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It would be wonderful if we would be able to look up a specific unit and see what leaders and trained and what leaders are untrained in a specific unit through MyBSA. It would also be nice to see what specific courses they've had and what one's they need. If it lists a course they've had there should be a date next to it as well saying when they took the course.
Right now you can look up an entire districts training statistics or look up a certain position and see who is trained and untrained, but no way to look up an entire unit.
I would like to easily print off easy-to-read reports to share with my units of which of their Top Leaders, Direct Contact Leaders, etc. have taken which trainings.
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Training Completed/Training Not Completed Reports Yes, if these reports had email addresses we could more easily contact people et cetera. In addition, this could be one way of getting email addresses into the council system without having our people manually entering in data, which consumes so much valuable time.
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I recently noted that Mike Rowe, host of Discovery Channel's Dirty Jobs is an Eagle Scout. I know (having been at the jamboree) that there are a lot of dirty jobs available and Mike should easily be able to do a whole show about the jamboree.
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It would be great if the U S Post Office did BSA stamps in 2010.
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How about getting a bunch of uniformed Scouts on a float or in some other aspect at the Macy's Parade? One all America institution supporting another
How about getting a bunch of Boy Scouts on a float or some other representation in the Macy's Parade? Not sponsoring nessasarily but volunteering to ride on one or as a group or as balloon wranglers.....
How about getting a bunch of Boy Scouts on a float or some other representation in the Macy's Parade? Not sponsoring nessasarily but volunteering to ride on one or as a group or as balloon wranglers.....
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It would be very nice to get reports easily downloadable into an excel spreadsheet. District Total Reports (DTR's) without having to do text to columns for example slows us down.
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I can't believe that in this day and age we dont have all the training manuals in PDF format available online for the professionals, They have to be in electronic format somewhere since they are printed. We should be making it easier for professionals to have access to all the latest up to date information thats out there.
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The history channel has pulled together some great specials over the years, why not present one on the BSA in the USA? There's certainly plenty of material to cover, and without a doubt plenty of "historians" and collectors out there with insight to offer. I think it'd be a hit, and would get us into the public eye even more!
P.S.~ I'd like 10% of the video sale proceeds to go to my FOS goal. Can we make that happen?
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We should try to get the home page of google to have a scout banner around it for BSA 100th birthday. They do it for major holidays and events. I would say this just might qualify
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I utilized a google map for internal use to direct new parents and help volunteers find units to send their Webelos to shop for troops. In addition I use it too find organization for new units and map schools where units are present. It also provides district lines for boundaries. My council also has a version for public consumption.
michael@sccc.org
http://www.scccbsa.org/html/resources/unit_locator.html
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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.
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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.
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The Centennial Quality Uniform Shirts are much shorter in length than the previous uniform shirt. This means that our larger members find that the shirt is untucked from their centennial uniform pants when they bend over to pick something up. The shirts need to be longer to ensure that the shirt remains tucked in and we continue to look neat.
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While we are changing our scout uniforms to changing tastes and styles, why don't we think about changing our professional dress uniform to something more hip as well? Also, it would be an inexpensive change for National, since we buy our own jackets, slacks, etc..
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I like the addition of the online rechartering tool but it is still cumbersome because the units still have to print out the document and get the signatures…I propose that we implement an online signature like the one the IRS uses for online tax return. This would help to make recharter less of a headache.
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Why can't NDC produce a full catalog? We still keep a copy of the 2006 "Complete leaders Edition" for reference. People like to browse through and when they do, they find many "must haves". The mini catelogs are useless and the ScoutStuff site is no better.
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I recently attended a camping trip with my daughters Venture Crew. Several of my daughters’ friends (female) are in the Crew and attended the trip. They were talking amongst themselves within ear shot as to why they had joined the Venture Crew. All said they were not getting the “outdoor program” they wanted in another youth serving organization not to be named here. None of them had ever heard of Venturing and if not asked by a friend to join and attending a fun first meeting, never would have joined. They all agreed they would have joined sooner if they had known about the program.
I would guess that this is a problem in most areas. I always call Venturing our “best kept secret”! Here lies the problem. Venturing is not as near a household name as Cub Scouting and Boy Scouting are. How can we truly grow this program when half the potential members are unaware it exists?
Have we ever advertised the Venturing Program to girls in major magazines/media that are geared/marketed to them? Do we plan to? I asked the girls on the trip if they had ever seen or heard an advertisement for Venturing and they said no. I understand that advertising in major media markets or magazines is not an inexpensive undertaking and local councils must continue efforts to promote all of our programs locally. However if we are ever going to break into the 14+ age group in a major way I believe we are going to need a coordinated national marketing plan to do so.
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So we all know that Youth Protection Training (YPT) expires every two years and with out YPT you're not a trained leader.
In the Council I serve, many adults will take YPT, and the other training courses and say "PHEW!! DONE! Note to self, do YPT again in two years" With the busy lives we all run, so many of us are forgetting that our two years are up and we need to 'recertify'.
Can we incoroprate some type of 'alert email' to Scouters whose YPT is about to run out? Maybe a month before it's experiation date, send the Scouter an email with a link to the website reminding them it's time to do the training again, taking about the importance of YPT, and again thanking them for their service and commitment to the BSA.
Then incorporate some type of follow up email if they don't do YPT again one week from expiration date.
Just a thought. Sometimes e-reminders are a pain...other times they're a blessing
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The NFL has agreed to announce the 100th Anniversary of the Boy Scouts of America ON AIR at the Super Bowl in Miami on Sunday, February 7, 2010, provided we get involved in promoting flag football. BSA and NFL have a common desire to promote youth fitness and here is a tremendous collaboration initiative opportunity. They would like us to sell the flag football program items (flag belts, 2 NFL footballs, and the NFL jersey of their choice – all for $20) in our Scout Shops and encourage the units to make flag football part of their program activities. The NFL has regional tournaments and a national tournament of champs at Disney World each year where our Scouts could compete. We could develop a special belt loop recognition for flag football.
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With Randall Stephens serving as our National Centennial Chair can't we work with his company (AT & T) on a National BSA Plan? I would much rather send my 160.00 a month to a company that has endorsed our organization as a whole. As a Council we are a small company, but we as the BSA as a whole we are a huge corportaion who all need cell phone plans. Would love a BSA discount and be able to support a BSA company. Let's work with the organizations that support the BSA!
Would also love to see a discount for Councils who purchase iPhones for employees. There are some cutting edge applications availbale that would make life easy for a district executive. National could even come up with a myBSA app to have all stats real time.
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It would be great when adding Adults in ‘Additional Enrollments’, there was a place to add cell phone numbers. It’s on the application, and it is a pain to enter the adult, and then have to go to ‘Maintain Person’ in order to enter the cell phone number.
It would be so much easier for us if Update Person had a place to enter an email address and a cell phone number instead of going to Maintain Person
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Put everything back in one (1) catalog. I just spent 15 minutes going through 3 catalogs trying to assist a volunteer and still could not find multi-digit unit numbers. I could not find unit numbers period! If there is a concern about alerting our volunteers about new merchandise then create a supplemental catalog to be distributed semi-annually or quarterly. Uniforming is a year round need, not just in the spring or fall. The same with camping gear, knives or innovative gift ideas for Scouters.
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Our unit structure and leadership requirements create artificial barriers to providing the most effective Scouting programs in many settings, particularly in rural communities and at small churches or organizations with small to mid-sized units. Let’s build on one of our greatest strengths: the chartered organization concept.
Recommendation: Issue organizations one charter for all of their Scouting units and each organization has one Scouting Committee that oversees and supports all units they have.
1) A chartering organization has one “Scouting Committee” regardless of the number of units it operates. The single Scouting Committee is authorized to operate Cubs, Scouts, Varsity and Venturing units (just like a pack can and should operate Tigers, Bears, Wolves, and Webelos). If they have large, complex units, they can have sub-committees for the pack, troop and crew.
2) The chartering organization completes one charter per year that includes all youth in all of their units: Cubs through Venturing.
3) When the chartering organization completes the annual charter renewal, they indicate which programs they will offer (Cubs, Scouts, Varsity, Venturing), must meet the direct-contact leadership requirements for each, and must pay $20 per unit they charter. The fees do not change.
4) A boy joins Cub Scouts as a Tiger and can continue seamlessly through the various Scouting programs at his chartering organization until he leaves. He completes an application only one time during his entire Scouting career, unless he moves to a unit at a different chartering organization, in which case he transfers.
5) The various programs meet separately as they do now with separate direct-contact leaders. The program does not change.
6) Reduce the major barriers between our programs so that it is easy to transition from one program without dealing with paperwork and process. Make it natural and easy for a youth to progress from Cubs to Scouts to Venturing (and Varsity for LDS units).
Our unit structure is overwhelming in rural communities and at small churches or organizations, particularly if they want to offer multiple units (a pack, troop, and crew, for example). Our system requires us to recruit a committee and leadership for every unit. Every unit needs a CC, MC’s, COR, unit leader, asst. unit leader, etc. In many settings (rural, small town, central cities, LDS wards, etc.) it is difficult to recruit the necessary persons for single units, let alone multiple units. Many end up serving in name only.
You can have the same person registered as CC of 2 or more units, but this gets complex requiring multiple applications, approvals, multiple mailings, etc.
Are these systems necessary for a quality Scouting program? In many settings they add nothing to the integrity or quality of the program and, in fact, keep us from expanding the program. We are constantly attempting to work around our own system by having leaders carry multiple registrations, etc.
For example, why should a small LDS ward with 10 Cub Scouts, 8 Boy Scouts 6 Varsity Scouts and 6 Venturers be required to have 4 CC’s, 4 advancement chairs, 4 treasurers, etc., etc. Why not have one committee for their entire Scouting program? Then a volunteer can fill out one application and be the advancement chair for their entire Scouting program within their organization? You CAN work around our system to do this, but our system does not easily support the volunteer, the commissioner or district executive in doing this.
Why do we put our charter partner and their volunteers (and our commissioner and district executive) through the torture of completing 4 separate charter renewal processes? It should be one charter and one committee for all of a chartering organization’s units.
One Charter to Rule Them All!
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our council gets several requests a week (up to several a day at times) for a "complete list of all training in our unit." and currently this is only able to be accomplished by going in to each adult in the unit individually.
We don't want we NEED a report that acts like the Unit Advancement Detail report that will list the adult and then all trainings and awards given.
When we ask region or national reps or the help desk we are told to use the training completed / not completed report which has known flaws and isn't being fixed. also it only lists the basic level training and nothing advanced.
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Shows like Ace of Cakes are becoming quite popular. We should solicit this show to create a masterpiece cake to celebrate the 100th birthday of the BSA.
It might also be great publicity to solicit shows like Oprah to do a show on the Boy Scouts during the week of our anniversary.
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