Defending the Uniform Police

[emb021]

"The leaders of a Scout unit come from a community, and are known to the community. Leaders from other Scout units are not necessarily known to the community, and should work through the residnet adult leadership, unless we are talking true emergency."

 

Interesting concept. So much for the "world brotherhood of scouting".

 

This may be an ok concept for Cub Scouts. I know as a Cub Scout I had little if any contact with any scouter who wasn't part of my Pack. I don't know if I attended any district cub scout event.

 

However, in the Boy Scout program, this is silly. In Boy Scouts, the 'community' is not the unit, but the whole district and council. The average scout will have contact with many, many scouters. This can happen thru attendence at district/council events (camporees, scout show, etc), involvement in OA, being part of council contingents to Jamboree, high adventure bases, etc. Summer camp (and staffing same). Or even joint events with other troops. I think by the time I had aged out of Boy Scouts, I knew probably 20-30 scouters outside of my unit.

 

And I don't think I ever heard my troop leaders tell us that we weren't to listen to those 'outsiders'. The attitude I had always seen was that you were expected to show respect for those non-unit scouters as you do with your unit scouters.

 

 

[Lisabob]

My son's troop is a uniformed troop. They also have a troop uniform closet that most boys contribute to and take advantage of as they grow, which makes this easier.

 

Our DE recently visited a troop meeting and commented that it had been years since he had gone to a troop meeting where all the boys and leaders were in full uniform. My son was feeling quite proud about that fact, as is his right. He isn't even embarrassed to wear it in public anymore. (I'm sure glad that change in attitude finally took place, though I'm not sure about the cause - it happened pretty much overnight.)

 

On the other hand...the young man who just got elected as SPL for next year promised, as part of his campaign, to ask the PLC to switch our troop travel policy. Currently the boys travel to and from all events, including campouts, in "class A." The new SPL wants to change travel to "class B" because the first thing boys do when they arrive at camp is...change! According to my son, this proposal played a big part in the boy winning election.

 

So is the uniform an important tool in our kit? Sure. Should it be used with common sense, just like all our other tools? YUP. I'm noticing that the boys see this...do we?

 

Lisa'bob

 

[trailfinder52@yahoo.com]

In areas of doubt a scoutmaster, cubmaster, commissioners need to keep the uniform rules for their particular program. A scoutmaster needs to counsel the members of his or her troop in a quiet but stearn way about missing patches, wrong patches etc. Den leaders in Cub Packs need to teach correct uniforming to their Cub Scouts and a Cubmaster needs to teach correct uniforming to the new leaders in the pack this all should be part of any training of new leaders and this should be taught to new scouts as well. In Venturing DDI is the rule although Venturing has a recommended uniform, crews can select their own uniform. Sea Scouts have a selection of uniforms shown in the Sea Scout Manual, . If anyone has questions they can purchase an Insignia Guide from BSA and sold at their council Trading Post or contact the Scout Executive of their council.