hertfordnc

> kneejerk reaction I suppose it appears that way, and "tone" is a challenge in written form but there's more to it. Having spent four decades in the largest bureaucracy on earth I am used to putting with things i think are stupid. But if you build an organization around free labor you have a responsibility to nurture that labor force. We spent all of the Fall rebuilding our pack and raising money. My goal was that no parent would have to pay more than $30. This is a poor community. We almost lost the whole pack last year because we were led by higher income people who did not understand the needs of working parents. We would have met that goal but BSA doubled the national fee and we did not have cash in the bank. Still, to meet the goal, we in leadership volunteered to cover the cost for ourselves and our scouts so that all the new parents would not be burdened and we squeeked by with a little in the bank and no hard feelings. BSA's failure to prepare for the increased need and springing it on us weeks before charter shows reckless disregard for the people who do the work. This goofy two-year certification that cannot lapse in 23 months is another example of the same reckless disregard. And the other layer to my frustration is that I am trying hard to recruit leadership from lower income and minority folks in my community. We are 30-40% non-white but scouting is as white as the klan for 100 miles in all directions. So when i ask a mom who works two jobs that I want her to be a den leader I expect the organization to value her time and mine. end of rant YPT is rolling in the background because in a dysfunctional bureaucracy, compliance is everything

I could live with it being an annual requirement. But it undermines recruiting when you throw surprises at your volunteers without explanation.

I am being made committee chair. My YPT is good through Dec 5 2020. I am being told that our charter cannot go through unless my YPT is good through the end of the charter year So i have to retake it now Is this true? If so, i will seriously consider walking away. You cannot abuse volunteers with this sort of bureaucracy.

Just thought i would report back on this thread, Last month the local Ruratans hosted a five mile yard sale down a two lane country road, I handed out a flier saying that i would take unsold items at the end of the day to be donated to the Cub Scouts. I got several calls and collected three pickup loads of mostly junk but it did give us a lot of stuff to put out. The location for the yard sale is near a storage company and I persuaded them to donate a 10X20 unit to the pack for 30 days. That really worked out great, people could just drop off donations there and then we were able to roll everything out quickly on the morning of the sale and then roll the leftovers back in at the end of the day. We took in $770 so far. I have a few things to clean out of the storage unit that might bring in a few more dollars. We also received a few coolers and tents that we kept for the pack. Our pack only has about 12 kids so this put us in pretty good shape.

We received a few high value items i sold on ebay and we ran ads locally for appliances. I'm working on the flier for this years. it will be in a few weeks. You need a plan for storage and a plan for what to do with unsold stuff. This year I'm working a deal with a flea market seller to come pick up my unsold stuff.

Last year i was a passive parent in my kids pack until I learned there was no money in the bank and i had to pay all the charter fees for two kids. So, i got committee qualified and held a yard sale. Two weeks from idea to execution- we raised over $1000 . Doing it again with a bit more planning. People are happy to donate their unwanted stuff to a good cause. You can create work for everyone with sorting, pricing, transporting and storage. Has anyone else done this? I'd love to hear other input. i'm flying without a net (and without adult supervision)