walk in the woods

Don't forget popcorn and FOS.

If he's pulling in $650M in taxpayer money and another $1.2B in donations then $1M/year salary is a bargain! That's a pretty good ROI.

You could have taken your bullet points directly from my council's recent district consolidation. DEs working in groups, some focused on program issues, others on financial/membership issues, etc. My former district was 30 miles corner to corner, the new district is over 100 miles corner to corner. The district still runs two roundtables because nobody is going to drive over an hour each way for roundtable; the district still runs parallel camporees/events, and the district committees are no more fully staffed today than they were last year. Between the consolidation, the extra driving, the overly broad back ground check form, and the extra money to register, the pool of volunteers has shrunk. Maybe that's a good thing, maybe not, remains to be seen. It's only been a year. This thread and the council thread look a lot like the Area 2 project in the Central Region a few years back. I hear many mixed reviews about that process.

Isn't this the lane occupied by Boys and Girls Clubs of America? Not that Scouting couldn't compete I supposed but barriers to entry seem high.

Many of the items you listed are already done online or could be. Another items on your list would include the Atlanta unit recruiting other units to the Denver council. In short the ATL council would have to compete. Interesting exercise.

I think I agree with you but would have to think about this a bit more. My little town sits in one council, obviously, and is within a stones throw of two others. Switching to those councils would be trivial if the option were available. But, If my unit wanted to join the Kansas City council (500 miles away) in order to take advantage of the Mic-O-Say program, would that be allowed into your model (assume for the sake of argument we'd be willing to make the drive for work weekends and summer camp, etc.)? I'd also be interested to hear your thoughts on units becoming free agents. I won't hold you to it, just curious.

If I was the other SM I would appreciate getting such a call. I wouldn't need to know the scout's name but would appreciate any feedback the scout didn't share in confidence.

The doubling of the national fees last year cost my unit membership. If it doubles again this year via a council service fee we may not survive as a unit. I see a council service fee as a tax. And what you tax you get less of. I think it will be no big deal in rich suburbs but rural scouting will take a huge hit. My parents don't give a rat's behind about the distinction between districts, councils, and national. It's all just Boy Scout bureaucrats. Raise the fee from $72 to $132 and they'll walk. Beyond that, if I was forced to pay a service fee my willingness to participate in popcorn, camp cards, OA work weekends, and FOS would be exactly zero. Why should I give up my time to do those things if I'm being taxed to support them?

In 15 years of chartering my units neither the DE nor their designee ever once met with the IH to discuss and sign the Chartering Agreement. That would be a good start.

Unless National starts rejecting Council Charter Renewals from insolvent or poorly run councils.

And still being battled today. I understand there is a SCOTUS case coming up regarding the Blaine Amendment in the MT Constitution.

Wasn't this one of the changes implemented during the ISP? No more Scoutmaster Conferences, in favor of Personal Growth Conferences.

You are clearly misremembering citizen. Careful or it will be re-education summer camp for you! Move along.😉

Hmmm. I seem to recall my council allowing scouts to sell surplus popcorn from the annual campaign to fund summer camp, jambo, or eagle projects.

The Autism Society of America is in a leadership transition. Just saw this on FB. https://www.autism-society.org/meet-our-new-ceo-a-letter-from-christopher-banks/?fbclid=IwAR1Z0ACpoTQ0mwddvQLR_TztmhlqLa0bBj9ThVWlOGgMKpkMrdtM5CCYkF8 FWIW, hired Nov. 15, assumed post Jan. 1.

I don't believe the 72 hours is cumulative over the scouting year, rather, it's per event.

The best officers I ever served under understood this truth. Their NCOs were their best teachers and resources for success.

First time in 15 years I haven't had to deal with recharter so my info might be a bit dated. The promotion bit has been there for a couple years. As I recall though there's a coordination issue between units. Not so big a deal if you're rechartering a pack and troop for a single CO. The multiple thing is very irritating. The only place I ever found to mark it is right at the very end of the process. Right before you submit, there's one last option to edit adults where the multiple option becomes available. It's almost like they don't want you to find it.

Question is how hard can it be to sort those variables out? I mean this isn't rocket surgery. We (should) know exactly how many LDS units there were, which boys were registered to those units, how many of those boys joined new or existing units, how many girls have joined, new Scouts BSA girl troops, how many kids joined Lions, how many are still in the program, etc. We should know these numbers exactly, no?

To be clear, I agree that consolidating the MBC process at the council level is bone-headed. Given the district I served is 100 miles end-to-end I don't know that a district coordinator makes any more sense. I never had any problems recruiting local people to work with the boys in any number of topics. They just weren't going to become members of the BSA to do it and they weren't interested in being called by scouts other than those in the local unit. That's the rub, requiring membership and forcing people to be available beyond their desire to do so.

True but that unnecessarily restricts the pool of MBCs in small units and small population centers. My local auto body guy and welder and blacksmith and volunteer firemen and teachers are perfectly happy to work with the scouts in their town on merit badges but have zero interest in being members of BSA and working with scouts from other towns. As a result the boys either have to travel great distances to meet a counselor, avail themselves of MB fairs, or go to local venues offering mass merit badge classes. The system disincentives local experts from getting involved which restricts the adult association method

Back when I was a SM I talked to any number of teachers at our local Jr. High and High School, and other members of the community, about being MBCs. They were of course happy to work with the boys, right up to the point that I said great, fill out this application and take YPT. Then, to a person, they declined.

It appears what used to be our second or third largest chartering organization is on the verge of schism. The cause is less interesting to me than the potential impact on BSA. Although if any of you are UMC-ers with insight please share whatever you are comfortable sharing.

A marketing campaign right now could have unexpected backlash. Just a few random thoughts from a regular guy: - If the BSA spent a bunch of money on TV or radio advertising, people might question why that money wasn't put away to compensate victims. People might include a bankruptcy judge? - If the BSA took on a big marketing campaign, lawyers might suggest the BSA is trying to cover up past issues to reduce the impact of judgments. - If the BSA took on a big social media campaign, the people who'd like to see the BSA disappear will start shouting at them to shut up and heap more abuse on the organization. - If the BSA starts touting its current YPT program as justification for continued existence, the organization's enemies only need to find one person to claim they were abused in 2018 or 2019 to blow the claims out of the water. I know it's not, or don't think it is, a criminal case, at least not yet, but "anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law" might be sound advice to heed. Certainly anything the BSA says right now can be twisted.

Well, education is a government run monopoly so why be surprised it's ineffective.