Scouts contacting MB counselors

[Trevorum]

John, my message went out via email to (mostly) adults, but it explicitly directed Scouts to contact me. I expected the parent to give a copy of the notice to their son who would then follow up. I did not expect the result would be mostly parents following up on behalf of their son.

 

As Lisa notes, I expect to hear back from less than half of the boys.

[evmori]

Minor thread hijack continued.

 

raisinemright,

 

Contact a SM in that district & ask them to recommend a MB counselor!

[raisinemright]

evmori,

 

My question was more along the lines of if it is OK to cross district lines for MBC's.

[RememberSchiff]

A scoutmaster can suggest a merit badge counselor but a scout can go to any merit badge counselor in any council that he wants. An example of this is summer camp or merit badge university, the SM signs the blue card without knowing who the merit badge counselors will be.

 

[Eagle1982]

Raisinemright said:

"and have asked the SM to recommend these guys to some of our boys. He told me that he wants to use MBC's in our district, most of whom are 20-30 miles away while some of the local ones are literally walking distance.

 

Thoughts?

 

Oh, changing troops is off the table. "

 

Then perhaps change Scoutmasters It's OK for him to allow scouts to go to other counselors, this often gets covered at roundtable and was brought up in (at least in my) SM/ASM training.

 

 

[raisinemright]

Thanks for confirming what I thought was correct. For the latest MBC for my son, we got out my copy of the list and I had my son tell his SM which MBC he wanted to use.

 

That worked well. I was just curious if MBC's wanted to only work with scouts in their district.

[John-in-KC]

trev,

 

OK. I cannot help if parents cannot/will not read. Neither can you. Simply get a broken record of "Please have your Scout contact me directly."

 

John

[evmori]

raisinemright,

 

You can cross state lines if you want to. There are no restrictions that a MB counselor must be in your district.

[Lisabob]

raisinemright,

 

no there is no such rule. I guess I'd be curious enough to ask the SM why he prefers that, considering the 20-30 mile drive and the cost of gas these days. He might have a good reason but I can't think of one right now.

[Horizon]

Trev:

 

Part of the problem might be email. In our troop it is parents on the email list, not Scouts. Very few of my Scouts have their own email account, so when an email blast goes out it hits their parents and it is the parents that respond.

 

I sometime get an email with headers from Johnny's Mom, but it is then signed Johnny. However, when someone is just clicking on an eamil link, you are going to get the recipients.

 

I do tell parents that I take calls from Scouts, but with email it is tougher to enforce.

[evmori]

Part of the problem might be email.

 

Kids do have e-mail addresses but they never check their e-mail! Kids today communicate via text messages!

[BulldogBlitz]

"'Part of the problem might be email.'

 

Kids do have e-mail addresses but they never check their e-mail! Kids today communicate via text messages! "

 

 

I know our troop uses email. I also know that my troop got Trev's email broadcast to them (since we's in the same council and all). I also know that the boys have email since there is a flurry of emails (from scouts) this week about requesting BORs and help with citizenship MBs. i've not seen commentary from any parents - maybe they are worn out from last weekend's "parent participation" camping.

 

 

 

[GaHillBilly]

Comments, based on my own local observations:

 

1. The comments about email & texting are dead on, at least with my Scouts. But, they don't have all have text, for various reasons, but commonly $$$. And, they don't listen to voice mail. Texting isn't very useful even with those that have it, because those that do text tend to relate to it in a 'fire & forget' mode aka "OMG tisc!" or "OMG tisl". My own son uses his email only for outgoing email and replies, mostly from teachers. So, I've got an education process to work through in teaching the new PL *and* his patrol to contact each other.

 

2. It doesn't occur to the Scouts I work with, that they can take the initiative, except in structured opportunities, like the godforsaken MBCs. Again, I got to BOTH make sure other, better, opportunities are accessible and that the Scouts know about them.

 

So . . . I think the place to begin work on communication is intra-troop, rather than extra-troop. PL's and others have rank based obligatory communication duties that (apparently) often go by the wayside, because the adults don't (1) establish the framework, (2) demo the skills, (3) TEACH the skills *effectively*, (4) expect follow through.

 

 

GaHillBilly

 

 

Latest rant: I'm sick of encountering adults who think that, if they *think* they've said it that they've taught it. We need Scouters under the same sort of expectation that primary teachers are: "If they didn't learn it, then the presumption is that you didn't teach it EFFECTIVELY!"

 

In many cases, the adults haven't even SAID it clearly, much less TAUGHT it.

[kb6jra]

Raisenemright,

 

When we train new Scoutmasters in our district, we advise them to start off using MB Counselors they know and trust. Sometimes they're a bit aprehensive and want to use only in-unit counselors. We'd rather they use out of unit resources of course. It could just be that your current Scoutmaster is in that mode. Your son giving him the list and pointing out who he'd like to see might help him build that trust for scouters on the other side if that invisible district line.

 

Good way to handle it IMO.

[sheldonsmom]

One other thing to consider....I often make the phone calls for my son because he has a speech impediment and is often hard to understand on the phone, especially if the person does not know him. My son can be understood face to face (usually) but the phone is not his friend. Please consider that when condemning overproctive or interferring parents.

 

I will get off my soap box now.