require cooking." Instead we have the following: 2a. Help plan a menu for one of the above campouts that includes at least one breakfast, one lunch, and one dinner, and that requires cooking at leastt wo of the meals. Tell how the menu includes the foods from MyPlate or thec urrent USDA nutritional model and how it meets nutritional needs for thep lanned activity or campout. 2b. Using the menu planned in First Class requirement 2a, make a list showing a budget and the food amounts needed to feed three or more youth. Secure the ingredients. 2c. Show which pans, utensils, and other gear will be needed to cook and serve these meals. 2d. Demonstrate the procedures to follow in the safe handling and storage off resh meats, dairy products, eggs, vegetables, and other perishable foodp roducts. Show how to properly dispose of camp garbage, cans, plastic containers, waste water, and other rubbish. 2e. On one campout, serve as cook. Supervise your assistant(s) in using a stove o r building a cooking fire. Prepare the breakfast, lunch, and dinner planned and in First Class requirement 2a. Supervise the cleanup. So basically we added 2a,b,c and d to requirement 2e that worked. We added a bunch of paperwork for kids to fill out, chances for leaders to micromanage each step, etc. BSA did this with many requirements....

See attached for the history of rank requirements. You can see the trend from simply... Cook for your patrol to getting meals approved against a budget following my plate. Just an example of how this becomes an issue... My nephew was denied his first class cooking completion because he went over his self estimated budget. The SM told him that staying within budget is part of the requirement.... Could you imagine better ways to kill motivation of a 12 year old then talking about food budgeting? I digress... Even through the 1990s, the rank requirements were almost exclusively outdoor activities.... Then for some reason we decided to make much of this into lists and tracking. I'd go back to the 1965-1970 requirements which are straight forward, and focus on earning rank through outdoor activities. bsa_ranks.pdf

Another way to look at this. 4 indoor troop meetings a month 4 indoor PLC meetings a month 1 campout a month 1/9 activities are outdoors.....

It would be interesting to see this as a percentage of children. I'm not sure what that looks like, but I think it was on the order of 25%.

Single family households are actually declining now. I'm not sure why they would make a change now for that... But perhaps it was overdue.