Interviewing a member of local government

[Oldscout448]

So their is a scout in my troop who has one last merit badge to earn in the next few days before he turns 18. It is Citizenship in the Community and he is having trouble with req. 4b, interview a member of your local government about an issue of concern in you area. It seems no one at town hall has time for some kid. That seems to be how they see him. Any of you old pros have some advice for a frustrated scout?

[qwazse]

I'm assuming you're the counselor. If not, he should call the MBC right away and let him/her know about this snag.

 

Failure is a possibility. Partly his fault because for starting this one so late. Partly the fault of an unresponsive government.

 

How to counsel the boy?

Well, persistence does matter. So he should stop in at the town hall every day for the next two days. He should log every call. There has to be SOMEBODY he can talk to about this. As a last ditch, he could interview the person who is putting him on hold, and ask if he could get his/her opinion and if he/she has any idea how young people can help. Even if he gets a "No Comment" I bet he's learned something.

 

When he turns 18, he should request a voter's registration. And possibly consider running for office.

[perdidochas]

Get creative. Choose a different topic, and find something relevant to schools, and get a principal to work with him.

[EagleScout441]

It doesn't have to be the mayor. Try thinking smaller. He could interview the county sheriff, somebody in the department of Parks and Recreation, or Transportation, or Human Resources, or even Housing.

[perdidochas]

Eagle 441,

 

Exactly. Just find a different issue, and find a more responsive part of government.

[DuctTape]

School board member would probably be a good choice. The issue would directly affect the boy.

[RememberSchiff]

One of our scouts interviewed a highway department supervisor as the scout overheard, not entirely incorrectly, that this supervisor tells the school superintendent when schools should close due to road conditions. And from there, the supervisor just ran with it as our scout took notes - downed tree removal, snow plowing, potholes,.. definitely not the snooze that the School Board member was.

[Hedgehog]

Have him go over to town hall and interview the receptionist or whomever he can find about why everyone is so busy not to be able to take the time to talk to a scout about local government. Then suggest to him that he write up his interview and send it to the local newspaper. It would make a great story.

[SSScout]

Oh, I like that: "LOCAL SCOUT FINDS CITY GOVERNMENT UNRESPONSIVE TO HIS QUESTIONS" Bob Woodward would be proud....

[qwazse]

In fairness, fellas, this story could easily turn into "Eagle badge procrastinators cause local governments to interrupt essential services for last-minute interviews."

 

If I recall, Son #1 and his buddy had to make an appointment with the school board president weeks in advance to meet him *after* the board meeting. He expected them to attend the meeting and be prepared to discuss the night's docket as well as whatever issues they had in mind.

 

Before any of you shout "adding to the requirements", everyone needs to understand that 'round here we expect a certain quality of work from high school youth, especially boys at the top of their class in both academics and athletics. And it makes sense that an elected official responsible for educating young people should make every youth encounter an educational one for both parties. I think our elected officials have the right to hear from our scouts on the officials' terms, in a way that they can ensure good two-way communication.

 

So, I'm all for a scout finding out from his government "why" they won't turn on a dime. But, I'm against a young adult whining to the media about it without him being willing to commit to helping the solution by either voting for a candidate or putting his hat in the ring himself.

 

P.S. - The board president's daughters were in my crew and one was a good friend of the boys, so he could have made this very convenient for the scouts. I'm quite glad that he didn't.

[SSScout]

I was sub teaching at the local Elementary one day when the Town Mayor visited the school. It was great. Each class group had a separate audience with hizzoner. 120 or so kids in each of 3rd, 4th and 5th grades each heard a neat talk, with maps and numbers (statistics and charts were studied in class the week before!) and then they got to ask questions from the floor. The 5th's had some good ones. How to create a park? Could the stores in the shopping center include an ice cream store? Why not? If the town doesn't plow the snow, how come we still have school? (the county decides that and plows the snow).

The school said they do this once a year. Seems like a good idea.

[Torchwood]

My son had just the opposite experience with his Town government (I live a couple of towns away). He went to a special Town Meeting, and the next morning, he e-mailed one of the selectmen to talk about the issue on the warrant for the meeting. He met my son at a local coffee shop (his mother was sitting nearby, but not a party to the conversation). He was so impressed with my son's prepared questions, that he sent me a note afterwards commenting that my son was a credit to his Troop and his family. Yes- I am bragging (just a little)...

[LeCastor]

My Troop is lucky in that we live in the capital city of our state. We have representatives, senators, aldermen, etc who are always happy to come visit our meetings or have one-on-one discussions with Scouts (obviously YPT appropriate ). In fact, our local representative sent out a packet of info to all area units letting them know who to get in touch with her and letting everyone know what services she was able/willing to provide. There was even a form to fill out for Eagle Scout commendations.

 

It's a breathe of fresh air to have so many political figures, Democrat and Republican, wishing to meet with our young men.