Change to GSS - Registration Required for Overnight

[5thGenTexan]

With our Troop fees figured in, it's $415 a year for our family.  Before trainings, MB fees, camp fees, all the stuff I buy for the Troops and don't ask for reimbursement.   And my wife's company matches charitable donations, so FOS got $500 from us this year.

[InquisitiveScouter]

5 minutes ago, 5thGenTexan said:

With our Troop fees figured in, it's $415 a year for our family.  Before trainings, MB fees, camp fees, all the stuff I buy for the Troops and don't ask for reimbursement.   And my wife's company matches charitable donations, so FOS got $500 from us this year.

Next year, have your wife's company make the donation to your CO.  Coordinate with your CO ahead of time to ask about this and ask for the funds to be passed on to the Troop.

This is perfectly fine, but your council will be livid.

[InquisitiveScouter]

17 hours ago, InquisitiveScouter said:

Next year, have your wife's company make the donation to your CO.  Coordinate with your CO ahead of time to ask about this and ask for the funds to be passed on to the Troop.

This is perfectly fine, but your council will be livid.

@5thGenTexan, to further clarify, you need to coordinate that with your CO because you need their EIN (and address and contact info) to provide to your wife's company.  The company needs that info to make the donation, and for tax reporting purposes.

Also, ask your wife to find out how the company makes the donation.  If by paper check, mailed, then that's probably all the info you need.  If they do electronic deposit, then you might be able to have them send it directly to your unit bank account by providing ABA Routing and Account numbers.

[5thGenTexan]

1 hour ago, InquisitiveScouter said:

@5thGenTexan, to further clarify, you need to coordinate that with your CO because you need their EIN (and address and contact info) to provide to your wife's company.  The company needs that info to make the donation, and for tax reporting purposes.

Also, ask your wife to find out how the company makes the donation.  If by paper check, mailed, then that's probably all the info you need.  If they do electronic deposit, then you might be able to have them send it directly to your unit bank account by providing ABA Routing and Account numbers.

I am not sure its that easy.  When they let her do her donations, there is a website with approved charities to choose from.  If its not on that list, they won't match.

You know... a corporate thing.

[InquisitiveScouter]

1 hour ago, 5thGenTexan said:

I am not sure its that easy.  When they let her do her donations, there is a website with approved charities to choose from.  If its not on that list, they won't match.

You know... a corporate thing.

So, she checked to see if your CO was on the list??

[mrjohns2]

2 hours ago, 5thGenTexan said:

If its not on that list, they won't match.

We created a 501c3 a couple of years ago. We are about as small as you can get with <$200 of expenses and no donations for the first year or 2. When a volunteer’s employer checked recently, we were on the list! That was our first real donation. It does have to be a registered 501c3. Many churches aren’t since they are exempt from the paperwork if they are a member of a larger denomination that is. So, the larger denomination would be in the list, but not the unit. 

[InquisitiveScouter]

1 hour ago, mrjohns2 said:

We created a 501c3 a couple of years ago. We are about as small as you can get with <$200 of expenses and no donations for the first year or 2. When a volunteer’s employer checked recently, we were on the list! That was our first real donation. It does have to be a registered 501c3. Many churches aren’t since they are exempt from the paperwork if they are a member of a larger denomination that is. So, the larger denomination would be in the list, but not the unit. 

Corporate finance office usually just has to check that the EIN is a valid 501c3 with IRS.  It takes a few keystrokes...

[Tron]

This is a great change. 

First of all why would anyone potentially want someone who is not position trained as a SM/ASM/or other outdoor leader at a campout? 

Secondly we need to recognize that many of the victims involved in the lawsuit have told their side of the assaults and that includes assault from a non-scouter at a scouting event. 

If we look at this objectively without money in the picture this is a great change to enhance scout safety. 

Something to chew on while thinking about this topic. Last year my unit had a parent volunteer fail a background check; not surprisingly that parents scout did not recharter with our unit. I ask myself if that parent is now tagging along on campouts with their scout at some other unit, and because of how the background check and blacklisting works(or not works depending on your opinion), that new unit is unaware of the background check failure? Is there a potential pedo trying to sneak along on a units campouts? This new rule stops that, period; this new rule is a good thing.

[Eagle94-A1]

2 hours ago, Tron said:

This is a great change. 

First of all why would anyone potentially want someone who is not position trained as a SM/ASM/or other outdoor leader at a campout? 
 

Parent of a potential scout who is still getting to know the adults and doesn;t trust us yet with their child's first camp out?

[mrjohns2]

18 hours ago, Eagle94-A1 said:

Parent of a potential scout who is still getting to know the adults and doesn;t trust us yet with their child's first camp out?

We tried to help that with a family campout with 2nd year Webelos and the troop, but I guess that is over.

[Eagle94-A1]

Not every Scout comes from Cubs.

 

[Eagle94-A1]

18 hours ago, mrjohns2 said:

We tried to help that with a family campout with 2nd year Webelos and the troop, but I guess that is over.

that is my it needs to be a separate Cub Activity now

 

 

[AwakeEnergyScouter]

On 3/17/2023 at 8:34 PM, Eagle94-A1 said:

Parent of a potential scout who is still getting to know the adults and doesn;t trust us yet with their child's first camp out?

I thought about this. This exact point is the painful point, isn't it? 

I don't think anyone ever thought about whether you could trust the scout leaders when I was a scout. If my parents had concerns, I never picked up on it. But my parents didn't have an abuse scandal to think about.

How do you thread this trust needle? There's no nice quick answer.

One possible help that I don't think I've seen mentioned is leaning into building an organizational culture in which the youth feel unconditionally heard when they voice concerns. You never know how you're going to react if it happens to you, and freezing is very common, but afterwards telling another scout can be an additional avenue support. The friend can't be responsible for dealing with it of course, but might be in a better state of mind to remind the victim to tell a trusted adult etc to make sure the larger world finds out and can take action. I never felt alone with a scout leader because there were lots of us scouts around. Perhaps I was naive, but that was my perception.

I have spent a fair bit of mental energy trying to figure out whether unwanted touch is objectively sexual enough to ask someone to stop. I've now realized that it doesn't matter; one is also perfectly within one's rights to decline non-sexual touch as well. Nobody has a right to touch you against your will regardless of whether it's sexual or not. This could be an idea we could reflect more actively as we go about our activities. It could save kids from having to sort ok touch from abusive touch on very little life experience.

We could also talk about how to support a friend who's been harassed, assaulted, or abused. When a friend told me she was gangraped I didn't really know how I could help best. I tried to tell her she shouldn't be ashamed, but she was, so much so that she didn't want to report like so many others. I wasn't able to give her the mental giant hug that I wanted to, and the perpetrators of course remain unpunished. No idea how to make that age-appropriate but somebody out there knows.

Trust still rebuilds slowly, but actually being trustworthy in the first place is the foundation for it ever succeeding. 

For the new parents - perhaps getting to know the leaders at an adults-only meeting specifically to address the trust issue?

[Eagle94-A1]

19 minutes ago, AwakeEnergyScouter said:

I thought about this. This exact point is the painful point, isn't it? 

I don't think anyone ever thought about whether you could trust the scout leaders when I was a scout. If my parents had concerns, I never picked up on it. But my parents didn't have an abuse scandal to think about.

Sadly my mom did. In the 1970s a major CSA scandal hit my hometown that had national implications. it was the 1970s sex abuse case in New Orleans.  When my family moved to the suburbs, it was one of the reasons why my older brothers did not continue in Scouting. My mom was reluctant to let me join, despite the positive experiences my brothers had while in, but let me join when my uncle and cousin advocated for me to join based up on their experiences.

[sierracharliescouter]

On 3/17/2023 at 6:34 PM, Eagle94-A1 said:

Parent of a potential scout who is still getting to know the adults and doesn;t trust us yet with their child's first camp out?

This is exactly the problem with the new policy. I think attendance by non-registered scouters should be limited, i.e., you get one 2-night or less campout per year, and YPT obviously required, but outright banning non-Scouters really reduces transparency, and I don't like that.