What is trained?

[NeilLup]

Hello Trail Pounder,

 

I believe that you didn't read what I wrote or what my colleague said. I didn't say that this gentleman would not pay for white Scouters. I did not say that he had said that he would pay only for people of color. What he said was that for cost should not be allowed to be an excuse for urban Scouters not to go to Wood Badge and he personally would see that it would not be a problem.

 

Our council has a policy that no one will be kept from training because of cost. This leader was reinforcing this policy and assuring that it would apply to a segment of our population which is seriously underserved.

 

It might be one thing if we were turning away leaders of one race to make space for leaders of another race. But our last couple of Wood Badges were not full.

 

I do find it interesting that you are so troubled by a leader donating money to expand outreach of Scouting to a group which is important to him and which is underserved by Scouting.

[LovetoCamp]

Neil, Never claimed to be the smartest guy around (I re-enlisted twice), but the manner in which you described your attorney friends actions, left me to believe he was to pay only for people of color to attend Wood Badge. Take a look again at how you worded that sentence. Anyway, I'm not really all that bothered by any of that. I absolutely believe that Scouting in the black community could be, would be, should be a Godsend and more power to this guy. But if this was worded the opposite way, if the shoe was on the other foot, there would be a hue and cry so loud across the internet that bandwidth would snap and fiber optics would shake.

 

Best Wishes to you!!!

 

TP

[NeilLup]

In our last Wood Badge, this gentleman and I put on the diversity presentation. I was prepared to wear a dashiki or whatever ethnic garb he wished if he would wear a "Fighting Whities" sweatshirt from the University of Northern Colorado. If I could have gotten one, I'm sure he would have too.

 

You certainly are correct about the hue and cry if there were a scholarship exclusively for whites. However, we do have several scholarships in our council which are only for certain communities or certain units and those effectively are for all whites. The percentage of people of color in those communities is infinitesimal and those fewindividuals, by and large, doen't need any financial help.

[Eamonn]

Have to admit that Neil and Pounder have got me thinking.

I am 100% for us being as diverse as possible. I never really thought about at what cost?

I am very aware of how I spend my money, maybe not as careful as other people who post in these forums. But I spend it as I want.

I do support a charity that brings kids from Northern Ireland to the USA for part of the summer, placing them in the homes of Protestants if they are Catholic and vise versa. I don't do any thing to bring kids from Palestine and put them with Jewish families. I suppose that I could donate money to some sort of fund and stipulate that it could be used what ever my want might be. I could say it can only be used for Cub Scout camping. Does this mean that there are no poor Boy Scouts? No. - But it's my money.

So I think if someone wants to put money into a fund for whatever their want is, that's fine as long as I can do the same.

My 2 cents.( For now.)

Eamonn

 

[LovetoCamp]

E,

 

What you do as Mr. Eamonn as far as paying for Irish kids to visit works for me. But, you as District Chairman publicly declared that you will only support and finance White Catholic kids from Northern Ireland would probably find you between the bread in a Jam Sandwich!!!

 

P

[Bob White]

It is obvious to many in scouting that we need more diversity in our membership at every level and in every program. B-Ps vision of scouting changed from his original goal of better preparing young British boys for military service, to a vision of people world wide learning to become friends through the shared youth experience of scouting.

 

While Scouting on an international level is doing a wonderful job of this, scouting in the US has not. We need to extend the influence of scouting beyond where we are today socially, economically and racially. While probably no one would be comfortable seeing a campership fund established for middle to upper-class Caucasian scouts, many councils have (due to their lack of membership diversity) accomplished just that. A good example are councils where scouting is primarily caucasian even though the majority of the population is not.

 

The BSA has made many efforts in the last few years to expand scoutings influence. They have produced Spanish and bi-lingual handbooks and training materials, dedicated specific professional to the task of establishing units in non-caucasian communities, established funding for unit start-ups and camperships for non-caucasian scouts.

 

What is keeping scouting greater success in this area is the attitude of too many volunteers who have difficulting substituting the values of scouting for their personal predjudices. One of the things Wood Badge is trying to do is to help scouters get past this personal barrier and help to fulfill B-P's vision.

 

[LovetoCamp]

Hi Bob,

 

I think an infusion of the Timeless Values of Scouting into some neighborhoods could be a big, no huge, instrument of change for the better. Does your Council include any cities over 100,000 with a predominately minority part of town? Does your District have a troop or troops in that area of town? Is your Council trying? What are they doing? If getting good grades is looked down upon, how are you going to sell the neckerchief and knee socks?

 

P

[Bob White]

"Does your Council include any cities over 100,000 with a predominately minority part of town? Does your District have a troop or troops in that area of town? Is your Council trying? What are they doing? If getting good grades is looked down upon, how are you going to sell the neckerchief and knee socks?"

 

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

 

 

Our Council has a Scoutreach executive whose job it is to bring diversity to our program and to extend scoutings influence through untapped populations of our council. Each professional is trained in the goals and methods of scoutReach as well. In the District I serve we have started at least 4 units this year alone in neighborhoods with at risk populations and we are looking for the opprtunity to start a predominantly Spanish speaking pack to serve a specific school.

 

I have organized 4 or 5 packs and troop s over the yaers in what many considered "bad" neighborhoods. Those units still operate today and have many successes.

 

I do not sell socks. I sell the scouting program. It uses uniforming as a method to teach specific values and skills.

 

Getting a scout who does not care about grades to wear scout socks, is no different then the challenge of getting an adult who doesn't accept the need for training to wear the uniform correctly. It's just part of the teaching process. Some will learn some will not, but that doesn't give the teacher option to quit teaching.