No districts or roundtables

[NJCubScouter]

I think we may be getting off the subject.  

[Sentinel947]

I think we may be getting off the subject.  

Back on subject. The idea of one huge council wide district is absurd. Some Adult leader training is best done online. Youth Protection is fine. But without districts, do they really want to get the entire council together for IOLS? That sounds like a nightmare to me. 

[NJCubScouter]

Back on subject. The idea of one huge council wide district is absurd. Some Adult leader training is best done online. Youth Protection is fine. But without districts, do they really want to get the entire council together for IOLS? That sounds like a nightmare to me. 

 

I can't imagine our council eliminating the districts.  I agree that it would be a nightmare.  My biggest personal part of the nightmare would be EBOR's.   Our district holds them in two different "central locations", one of which is not so central.  If there were one single "central location" for our council... well actually the way our council is shaped, some of the most "central" locations would be in another council.  And no matter where it is, it would be a long, long way for a lot of people.

[ParkMan]

My district is good sized - prob. 50 units. However, training and roundtable is a bust.

 

Online training has shrunk the size and quality of courses. Roundtable is below critical mass and no longer a good value. It's too bad.

 

I'd be ok with merging 2 or 3 district's together. But - the whole council- that's too big.

[SSScout]

"The work is done by whoever shows up." 

 

With the paucity of folks dedicated to the "old style" of Scouting, such amalgamations are/is inevitable.  By "old Style" (another discussion?)  I seem to be meaning hands on, face to face, get dirty in the woods, camp out , learn "the way of the elders"  ALONG WITH email, tweets, Power Point (death by), etc.

If the new PTB think that no one wants to do the "old style" stuff (no one shows up at District training sessions? or they can't find anyone who will teach "Sharp Wood Tools" at  IOLS , "they" will start to dom things "the modern way".   Virtual Wii Scouting? 

 

Frinstance,  I just met with a Scout dad (ex-Marine) who went to the Council office to pick up some official stuff and he comes back to report the Scoutshop no longer sells BSA hatchets.  Pocket knives, yes.  No big blades.  

[TAHAWK]

BSA now sells ten models of sheath knives - after a gap of thirty-four years.  The last axes I saw in a Scout Shop were from China.

[Col. Flagg]

My district split about four years ago despite having issues staffing the once colossal entity. Therefore, logic dictated splitting one large hard-to-staff district in to two smaller hard-to-staff districts. They now need to bring Scouters out of retirement just to get chairmen and commissioners. RTs are dead. Planning is just-in-time (no notice given). No successful unit relies on district for anything.

[RememberSchiff]

BSA now sells ten models of sheath knives - after a gap of thirty-four years.  The last axes I saw in a Scout Shop were from China.

 

Ugh. Wish I still had my old (made in USA) Plumb Scout hatchet.

[TAHAWK]

Dozens are on sale on eBay at any one time.  Some are excellent values.

[jwest09]

Back on subject. The idea of one huge council wide district is absurd. Some Adult leader training is best done online. Youth Protection is fine. But without districts, do they really want to get the entire council together for IOLS? That sounds like a nightmare to me. 

 

I think you might be jumping to conclusions - why would they need to run IOLS as an entire council?  I'd expect they'd continue to offer multiple courses in different geographic areas throughout the council, and folks could attend whichever is most convenient to them.

 

I mean, districts are just am arbitrary administrative division intended to make life more manageable by dividing the council along geographic boundaries. Their impact, quite frankly, is effectively invisible to the overwhelming majority of scouts and scouters in our program.  They're intended to be a useful, helpful way to deliver resources from the council to the units.  I can imagine cases where organizing the council based on geographic boundaries is no longer necessary or effective - so to me it seems like a very interesting idea to try re-organizing things along the lines of program/responsibility, rather than on geography.

 

I'd love to see a greater emphasis on a more "organic," grass roots approach to unit cooperation.  For example, the district round table in my area is not particularly valuable (and could and should be replaced by a monthly email newsletter).  My town has 4 troops, with very different cultures.  Most of the scouts have friends and classmates in at least one of the other troops.  Most of the adults and older boys have worked with the leadership of the other troops through the OA, training, etc.  The adult leadership has started getting together for coffee once every couple months.  Boom, we just made our own round table.  Some of the boys have pushed to have joint camping trips.  Boom, we just made our own camporees.

 

There's always going to be a need to deliver training locally, and things like EBORs and the like - but I don't think the "district" is essential to do those things.  I'd be more concerned about facilitating collaboration across nearby units - probably a task that a revitalized commissioner corp would be useful for.

[TAHAWK]

"Back on subject. The idea of one huge council wide district is absurd. Some Adult leader training is best done online. Youth Protection is fine. But without districts, do they really want to get the entire council together for IOLS? That sounds like a nightmare to me. "

 

I like districts.

 

We have had council-wide or multi-district IOLS for fifteen years.  Works fine.

[Stosh]

All of the adult training has been council-wide for over 30 years when I took the SM Fundamentals.  We have 3 districts but about the only thing the districts do is RT and camporees.  Everything else is council-wide.  Within the past few years one of the has dropped spring camporee and now the fall camporee is the Spookaree for the Cubs that the Scouts run.  Well a few of them do, the rest use the weekend for going camping instead.  I went to the inaugural Spookaree a few years back, Not my cup of tea. 

[cchoat]

I guess it all depends on the size of the council, and the strengths of the individual districts therein. In my neck of the woods, the council is small enough that running individual district activities (camp-o-rees, adult training, cub camping opportunities, etc) are better run by the council, in order to get a critical mass of scouts and scouters to make it happen. The districts here each do roundtables, and EBORs, supply Unit Commissioners and provide direct support for new units.

[T2Eagle]

This type of restructuring was talked about when the great Michigan centralization was being constructed. I don't know whether they ever went to that model because our council opted out.

 

But I see some logic to it. The Cub program needs very different types and amounts of resources than do most scout troops, so I could see specialization working there. As to round tables and other district functions, I've never found round table particularly helpful --- a larger time commitment than what I get out of it. Most of the information could be just as well transmitted via other communications techniques. And again, what I got out of it as a cub leader was much more than I get now as a scout leader. As to the centralization of EBORs and such. My district doesn't do them that way now, so there are probably many models for that which could wrk without them being more cumbersome.