Facebook?

[nkaye]

Are there any active FB groups for Scouters. It seems that a much larger audience could be reached and more resources shared there... I am part of a couple great hiking groups that would translate so awesomely to scouts. Regional groups... closed groups only open to people with current YPT? Anything like that out there?

[hikeoholic]

Yes, there is Boy Scout Volunteers https://www.facebook.com/groups/boyscoutvolunteers/

[Eagle1993]

Talk About Scouting! ...public group, probably my favorite of the bunch

There are a couple of others focused on girls in BSA.  One of them is heavily moderated with posts from National BSA employees

US Scouting Service Project provides some semi official announcements

There are others as well

Unfortunately (or fortunately) I can’t access FB now to send you links,  I’m in China, but searching the above will lead you to the sites.

 

[ianwilkins]

If you want a heavily weighted anglo-centric but international group, there's 1st facebook scout group. It's a bit busy, so for pity's sake don't leave notifications on for it, and it takes a bit of getting used to sometimes, but it can be useful, especially for reaching out to random countries for information or to make contact for international type badgework requirements and so on.

Edited August 15, 2019 by ianwilkins

[qwazse]

You're missing some of the most quality people on FB. Me, for example. () I don't find the correspondence well organized, and I can't search for something two decades old, like I can do here.

I am part of one hiking group specific to a location that I frequent. I love seeing picks of berries and shrooms and muddied feet and boots shredded by rocks. Pity those get crowded out by boring images of grand vistas and galaxy shots. But since I'm there enough, I love the surprises.

This month, I've tried the Jamboree FB groups. Lots of parents worried that Junior is starving, or that he/she didn't trade all the swag that should have been given away. I created an FB page for my Jambo troop. If I had a do-over, I'd use something else. FB keeps harassing me to shell out $$ for more clicks.

An up-and-comer is discussions.scouting.org. Scoutbook is using it for quality improvement. I am hoping to high heaven that our Jamborees in the future will use that exclusively.

Edited August 15, 2019 by qwazse

[mrkstvns]

10 hours ago, nkaye said:

Are there any active FB groups for Scouters. It seems that a much larger audience could be reached and more resources shared there... I am part of a couple great hiking groups that would translate so awesomely to scouts. Regional groups... closed groups only open to people with current YPT? Anything like that out there?

You are absolutely correct....a lot of things CAN be shared when you're active on FB.

Like all your personal data being shared with marketers, identity thieves, and Russian agents who want to foment unrest in the U.S.  Your kids can become ripe targets for profiling and identity thieves too!  Even if you "opt out" of all data sharing and set your device's privacy settings to the max, Facebook still harvests and sells your data.  There's all sorts of sharing that can go on behind your back when you are on FB!!

And if you think I'm exaggerating even a smidgen, you might want to actually investigate the facts before you speak. *MOST* adults in the U.S. know shockingly little about the information that is being collected (and often stolen) by big tech companies like Facebook.  Did you know that just a few weeks ago, Facebook was fined more than $5 billion for violating lax U.S. privacy laws?  Several European cases have also resulted in billions in fines and judgments against Facebook.  

For those who don't keep up with cybersecurity issues, here's a good starting point to getting to know Facebook (it's "good" because it contains many links to specific instances and other general discussions.):
https://www.techrepublic.com/article/facebook-data-privacy-scandal-a-cheat-sheet/