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Ok, this subject may be the proverbial dead horse, but it is still an issue for many local councils. The Adult Leader Application.
Recharters this year were an extra challenge for many councils due to the Disclosure/Authorization Form. In addition to the usual challenges the applications that were submitted without the form delayed numerous charters and caused councils untold extra expenses (additional support staff time, phone calls, faxes, postage, staff mileage and time, etc)
In addition the legaleeze is intimidating to some of our volunteers. A page full of mumble jumbo to be read while they are sitting at School Night for Scouting does not leave a warm, fuzzy feeling with our newest volunteers.
Most people skim the legaleeze. However when the see the phrase "Fair Credit Reporting Act" their radar goes up. Even though it says that it will not include a credit report or motor vehicle record check the average new leader does not read that far and wonder why the BSA wants that information.
While no one doubts the need for screening our leaders and protecting our youth, there has to be a better, simpler way to go about it. If we are not careful we will become nothing but paper pushers and line checkers. New units, new volunteers and new dollars are not found under or behind piles of paper. They are out in the field. That is where we need to be.
We used to teach and preach "Keep it simple." We've seemed to have lost our way on this issue.
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We need to be able to see an individuals email address, when you search a person, much like you see, address and phone numbers
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There needs to be a more efficient way of updating Commissioner assignments for Unit Visit Tracking. It should be done through the person profile instead of the unit maintenance. Pulling up each unit is very time consuming. Updating information through person profile would be much more efficient.
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As we all understand too well, the days where we train on Saturdays from 9-3 are getting short. With MyScouting fast becoming a great tool, why not recruit and council certify some of the best of the best trainers throughout the country to serve as online mentor-coaches to new leaders. This one-one relationship could really help a new leader have ready access to best methods with the encouragement and friendship provided by the coach/mentor to be there as questions and frustrations arise. The leaders could plug in a zip code for proximity if they choose. The coach mentors would be required to be approved by their Scout Excutives and have a staff advisor (perhaps on National staff) to go to if questions fall out of their line of expertise or comfort level.
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Can we add spell check to this website.
Many of us older guys think faster than we can type...some of us stutter and stumble across the keyboard, and many of the younger guys do not know how to spell very well because they have become dependent upon spell check.
I am sure a spell check tool is easily available and ti wlil mkae us all look a littel smrater.
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we need to keep up with technology and use what is available. Face Book and tweerter are great tools that everyone is using specially teeens.
The national website should also have a page for kid interaction and games. Disney is a great example of this. They have games and shows for children to take a part of. They also have a program where you can become a member and charater from the show will call your home and leave messages for your kids on upcoming events. Maybe we can have Pedro do this.
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Not only could we use the Cinemeetings format for some of the highlights of the National Jamboree, but with many of the 100 year anniversary events. It would be beneficial for audiences to "participate" in planning meetings, events or as a focus group by using local movie theatres as a venue.
We could use the cinemeetings format for the rollout of the new Personnel Development System, invite board members to view a keynote speaker from the National Annual Meeting and the list could go on and on.
This would save Councils and volunteers thousands of dollars in travel, food, lodging and countless hours of lost family time.
Cinemeetings is not brand new or my ingenuity (www.cinemeetings.com), it is yet another existing technological tool that needs further thought and discussion. Obviously, face to face is always the first and best method; however, embracing technology is a good fiduciary practice.
Thoughts on how else we could use this venue?
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One of our strategic plan goals is to train new direct contact leaders within 90 days of joining. Make it possible to create a database from ScoutNet which produces a list of new leaders. Presently there does not seem to be a selection process which allows you to do this.
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Create a T-shirt swap event at Jamboree. Inform Scouts in advance that it will be happening and suggest the bring several "extra" t-shirts from thier troop to swap (used is okay?). Kids love t-shirts from other locations! Great opportunity to socialize across troop/council boundaries. When they go home, they get worn outside of and at Scouting events (patches do not).
T-shirt swaps were run at both the 1994 and 1996 Olympic Games and they were huge successes. Big day of event pr opportunity both national and local. Great photos!
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In Tour Permits Administration, can a column be added with the date of submittal?
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I understand that there is an assessment tool for prospective council board members, to help match their talents with specific positions.
How about creating a tool designed to help volunteers find which district committee they would fit best in and enjoy working with. This might ease the process of filling the district committee and in return quickly get unit service up and running for all units.
-Jeremy Barnes
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It's been suggested in a couple of the Venturing threads, but not as a seperate idea for individual consideration. Yes, you can order a black market knot to recognize this accomplishment, but I would like to see this added as an officially recognized knot.
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Cyber Safety is a growing concern for children and adults alike. Internet child predators, child pornographers and other cyber criminals are exploiting children and engaging in online and various other forms of digital solicitation. Additionally, the security of personal information is critical to our safety and that of our children.
In an effort to further educate and protect our Scouts and their families, it is suggested the BSA dedicate additional attention to Cyber Safety throughout all levels of the Scouting program to increase awareness of the potential dangers and provide both Scouts and adults with the necessary tools to minimize the chance of falling victim to a “cyber crime”. Age appropriate content could be developed and reinforced with individual recognition ranging from belt loops up through requirements for rank advancement.
Specific topics may include:
Web site monitoring/control
Gaming
Chats
Blogs
Facebook
MySpace
Twitter
Texting
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Findyouthinfo.gov has a database that has a program tool which provides you with information about program designs that successfully deal with risky behaviors. The Program Tool database contains risk factors, protective factors, and programs that have been evaluated and found to work. While many other similiar youth organizations are on this list, neither Boy Scouts of America nor Learning for Life are on this program list. More information and guidelines for nominating programs for this list can be found at:
http://www.findyouthinfo.gov/cf_pages/programtool.cfm#faq1
I think it would be really helpful, both in buidling our case in fundraising and recruitment to be on this list.
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Tour Permits Administration: After using the Search tool to look for a category (e.g. Submitted)and taking some action on the permit, the system reverts back to the listing of all tour permit applications for our council. Can the system be changed to allow the user to go back to the previous screen showing only the search results (in this example only showing the Submitted tour permits)?
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The desire for our volunteers to go to the internet for their literature needs is inevitable -- and in many ways, is already occurring.
Putting all the simple, one-page two page forms, in PDF in easy to find function categories (like advancement, camping, finance, membership, etc.) on the national website would be the best.
For literature that is normally sold, like leader and committee handbooks, a subscription could be sold to have online access to PDF versions of the handbooks. These online subscriptions could be a complete access subscription, or tiered subscriptions according to basic and advanced needs.
I think a lot of Scouters (including myself), especially experienced folks, would appreciate the ability to get what they need, and print the pages needed for the immediate need.
This certainly would take time to research consumer desire, subscription structure, appropriate parameters, etc. but is something we should do. For my own hobbies and personal interests, I already participate in online subscriptions, and it just seems like it is time for the BSA to do the same.
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Create a National Supply Group category where things related to Supply can be addressed. I.E. New product ideas and/or improving existing products, Scout Shop/scoutstuff.org ideas, etc..
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It is my understanding that restrictions have been placed on councils preventing them from using wireless internet (or maybe I've been misinformed).
Other companies dealing with much more sensitive information than ours use wifi and protect their information utilizing encryption. Is wifi going to be an option for us soon?
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I think it is worth exploring uniforms and gear could be reused on a regional basis.
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Across the US community volunteers read to school children the first week of March each year. Why not consider mobilizing BSA volunteers and staff to serve our schools? This would serve to strengthen school relationships, create a positive media presence, create awareness of scouting to students and serve young people with a gift of service.
The reading celebration takes place each year on or near March 2, the birthday of Dr. Seuss. (Many books are read not only Dr. Seuss works)Perhaps Scouting volunteers could read chapters or excerpts from the Jungle Book. For more information check http://www.nea.org/readacross/
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Publish electronic versions of the merit badge pamplets to cut down on paper usage.
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As a unit commissioner, I encourage hispanic leaders to get involved and get trained. 'This is Scouting' should be available in Spanish as well as other online training modules. Alot of these parents are initially introduced to scouting for the first time when signing up as volunteer. 'This is Scouting' is a huge informational foundation everyone should start with. Like Bob said "the hispanic market is enormous" and we should accomodate their first language.
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The training award knots mostly have those Progress Record sheets that are designed to be cut out and folded into little credit-card sized checklists. Can we simply redesign those to be a normal award application?
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For the past four years, our council has piloted a new staff position called a Quality Unit Executive. The Quality Unit Executive works directly with up to 30 Cub Scout Packs in a district, working in conjunction with the commissioner staff to provide direct support to help these leaders present a higher quality program that retains boys longer.
By focusing on the needs of the unit leader vs. the needs of the council, two things happened:
1. The quality of the unit’s program improved, resulting in increased membership and improved retention; and
2. Our unit leaders felt better about the support received from the council, resulting in increased FOS, popcorn sales and camp attendance.
The specific results of this pilot program are as follows:
• Training of Direct Contact Leaders has increased from 37% to 95%;
• Summer Camp attendance has increased by 70%;
• Cub Scout Advancement has increased from 70% to 89%;
• Youth membership has grown by 12% over four years;
• And most importantly, youth retention increased from 67% to 74%.
In addition, the position has nearly paid for itself through increases in camp revenue, Family FOS (up 33%) and Popcorn Sales (increased from $121,000 to $227,000 gross) just from these 30 Cub Scout Packs.
We would suggest that the National Council approve this as an official pilot program and seek additional councils to pilot this in each Region to see if they receive similar results. Start-up funding could be obtained from national foundations (such as the Zenon Hansen Foundation, which helped us get started), local council foundations, or by the National Council.
If successful in other councils, this pilot could potentially provide an alternative staffing model to better serve our unit leaders and address some of our deeper issues of membership growth and retention.
For additional information visit www.minsitrails.com
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This idea came from a volunteer of mine.
There is a growing trend over the past couple of years in which many people are beginning to regain interest in many traditional activities and skills. Park districts are offering blacksmithing courses, organic gardening, urban agriculture programs, suburban livestock (sheep, goats, chickens), community supported agriculture (CSAs) and traditional skills such as weaving and hand crafts. Scouts in my troop are expressing an interest ins some of the "cool merit badges" which have been discontinued over the years (stalking is the one on which they are currently focused). I see evidence online of similar interest in other troops (one troop looking into the bee keeping merit badge, as an example). As I look through the older editions of scout handbooks at the merit badges which have been discontinued, I see many skills which are consistent with the resurgent interest in traditional skills. These discontinued badges can be a useful introduction to many of these skills and would encourage a useful focus on traditional scout values of thrift, productivity and handiness. I would like to propose the following approach for these badges as a part of the BSA program:
Program overview
All of the discontinued badges would be offered as a part of a Heritage Merit Badge Program. Discontinued badges would refer to those badges which have been offered in the past and have been discontinued entirely, as compared to those badges which became other badges. The discontinued badges would be offered under the requirements which were last utilized before the discontinuation of the badges (unless societal or safety reasons require amendment of them). Scouts would then be allowed and encouraged to approach these merit badges in the same manner in which the current offerings are approached. The approach detailed herein would allow the BSA to utilize currently existing materials at no material cost to offer a broadened array of merit badges with no real increase in support or supply demands. It would provide a means for making information about these traditional skills available to scouts without burden to the BSA and (if the BSA so chooses) could be a means of offering these badges as a further array of elective merit badge options.
Recognition/Tracking
The heritage badges can be tracked in the BSA system like any other merit badge. The discontinued badges (as compared to those which were simply changed into other badges) still have unique identifiers which have not been re-used. The badges could be tracked in the main system just like any other merit badge. This approach offers the flexibility to allow BSA to decide how they will permit the badges to be recognized; they could be counted only as free standing awards with no impact on advancement or they could be counted as elective merit badges toward rank and palms. In either case, tracking them in the system will allow the BSA to easily monitor the popularity of these badges to decide whether to resume their development in the main program.
Requirements/Pamphlets
These are already in existence in their last incarnation before discontinuation. To save the cost of printing, the documents would be posted to a section of the scouting.org website as a PDF download. This would make the materials freely available to any interested troops or scouts at no cost to the BSA.
Patches
The patches which existed when the merit badges were still active would be used; re-issued in the current round format, perhaps with a black rim to signify that they are retired merit badges. Depending on cost, the BSA could choose to either maintain a supply of the patches for order through the Councils, or could license patch companies to make the patches to order at the unit's expense. Either approach would allow the BSA control over use of the designs without much cost to the BSA.
Counselors
Counselors for these badges could be managed in the same way that the current merit badge counselors are managed.
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