Delphinus

My understanding is the MBC can ONLY meet with a Scout if another adult (e.g., a parent or another Adult Scouter) is present. I applied back in the spring to be a MBC. There was no charge. I subsequently submitted an application to be an Assistant Scout Master (ASM). Then, over the summer, we got the email announcing the fee increases. Thankfully, if I pay the fee to be an ASM, I don't have to pay the additional fee to be a MBC. I also put on my MBC application that I only intended to do it for Scouts in our troop and added that I would consider doing it for others outside of our Troop "on a case-by-case basis."

I noticed that the fees on the Boy Scout side have gone up significantly this year based on an email notification a month or so ago.. Assistant Scoutmaster registration prices have increased about 50% this year, and Merit Badge Counselors, people who volunteer and freely donate their time and expertise, have gone from no fee to an annual $25 fee for the opportunity to volunteer their time. This will make it far LESS likely that people will volunteer. I'll help out as an ASM and merit badge counselor for a couple of years, but I am trying to get our son to get through the program and "Eagle Out" sooner. Once he does, my freely donated time and expertise will end. Not enough to volunteer my time, energy, and expertise, or even that I pay for that privilege, but now the price to pay to volunteer is going up?

Wow! It's one thing to ask them to volunteer and provide free labor, but to charge them on top of that. Good luck getting teenagers to forego their summer vacations for that! The summer camp we went to in July did a great job, but they were understaffed by about 15 people. This will only make it much much worse.

Our Council just released their monthly newsletter and it states that the prices are all increasing significantly. - Adult volunteers will see their registration fee increase from $45 to $60. (a 33% increase) - Merit Badge Counselors go from $0 to $25 (if they are not registered as an adult leader in a unit) All of these people are adult VOLUNTEERS, which means that they are volunteering their time, energy, skills, etc. free of charge to support Scouting. Are there any other organizations that ask for volunteers and then charge them fees to provide their donation of time and labor?

I wholeheartedly agree. Kids join Scouting because they want to camp and do other outdoor activities like fishing, archery, shooting, etc. It seems we're trying to push a Civics class with all of these Eagle-required Citizenship MBs. Kids get enough of the DEI stuff pushed on them in school and will certainly get a fire hose of it when they enter the work force. I'm not sure BSA really needs to jump on this bandwagon and make it a requirement for Eagle.

I'll start by saying that generally, I like Scoutbook and the functionality it offers for tracking Scout advancement. What are you seeing in your Troops? What I've seen is that our Troop only records requirements completed in the hardcopy Scout Handbooks. Then, when a Scout achieves the rank, the Troop Advancement Chair just checks the completion of that rank in Scoutbook. This bypasses a lot of the functionality inherent in Scoutbook that enables online tracking of the individual rank requirements. percentage complete towards the next ranks, etc. Is there a preferred or even an official standard for how Troops should use Scoutbook for tracking advancement?

What even is the purpose of this proposed merit badge? If they want to introduce it as an optional MB, fine. However, if they make it a required MB, they may find that many Scouts and their parents will just leave.

When our Council tried to shaft our Pack with bogus "late fees" on a family camp that amounted to an effective doubling of the registration fees, I talked to a number of parents who had pledged money to Friends of Scouting that year and said we should all write a letter to the Council and tell them that since they saw fit to try to screw our pack over, then we would just donate our pledged amounts to the Pack that year. Our Council has really dropped the ball the last couple of years. My family and I had given sizable donations to Friends of Scouting in the past, but after those shenanigans and the fact that the Council Executive couldn't even be bothered to send us a personal "Thank you" note, we donated $0 last year. Since then, the way our family has been treated by that Pack (we switched to a new Pack) and the Council, my interest in donating or volunteering has plummeted to ZERO. The Packs already sell LOTS of popcorn, and about 30% of those sales go to the Council. If a Pack and the unpaid all-volunteer parents take initiative to come up with another fundraiser and raise thousands for their Troop, they don't owe the Council anything. The reaction of that DE to receive $250 when it's absolutely NOT required and show so much ungratefulness was truly appalling. Next time, send them a check for $0.00 and attach a copy of his ungrateful response and say that since their response was so disappointing last time, this is what they get this time.

And meanwhile, parents are urged to get out there and sell, sell, sell (I hear this in Randolph and Mortimer Duke's voices) more popcorn. The Pack we used to be in heavily urged us to sell popcorn rather than just pay our dues. The "Popcorn Colonel" let slip last year that ~40% of the sale proceeds go to the Pack and ~30% go to the council. So selling $750 to cover all of the $225 dues actually meant that Pack got $300 from all that free labor. Then, we always had the hard sell of "Friends of Scouting" at the Blue & Gold each year to look forward to. Apparently, Packs that schedule that "presentation" get a streamer to put on their flag.

Awesome! Thank you!

My guess is the first guy who earned $192K left, there was a gap and hence no compensation, and then James Parnell started in mid-year 2020. Still, $192K seems like an INSANELY high level of compensation for a Council Executive. Many of the high-level GS jobs and contractor jobs in the Tidewater Council area, those that require a LOT of military experience, a Top Secret/SCI security clearance, and Masters degrees, don't pay anywhere close to that much. It still makes me wonder why a guy earning that much has the audacity to come to the Packs and beg parents, most of whom don't earn anywhere close to that much, to donate more money over and above their fees and all the time spent selling popcorn. BTW, How do you find those links/files!?

Thanks! I wonder if that was for the whole calendar year, or if he just started the position mid-year.

I wonder how much the Tidewater Council executives get paid? I don't know if they're full-time equivalent employees , but it certainly gives incentives for them to show up to the pack Blue & Gold events every year, highjack the meetings for 40 minutes, and high-pressure the parents to donate money and achieve donation goals.

WOW! That's insane! That's more than a four-star general or admiral in the military makes. There is no way in hell I am donating money to "Friends of Scouting" again if they're paying those executives that much money. If you assume they're accurate in claiming an average of 50 hours a week, that's 2,500 hours a year and works out to $130 an hour.

No, only during the school year. Packs will typically do one event a month in the summer, but they also have other activities like Twilight Camps and summer camps.