BSA 2015......

[eagle90]

What are your hopes, dreams, fears, etc. about the coming year, Scouting-wise? I'll start:

 

Our council is in the midst of a four council merger (Des Plaines Valley, Chicago, NW Suburban, and Calumet) into a mega-council. I fear how this will effect the programs and traditions of our individual councils and units. Also I worry about the logistics of offices, scout shops, camps, etc. They have already introduced the most God-awful council strip

with a space module on the moon, which has nothing to do with our area!

 

 

 

 

[RememberSchiff]

- If gas prices continue down, our unit may try more distant camping.

- Our unit is moving towards an adult run, car camping, Eagle mill.

- I am seeing an increase in provo camping and decrease in troop camping at local summer camps. Adults cannot take or will not take vacation time or will not be hassled with paperwork.

- Council costs continue to rise despite mergers and camp sales. Families are beyond fatigue with fundraising.Council sent out a stern Nov donation mailing about the Council cost for a scout/year and the need to donate. Unfortunately, their mailing list was largely those who donated to FOS in March!

- Our council can't fill a trek bus even if they combined all who signed up for Philmont, Summit, Sea Base, Northern Tier. Too $$$

- Need quicker turnaround of "new" merit badges. A new scout can earn FC quicker than National can introduce a new badge! We had two scouts interested in Animation merit badge which has been repeatedly delayed. They left in Sept. Announce a new merit badge and it should be in the next year's Requirements book. Don't worry about printing a merit badge book, scouts won't read them. Think online resource videos and pdf's.

- scouts are interested in STEM badges - robotics, welding,

- wired scouts. More and more tech on outings. A scout is more likely to carry a smartphone than a knife. .

- Increasing cost of abuse settlements. Recently, a Connecticut jury issued a $7mil verdict (compensatory damages) against BSA National,

- The Annual Meeting in May? After last year's meeting, Gates said that he would have allowed gay leaders as well scouts.

 

That said, I predict 2015 will be a good year locally for scout units. Council and National not so much.

 

My $0.02,

[Hedgehog]

I'm looking forward to:

 

1. Cross country skiing / snowshoeing and cabin camping in January.

2. Building Quinzees and sleeping in them in February (OK, still working on convincing the boys on this one).

3. 3 day backpacking trip in May (destination to be determined... but its really the journey that matters!).

4. Canoing down the Delaware and then backpacking into summer camp.

5. Being the ASM for the Venture Patrol at Summer Camp (and working with the boys to come up with challenging hikes and overnight trips.

6. 5 day backpacking trip over Labor Day on the AT in Shenandoah.

7. Working with the SM to make the Troop more boy lead.

8. Working with the boys to up the quality of the cuisine on campouts.

9. Perfecting deep frying french fries in a dutch oven

10. Watching my son and his friends grow as scouts

[tyke]

Getting all my training done and getting my wood beads. Getting my nights away permit Taking the kids on wintercamp in Feb Taking the kids away for a week in summer Getting to know them all (only took over in Dec so still getting to know em ) Having a laugh and good banter with them. I'm not looking forwards to wading through the layers of admin and politics needed to get the above done.

[Eagle94-A1]

My wishes for 2015:

 

1) That my son the SPL continues to amaze me with the performance of his duties

 

2) That I am able to be able to attend the full week of summer camp with the troop. In-laws shocked the heck out of me with their Christmas gift of a family vacation to see the Mouse, and Harry Potter, this summer. I'd rather go camping than an amusement park.

 

3) That the troop's SM will be in good health until more adults can help him out.

 

4) That my son's troop continues on their path to be a Scout-led, "Hiking and Camping Troop" with a little bit of boating added in

 

5) That younger sons can go and have a good time at CSDC this summer.

 

My fears for 2015:

 

1) Something happens to the SM before folks can get in place to help him. When I heard he was in the ICU, I was scared.

 

2) CSDC will be a mess since they have not even started planning it yet at the council level and our district's CSDC director dropped out of scouting.

 

3) I can find a replacement for me as a DL for youngest son's den.

 

4) I am not able to make the entire week of summer camp.

 

5) My son the SPL will get overwhelmed. Yes this fear is still there, but it is lessening every time I see him in action.

[JasonG172]

My wishes for 2015

 

Get my Pack and Troop more Involved.

Get the Pack and Troop more community driven

Have more Campouts with the Pack

Take the Troop out on a true backpacking weekend.

Find more Leadership

Help create a FIRE under the Old Leadership !

 

 

[LeCastor]

I'd like to help guide our PL to be more communicative with his Scouts and perhaps get back outdoors. Also, I'd like to help revive the Pack we are associated with. It'd be nice to grow the membership within our council and district, too.

 

Not really afraid of anything. I see a lot of opportunities rather than negatives. (That's just me, the eternal optimist.)

 

 

[scoutergipper]

My hopes: that the light goes on at the Council and they realize their future is dependent on going all-out on Cub Scout recruiting.

 

That BSA, whether local or national, begins an aggressive marketing program.

 

 

 

[SeattlePioneer]

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Easier said than done, in my experience.

 

 

I haven't seen a mass marketing method that's effective.

 

What I've seen work are efforts that involve personally contacting and inviting boys and parents to an exciting activity, part of which is a warm invitation to joing the pack. Even at that it USUALLY takes additional attendance at den or pack meetings before a family joins up.

 

 

No doubt things are easier in some middle class areas, where you can ring a bell and a bunch of people show up and wave money, anxious to join.But in the working class areas I work in, it's usually tough. And despite my efforts, appealing to the large Hispanic community in the area has been something I've tried to do effectively, but with little to show for results.

[scoutergipper]

BSA should be running "image" ads - right now the only thing the public ever sees about Scouting are stories about child abuse and homophobia. There are thousands of inspirational, personal stories from Scouts and Scouters that would make tremendous TV, radio or on-line ads. If you never give people something positive to hang their hat on, they'll just go with the negatives.

 

I've found recruitment success to be directly correlated with elbow grease. "Success" is definitely defined differently in different kinds of communities, but whatever the definition, BSA needs to be striving to meet it in each community. Community visibility is a huge problem - if a mom at your local grade school asks the school secretary who to talk to about joining Cub Scouts, will the secretary have an answer? Do units attend every church or school event where Adult Leaders can talk with parents and Scouts can talk with kids?

 

There are certainly special challenges with the Hispanic community, including some cultural hurdles. We've had some success by first recruiting Spanish-speaking Adult Leaders in units where we want to recruit Hispanic families. It's a work in progress.

 

It's "root, hog, or die" for BSA. Everyone better start rooting.

[qwazse]

... Getting my nights away permit ....

 

Awesome goals, just need one translation. What's a "nights away permit"? I suspect BSA has something(s) similar. Just curious to what it amounts to.

[Sentinel947]

One goal is to help my unit complete its adoption of the Patrol Method. Another is to assist the district and council more in conducting new leader training. Another is to help my unit recruit more adults to become volunteers. (winning the future) so to speak. I'd like to attend Woodbadge if it's financially and time fitting.

[qwazse]

Ten minutes after midnight and I was promoting venturing to three young ladies, one of whom put our next meeting into her calendar. (At least that's what I think she did instead of tweeting about some creepy guy trying lure her into the woods.)

 

A few more conversations like that, and we might be back to an A grade. (Refer to my reply to TAHAWK's post.)

[chrisg478]

For 2015

My hope is that I have set a good example for my Training Team and the person who will become the new Training Coordinator.

I hope they continue to provide quality training events to the volunteers in our area. I hope those events continue to be as much fun and entertaining as they have been for the last 4 years.

I hope the Cub Scout pack I have been UC for continues to grow and that they overcome the problems they encountered last year.

I hope the Boy Scout Troop I have been UC for continues to grow and further implement the patrol method in their programs with their new Scoutmaster. .

 

My dream is that our local council leadership will remember that this a volunteer run organization and the professional scouters job is to support the volunteers. Council needs to learn the value of the volunteers thoughts and ideas.

 

My fear is that another awesome professional scouter and friend will loose his job because of the unrealistic expectations of our council leadership. I fear my district will be loosing a lot of good volunteers this year (including me) because we have relied on the same people to do everything for far too long. I fear the volunteers in my district will have less and less support at a time when they need more support than ever.

 

I look forward to "cutting back" on Scouting in 2015. While I plan to keep a foot in the door by helping with some trainings and activities this year, I am dropping all my scouting jobs except for Campmaster. I have been in Scouting for 16+ years and I have had some awesome experiences. But I have been "in charge" of something in Scouting for most of those years. I am tired. In 2015 it is someone else's turn to "be in charge".

[chrisg478]

~~My fear is that another awesome professional scouter and friend will loose his job because of the unrealistic expectations of our council leadership.- - - I hate it when I am right. The only part I was wrong about was my friend quit before they could find a reason to kick him out. At least he got to leave more or less on his terms.

 

~~My dream is that our local council leadership will remember that this a volunteer run organization and the professional scouters job is to support the volunteers. - - - If the first 2 months of the year are any indication, council will never get it right. Less support for volunteers and events run by "professional" scouters that only care about the numbers (dollars, people, etc.) seems to be the wave of the future around here.

 

~~I look forward to "cutting back" on Scouting in 2015. - - - The sooner the better, I can't wait for it to be over. I turned my training team over to the new coordinator 4 months early. Only 2 training events left and then I am out of here.