CO's

[Bob White]

"but I don't much care for making everyone else pretend to be Venturers for the summer."

 

So? Aside from not liking it how does it affect you in any way?

 

"Most of the rest of the staff didn't care for it either, but no one thought it was worth raising a fuss about."

 

They were right on both counts.

 

"Also, if I am going to return on staff, that would mean I would have to register as either a Crew Committee member or an Associate Adviser. Now, if by some chance something severly bad were to happen at camp, and there were any legal unpleasantries, I don't much like the idea that the charter for that unit is in any way questionable."

 

Who would question it? The Council? You said they already approved it.

 

As long as they have enough advisors and committee members to charter why would they have to have you. Just say no thanks, that you are already registered in another position.

 

The only reason you have for being concerned is that you have made the choice to make yourself concerned. This does not affect you in any way.

 

 

[Proud Eagle]

You may be correct that it shouldn't concern me.

 

Though you are most certainly wrong on one point.

 

No, I won't be able to say I am already registered in another position, in another unit, in the BSA.

 

I tried that last summer. It didn't work.

 

It was made quite clear, even put in writing, that we had to register as members of the Crew to work at the camp. It was also camp policy that only the Crew's uniform could be worn by paid staff.

 

I did break that policy once per week at the parents night campfire, because I was asked to speak on behalf of the OA, and since OA is a Boy Scout program, I wore my Boy Scout uniform instead of the Crew uniform for the campfire. Even that was a bit of a problem the first week I did so.

 

Even the cooks had to be part of the Crew, which caused a problem when midway through the summer the background checks came back on two of them with some rather interesting things. That caused a rough couple of days while they found new cooks.

[evmori]

According to your profile you are an assistant scoutmaster. I don't see how this affects you, or the unit you serve, or the charter organization you belong to, or how it affects the Troop's program in any way.

So it's OK for the council to do as it pleases as long as it doesn't affect an individual unit? I don't understand this at all!

 

Ed Mori

Troop 1

1 Peter 4:10

 

[Twocubdad]

To answer one small part of your question, Eamonn, units can be chartered for less than one year. In our district all units come up for recharter in February. There for if you charter a new unit in, for example, June, the charter would be for nine months. On the other hand, if you chartered a new unit in December, you could get a 14 month charter and would skip rechartering with the rest of the district this year. I believe the longest charter you can get is 18 months.

 

As to the bigger issue, this is all part of the numbers game played with Venture crews. Fortunately, in our are it seems to have run it's course. A couple of years ago someone got the bright idea to charter all the OA chapters as Venture crews. Every district jumped on the bandwagon before the idea was shot down. Several years all the large troops were pressed to charter a crew. Now we're paying the price in unit numbers as the troops are getting tired of carrying these paper crews are starting to drop them. I hope this is a national trend.

[Eamonn]

From your postings, it does seem that something in the Council in which you serve has in the past not worked out the way it ought to have. I'm guessing this because you say that the Region is now running the Council. Again I'm guessing but I only know of a couple of reasons why this happens.Sad to say none of them are good. You don't say what went wrong in order for this to be happening?

I think that someone,- The Camp Director?? Might have thought this was a good idea. In many ways it is. Still I know that the guys here in Southwestern Pennsylvania would tell the person who thought this up, to stick it in his ear, if they were already registered in some other position.

I very much doubt if a camp is going to fire a quality adult staff member for not joining a crew. If I were in your shoes and I really felt strongly about this I would bring this up at the interview for the next season. If they say you have to join, I would voice my opposition and apply for a camp staff job at another council. Of course I'm not you and to be very honest am a little unsure what I would do.

Eamonn.