How to Upset your Volunteers

[Eagle94-A1]

I really think my council is in serious financial trouble. Why you ask? Because after this weekend, no events will have patches.  As for the event this weekend, they are only handing out 1/3 of the patch. Long story short, The patch for the last week and this week's events had 2 segments that were identical, with the  2 additional segments for last week's event and this week's event. Council did not order enough of the 2 primary segments, and may not have enough of the segment for this weekend. And this is not the first time the council has done this. One year they had so many attend, and want their patches, the council had to place a second order, which cost them more money than if they ordered the requested amount. But this year they are adamant on no more patches.

If you cannot afford patches, even when budgeted, I think the council is in serious financial trouble.

[scoutldr]

Is not the cost of the patch part of the registration fee for the event?

[MikeS72]

1 hour ago, scoutldr said:

Is not the cost of the patch part of the registration fee for the event?

It is in my council, although there is no guarantee that either patches or t-shirts will be available for those doing late registration or walk in.

[scoutldr]

11 hours ago, MikeS72 said:

It is in my council, although there is no guarantee that either patches or t-shirts will be available for those doing late registration or walk in.

Sounds reasonable.

[DuctTape]

15 hours ago, MikeS72 said:

It is in my council, although there is no guarantee that either patches or t-shirts will be available for those doing late registration or walk in.

I recall some events, patches were only available to "early-bird registration". 

[SiouxRanger]

24 minutes ago, DuctTape said:

I recall some events, patches were only available to "early-bird registration". 

I know of many events where patches to cover budgeted attendance were not ordered, with attendance reaching twice budgeted attendance.

And so the "FAILURES TO DELIVER THE PROMISE," continue.

[SiouxRanger]

National, despite its best efforts, has killed itself.

Kodak.

[Eagledad]

19 minutes ago, SiouxRanger said:

National, despite its best efforts, has killed itself.

Kodak.

Don’t you mean in their best efforts.

[Eagle94-A1]

On 11/4/2022 at 5:13 PM, scoutldr said:

Is not the cost of the patch part of the registration fee for the event?

 

On 11/5/2022 at 10:46 AM, SiouxRanger said:

I know of many events where patches to cover budgeted attendance were not ordered, with attendance reaching twice budgeted attendance.

Sorry for the delay in response, Just got back.

Yes , patches were budgeted and considered part of the fee. However Council has a habit of not ordering things, or ignoring quantities requested. And we do tend to order extra event patches because we A) use them as thank you gifts for sponsors and non-Scouting event staff,  B) just in case we have more folks attend than planned, and C) the local OA chapter buys the excess at cost, and sells them to raise funds for camp and camperships.

Best example is when I ordered a ton of supplies via my DE, when I had one. Long story short, only thing  the DE ordered was 1/2 the number of patches requested, Only Scouts who paid on time, and 5 non-Scouting adults who sponsored and/or worked. Late payment folks (which would have been covered if the request was filled fully), and no Scouters got patches. As for supplies, I ran around with my head chopped off getting supplies the days before and of the event, and paying significantly more in the process.

On a different note, supposedly our SE and newest DE made a brief appearance at camp. No idea what the new DE looks like. As for the SE, if I saw him, I did not recognize him. And this weekend's event was a council level family camp out, yet we had no professional support. Last weekend, there was another district's event, yet council declared it an all hands event. So no pros were at our event, including our own DE.

Edited November 6, 2022 by Eagle94-A1

[Mrjeff]

I have only had one instance where a DE overstepped his bounds and thought he needed to micro manage the Course Director. The Course Director finally told the DE, "you pay the bills, I'll take care of the rest."  After that, everything was fine.

[SSScout]

I always pay close attention when a story starts out.... "I once had a ...."

We once had a DE that  honestly admitted to being DE as a mere stepping stone to  "something better"""""".   I once asked him for some help on an item, and he responded "We have people for that", meaning the District Committee/Scouter volunteers.   My immediate thought  , being one of those defined "people",  was , then why do I have YOU to ask this of?   But I didn't say what I thought.   He "stepped" to another stone (so to speak) in only a few months.  

[Mrjeff]

My issue with patches is when using a licensed vendor the patch must be approved by some patch nazi and that$@& never approves the design.  I'm going to find a patch maker who doesn't need approval from the Viermach. 

[Eagle94-A1]

29 minutes ago, Mrjeff said:

My issue with patches is when using a licensed vendor the patch must be approved by some patch nazi and that$@& never approves the design.  I'm going to find a patch maker who doesn't need approval from the Viermach. 

Thankfully this patch design was already approved by the council since it was the summer camp design for a number of years, anniversary patches, event patches, etc.

[Oldscout448]

1 hour ago, Mrjeff said:

My issue with patches is when using a licensed vendor the patch must be approved by some patch nazi and that$@& never approves the design.  I'm going to find a patch maker who doesn't need approval from the Viermach. 

Which is why our district has gone outlaw for the last 15 years.  Our patches don't have anything that National has registered, but they've big, colorful  there's always enough for all the scouts and we pay less.

In fact I we stopped holding District camporees because Council takes 15% off the top for 'services' . Not sure what these services actually are.  But it did lead to quite a few Godfather jokes. Instead  15 or 20 troops just happen to go camping at the same place on the same weekend.  What a coincidence!  

[Eagle94-A1]

22 minutes ago, Oldscout448 said:

Which is why our district has gone outlaw for the last 15 years.  Our patches don't have anything that National has registered, but they've big, colorful  there's always enough for all the scouts and we pay less.

In fact I we stopped holding District camporees because Council takes 15% off the top for 'services' . Not sure what these services actually are.  But it did lead to quite a few Godfather jokes. Instead  15 or 20 troops just happen to go camping at the same place on the same weekend.  What a coincidence!  

I am told one of our events has gone rogue. Council took 20% for using their online registration system for the event. And they did not provide a thing except the online registration; no DEs, not MBC lists, no promotion on the website, NOTHING. Rumour had it that the SE was going to shut it down next year, because the council created an event for the same weekend, and he wants folks going to that event. So far, no cancellation, and even if there is troops will be doing their own thing, and not attending the council event.

Forgot to add some folks are so disgusted with council, they want to leave. One CO was thinking of using an out of council PO box to register in another council. Others want to make an all black CSP for wear.

 

Edited December 14, 2022 by Eagle94-A1