Scout leader: be(ing) prepared for a new century

[fgoodwin]

Scout leader: be(ing) prepared for a new centuryhttp://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/060613/13scouts.htm

 

By Alex Kingsbury

 

Posted 6/13/06

 

Rick Cronk is new to the post of president of the Boy Scouts of America, but he's not new to Scouting. The former head of Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream is also the father of three Eagle Scouts. He spoke with U.S. News from his Washington hotel, where he was preparing for the annual Boy Scout national meeting on May 25.

 

How does a former dessert magnate motivate kids to get off the couch and into the great outdoors as Boy Scouts?

 

You need a vision in any organization, be it for profit or not for profit, and you have to be able to inspire people. I can only go on so many camping trips myself every year. What's unique about scouting is that you have about 5 million kids and only 3,500 officials and 1.2 million volunteers. If I were to do only one thing well, it would be to inspire and motivate those volunteers.

 

Are skills like learning to build a fire or wilderness survival still relevant to kids?

 

Scouting is focused on developing character and a good moral compass. Some people think scouting is all about merit badges and camping, but that's just the programming used to deliver a values-based experience that hopefully kids will keep with them for the rest of their lives. If you can offer kids the chance to go on a 50-mile backpacking trip, in my case in the high Sierras, you'll get a lot of hands up in the air. As for trying to be relevant, there are merit badges now that didn't exist 20 years ago.

 

For example?

 

There are 120 merit badges available today, and 67 of them involve math and science: archaeology, veterinary medicine, environment, and entrepreneurship. So, it's not just tying knots and wielding an ax. Scouting is going to die if it's not relevant to the kids. It was true 20 years ago, and it will be true in the future.

 

How has the mission of the Scouts changed in the past 96 years?

 

The mission has not changed at all. At the beginning of every meeting, the Scouts repeat the Scout's Oath. When you give that oath with 40 or 50 of your best friends 30 or 40 times a year for five or six years, it starts to sink in. It becomes real stuff. ... The most important part of a scout meeting is the end, when the scoutmasters conclude the meeting with the master's minute. The scoutmaster will talk about the Scout law, the oath, caring for other people, honesty, respecting people whose opinions are different from your own, or drugs or alcohol. There is a minute of talk from a man that you have considerable respect for.Kids are staying because they enjoy it, and in the process they are getting these little moral messages, and it starts to stay with them. The kids vote with their feet, and if they are not having fun, they will leave.

 

And yet membership in Scouts has declined in the past few years. Are kids voting with their feet?

 

It's declined a little bitmaybe 3 or 4 percent in the past few years. But if you look at the program, it has never been healthier. We have more kids going to camp every summer than ever before. We have roughly 50,000 new Eagle Scouts every year, etc. We could give you all sorts of statistics.

 

To be honest, school access in some school districts has been a challenge. Until the Supreme Court case, in every elementary school across America the local Scout leaders would hand out fliers inviting students and parents to Scout recruiting meetings in the auditorium. That still happens in schools across the country but not as uniformly as it once did.

 

What has it meant for your organization to go through a major court battle?

 

It's never been a child that has sued the Scouts; it's been the parent of a child that has sued. We had a father of a child in Sacramento who wanted his daughter to be a Boy Scout. Trust me, the 11-year-old daughter was not suing the Scouts. But this man wouldn't let it go. He was relentless. If you look at Boy Scouts of America in the courtroom, it is almost always driven by very ambitious and motivated parents.

 

But parents are also the people who motivate their kids to get involved with scouting in the first place. They are integral to your organization.

 

The broader answer to your question is that we are a private organization that's volunteer based and volunteer driven. This is America, where any private group can do whatever it wants to do in this case, picking the standards by which we select leaders. It's always gays, God, and girls. We have a group protesting outside right now.

 

Outside your hotel at this moment?

 

Yes, they are here every year. We might as well buy them lunch because we know they are going to be here. We respect their rights and their point of view, and we ask that they respect our rights as a private organization.

 

What does that mean for the future?

 

Scouting has got to do a better job reaching out to the inner city and the Hispanic community. The challenge there is that you have parents who don't have time to be volunteers. In California, for example, 47 percent of children in grades K-12 are Hispanic. If the Boy Scouts of America can't offer a program that is exciting and stimulating for those kids, then we should find something else to do. The numbers are a bit soft, and if we were in a membership contest, we'd be a bit concerned. But we are more concerned with reaching out to kids that are not as easily served.

 

The classic view of the Scouts is as a suburban organization rather than an urban one.

 

It's true in the fact that it's a lot easier in suburbia. You have families with a mom and dad. In inner cities like Chicago or Los Angeles, there is mom or dad or grandma, in many cases. So it's easier in suburbia. But today there are Scouts from cities all across America.

 

Turing to God in the scout oath, does one have to believe in a Christian God to be a Boy Scout?

 

There must be hundreds of Gods out there. God in the oath referrs to a supreme being of some sort it's a moral or ethical or spiritual orientation. We don't care if it's Mohammad or Buddha or a rock in Japan. We ask the kids to take the Scout oath and what they do on their own time is up to them.

 

What are the challenges facing Scoutsand potential Scoutstoday?

 

It's tough to be a kid today. It was easy to be a kid 20 years ago. Today, the obvious thing is the availability of drugs. To walk in the hallways of an inner-city middle school or high school is demoralizing. The world is moving way too fast. These kids all have cellphones and the Internet. The challenge to being a kid, to survive, physically, morally, ethically, is pretty difficult. So, God bless good parents, good teachers, good coaches, the Boy Scouts, the Girls Club anybody that's providing meaningful and stimulating activities for kids that, by the way, might lead to a good moral education. Scouting is providing a male-mentoring opportunity for some kids that don't have that. I don't want to get overly moralistic about all this, but it's tough to be a kid today. I wish we were serving 10 million kids instead of 5 million kids.

[scoutldr]

"It was easy to be a kid 20 years ago."

 

This same thing was said in the 60's when I was growing up. And I'll bet the same thing was said in the 30's when my parents were growing up.

 

"Urban Scouting"? Here we go again (remember 1974?).

 

"We have more kids going to camp every summer than ever before."

Not in my council.

[ljnrsu]

Remember that fiasco well,June 1972-Feb 1979, era of Urban Scouting. The outing left scouting and membership dropped over 30% during that nightmare. As much as he tried in writing the Ninth of the Boy Scout Handbook Bill Hillcourt could not undo all the damage that was done by "Urban Scouting".

[Lynda J]

We have to give the boys a program that is interesting and teaches them skills. Some of the skills we are not having to teach that we didn't have to deal with 30+ years ago are how to deal with drugs, gangs, and things like that.

I have been involved in Scouting either as a Girl Scout, as a GS leader and Boy Scouts for about 50 years. 40 of that as an adult. I have seen a lot of changes. But one thing I haven't seen change in Boy Scouts is skills teaching. For a boy learning to build a fire on his own isn't really about building that fire. It is about learning a skill and the achivement of doing something he had never done again. It about teaching another boy that same skill. It is learning self respect because in learning that you learn to respect others.

For me working with Scouts boils down to what happened recently here. I read in the paper about two Scouts who had jumped into the river and saved a 6 year old boys life. They got alot of press and one of them simply commented all we did was what we should have done and what we have learned to do through Boy Scouting. That says it all.

Teach them to be good members of their communities.

we will all be better for it.

[campcrafter]

Turing to God in the scout oath, does one have to believe in a Christian God to be a Boy Scout?

 

There must be hundreds of Gods out there. God in the oath referrs to a supreme being of some sort it's a moral or ethical or spiritual orientation. We don't care if it's Mohammad or Buddha or a rock in Japan. We ask the kids to take the Scout oath and what they do on their own time is up to them.

 

 

 

Did he really say that?!

 

Hundred of gods out there

 

Supreme being of SOME SORT?

 

Rock in Japan - what the ...

 

Sounds to me like the new Prez doesn't have a very definite faith himself. At least he isn't a bible thumper. Maybe the BSA isn't on the evangelical crusade many think it is. However the comment about a rock in Japan. Is anyone here of Japanese heritage? What is he talking about? Are you offended? Doesn't seem a very intelligent thing to say. Derogatory in fact.

 

Alos I would like to see the approved list fof the hundreds of gods out there!

 

 

 

 

 

[NJCubScouter]

The comment about the rock in Japan is very similar to a comment made some months (or years?) back by (I believe) the ubiquitous Greg Shields, official BSA national spokesman. It was in an article (which I read in this forum, so it or a link to it is probably hanging in the lower reaches of the forum, or in the archives) about a case in which the BSA terminated the membership of an atheist Scout, and/or denied him Eagle, I forget which. The name of the Scout was bandied all over this forum at the time and I think there were multiple threads about him, but I forget the name. Anyway, Mr. Shields (or whoever) stated that this young man was being given a chance to remain a Scout, all he had to do was acknowledge a belief in some higher power, any higher power, doesn't have to be a recognized deity, and there was a quote very close to "it could be a rock in his backyard."

 

So, despite the belief of some in this forum that the Declaration of Religious Principles requires a belief in a "personal God" or a God that takes an active role in the affairs of mankind (and woe to me peronally if the BSA required that), in practice the BSA national leadership, and now specifically the new BSA president, have made it clear that the BSA does not require that. Only the fulfillment of a duty to an uncapitalized "supreme being of some sort" is required -- and of course the nature of that "supreme being of some sort" will determine what the nature of the duty is -- whether that be prayer, acceptance of a particular religion, simply treating that being's handiwork (i.e. "Creation") with respect, or whatever. It's the most inclusive policy that the BSA could possibly have, without including those who disbelieve in the existence of any higher power. (And by the way that can also include at least some "agnostics", regardless of what the BSA-Legal site says.

[NJCubScouter]

The comment about the rock in Japan is very similar to a comment made some months (or years?) back by (I believe) the ubiquitous Greg Shields, official BSA national spokesman. It was in an article (which I read in this forum, so it or a link to it is probably hanging in the lower reaches of the forum, or in the archives) about a case in which the BSA terminated the membership of an atheist Scout, and/or denied him Eagle, I forget which. The name of the Scout was bandied all over this forum at the time and I think there were multiple threads about him, but I forget the name. Anyway, Mr. Shields (or whoever) stated that this young man was being given a chance to remain a Scout, all he had to do was acknowledge a belief in some higher power, any higher power, doesn't have to be a recognized deity, and there was a quote very close to "it could be a rock in his backyard."

 

So, despite the belief of some in this forum that the Declaration of Religious Principles requires a belief in a "personal God" or a God that takes an active role in the affairs of mankind (and woe to me peronally if the BSA required that), in practice the BSA national leadership, and now specifically the new BSA president, have made it clear that the BSA does not require that. Only the fulfillment of a duty to an uncapitalized "supreme being of some sort" is required -- and of course the nature of that "supreme being of some sort" will determine what the nature of the duty is -- whether that be prayer, acceptance of a particular religion, simply treating that being's handiwork (i.e. "Creation") with respect, or whatever. It's the most inclusive policy that the BSA could possibly have, without including those who disbelieve in the existence of any higher power. (And by the way that can also include at least some "agnostics", regardless of what the BSA-Legal site says.

[campcrafter]

Thanks NJ

 

Yes contrary to what many of the Xtian persuasion believe - the only requirement National obviously really cares about is that you not denie the exisitance of some higher POWER - not even necessarily a BEING.

 

So those of us who think that God does not interfer in the day to day lives of individual but is the ultimate source of energy are valid memebers.

 

 

I just thought the way he worded it was poor. Backyard would definitely have been a better word choice than Japan. And the phrase there must be hundreds of Gods out there should surely raise eyebrows in the RCC and LDS.

 

pax,

 

CC

[VentureScoutNY]

"Urban Scouting"? Here we go again (remember 1974?).

 

What happened? I was born in 84. Eagle in 03. I know of some bad stories of scouts during the vietnam years. Is that what they are referring to? Fill me in...

 

IMO, scouting in urban areas should be looked into in a big way. Lot's of urban kids need the solid direction scouting can provide.

 

YIS

 

[GernBlansten]

The 1970s decade was a dark time for the Boy Scouts of America. The period from 1972-80 was a national disaster, when BSA membership declined nationwide by 34% (a loss of 2.2 million members)! Although many changes in our society had an adverse impact on all youth programs, much of the cause for the drastic BSA membership decline was due to the radically changed Scout program of the period.

 

In 1972, the BSA made sudden and radical changes to the Scouting program, abandoning much of the traditional outdoor program, and applying inner-city programming to ALL of Scouting (what to do if lost?The new Scout handbook's entire "Lost" section showed a boy talking to a policeman with the instructions, "Ask for directions to find the way"). New, "politically-correct" terminology defined the era (the BSA had no "boys" or "Boy Scouts" because "boy" was considered demeaning; no longer an outdoorsman, the Scoutmaster became a "manager of learning" who taught Scouts the 11 "leadership competencies;" he guided Scouts through "personal growth agreement conferences" as they advanced through the various "progress awards.")

 

The BSA began modifying the short-lived "Improved Scouting Program" in 1975, and finally scrapped the program in 1978-79, after only six years of use. The program stands in sharp contrast to Scouting before 1972 or since 1978.

 

During the 1970s, the BSA finally updated its heavy-impact conservation practices to modern low-impact policies designed to protect our rapidly dwindling outdoor resources.

 

BSA membership peaked at 6.5 million in 1972, and reached bottom in 1980 with 4.3 million.

 

Source: http://www.troop97.net/t97hist2.htm#1970s

 

[Lisabob]

Well I don't know, assuming that this guy actually means what he says and is willing to follow through on it, I think I'm beginning to like him. Based on admittedly limited info, I think he sounds pretty straight forward and isn't about to bend to any particular group that feels it should have (IMO, undue) influence over the BSA. This is probably naive but maybe we can actually get back to focusing on all the really great aspects of the BSA and its programs now instead of arguing over the DRP?

 

Lisa'bob

 

[Fuzzy Bear]

Congratulations to a guy that made his money in ice cream, which I have yet to try. He has three sons that are Eagles and knows that kids have a difficult time of it today, which means he has insider knowledge about the problems, such as drugs. He knows the number of vocational/academic type MB's and that Scouts live in the city and outback. He is familiar with gods and rock gods. He figures that bringing in the Hispanic population would increase overall numbers, which he would like to double to 10 million. He knows the mission and believes it to be the original. He has a vision to inspire and motivate the 1.2 million volunteers. He wants Scouting to be relevant and fun for kids like it was 20 years ago, which by my estimate was in 1986 and not during the Urban debacle of the '70's. He knows that parents and not kids bring issues to court. For him, it appears the bowl is much more than half full, in spite of the 3-G's. He most likely isn't getting a multi-million deal with the billion dollar trimmings at the end. So, we now have a leader with a goal and an idea on how to get there. He has described the mountain, so lets see the climb. FB

 

 

[scoutldr]

If I'm not mistaken, the position of BSA President is a volunteer position. The Chief SCout Executive is the big bucks guy.

 

20 years was not that long ago. I don't see that much has changed.