Roger Krone new BSA President and CEO succeeds Roger Mosby

[RememberSchiff]

16 hours ago, Jameson76 said:

Well, we see where his focus is 

Krone highlights the importance of data management, proposing the migration of member information to a cloud-based data lake and mining that information (no doubt to monetize) to connect with BSA alumni who may not have been contacted in decades. With nearly 100 million alumni, the organization aims to use technology for targeted communication, reconnecting with former Scouts, and fostering philanthropic engagements. “Technology will help us find those people, communicate with them, update them on what’s going on in Scouting and connect them with philanthropic interests and fundraising,” (So focused on money had to say it twice) Krone said. Data analytics will be employed to gain valuable insights into membership trends, enabling more effective and targeted programming across different councils. (no doubt to monetize)

As usual, main focus will be raising money.  No mention in the article about growing the program and expanding the membership.

As mentioned in that Forbes article, it will be fundraising with a purpose

The CEO emphasizes the importance of effective fundraising to retire debt and invest in BSA's core programs. And hopefully reduced membership fees?

At first read, I was very concerned that his technology connect with alumni could be a repeat of the NESA/Harris Connect postcard effort some years back, i.e., asking for money from alumni who questioned the current program. I think Mr. Krone realizes that as revealed below.

He (Mr. Krone) expresses a commitment to making every Boy Scout proud of their affiliation. “Part of my job is to make people proud that they were a Scout. I’ve told many people, ‘I think it’s great that you were a Scout. If I sent you a bumper sticker, would you put it on your car?’” he says. As BSA went through bankruptcy, there was less enthusiasm to affiliate with the organization, and Krone has made it his mission to raise BSA’s profile to the point where all Scouting alumni feel proud to advocate for the shared values of Scouting, such that they’d be proud to put a BSA bumper sticker on their car.

Imagine if Mr. Krone could bring back (on the NEB?) Bill Gates, Michael Bloomberg, Stephen Spielberg,... in ads holding their bumper stickers and then talking about today's scouting program with tech integration. 

my $0.02,

Edited December 13, 2023 by RememberSchiff

[skeptic]

Only some time and patience will tell.  I see some concern in finding new directions, not only for fund raising, which is an absolute, but also pointing at the inclusion of modern tech, as the youth now understand to some level, to open the program, while also mentioning aspects of the outdoors as being important.  New and old can, and really must, be married.  And, somehow we need to find that positive interface with the public again.  My experience is that it is there, just in a hibernation mode, if you will.  When we have our rag tag group in public, we seldom het any negative feedback, rather mostly positive.  And that is now coming again from younger adults, not just the elderly.  These people appear to appreciate young people showing patriotism and doing positive community things.  

We can continue to rue the mistakes and poor choices or find a new direction.  Some it appears do not countenance that direction, or simply are too jaded.  This may be a start, or it may again fall flat.  Lets hope as the next new year looms, it will move in the positive direction.  Live the Twelve, and set the examples.

[MattR]

On 12/12/2023 at 4:15 PM, Jameson76 said:

As usual, main focus will be raising money.  No mention in the article about growing the program and expanding the membership.

I'm hoping you're wrong. Last night I found out our council has only 2400 youth registered. Our district, ten years ago, was larger than this. We used to have a pack in every elementary school (15 or 20?). We're down to 3 or 4. I think the packs are done folding but the troops are in serious decline at the moment. Our troop, which has always been considered strong compared to neighboring troops, is in serious trouble while 2 other troops have folded. If it weren't for a half dozen adults in our troop that no longer have kids in the troop, ours would fold.

The common thread in all of this is a lack of parents that want to put time into helping out. I used to think that no matter how messed up national was, scouting would do fine because people want it. I'm not so sure anymore. It looks to me like parents don't believe in scouting.

I still think scouting is important but I don't know how to convince people of that. The Forbes article mentioned contacting a million scouting alumni. While the cynical view is they're only asking for money, it could also be they're asking for help getting the message out.

[skeptic]

14 minutes ago, MattR said:

I'm hoping you're wrong. Last night I found out our council has only 2400 youth registered. Our district, ten years ago, was larger than this. We used to have a pack in every elementary school (15 or 20?). We're down to 3 or 4. I think the packs are done folding but the troops are in serious decline at the moment. Our troop, which has always been considered strong compared to neighboring troops, is in serious trouble while 2 other troops have folded. If it weren't for a half dozen adults in our troop that no longer have kids in the troop, ours would fold.

The common thread in all of this is a lack of parents that want to put time into helping out. I used to think that no matter how messed up national was, scouting would do fine because people want it. I'm not so sure anymore. It looks to me like parents don't believe in scouting.

I still think scouting is important but I don't know how to convince people of that. The Forbes article mentioned contacting a million scouting alumni. While the cynical view is they're only asking for money, it could also be they're asking for help getting the message out.

Finding the alumni is only helpful if they choose to get involved or if they donate with a purpose, one that is noted before they do it.  On a National level, we can hark back a bit to the the discussion a while back about the English Scouter Bear something (I am old and forget).   At the 2010 Jambo we had Mike Rowe.  To me we should be working with his group to point youth towards regular jobs, as well as portraying Scout Spirit.  I could easily see a cooperative at camps that would focus on such things.  Before our local council stabbed us all with mothballing camp, we had had a number of years with welding being a huge success, even seeing a couple of those youth go into it as profession.  Before the idiocy recently, we a camp staff that had created automotive maintenance as a partner to welding, but that somehow disappeared, though the counselor, also a Scouter with a troop, is offering the badge at merit badge gatherings.  The science related badges at camp have huge popularity and I can see a similar likelihood with the trade oriented subjects.  Another direction might be working with local colleges and universities to establish stations at camps or research and also connected to merit badges.  A great example of that is the Oceanography program at Emerald Bay, though I think we may be seeing that go away from recent data.  It seems still to be the right direction for modern programming.  A final one would be a solid cooperative interaction with the National Park Service and Forestry stations.  We offered Fire Safety at camp, and it always included the Forest Service with their equipment and demos.  There is nothing wrong with building those types of of interactions.  It might even include the Y or heaven forbid, even the Girl Scouts.  But, cooperation seems to not be something too many see as a positive.  Just look at Congress.

[mrjohns2]

19 hours ago, MattR said:

The common thread in all of this is a lack of parents that want to put time into helping out. I

This has been our Pack's issue. Many adults want to help the day of the event, but no planning or strategy discussions before the event. 

[dk516]

On 12/16/2023 at 8:17 PM, MattR said:

The common thread in all of this is a lack of parents that want to put time into helping out. I used to think that no matter how messed up national was, scouting would do fine because people want it. I'm not so sure anymore. It looks to me like parents don't believe in scouting.

@MattR I don't know if parents believe in Scouting or not. I think they still want it for their Youth but I think there are many factors that affect Parent' willingness to volunteer. I just went through recharter with my units and lost several long standing adult volunteers. These volunteers would show up once or twice a year to provide their expertise to the troop on a specific subject. Our Council this recharter decided to double the adult programming fee. Together with the National increase, this almost doubled our adult cost which I think was just too much for some.

Other factor is the administrative burden. I lost several MBCs or folks interested in becoming MBCs who simply gave up after 3 or 4 months and their applications were still not processed in the Council office or Council forgot to send them the renewal notifications and then just turned around and made them do it all over again.

Scouting, especially in the higher ranks of the Scouts BSA program is a significant volunteer time commitment for Scouts and adult volunteers that not everyone is willing to make anymore these days and also not just the time but also the combination of time and cost. 

I hope that Mr Krone and his team will invest a significant amount not only in the program but also in optimizing the membership tools and other IT infrastructure and greatly reduce the administrative burden. I.e. why can I submit any Youth application electronically but if I want to do that for an adult, I still need to have a paper application, get it wet-signed by the COR only to upload it to the electronic membership application that is going to get signed by the COR AGAIN!? Stuff like that is what drives adults from Scouting and that could be so easily resolved because many other Youth organizations can do it as well.

On 12/16/2023 at 8:17 PM, MattR said:

I found out our council has only 2400 youth registered. Our district, ten years ago, was larger than this.

Our council is the same. It declined from 10'000 to barely 2'500 over the last 6 or so years. They merged several times with other small councils but kept the whole overhead and all properties but tried to operate with a declining youth membership ever since. As much as I appreciate that, it just makes no sense economically and it takes the professional focus away from programming and becomes 100% fundraising oriented to fundraise their own operation rather than focus on growing membership.

[Eagle1993]

I think parents are less interested in volunteering for any activity; however, scouting takes more time than most.  In K5, if you make the mistake of signing up to be a den leader, you are looking at 9 months x 6 years (54 months of volunteer work).  If you sign up to coach a kids soccer team, that may be 3 months of work and absolutely no expectations you would do that every year going forward.  

In addition, the number of adults required to run a good pack is excessive (12 den leaders, Cub Master, ACM, CC, COR and a few other committee members).  If you have a pack of 80-90 kids this is achievable... If you have 10-20 impossible.

I talked with a few pack leaders recently and it doesn't look good.  The program needs to greatly simplify and the changes made were not sufficient. 

BSA may need to look at other sources of volunteers (than parents) even at the unit level.

[mrjohns2]

4 hours ago, Eagle1993 said:

In addition, the number of adults required to run a good pack is excessive (12 den leaders, Cub Master, ACM, CC, COR and a few other committee members).  If you have a pack of 80-90 kids this is achievable... If you have 10-20 impossible.

This is so very true. Your numbers are spot on and it was nearly impossible with a pack of 49 cubs. With at least having a treasurer and advancement coordinator, it is easily 20. 

[mrjohns2]

8 hours ago, dk516 said:

greatly reduce the administrative burden. I.e. why can I submit any Youth application electronically but if I want to do that for an adult, I still need to have a paper application, get it wet-signed by the COR only to upload it to the electronic membership application that is going to get signed by the COR AGAIN!?

Your assessment as a whole is correct, but your specific example is not a national issue. It is either council, or state, driven. The wet signature and double COR approval isn’t required by national. 

[Tron]

Scouting is a time and money drop in the bucket compared to league play sports. My 1 buddy was gritching about the commitment and money sink to be a CM, my other buddy laughed and was like "Dude! I just paid $3500 for my daughter to play volleyball for the next 3 months so she can stay in form and have a chance of making the varisity team next year; he then went on to say it was mandatory for him to attend away games which included driving as far as Minneapolis and St. Louis (from Chicago). The issue is not time, the issue is not money, the issue is responsibility. People are lazy and they collapse under the weight of being expected to show up on time with a box of crayons. 

[yknot]

2 hours ago, Tron said:

Scouting is a time and money drop in the bucket compared to league play sports. My 1 buddy was gritching about the commitment and money sink to be a CM, my other buddy laughed and was like "Dude! I just paid $3500 for my daughter to play volleyball for the next 3 months so she can stay in form and have a chance of making the varisity team next year; he then went on to say it was mandatory for him to attend away games which included driving as far as Minneapolis and St. Louis (from Chicago). The issue is not time, the issue is not money, the issue is responsibility. People are lazy and they collapse under the weight of being expected to show up on time with a box of crayons. 

There is no point comparing sports to scouts, either as an activity or as an expense. Ten days at Philmont can break down to be just about as much.

 

[RememberSchiff]

Roger Krone reporting from Northern Tier... another well done.

 

[RememberSchiff]

Happy 114th Anniversary video from Key 3 and Scouts.

 

Edited February 9 by RememberSchiff

[SiouxRanger]

"Succeeds" not "replaces."

An important distinction.

When Thomas Jefferson succeeded Franklin in 1785, French Foreign Minister Vergennes asked: “It is you who replace Dr. Franklin?” Jefferson replied, “No one can replace him, Sir; I am only his successor.”

[SiouxRanger]

On 12/19/2023 at 6:13 PM, yknot said:

There is no point comparing sports to scouts, either as an activity or as an expense. Ten days at Philmont can break down to be just about as much.

 

But I wonder of the participants, sports or Philmont Trek, which 12 days are remembered more, 30 years on?