Church Re-evaluating Relationship with BSA

[ABYUFAN]

One thing I am blown away by is the amount of people critical of the church's support of the BSA. Maybe I have been living under a rock but so many in my ward and others can't wait for the split to happen.

Well, consider the budget split between LDS boys and LDS girls. If you said that the boys got 95%, and the girls 5%, you might be overstating the girls' amount...

I've heard this so many times that I'm questioning my own expereince. I've only lived in one ward for the last twenty years or so, but that's far from the case in my ward. In my ward the YM/YW budget money is split evenly; as I beleive, is the Activity days/ Cub scouts money. If it isn't being done in other wards, they're doing it wrong. That's not a church issue, that's a local leadership issue.

[billbillbillbill]

One thing I am blown away by is the amount of people critical of the church's support of the BSA. Maybe I have been living under a rock but so many in my ward and others can't wait for the split to happen.

Well, consider the budget split between LDS boys and LDS girls. If you said that the boys got 95%, and the girls 5%, you might be overstating the girls' amount...

I've heard this so many times that I'm questioning my own expereince. I've only lived in one ward for the last twenty years or so, but that's far from the case in my ward. In my ward the YM/YW budget money is split evenly; as I beleive, is the Activity days/ Cub scouts money. If it isn't being done in other wads, they're doing it wrong. That's not a church issue, that's a local leadership issue.

Same here. I know our ward budget splits it evenly. The ward contributes the same amount for Girls Camp, Oakcrest, Scout Camp, etc.

[snoscythe]

I'm the Scoutmaster in our ward currently. The Deacons/Boy Scouts get more in their activities budget than double what the rest of the youth--Teachers, Priests, Beehives, Mia Maids, and Laurels receive combined for their activities. And that's just for Mutual Nights and Monthly Campouts (does not include our weeklong camp, which the ward partially subsidizes as well).

That's just the official budget, and we are not a very well to-do ward. Once you factor in chartering costs, costs of awards, etc. that come from the ward general budget or are even paid for by the Church offices in SLC, the disparity grows by leaps and bounds. Then there's Friends of Scouting--last year the bishop asked that each household in the ward pay $100 to BSA. When's the last time the bishop asked the ward to contribute money to Friends of Personal Progress?

[ABYUFAN]

I'm the Scoutmaster in our ward currently. The Deacons/Boy Scouts get more in their activities budget than double what the rest of the youth--Teachers, Priests, Beehives, Mia Maids, and Laurels receive combined for their activities. And that's just for Mutual Nights and Monthly Campouts (does not include our weeklong camp, which the ward partially subsidizes as well).

That's just the official budget, and we are not a very well to-do ward. Once you factor in chartering costs, costs of awards, etc. that come from the ward general budget or are even paid for by the Church offices in SLC, the disparity grows by leaps and bounds. Then there's Friends of Scouting--last year the bishop asked that each household in the ward pay $100 to BSA. When's the last time the bishop asked the ward to contribute money to Friends of Personal Progress?

Good for you for being able to swing that, but if you're the scout master and taking more than double of what the others are getting then you're part of the problem

As an aside, I don't see how you can being friends of scouting into the discussion without bringing in all of the contributions to the fundraisers for the Primary and Young Women.

The handbook allows for one fundraiser for each program for the summer camp, but different wards have a different way of interpreting the number "one" and also "summer camp" (for example our ward's Scout awards buget comes from the fundraiser because a majority of the advancement comes as a result of summer camp - another ward that I know of defines the "one" fundraiser to consist of thee seperate parts, occouring on seperte days and seperate locations)

We contribute equally to all even though we have no young women in our family (or primary kids for that matter)

So as a result, the YW YM and Relief Society all have the exact same budget number, and all a bit less than the Primary. And the rest of the ward (Elder's Quorum, High Priests and Sunday School get betwen 20 and 50 bucks each )

[snoscythe]

I'm the Scoutmaster in our ward currently. The Deacons/Boy Scouts get more in their activities budget than double what the rest of the youth--Teachers, Priests, Beehives, Mia Maids, and Laurels receive combined for their activities. And that's just for Mutual Nights and Monthly Campouts (does not include our weeklong camp, which the ward partially subsidizes as well).

That's just the official budget, and we are not a very well to-do ward. Once you factor in chartering costs, costs of awards, etc. that come from the ward general budget or are even paid for by the Church offices in SLC, the disparity grows by leaps and bounds. Then there's Friends of Scouting--last year the bishop asked that each household in the ward pay $100 to BSA. When's the last time the bishop asked the ward to contribute money to Friends of Personal Progress?

Good for you for being able to swing that, but if you're the scout master and taking more than double of what the others are getting then you're part of the problem

As an aside, I don't see how you can being friends of scouting into the discussion without bringing in all of the contributions to the fundraisers for the Primary and Young Women.

The handbook allows for one fundraiser for each program for the summer camp, but different wards have a different way of interpreting the number "one" and also "summer camp" (for example our ward's Scout awards buget comes from the fundraiser because a majority of the advancement comes as a result of summer camp - another ward that I know of defines the "one" fundraiser to consist of thee seperate parts, occouring on seperte days and seperate locations)

We contribute equally to all even though we have no young women in our family (or primary kids for that matter)

So as a result, the YW YM and Relief Society all have the exact same budget number, and all a bit less than the Primary. And the rest of the ward (Elder's Quorum, High Priests and Sunday School get betwen 20 and 50 bucks each )

FWIW, I was called as Scoutmaster after the budget for this year was set, and I plan on it being different next year when I do get input--otherwise I wouldn't be on here talking about the inane discrepancy.

Our ward also has fundraisers. This year we had one for the Deacons, one for the teachers, one for the Priests, and one for the Young Women. The Deacons had the most successful fundraiser in terms of net profit, and coincidentally was the only fundraiser that complied with the fundraising standards of Handbook 2.

So that means the Scouting program in the ward got a greater share of our ward budget, Friends of Scouting, and three fundraisers. The Young Women got a paltry contribution from the budget and one fundraiser.

What's more, from my experience, especially in Utah, this is more the norm than the exception.

[ABYUFAN]

What's more, from my experience, especially in Utah, this is more the norm than the exception.

From everything I hear, that is the norm in Utah (which is why I origonally commented the way I did) Maybe California IS a better place to be a Mormon

[Cougarfan87]

What's more, from my experience, especially in Utah, this is more the norm than the exception.

From everything I hear, that is the norm in Utah (which is why I origonally commented the way I did) Maybe California IS a better place to be a Mormon

Or Alabama. If one of the youth groups/primary has a smaller budget, it's only because they did not ask for as much. All of those groups submitted an itemized budget and pretty much got everything they asked for. It was about an even split. Now, EQ and HP got almost nothing. RS had a pretty healthy budget as well. It is all about the local leadership priorities, what people ask for, and what they expend. The YW actually have done a much better job of spending their budget than the YM.

I wonder if the church does withdraw from scouting, will it mean a higher Ward budget since there won't be chartering fees?

[hawkwing]

What's more, from my experience, especially in Utah, this is more the norm than the exception.

From everything I hear, that is the norm in Utah (which is why I origonally commented the way I did) Maybe California IS a better place to be a Mormon

This is definitely not the way it is in our ward in Utah. The young women's / young men's budgets are nearly even.

[Mars]

One thing I am blown away by is the amount of people critical of the church's support of the BSA. Maybe I have been living under a rock but so many in my ward and others can't wait for the split to happen.

Well, consider the budget split between LDS boys and LDS girls. If you said that the boys got 95%, and the girls 5%, you might be overstating the girls' amount...

I've heard this so many times that I'm questioning my own expereince. I've only lived in one ward for the last twenty years or so, but that's far from the case in my ward. In my ward the YM/YW budget money is split evenly; as I beleive, is the Activity days/ Cub scouts money. If it isn't being done in other wads, they're doing it wrong. That's not a church issue, that's a local leadership issue.

Same here. I know our ward budget splits it evenly. The ward contributes the same amount for Girls Camp, Oakcrest, Scout Camp, etc.

I live in Utah. Our ward has ZERO budget for the girls' Activity Days, they meet every 2-4 weeks, and sometimes their "fun" activity is cleaning up the church. Meanwhile, the cub scouts meet once every week with an extra meeting every month, and their Blue & Gold Banquet alone has to run near $1000 every single year.

[snoscythe]

The next part of our situation is even more appalling, but I realized that this is a fairly rare circumstance, but nevertheless indicative of the problems with Scouts and use of Church funds.

Even with the unreal budget, last year (prior to my calling) the Deacons went $700 over their budget+fundraiser. The stake YM presidency member (who was running our Scouts program until I was called--they were 3 months without a called Scoutmaster) as part of my training told me that the ward budget from Scouts was not to limit us--the way the Scouting program works (according to him) was that the boys planned what they wanted to do, and it was up to the ward to come up with the money to make it happen. Hence the $700 overage--they were essentially giving 12- and 13-year olds a blank check.

One of the stupidest things I have ever encountered in Church administration.