News
Commentary on Dues Increase
This article is a bit more personal commentary than a normal article.
As I posted over the weekend, and Council Commissioner Ron Penczek confirmed on Tuesday, the BSA membership national dues are going up to $33.00 per person (scout and scouter). Each new application or recharter also includes a $1.00 per person insurance premium for local council. Consequently, the cost of membership in Crossroads of America Council is $34.00 annually, effective December 1, 2017.
I have received or been copied by several scouters in North Star District expressing frustration at the amount and timing of this announcement. Their complaints range from frustration with the tardiness of the notice for the 2018 rechartering cycle to the lack of complying with the expectations for annual planning and budgeting that National Council sets for units.
Each of these critiques is valid and worthy of rebuke to National Council.
If a scouter reads over the FAQ, the reasoning for the sudden change is less than edifying or clarifying. Essentially, their argument is that they attempted to be thrifty and have reached the end of what they cut, so with escalating costs, they now must pass the costs along.
Neither of these points answer the critiques that I have seen.
Regardless what got us to this point, I am recommending that all units begin budgeting for dues increases of approximately $1.50 every year. If this year is $33.00, 2019 would be $34.50, 2020 would be $36.00. If each unit had a 36-month budget plan with this type of escalation built in, these sudden changes will be less shocking. This process would also take into account National Council knows that dues increases are not well-loved, so they are avoided even when likely necessary. Unfortunately, that creates the effect of making increases far larger when they do occur. It has been 40+ months since the last dues increase. This jump is $9.00. If we round the number of months to 45, that is a dollar for nearly every five months. Even my escalation factor of $1.50 every falls short of that. For true accuracy, a unit should build in nearly $2.25 increase every year.
All of the BSA budgeting templates are based on 12 month projections based on known data. Unfortunately, no stable and long-lived business works this way. Budgeting has to be done on a longer time horizon than 12 months.
Consider that a troop that wants to do a high adventure trip through Sea Base must enter a raffle nearly 18 months in advance and build the budget accordingly. Consider that annual events may have increasing costs. A unit that budgets to break even at the end of 12 months will almost certain be “in the red,” that is overspend against its budget.
In business, the budgeting rule is “budget for more than what you expect to spend, then double it.” Luckily, most activities in scouts do not have as much costs due to wages and salaries, lodging for unforeseeable periods of time, or multiple month projects with related expenses. All of these run budgets through the roof.
Still, the sense of building a margin of error into the budget is one we should consider. Rather than doubling, we might be well served if we budget for most line-items at 115% to 125% of projected cost.
What’s the worst thing that happens by meeting this goal? Your unit has excess funds on hand. If excess funds become a regular pattern, your unit will be able to plan further into the future for more creative activities. Notice I did not say more expensive. If your troop wants to do a canoe trip down the White River, the troop will be financially situated to invest in capital equipment for canoeing like Duluth bags, dry bags, or aluminum cookware. This makes future trips cheaper because new equipment purchases will be less necessary. Even trips to the Boundary Waters become cheaper, because less equipment needs to be rented on site.
So I suggest that we take a lesson from the Personal Management Merit Badge and plan for the future and the unforeseeable.
Is this jump just reflective of inflation measured by the Consumer Price Index? No. $24.00 in 2012 is about the same as $25.59 in 2017 dollars (“real dollar value”). This is a large increase. This leaves me with a question that I cannot answer: what is the financial condition of National Council that this increase is trying to correct by an increase of nearly $7.40 in real dollar value?
BSA Dues Increase for 2018
From National Council Commissioner Facebook feed:
Just announced at Top Hands at the end of August, BSA will increase registration fees by $9 (to $33 per year) effective 1 December. Please get this information to your units ASAP as it most likely affects many units as they enter their prime membership recruiting season when annual dues/fees are often collected.
This fee increase comes 47 months after the last fee increase, but I personally wish to apologize for what some may find to be a very short fused notification. While it may not make the ‘pill’ any easier to swallow, I do want to let you know that after considerable personal communications on this topic I have been assured that this fee increase and the timing was unavoidable.
From the FAQs included in Thursday’s Scout Executive Council Packet Special Edition communication this fee change will affect Cub Scout packs, Boy Scout troops, Venturing crews, Sea Scout ships, and Exploring posts/clubs. However, it will NOT apply to LDS-sponsored units, nor to those units with council-paid memberships.
If you have additional questions, please contact your Scout Executive.
If this is confirmed by Crossroads of America Council that will make the cost 2018 membership $33.00 dues and $1.00 local insurance = $34.00.
UPDATED 9/6/17: Crossroads of America Council’s Council Commissioner Ron Penczek has confirmed the dues increase with the following email:
Commissioner Team:
I hope you had a wonderful holiday weekend.
I understand that over the weekend, there have been some Social Media discussions on BSA membership fee increases. I wanted to take a moment to provide the official guidance that was received over the weekend allowing you to work with your units as questions and concerns arise.
As I know you are aware, the mission of the Boy Scouts of America is to prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices over their lifetimes by instilling in them the values of the Scout Oath and Scout Law. To do this — while delivering the nation’s foremost youth development program — the BSA must remain vigilant in controlling costs. Although we have been successful in reducing our expenditures in many areas, it has become necessary to evaluate our annual membership fees.
Based on feedback from both volunteers and employees, the BSA membership fee will increase to $33 for all registered youth and adult leaders, effective December 1, 2017.
Services funded by our membership fee include; primary liability coverage for all volunteer leaders and chartered organizations, ongoing advances in technology, fundraising support, new program development, membership recruiting strategies, and support materials.
In 2016, the BSA served approximately 2.3 million youth members through approximately 270 councils. With the help of all our volunteers we will continue toaccomplish the mission of Scouting for young people and the communities we serve.
Attached is a Membership Fee typical question and answer sheet to reference when talking with volunteers. You are welcome to start communicating the fee increase with your district and unit leadership. I will be meeting with our Section Commissioners to ensure any additional tools needed are available for Section meetings in September. Once again thank you for all your leadership and support.
Yours in Scouting,
Ronald W. Penczek
Council Commissioner[As sent on his behalf by:]
Karrie Schlegel | Executive Assistant supporting;
Scout Executive: Patrick Sterrett
Director of Field Services: Nathan Young
Marketing & Public Relations
Ron makes reference to an FAQ on the subject. It is available here.
UPDATE 9/29: Interesting price comparison of youth activities.
Den Chief Online Training
Have you had your Boy Scouts take their Den Chief Training? In-person is always best.
But online is better than none. This requires Flash, so it will not work on Apple mobile devices. If your computer does not have Adobe Flash already, you can download it for free from Adobe.com.
Den Leaders, Scoutmasters, and future Den Chiefs should all take the training just to make sure that everyone is on the same page.
Den Leaders should have a short bullet-point list of expectations to share with the Den Chief and Scoutmaster to provide accountability and ease of cooperation. Here is an example of where you can start.
YPT renewals: Reasons and Methods
As part of council’s effort to keep people current on their Youth Protection Training status, they send out emails reminding persons needing training that expiration is approaching. A quick how-to for online YPT is available here.
This past week, District has sent out its own emails emphasizing the need for YPT renewal, too. This message is slightly different. The council only seeks renewal of YPT near deadlines. The District request emphasizes the importance of completion before October 1, 2017 for persons expiring before March 1, 2018.
Why the inconsistent message? Well, we have posted previous articles about rechartering. The problem is that National Council has allowed different local councils around the country to use different rechartering cycles. We are on the calendar year basis, so our units’ charters expire on December 31st each year. Some council expire on February 28th/29th each year. Having a universal rule on YPT is hard to explain with different local councils having differing charter expiration dates.
So, we simplify it by telling you how the myriad different rules on YPT and rechartering all fit together. As the above-linked article indicates, the optimal time for Crossroads of America Council members to renew YPT is between March 1st and October 1st each year. If you came from another council, you might have experienced a different optimal cycle due to rechartering differences.
Unit Committee Chairs, please make sure that you have a YPT Champion. You or a more tech-saavy member of the Key 3 can authorize a unit member to see the Training Manager records. A Unit Key 3 member can go on my.scouting.org to the Organizational Security Manager. Under “Functional Positions,” you can select “YPT Champion.” Use the green plus sign to designate a person to do this job. Please remember that this designation must be renewed every year, otherwise your YPT Champion will be locked out.
Your YPT Champion should be familiar with problems of training records not showing up on my.scouting.org if there is a conflict between BSA Member IDs on the unit roster versus on the my.scouting.org. For more information on how to reconcile this problem, see this flyer from National Council or our previous article.
To help units get YPT done easier, we are offering YPT at the next two (Sept and Oct) Roundtables beginning at 6:30 pm. We will use the video and mark all participants as having their YPT up to date. You can then stay for Roundtable.
Units can also use the YPT videos from YouTube (you will have to pause at critical times for conversations) and Facilitator’s Handbook to run their own in-person YPT. This is a great way to get new parents trained on YPT. It generally gets great reviews for first-timers to better understand how we protect their kids. You can see the National Council Website for overview information. Please make sure that the Unit Key 3 update the participants’ training records in the my.scouting.org Training Manager immediately. (The YPT Champion should be able to do this, too, if I am not mistaken.)
Misbehavior, Ideals, and Scouting
As I have watched the news this past weekend, I have seen families flooded by storms. I have seen individuals bring themselves to action with their own fishing boats saving lives, individuals delivering clothes and material to the Houston Convention Center, and first responders from all over the country arriving in Houston to support the local Houston first responders.
Moments later, I watched a news report about Antifa supporters attacking Neo-Nazis and similar protesters, using disturbing techniques from decades ago.
What contrasts these two sets of stories present about our modern American experience!
Scouting represents one of the most powerful sources of good in America today. We teach morality and citizenship through 12 simple points. The Scout Law is a powerful tool for teaching good citizenship and good choices.
Yet in modern scouting I see some well-intentioned persons in the national office pushing the latest buzz phrases of “anti-bullying.” This is a profound mistake and flaw in the scouting program. It is a mistake that unintentionally contributes to conflicts rather than calms conflicts. (I must admit the BSA’s approach is less egregious than other similar campaigns that I have seen. There are fewer “don’t” phrases and more “here are things to watch out for”.)
Have you ever watched your son run around a pool deck, right next to a lifeguard? What does the college-aged lifeguard usually do? The lifeguard yells, “Don’t run!” What happens? Your son may slow down to a jog or to a walk or to a skip. Very quickly though, the lifeguard’s admonition is forgotten. Almost certainly in the next 5 minutes, the lifeguard will again be yelling, “Don’t run!” again. Is this a lesson that boys just don’t listen?
What happens if the lifeguard changes her admonition? What if she yells, “Walk!”? In my personal experience, the lifeguard won’t have to contend with jogging or skipping. She will have to contend with running 5 minutes later. With a second admonition of “Walk!” she will likely have to intercede less often. Overall the pool deck will have more kids walking. Read the rest of this entry »
Report from Council Training Committee
REMEMBER NORTH STAR IOLS October 27-29.
From Council Training Committee Scribe Barbara Blue:
NEW UPCOMING EVENT: Council is conducting a Tiger Scout Forum.
Forum will happen in October and November—Tiger leader/parent will attend BOTH sessions. All new Tiger Cub Den Leaders will be invited to the Forum by the district. These will occur on the same night at the District’s Roundtable. These may or may not be at the same location as the District’s Roundtable. Tiger leaders will be taught how to do adventures and they will receive things to help. They will also be trained as Tiger Cub Den Leaders during this forum. A Training Team member needs to be involved with this Forum, but the person(s) running the forum should be about the same age as Tiger leaders—25 to 35 years old. The Training Committee members will be copied on emails about the Forum.
OTHER NEWS:
David Cobb sent an email to previous instructors at University of Scouting asking if they will teach again. Catalog is ALMOST done. Hopefully the pdf version will be out next week to start sharing. There are about 25 new classes—many of the aimed at Cub Scout Leaders.
Wood Badge is in September. 39 are signed up. Looking for at least 8 more participants. First weekend at Ransburg and second weekend at Redwing. Matt Best will be asking for contact information for your district’s social media person— watch for it! Or send it to him so he can promote WB. scoutmastertrp303@att.net.
Del-Mi District and Northstar District are teaming up to do an OLS on October 28. They are looking for instructors so if you know someone who can teach a session, send contact information to [Event Chair Stephen Heath (troop 358) arow89@att.net].
Del-Mi District is also hosting Scoutmaster Specific Training and BALOO Training on September 30 at Camp Belzer.
Reports from some people unable to attend this evening:
From Wabash Valley (Terre Haute area):
- Boy Scout Leader Specific, Saturday, September 2, 9 am to 3 pm at Camp Wildwood
- Cub Scout Leader Training, Thursday, September 21, 6 to 9 pm at Camp Wildwood
- Introduction to Outdoor Leader Skills and Outdoor Leader Skills for Webelos Leaders, Saturday, September 23, 8:30 am to 5:30 pm at the Fall Camporee at the Vigo County Conservation Club. This does require overnight camping.
- Cub Scout Leader Training, Wednesday, October 11, 6 to 9 pm at Camp Wildwood
- Den Chief Training, Saturday, October 28, 9 am to 4 pm at Camp Wildwood
- Boy Scout Leader Specific Training (i.e., Scoutmaster, Assistant Scoutmaster, Troop Committee Chair/Member), March 17, 2018, 9 am to 3 pm at Camp Wildwood
- BALOO Training, Saturday, April 7, 2018, 8 am to 4 pm.
- Introduction to Outdoor Leader Skills & Outdoor Leader Skills for Webelos Leaders, Saturday, April 21, 2018 at 8:30 am to 5:30 pm. More details soon. This does require overnight camping.
- Den Chief Training, Saturday in May, 2018, more details soon.
Also, spread the word, see attached flyer for Catholic Retreat for Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, and Girl Scouts who are Catholic.
From Pathfinder District (Greenwood area):
- Autumn Leader Training, Saturday, September 9, 8 am to 2 pm at Greenwood United Methodist. See attached flyer or visit https://scoutingevent.com/160-pfautumntrng992017
- WRFA course dates are turned in for 2018 and will be available soon
From Golden Eagle District (Muncie area):
- Committee Challenge and Unit Chair Training, September 6, 7 to 9:30 pm at Muncie Scout Service Center
- Lion Den Guide Training, September 11, 7 to 8 pm at Muncie Scout Service Center
- Den Leader Training, September 12, 7 to 9 pm at Muncie Scout Service Center
- Den Leader Training, September 13, 7 to 9 pm at Muncie Scout Service Center
- Unit Training Coordinator Training (all unit types), September 20, 7 to 9 pm, at Muncie Scout Service Center
- Unit Training Coordinator Training (for Troops and Crews only), September 27, 7 to 8:30, at Muncie Scout Service Center
- Den Chief Training (4 hours) and “Do-it-to-it” Eagle’s Knob, October 21, at Camp Redwing
- SM/ASM Position Specific Training, October 27, 6:30 to 10 pm at Camp Redwing
- Cub Leader Position Specific Training, October 27, 6:30 to 10 pm at Camp Redwing
- Intro to Outdoor Leader Skills and OWLS Training, October 28, 8am to 5 pm at Camp Redwing
- BALOO, October 28, 8am to 3 pm at Camp Redwing
- Venturing Position Specific Training, October 28, 8 am to 5 pm at Camp Redwing
- Troop/Pack/Crew Committee Challenge, October 28, 3 to 5 pm at Camp Redwing
- Intro to Backpacking, October 28 to 29, 5 pm Sat to Noon Sunday at Camp Redwing
- Outdoor Ethic Guide Training, November 3, 6 to 10 pm at Muncie Scout Service Center
- And More in 2018 (see attached flyer)
Here are all the flyers referred to above.
- Boy Scout Leader Specific 9-2-17
- Catholic Scout Retreat 2017
- Cub Leader Specific 9-21-17
- Cub Leader Specific 10-11-17
- Den Chief Training Flyer 10-28-17
- GE DENCHIEF TRAINING flyer- OCT2017
- GE NEW DEN LEADER TRAINING flyer-SEPT2017
- GE NEW LIONCUB GUIDE TRAINING flyer-SEPT2017
- GE TRNG SCHEDULE flyer-080117
- GE UNIT TRAINER TRAINING flyer-Sept2017
- IOLS-OWL 9-23-17
- OE GUIDE ORIENTATION COURSE NOV2017 CAC flyer
- OE GUIDE ORIENTATION COURSE Outline Sep2016
- OE GUIDE&LNT TRAINER COURSE APR2018 CAC flyer
- PF Fall Training 2017
For more information on training, see the Council Training Hub. (If the calendar is blank, select “Category” in the upper left corner of the calendar window, then check “Training,” then “Apply Filter.” The entire list of trainings should then appear month-by-month.)
Remember that the following trainings must be done in person and are NOT available on my.scouting.org:
- Introduction to Outdoor Leadership (IOLS) (required for scoutmasters, assistant scoutmasters, and venturing advisors and associate advisors);
- Outdoor Webelos Leaders Skills (OWLS) (required for Webelos Den Leaders);
- Basic Outdoor Leader Outdoor Orientation (BALOO) (Required for at least one adult leader on a Cub Scout Pack campout);
- Den Chief Training (Required for boy scouts seeking to fulfill their Postion of Responsibility through being a Den Chief to a Cub Scout Den).
All of these trainings are offered above at least once.
Recruiting Help Needed Thursday
Fall Camporee 2017 Report
On Sunday, August 13, 2017, the Camporee Committee met to discuss the upcoming camporee at the Lafayette, Indiana Subaru Plant. This camporee will include a plant tour Friday evening, October 6, 2017. The tours will leave at three different times throughout the evening. The last tour will end close to midnight.
The plant will be shutting down at midnight for a two-week line maintenance cycle. Consequently, the timing for when we can tour is extremely tight.
This means that troop arrivals will be pressed against the need to go on the tour.
Each troop’s Key 3 (COR, chair and scoutmaster) should have received emails with more details on planned events (like plan tours) and possible events (like merit badge topics addressed). Here is the information shared before the meeting. Updates are forthcoming.
The meeting had a lively debate about the balance between patrol competitions, advancement, and participating in unique scouting events. These all reflect adult opinions or second-hand information from scouts transmitted through adults.
All scoutmasters encouraged to talk to their Patrol Leader Council about what their members like to see in camporee.
Subaru offers a lot of opportunity for merit badge work on Automotive Maintenance and Traffic Safety with a dolop of Truck Transportation. While these are all possible, some troops’ adults expressed concern that advancement would push aside patrol competition. The committee took those concerns to heart and is looking at how competitions could be used to complete some of the merit badge work simultaneously. Essentially making learning fun.
There were a lot more details shared at the meeting, so expect more information in the coming weeks. This is just a quick report and summary. The simple version is Friday, October 6, 2017 from 6:00 pm to Sunday, October 8, 2017, be there.
If you have feedback, please share it with the camporee committee and make sure that you have a representative at the next camporee committee meeting (scheduling forthcoming).
Does your Unit know if it has new-members-in-waiting?
The BSA has a recruiting website called http://www.BeAScout.org. Prospective new members are driven there to express interest in your unit.
Right now we have had nearly 200 prospects grow through the system throughout the district. We currently have 32 invitations hanging out there. If you have already reviewed the Inviation Manager as the Chartered Org Rep, Committee Chair, or Cubmaster/Scoutmaster, you know your status. If you have not, log in to my.scouting.org. If a red number appears in the upper right-hand corner, you have invitations to send.
If you have one done on paper, then you can mark it complete. This purges it.
If you have sent the invitation, you can then move to the Application Manager to watch to see if the family has done the paperwork. We have two applications that are awaiting approval right now.
Please make sure that you have reviewed your settings. This allows you to set your dues, decide who can approve the application, and communicate stock information to new members such as website and calendar information.
If you use it, you may find problems, but your prospects are already using it. Are you closing the deal for low-hanging fruit?
Report on Venturing Round Up
Here is a report on the successes of the Inaugural Venturing Round Up. Some great pictures, thanks to Sugar Creek Unit Commissioner Howard Griffith.
CAC North Star Unofficial Website 
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