Small Councils?

[Bob White]

Scouting again

Small councils are able to continue to exist without merging into larger adjacent councils for one reason and one reason only. There are financial able to stay independent.

 

To suggest that a council board would allow a council in debt to linger in debt for the personal benefit of an SE is unreasonable, impractical, and imaginary.

[scoutingagain]

BW,

 

Do you really believe no SE or a Council Board has ever made a business decision that has not been influenced by his or their personal feelings regarding those involved in the decision?

 

I would agree this is not the norm and don't mean to suggest it is, but I'm sure it happens with some degree of frequency. I believe SE's on the whole are a decent respectable bunch, but no more so than executives in other organizations.

 

SA

[Bob White]

This discussion is on small councils, not about EVERY decision that ANY council has EVER made.

 

In the context of the subject of this thread your suggestion is without foundation or reason.

[Trevorum]

I am completely in favor of small councils. It makes for more patches to collect.

[ScoutNut]

I too am in favor of small councils. My council is in the 100 level and I think it is GREAT! I know most of the folks at the council office, they know most of the active volunteers, I know Scouters from all over my council. Districts are not to spread out that it is inconvenient to take training in, or attend an event in, a different District.

 

We have had our financial challenges, but we are working on them, and doing a pretty good job.

 

We are rather like a large family and I like that about us!

[Lisabob]

sorry to get a little off on a tangent, but how do you know whether your council is in the 100 level or not? Where do you find this info? And what do the different levels correspond to, in terms of size? Thanks.

[eisely]

The Piedmont council in the San Francisco Bay Area is named after the small incorporated town (city?) of Piedmont. Piedmont is a separate very wealthy and very exclusive enclave completely surrounded by Oakland. Piedmont happens to be surrounded by the nicer part of Oakland, but it is clear that people in Piedmont wish to keep some distance between themselves and their immediate neighbors and that extends to scouting as well. As long as the council is viable BSA is not too likely to disturb things. I infer that there is also a degree of political influenced involved in all this as well.

 

We see a lot of Piedmont scouters at our training events which suggests to me that the Piedmont council would not be able to sustain a program without the indirect support of other councils. I do not know if the Piedmont council operates its own summer camp, but I suspect that their troops go to other council's camps as well. I have never heard of a camp operated by the Piedmont council.

 

As mentioned in the first post, Marin County has its own council and its own summer camp. There are numerous scout summer camps in the Sierras and I was not aware that the Marin Council operated one of those. The summer camp site that I am thinking about is Camp Tamarancho which is actually within Marin County proper. Marin County is on the peninsula North of the Golden Gate. It may be only ten airline miles from Oakland to Marin County, but there are major physical barriers called San Francisco Bay and San Pablo Bay between Marin County and the rest of the bay area. There are good and sound reasons based on geography alone to leave it alone.

 

Alameda is also a separately incorporated city. I was not aware that it too had its own council, and I will look for confirmation of that. Alameda also can be considered to be an enclave surrounded by Oakland and the water of San Francisco Bay and connecting channels. Alameda is on an island and unless you go there by boat, you have to go through Oakland to get there. I would not consider Alameda to be a wealthy enclave like Piedmont. Alameda has been in serious trouble as a town since the closure of the Alameda Naval Air Station some years back.

[eisely]

Alameda is a council unto itself. Learned something new today.

[meschen]

eisely,

 

Here is the link to Marin Council's summer camp: http://www.marinsierra.org/

 

Tamarancho is primarily a Cub Scout / Weekend fascility. They don't offer a weeklong Boy Scout summer program.

 

Yes, the San Francisco Bay lies between Marin and the the larger San Francisco Bay Area Council (SFBAC). But let me point out that the SFBAC aready spans the Bay, as it covers both San Francisco and much of the East Bay. So, I think its safe to say that geograpghy is not whats keeping Marin apart from the SFBAC.

[Gold Winger]

http://www.bsa-alameda.org/

 

Amazing isn't it. One district councils and two of them within a few miles of each other.