Lines drawn in the sand

[Proud Eagle]

NJ, sounds like that must be a nightmare from the policy or administration point of view.

 

Down here in Kentucky, most of the school districts cover the entire county. Historically, most cities once had indipendent school systems for their residents. However, now, most of the city systems have merged with the county school systems, so most counties only have one public school system. Also, in Kentucky, the school boards have a limited taxing authority to rais additional funds. If there is something like that in New Jersey, I can't even imagine the squables over which district gets to claim which high dollar new developments.

 

So in Kentucky, we have 120 counties, each with a school system. Then there are perhaps a couple dozen independent public school systems.

 

 

 

Oh, and speeking of school districts serving as boundaries, our council contains half of one community in Tennessee. It has nothing to do with schools or counties, but rather some sort of long ago disagreement between local volunteers and council level people in another council. Some how or another they put up enough of a fuss to get the place they lived moved into another council. Or at least that is how the story goes.

[scoutingagain]

With all due respect to Mr. White, can someone point to documentation that says that youth must join a unit within the geographic boundries of the district that they live or go to school in? As far as I'm concerned, if you can deliver a quality program and want to introduce it to boys that can benefit from it, regardless of where they wish to travel from, I agree with those that say go for it.

 

However, you might want to do some research on units that do serve the area they live in and let the boys know that in addition to your unit, they can look into joining those units that may be closer to home. May the unit that is best able to serve the individual youth member, get the youth to join. (Note: not "win", it's not a contest.)

 

Just my 2 cents.

 

SA

 

 

 

[Hunt]

It seems to me that there are several different situations here:

1. A boy shows up to visit your troop and you learn he lives in a different district. Do you send him away? You might tell him about other troops (especially if they would be more convenient for him), but I don't think you turn him away if he decides to join.

2. A troop actively recruits at schools in another district. I can see how that would be a no-no--indeed, troops get bent out of shape if you try to recruit at "their" schools in the same district.

[nldscout]

If the scouts want to cross District, council or any other imagionary line that is their choice. Who are we to tell them no?

 

 

We have boys in our troop from another district, one driving close to 30 miles because they like our program. One boy was in his local troop and was unhappy with it so asked if he could join us. One comes 30 miles and bypasses 3 or 4 troops that are in between.

[NJCubScouter]

Nldscout says:

 

If the scouts want to cross District, council or any other imagionary line that is their choice. Who are we to tell them no?

 

We have boys in our troop from another district, one driving close to 30 miles because they like our program. One boy was in his local troop and was unhappy with it so asked if he could join us. One comes 30 miles and bypasses 3 or 4 troops that are in between.

 

But Nld, I don't think anyone has said that if a boy who lives in another district shows up on your doorstep and wants to join, that you have to turn them away. (Someone may think it, but nobody has said it.) Hunt and I and several others have drawn the distinction between active recruiting efforts (aimed at a particular school, neighborhood, whatever) in another district, and the case-by-case situations that result in a boy or two (or several) from another district or council joining your troop at different times. This thread, originally, was about active recruiting efforts -- although I am fairly sure that we still don't know if the schools cajuncody was talking about are actually in another district, we have just been discussing this as if they are.

 

Maybe a rationale for the distinction is this: The "recruiting" situation is a situation in which boys at a particular school do not have a Scouting program conveniently available to them. What Bob was saying, and Hunt and I and maybe others agreed, was that in that case, the preference is for a Scouting program to be made available to them in their district (presumably by starting a new unit, or I could see a situation where families are not aware that there actually are existing troops within a reasonable distance, even if not right at the school or in the same town.) However, the case-by-case situation will usually be one where there is a troop available, but the individual boy for whatever reason does not want to be a member of it. This may be a boy who wants to change troops and knows of your program, either because he has a relative in your troop (like the real-life example I gave) or some other way. Or it may be a boy who was a member of your troop but moved away, but does not want to change troops, which I remember happening when I was a Boy Scout. So it's not that an area is not being served, it's that an individual boy has a preference, and hopefully Scouting can accommodate that without regard to district or council lines.

[packsaddle]

In our area the boys are free to choose, and cross the lines if they want. As a practical matter, driving distances usually keep them fairly close to home.