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rdiles

rdiles
Member since : Oct-21-2008 (Verified)
4 Ideas, 7 Comments, 248 Votes

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Ideas Posted

It's time to ban smoking on all BSA property and at all BSA events.
Moderator Comments
7/25/09

From: Carol L. Barnes, Employment & Retention Manager

We are currently reviewing this option and anticipate answering the question by the end of the year.
Let's centralize our credit card transaction processing to one supplier under one National Agreement. BSA’s National Scout Shop and scoutstuff.org process hundreds of thousands of transactions annually and as a result have a lower transaction rate. With BSA National’s clout, we should be able to lower the credit card transaction processing fees for our local councils, and free funds for program support and growth in the local market.
Moderator Comments
1/7/09
From: Randy Kopsa, Director of Treasury

Tim Pierce and Brenda Browning are looking at this.  One element for consideration is National council liability.  We will need to get an opinion from legal counsel as to the PCI considerations.  If instead of being an entity of one corporation (National Council), would we become an single entity comprised of 304 councils?  If the latter, do all 304 councils become liable for inappropriate activity of one council?   There are other operational considerations, but we'll see what Paymentech has to say first.  Tim will be contacting our current processor, Paymentech, to get their thoughts and will be emailing us the results. 
BSA National Scout Shops have gift card capabilities. Why not expand these capabilities to council Scout Shops and camp trading posts? Allowing all scouting retail operations sell and redeem gift cards using a central system could significantly improve our service to our membership.

An additional benefit to using this same technology we could streamline the management Scout accounts and possibly unit accounts in the stores, as well as the council offices. For example, this would enable Scouts to pay camp fees, Jamboree fees and Philmont fees using their Scout accounts and provide for centralized tracking and management of those accounts.
52
Over the course of my career, there were many times at Cub Scout Day Camp that we could have just run kickball all day long and the boys would have been thrilled. A wonderful blend of two universal favorites: baseball & soccer, it takes some athletic ability, but not as much as baseball. It requires some kicking and running skills, but not as much as soccer. There's a team success component and an individual success element. Better yet, the equipment is pretty simple. Cub Scouts would relish the chance to earn a pin and beltloop and adult leaders can easily add it to their program. If you do a little digging, there are lots of variations of kickball besides the traditional "baseball" style.

Thanx,

Rick
Moderator Comments
12/16/08
From: Jamie Shearer, Program Impact Department Manager

Kickball would be one more opportunity to encourage Cub Scouts to exercise and be physically strong. The game has both indoor and outdoor opportunities. Kickball will be added to the next round of submissions to be considered by the Academics and Sports volunteer committee.
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Comments Posted

rdiles 2 months ago
I tend to agree with leaving Venturing alone and rename/re-energize the older Boy Scout program with something new.
rdiles 7 months ago
Perhaps an update is needed. It has been 3 months since the last response.
rdiles 10 months ago
This is about the service company councils use to accept credit cards for payments (camp fees, trading post merchandise, event tickets). I would agree that having business-use credit cards for charging expense items to is fraught with danger.
rdiles 11 months ago
What happened with "Scouting USA" a few decades ago? I wonder why it didn't stick?
rdiles 11 months ago
I don't like the idea of online registration unless we do something that helps units execute it. Let's not forget that youth join units. As a member of the Membership Audit team, nearly all the problems I've seen have stemmed from council's adding youth to units.
rdiles 1 year ago
Or create a Google Group for your PDL class.
rdiles 1 year ago
What about adding a button hole or loop at the top of the sash so scouts can hook it to their epilet button?