Tron

The argument around this sort of thing is odd. The standard is the standard. 21 MB, so many camping nights, pass the swim test, etc ... right? This is sort of a like the old school adage that A's may pay, but C's get degrees. For the scout that goes above and beyond, fantastic, but it does not redefine the standard. The kid that does just the standard is just as much an eagle scout as any other eagle scout.

I don't know about staff size either. Based on my council the staff size is very small but the pay is high (on par for an executive in the area though). I will say that DE to CE pay gap is huge though, my understanding is that our newest DE in the council is only getting like 40k while the CE is getting 200k.

In my council all of the donation haggling seems to be done by the DE's and BOD. Might be different in other councils. My council was a total burning ship 5ish years ago based on 990 numbers. I know my CE is good at getting donations in, but I don't think he's doing it himself, I think his method is work other people to work other people.

I just checked the national map of councils which appears to have been updated 4 Dec 2024 (but does not reflect the realignment of Bay Lakes in WI and MCC in Michigan). That map shows 244 councils. If the settlement documents are binding to any degree that means we're probably looking at a council reduction of at least 100, the low end is at the floor of expectations right? If we look at the cost savings, Scouting America saves anywhere between 18 million and 28 million a year just on council executive salaries (average salary seems to be around 200k) when they merge these councils. This is some EXTREMELY low hanging fruit to find money for program for the scouts. This is just CE money we would save, we don't have good visibility on what council registrars, camping directors, etc ... make those are also all de duplicated roles in a council merger.

I ran across my councils strategic plan last night. With what I learned from it I ask the question; are toxic district and councils the product of DEI? My councils strategic plan is a decade old, about a third of it has to do with "leadership and membership reflecting all of our community" and a SOLID smidge of "we need to implement plans where 'regular units' take scoutreach units on campouts". My council has been on the chopping block for several years, we're shrinking year-over-year, every attempt to merge with a surrounding council is rebuked because no other council in our area will touch us with a ten foot pole. Is this strategic plan why no other council will work with us? Forget the reflecting our community part; how does the make regular units take scoutreach units on campouts even work with YPT and GTSS? Was it that some maniac wrote this garbage or were the early 2010s a YPT wild west?

Does that mean that we can expect multiple council mergers in the next year or two? It is my understanding that national does not want councils under 5000 youth.

Statistically speaking the month picked does not matter as long as the long term trend is tracked on the same date. If SA has always used 12/31 as the date for the data point, continuing to use it will show the long term trend; we can't let ourselves get befuddled in the month-to-month membership numbers. We might not get a clear picture of the membership direction until we have 36 months under this new membership renewal system. 12/31/2027 might be the day that we really know what is going on year-over-year.

Did the lawyers get it wrong or were they being disingenuous?

I would say that my council culture is toxic. I can't put my finger on the pulse of where it comes from. My CE is a great guy, I like him, I don't want to say the problem is him; however, a lot of council committees do not meet which is cascading to the district level. We're not recruiting enough people to fill the district level committees. These two things combined are collapsing our council, and it has turned into a shutup type situation when you bring up "when are we going to start meeting more regularly, and when are we going to recruit more?".

I can see that membership would go up. There are people who are mental and just being named BSA was keeping them away. Personally I would like to see the breakdown by council, and from there I would like to see some sort of mission statement/vision statement on how to deal with the underperforming councils.

Better than what I have seen in other places (total as low as 980k in some other places).

BSA has pulled the 2020 copy down so this is going to be a little bit of a path through the rules. I found this archived copy of the 2019 version; I suspect that a new registration guidebook is pending deployment to the bsa website. https://quivira.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/25/2021/01/Registration-Guidebook.pdf Page 41 of the 2019 copy states in reference to being able to recharter: • Conduct the Scouting program consistent with BSA rules, regulations, and policies. They may be found on the My Scouting website and at the following location: www.scouting.org/Membership/Charter_Orgs/ resources.aspx. Page 8 of the rules and regulations state: Scouter Training. The Boy Scouts of America may establish training requirements for specified positions and completion of that training may be required prior to registration or renewal. Page 2 of the adult application states: • Take leader position-specific training at my.scouting.org. Classroom training may also be available through your local council. You are considered a trained leader when you have completed leader position specific training for your position and have current Youth Protection training. Which then takes us to the Troop Leader Guide Vol 1 which states on page 82 very clearly " Complete position-specific and Introduction to outdoor Leader Skills training."

There's a third group here. They like the outdoors but hate sleeping in a tent. These are a troops day visitors; a great resource to bring day 2 items such as extra ice, forgotten items, a new spare tire because the trailer had an issue on the way to camp. They don't want an assigned task, they don't want to camp overnight, but they love the outdoors and are willing to show up during the daylight time. I would say that everyone that is registered needs a task. Maybe you have a new member committee where you sequester all the new parents off to coffee and gossip corner and integrate them into the troop for a few weeks while their scouts spreads their wings a bit in a patrol. After that get them into a functional role; don't fall into the trap of having a bunch of paper only committee members. If a unit follows BSA's roles and the subsequent division of labor all of the positions are super easy; even the scoutmaster role.

Why are you tracking advancement anywhere but in Scoutbook? Seriously, you eventually have to migrate advancement into Scoutbook regardless. National has mandated monthly advancement reporting and an annual advancement report in the month of December from everyone unit in the new GTA; those requirements are met by just using Scoutbook/SB+. You're doing at least double work by key entering any advancement in a third party software. I don't want to hear anything about SB/SB+ being difficult. I've used SB/SB+/IA, TroopMaster, TroopWebHost, and spreadsheets and I will say that nothing else is easier than SB/SB+; it all filters down to willingness to learn SB/SB+.

Yet another reason why we need to go back to the old way and not have an eagle project.

What happened here is that fiblandia has a special law. That's not the federal FOIA. So going back to the OP's question, what state is the OP in?

Scouting is going to survive; Scouting America is going to survive. I don't think Scouting America membership has bottomed out yet; and I think a lot of change is coming. I think quality control of adult leaders and of units in general is eminent; certain it will be a thing no later than the final ink is dry on the settlement. I've only ever heard of adults being threatened to be kicked out, and I've only ever heard of units being threatened to loose their charter; I've recently witnessed my first adult leader kicked out of SA after decades of service, and 2 units have lost their charter in the last month, a 3rd was supposedly told 1 more safety/ypt violation and they are gone. What I see is that Scouting America is going to get smaller, and then we are going to turn a very big corner and experience some real growth.

It's going to come down to is he a US citizen? While living here for school or such the registration guide book allows him to join SA; however, if he is a not a US citizen, his time abroad cannot count towards any SA requirements nor can he maintain membership.

Scouting America website for special needs scouts. Troop Leader Guide Vol 2 also has a chapter on working with scouts that have special needs. IOLS and Woodbadge do not have anything beyond (or anything for that matter) concerning working with scouts with special needs. You will need IOLS to be considered trained, and technically per the registration guide book and Troop Leader Guide Vol 1 you're supposed to have it before being allowed to be the SM. I am not sure how strict your council is but I would check your neighboring councils for IOLS classes. If something goes way wrong and you're not fully trained SA might hang you out to dry.

Carter spent 40 years trying to make up for the 4 worst years of his leadership history. Carter got a lot of press, support, and had influence because he was a past president; anyone else with his track record never would been given a second thought. I'm not going to join the whitewash here; Carter's presidency is well know for the worst inflation of the 2000th century, if measured apples-to-apples, probably worse than even now. Carter bumbled everything internationally. Nearly 4 decades of post war (WW2) economic growth cratered because of his policies. The 1 federal department he is responsible for standing up is under so much fire right now because of how poorly it has blown up the US education system. The only thing I will give Carter is that he had 1 really big win as president, and that was creation of the superfund program. Everything else he touched as president was total rot.

This sounds great but also problematic considering YPT (especially the new buddy rules).

No, the FOIA only applies to the federal government; period. If your state has some sort of other state level law I would suggest you state what that law is and the state; it is unlikely that the law you are thinking about even vaguely affects non-government entities.

They lost me at the "lost touchpoint" point. Every unit is supposed to have a membership coordinator who previously was making those touchpoints, and is supposedly still making those touchpoints; only instead of it happening in one 30 day period the touchpoints are happening throughout the whole year (primarily in the fall though).

National announced a grace period; the problem is that it looks like people stop getting emails at renewal date + 7 days. That grace period is massive, 60 days. I am just waiting for the new YPT and training requirements to drop if that gold leaf certification is for real; that's going to blow up 50% of the leaders in my opinion (because they are lazy and can't be bothered to do free training online in my experience).

I am still re-reading front to back. National has removed some of the gray area that bad leaders have lingered in for years. I think we all need to make sure we understand the nuance difference. Statements on MBC and SM authority seem much clearer and designed to reign in ego-mad SM's.