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I wouldn't typicaly consider this innovative, but in our case it seems it would be - How about when ScoutNet and/or my email isn't working when I call the help desk rather than tell me you are having "issues" and to be patient, you tell me what the problem is and when it will be fixed? Alternativley or perhaps in addition to, why don't you credit my national service invoice with the lost time these frequent "issues" cause? If I had a vendor for services I actually chose, I wouldn't pay the bill based on the service we frequently get and would certainly find a new vendor. In this instance I don't have a choice, do I?
Frustrated in New Jersey,
Craig Shelley
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On Feburary the 7 the 7th our local Troops and Packs got together and went around to some of the older folks in our area and shoveled their walkways and drive ways and even uncovered some cars. They also stopped at some random houses and helped some folks that were trying their best to shovel their driveways on their own. When asked why they were doing this they explained to the people that they were with the Boy Scouts and that they were doin gthis to Celebrate the 100th Anniversary of Scouting.
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I would like to propose that some more suitable Scout Pants be made available for purchase. I have swithbacks and i love them, but they are not appropriate for wear during a Court of Honor or any other indoor Scouting function where a uniforn is worn. The New canvass pants would be fine except for the EXTREMELY large pockets on the leg. i know these are great for Scouts who like baggy Clothes and pockets big enough for a Scout book, but what about us leaders who want to be comfortable and look the part of a leader.
If something doesn't come out soon, I will go back to wearing the old style pants without the pockets on the legs, i am just going to need to lose a few pounds first!
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Let us consider adding a basic sewing technique (such as sewing abutton on a shirt)to the requirements for tenderfoot. One of the neccessities of outdoor life is the ability to replace a button or repair tents, covers, traps, etc. All of these can be essential to a safe outdoor experience yet, at least in my experience, very few Scouts can even thread a needle.
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During a recent Webelos to Scout Transition Webinar the importance of the Den Chief was highly emphasized, especially the importance of the Den Chief's role as "ambassador" for Boy Scouting to the Pack and how a Den Chief can help bring boys from a pack to a troop. After the webinar, I went back and reviewed the Online Den Chief training. Only twice during the training is it even mentioned that the Den chief helps encourage boys to move on into Boy Scouting, and that is only in passing. Considering that a Den Chief can be an extremely powerful tool for a troop to attract Cub Scouts shouldn't this be emphasized more? Could a 5th section be added to the training to help teach a Den Chief how they can help promote Boy Scouting and excite boys to want to continue to become Boy Scouts? The training makes it seem like it is assumed that a potential Den Chief already knows how to be that "ambassador" for Boy Scouting. Can we afford to assume this? If we don't teach potential Den Chiefs how to be the "ambassador," how are they going to know that they should be doing it and how to do it?
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It seems that the greatest challenge facing councils today is funding. Why are so many councils having such a hard time?
I think that as an organization, we need to do a better job cultivating our executives from the district to the executive levels on a more holistic approach to fundraising. If the program, membership and volunteer recruiting and retention are approached with a stronger effort on strategy and quality, I have found, the money simply comes with it. More training for volunteers and professionals, early and often such as webinars, podcasts and idea sharing would all help. That training needs to come from the executives: DE's Finance Director's, SE's, volunteers,etc. who are currently (not 15 years ago) successful at raising money in the field.
The job of the DE has changed even in the ten years I have been with BSA. I'm not sure if our current training model is entirely applicable to the skills required to set a new employee into the field to build relationships that will lead to financial growth.
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In addition to working for the BSA I am also an assistant scoutmaster with my sons troop. Our Patrol Leader's Council wants to go rafting through the Grand Canyon in 2011. A couple of us dads are looking into the costs and services provided by several of the river outfitters.
As we research different outfitters it occurred to me that perhaps the BSA could offer a wilderness outfitter certification. The outfitter could have to complete some basic training on BSA health and safety issues, and be certified by a national organization (if applicable) in that wilderness activity.
The BSA could then maintain a website of approved BSA wilderness outfitters for all sorts of high adventure activities across America such as caving, white water sports, climbing, etc.
This might inspire more troops to do more high adventure activities, thus increasing membership retention; and it would help troops, teams, & crews to find outfitters who understand BSA safety rules, and who have certifications to do the activity correctly/safely.
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It's probably too late and I'm sure that someone at National thought of this a long time ago, but it would be absolutely incredible if google could find a way to incorporate the Boy Scouts of America 100th Anniversary into its "google" logo on February 8, just as it does for other major dates like Olympics or Fourth of July. Never knew it but there's even a contest for grade school kids to design these so-called "google doodles."
Imagine the impact of everyone who uses google to search for anything on one day ...
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It is policy in our office to return any calls within a timely manner. 24 hour return call rule is a good guide. I would like to see this implemented with the national office. There has been many instances throughout the years, but most recently I have called on two seperate occasions, one for Day Camp School and the other for Trademarks. I identify myself, on their voicemails because it is never the actual person, as a council employee with location and phone number. These multiple calls have been made in last two weeks and I still have not gotten a return call. I only call national because the question I have cannot be answered locally. It makes me feel that my questions are not worth the time to answer, and that is not way to treat an employee or volunteer. I wonder how many other professionals and volunteers have this same problem?
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I need to have an Excel spreadsheet of who is (and is not) trained at a unit level, with contact information (mailing address, phone number and email address) in order to selectively target those who need to be trained, so as to invite them to the next training course.
It can not currently be done. It was a promise from Scoutnet 2000 that was made and forgotten.
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The Search Institute's "40 Developmental Assets for Healthy Children" is widely recognized in educational, child development, and funding organizations (such as United Way and many foundations) as the gold standard for impacting youth development and achievement. The list of "assets" that must be in child's life for him or her to be successful is very similar to the methods we use in Scouting. In addition to the original research, a study on how summer camp programs provide/reinforce the "40 assets" has recently been completed.
A publication showing the relationship of each of the appropriate "40 Assets" and how Scouting (and Learning for Life) provides/delivers/supports each of these assets would be extremely helpful in telling our story to potential funders and to others not familiar with Scouting's true role in shaping the lives of youth. www.searchinstitute.com
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At our staff planning conference we discussed how to encourage better performance of commissioners. When reviewing the award criteria for Commissioners we noticed that they were not really supporting the requirements for Quality District and Council.
For example, the Distinguished Commissioner Award requires that a commissioner "help 50% of the units in their service area in two consecutive years" achieve quality unit. Given that a minimum of 60% is required for district and council awards 50% doesn't seem to "distinguished". I suggest rewriting these award criteria to support our goal of "improving the quality of program in every unit in America".
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Please correct the training reports on mybsa. The report that lists every units and the number of trained leaders is missing units. I tried to run a report that lists every Scoutmaster and if they are trained has a bug and will not let select program levels today.
If we are going to have mandatory training in 12 months, we need accurate reports ASAP. PLEASE follow through on the many other requests and get training reports more user friendly and user friendly.
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Perhaps the digital ProSpeak could have a feature to print out the ProSpeak so that a person could read it in hard copy at another time. The links within ProSpeak currently do not allow this. John Richers
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The Idea of Having Lunch with Others in the BSA Cafe Would
Really be Nice, because you get to Relax and Eat and Chat
with Others about Various Topics Whether they are Scout
Related or about Something Else! Also it would help to get
to Know the Others about what they do or what they Enjoy
Doing other than Work!
Moderator Comments
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I would like to see listed on a report the number of chartering organizations we have in the council. Or, make this number easily available. I was asked how many chartering organizations our council has. There is no easy answer. I had to request a report, dump it into a spread sheet, and delete the duplicates. The process took me about an hour as we have upwards of 1400 units in our council.
If I'm missing where this info can be found, could someone tell me? Thank you!
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Perhaps we could create a system by which units manage their own Merit Badge Counselor listings for their Troop and recharter them as a unit. Thereby a District Merit Badge Coordinator would only be responsible for tracking and rechartering those Counselors that are district-only. This might alleviate a great deal of headache from our district coordinators and make the process more efficient.
Basically, Troops should be responsible for managing and rechartering merit badge counselors independently through the annual charter renewal process.
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I met someone recently at a conference who works at the new Harley museum in Wisconsin.
She is very concerned about the way people treat the American flag - especially the disposal of them.
The idea we came up with was that each Harley dealer would have a donation center for "used" American flags that the local Boy Scout troop would then retrieve and give the proper "retirement ceremony".
Could be a cool collaboration! What do you think?
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Google does all kinds of artwork on their search page to recognize different holidays and causes. How about aksing them to put our 100th Anniversary logo on for February 8th - or any day in 2010
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From a volunteer: Is this a good thing or bad thing. Is there an official position?
Please cut and paste this link.
http://lasteaglescout.com/video.aspx
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Maybe we can create a competition between the Boy Scout Troops and or Venturers that is based on peer to peer recruiting through Text Messaging, through Facebook,YouTube and Twitter. The competition could have different categories.
A) The highest number of newly recruited members in a unit.
B) The highest number of invitations sent to join average per scout unit.
C) The highest amount of "traffic" on a website/link.
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The technology exists to create a total electronic Eagle Scout workbook. This change will teach use of technology and be a way to reduce paper waste.
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How about an update to the Exploring website? I don't like seeing the outdated background and outdated pages from years ago. If I send a prospect there, I am sure it is not impressing them and this is a great program with lots of potential. First impressions can make the deal. Thanks! Bob Rueter
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With the invention of the modern day computer and the internet. We have alot of volunteers and professionals that need the simplest route for getting paperwork turned into the Council office. In a process to turn in Centennial Quality Unit and District commitment forms it would be helpful to have the forms online with the opportunity to fill in information then email (to and from)
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At the request of NER Director, Mr. Don McChesney, I am submitting an idea that I proposed at our Staff Planning Conference at Bear Creek Resort, PA. My idea was to include Text Messaging as a way to recruit new youth members.
What I would like to submit as an idea for consideration is much the same way that Google text messages a weather forecast to one's cell phone. (Text the word "weather" to the number 466453 and it will send you a forecast based on your location. It should detect your location but you can also type your zipcode after the word "weather" for your location.)
In the NER we use BEASCOUT.ORG. I think it would be a great way to just type some word, maybe the word "Adventure," to some Google TXT MSG number, maybe 100100, and have the closest Boy Scout Troop or Venturing Crew Meeting location with time, would be sent to their cell phone. Then young adults could easily find information quickly and in the manner this age group communicates.
I have already contacted Mr. Todd Lamison, with Patriots Path Council BSA, who helps with the BEASCOUT.ORG website and told him about my idea. He stated that it is possible but that the costs are not known. This would also be a way that parents who use TXT Messaging to get the information as well.
Respectfully submitted,
Alan Rowe
District Director, Monmouth Council #347
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