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Is there a way that we can have the Policy and Procedure Manual as an E-Manual, this would save a lot of ink,paper, and less use of the printer which would save money in the shops budget. We always seem to have these updates to print, wouldnt it be much more cost effective to just add any update via e-mail.
Every Council has a newsletter of some sort, whether it be print, electronic or social. It would be helpful if there was a central database of national news items (i.e. new handbook, requirements, factoids, etc.) that could be cut and pasted into Council newsletters. This would most likely be a function of Brand Management. Sort of an AP for BSA.
Again, I'd like to suggest that the Benefits Handbook for the coming year be available while we're making choices for our own benefits, even if the changes are or could be minor.

A link is there and all that comes up is a one page PDF file that says "The 2010 BSA Benefits Handbook is not yet available."
I was disappointed to find out that the United Health Care insurance plans purchased by BSA pay for "therapeutic abortion." Calling some abortions "therapeutic" is the UHC attempt to pass off some abortions as medically necessary. It is never under any circumstances necessary to kill an innocent human being, and such evil action should never be encouraged or condoned by peers, employers or third party contractors.

There is no reason why any business should condone abortion, especially a youth and faamily-oriented movement such as the BSA. And besides, imagine how many of the 50 million babies in the US murdered via abortion since 1973 never got the chance to become Scouts. Think of how that has affected our membership numbers.

If there is some law that requires group medical insurance plans to pay for "therapeutic abortions" then said law should be repealed immediately.
It is difficult for many BSA employees to set aside additional dollars for retirement. Many Councils, the Regional and National Staff have matching fund programs tied to savings and investment accounts. Some councils match dollar for dollar up to 8% in at least one council. Some matches are 50 cents on the dollar up to a certain percent. Some councils have nothing. It would be good if all councils could offer such an incentive, especially for our younger, entry level people that will really need to save. It would also be good if there was uniformity in this so a person in one council with a high match can accept a 'promotion' to another council without 'giving up' in the retirement savings area. Additionally, it may help us to keep quality people as they build up what could be a substantial 'nest egg' to supplement their pension income.
Could you please upload/post the Marketing Award winners booklet for 2006, 2007 and 2009. I would be great to see the innovative ideas councils are using to market BSA.
The Innovation Engine is a great tool to collect and evaluate new ideas. I see it as a crucial element for change and progress in the BSA. I suggest that when an idea makes it from a random posting, through the vetting process, and becomes a real thing that's been adopted by the organization, that the person who posted the initial idea gets some form of public recognition. It could be totally free - a "Hall of Fame," or a BSA trinket, or even cash - the form the recognition takes doesn't really matter, just as long as the recognition happens.

Maybe that's already happening and I've missed it. If so, please disregard
Our new talent management model aimed at placing people in the right position based on their skills and passions is a terrific model. But how does a Scouting professional today find out what positions are out there that match their passion and what skills are necessary to fill those roles? There is a lack of material available to field Executives explaining the various roles available in the Scouting profession.

For example, many Executives come out of the field after 5 years serving as a DE/ Sr. DE, all set to find a District Director or Field Director position because that is “the route to the top” and they don’t know about other positions available within local Councils. We end up placing potentially strong program, finance, and support people in field management positions they may not be cut out for or truly interested in. They end up unfulfilled, disappointed, or facing professional and personal failure because they are misplaced. Consequently, we lose great program, finance, and support people and cannot benefit from their talents in these areas. Great field managers are also misplaced, but I think the point is made.

I suggest that a resource be created outlining the roles within our profession, a profile of strengths needed to succeed in those roles, and the steps, trainings, or development stages necessary to obtain each role. This should be intentionally shared with Executives at their 3 year evaluation and then readily available beyond that point. This piece could be anything from an online pamphlet, PowerPoint, or video to a training module within the PD-L3 Course. Additional training should be offered to managers designed to give them the resources to help their people navigate through the necessary stages and trainings to reach their career goals.

With increased transparency and a better understanding of what is available to them, young motivated and successful professionals can easily identify a role suited to their passion and strengths, go after those positions, and find greater success and fulfillment. Ultimately this practice of proper placement will allow us to make a greater impact on the youth we serve.
This is not really an innovative idea, but it seems to me that since we are stating that we are going to try to improve the fitness and health level of our employees, perhaps we should stop serving doughnuts, muffins and cakes, etc. at our events. It might cost a little more or be a little less convenient to serve things like fruit, yogurt, oatmeal, etc., but it doesn't seem like we send the right message when we talk about being fit and healthy, and literally at the same time are handing out high-fat, low-nutrition foods.
Can the ProSpeak editor mass e-mail all professionals monthly when a new edition is posted online? Now that it is no longer coming in paper, I am trying to hunt it down. Now did I write down that link?
I have been thinking that BSA needs a wellness program that encourages all employees to improve their fitness. This could be a great program and National could actually pay for it with all the savings in would see in medical cost reductions on an annual basis. I would strike a deal with a pedometer company to get a good product at cut rate prices and then offer a pedometer to any employee who was willing to follow the 3000 steps in 30 minutes guidelines (new government guidelines for moderate exercise). As an incentive I would offer to give national and local council employees the premium insurance product for the cost of the basic insurance product if they are willing to commit to the program. The national council could then create a website to track compliance, which would be mandatory to update in order to get that cost break on the insurance product. I am even willing to bet the insruance company would be willing to help us with that deal because we are offerring a wellness plan which would lover their liability.
There should be a standardized process for ordering BIN items as well as a comprehensive list of all BIN items available to be ordered in order to facilitate easier ordering for councils.
It would be helpful if the National Council Telephone Directory (in MyBSA/Resources) included email addresses.

Also, include email addresses on all forms sent to local councils, allowing councils to save postage, paper, and time by scanning and returning forms electronically.
An electronic Excel file of the national scout executive's list would be most helpful. I have been told that the print out is all that is available, which means I must retype all of that information if I want to create a merge file or put part of the list into Outlook.
Like the military, we all have to start out as a District Executive where we fundraise, start new units, increase membership, run a district including recruiting volunteers, managing operations, budgets, activities, health and safety concerns. We perform quality control. Often we also have a camp assignment as well. We are often bureaucrats that check for accuracy in forms. When we excel at the growth areas of this task, we get to move up in the organization.

While that makes the job diverse and interesting, it often makes people above average in maybe one or two tasks, and a master of no one task. Human Resource management would conclude organizations that specialize are better run - they allow those that excel in one or two tasks to focus almost exclusively on those tasks. A one size fits all job description of district executive maybe the thing that needs to change to bring the BSA into the 21st Century. Most job descriptions in the real world have nothing to compare with the DE because the DE's generalize in so much. Because the career path focuses on growth, money, membership, and recruiting, they are the only tasks that are often rewarded - and we need much more than that in our talent pool if we are to be successful. We also need those that excel in unit service and district operations, program, marketing, etc., but may not be good at growing the organization through sales functions. I believe that program, marketing, statistical feedback analysis, and quality operations may be the key to retention and increasing our market share.

Restructuring councils to allow them to hire specialists may help out. I would recommend this be on a trial basis with one or two councils at first - but councils could hire sales and fundraising staff to focus exclusively on FOS, special events, endowments, capital, etc. They could also hire a community outreach staff that grow units, recruit kids, help retain kids, develope relationships, rechartering, etc. A program staff focuses on program, marketing, and activities, and an operations staff focuses on district operations, recruiting, and unit service. This would allow those with the right skills to be put in the right area. Job descriptions may change dynamically depending on which team you work. You could either organize field areas to have a specialist from each area, or you could organize field areas based on entire specialized job tasks. Giving councils different option and seeing which ones excel would help National in knowing which direction to go, or if they should maintain the generalist human resource structure at the entry level.
Every Council in America has it's own form of fundraising venture whether it be popcorn, magazines, candy or whatever. I am sure all Councils would agree that the single most important attribute to success in every Council is Scout involvement. We spend a lot of time trying to sell the concept of fundraising to units and persuading them to get involved. Obviously, our respective budgets count on it. Every year, professionals worry their way through the fundraiser hoping they have done enough. My idea is this:

Why not initiate a new requirement for both Arrow of Light and Eagle Scout that simply states that to achieve this rank in Scouting, you must participate in your Council's fundraising venture for at least three years. Wouldn't that simplify things?
Just a thought!
In our profession, we are expectd to quickly build relationships among many people from all walks of life. We are constantly meeting new people. If you are like me, often I meet someone and immediately forget their name. I believe we would have a much easier time building relationships quickly if we could remove the roadblock of forgetting the names of prospective volunteers and donors. I would suggest that as we strive for High-Touch inour High-Tech world, that we add a level of training to our PDL classes. This training would focus on techniques on how to remember names.

Tom Webber has a workshop on memory at www.deliverfreedom.com. From there, click on "memory training."

For an overview of this training, go to: www.sideroad.com/business_networking/remember_names.html
Over the past few years I have found a major breakdown in our orginization is in our middle management.I dont believe this is a dynamic that is occuring at the top level of our orginization but at the council level. Our Field Directors, District Directors and sometimes even our Director's of Field Service, or Assistant Scout Executives, are not teaching our staff. They are managing through Fear, Intimidation, and or Autocracy.This type of managment allows for short term victories but will result in a logterm system failure. If we are truly going to stay strong as an orginization, we need to teach our staff members how to do there job. We also need to do a better job of preventing those who lack the ability from getting into these positions. Most have read "Good to Great", In this book what is discussed is a "culture of discipline". Creating this culture is critical to our sucess. It is said that five things will/can cause a breakdown in any orginization, They are as follows; Inattention to results,avoidance of accountability,lack of commitment,fear of conflict, and an absence of trust.
We need to teach our managers how to lead, how to run a team meeting, how to lead motivate and inspire staff. True accountability will only take place in a team environment. Our managment classes merely scratch the surface on understanding these Processes/Disciplines. True success lies in each staff member not wanting to let down the other.
LFL rosters need to be one page. There's very little info printed on them and it is a huge waste of resources and money to make it two pages.
One of the easiest and least cumbersome ways for me to see how our Council is doing with recruiting is to check the Give Every Kid a Chance report. Good stuff. My idea for improvement - could it drill down one more level to districts? It would be a real homerun for me to be able to simply click there and see how I'm doing by District with recruitment vs. the same time last year.
It would be great if these lists were sorted in ScoutNet. Sort them by year, by unit number, something to make the information easy to use. Having them in no order, or some order that is not easily determind by any normal person hinders the accuracy of information that we can give out. Would it really be that hard to code in a sort function? Thanks!
As we go through training we form relationships with those individuals in attendance. Along those lines they have the similar problems that can be worked through if contact can be maintained. If a list was created like the current listing in global contacts for the council level for the PDL class and other training lists this would improve the trouble of reinventing the wheel so often.