Working With Millenials

[walk in the woods]

I'm curious to hear folks definition of millenials now. The one I most often hear is for people born roughly between 1980 and 2005. So early millennials would be parents to cub scouts and potentially young boy scouts today using that definition.

[qwazse]

I'm curious to hear folks definition of millenials now. The one I most often hear is for people born roughly between 1980 and 2005. So early millennials would be parents to cub scouts and potentially young boy scouts today using that definition.

 

First heard it when Son #1 was finishing 8th grade. The school superintendent defined it as those who were getting the bulk of their education (secondary and beyond) in 21st century. She referenced an original book on the subject, but I never followed up and read it.

[Scouter99]

The world is different.

I served as the tempo SM at summer camp. Scout (13, First Class, PL) comes to me and asks if I would please sign a note attesting to the idea that he knew his CPR skills for his Emergency Preparedness MB class. I asked why, he said he had forgotten to bring the CPR card (a prerequisite for the MB) from the class he took before camp. I said I would review the CPR stuff with him, go get your ScoutHandbook. He said he didn't bring it with him to camp. EPrep MBBooklet? Nope. Then go borrow a ScoutHB from one of his buds. He returned with the book and we sat down. OK, I said, turn to the CPR section. He couldn't find it, it wasn't listed in the table of contents. Ok, turn to the index. What's that? He said he had never used an index. I flipped to the index, mmmmmm, CPR, page ... and there you are. Scout was impressed (!). We went over the CPR skills, he was good to go with them, and I gave him a note after extracting a promise he would attend the CPR class in camp later in the week.

 

Index? Our Troop Scribe sent out emails about the past Troop meeting . Labeled them "Troop XYZ Minuets" Well, I thought, FINALLY our Scouts are learning some etiquette and social graces.....

 

As an early Millennial, let me just say that the later models are idiots. Truly. "Gifted" kids that don't know what an index is; ask me if they should use a pen or pencil; don't know their own phone numbers; miss events because "no one told me about it" in spite of notice via text, FB, Twitter, voicemail (if their mailbox isn't full) and email twice; are genuinely shocked that if they send a picture of their crotch to someone that person will and does forward it; one word: "promposal;" handwriting like a 2-yr-old because of computers; spelling like a 2-yr-old in spite of computers; incapable of discussing any issue for fear of hurting someone's feelings.

 

Yeah Most Millenials are still youth in the troops. I think we are getting Millenials confused with us Gen X'ers.(maybe some Gen Y's)

Gen Y is the same as Millennial.

[Sentinel947]

 

As an early Millennial, let me just say that the later models are idiots. Truly. "Gifted" kids that don't know what an index is; ask me if they should use a pen or pencil; don't know their own phone numbers; miss events because "no one told me about it" in spite of notice via text, FB, Twitter, voicemail (if their mailbox isn't full) and email twice; are genuinely shocked that if they send a picture of their crotch to someone that person will and does forward it; one word: "promposal;" handwriting like a 2-yr-old because of computers; spelling like a 2-yr-old in spite of computers; incapable of discussing any issue for fear of hurting someone's feelings.

.

 

Wow, we must know some very different "Gifted" millennial kids. I don't think your generalizations are generally accurate. I've seen some Scouts who meet your description and a lot that don't. Just my two cents a "middle" to "later" model millennial.

[qwazse]

Since the forum underwent a migration (a truly millennial experience), time to report ...

 

Son #2 is wrapping up his Eagle project, which qualifies as the wierdest I've seen. Imagine a dozen volunteers around conference room tables with piles of books typing furiously calling out titles and category names while an 18 year old troubleshoots problems and adjusts data collection.

 

Church is relocating it's library ... Including purging of old materials ... and because of staff churn and rotation of computers, the catalogue was lost. (We found a hard copy with entries from 5 years ago, but nobody knew where the electronic copy was. Yes, the church has a file servers, online presence, and internet. Nobody thought to copy their hard work of cataloging the Library there.) So ...

 

worksite: the church conference room and a sever somewhere in internet land.

tools: the usual library cards, pockets, labels, carts for moving books, etc ... Wireless access (provided by beneficiary), personal computers, laptops, etc...

steps: from home a 1st year scout from a troop on the opposite side of town develops an online spreadsheet and shares with Son #2. The following weekend folks gather to enter data. What used to take a secretary a week to do, gets done in hours. The hard part is adjusting collection because not every electronic device could access the website ... and printing labels for lost cards.

(SM and I, who have enough postmodern data/computer security problems in our paid jobs, go find a place to do some fine woodworking with power tools.)

 

New Library is up and running for Easter!

Edited April 5, 2015 by qwazse

[packsaddle]

Sounds like a great project! What I found interesting was this, "...Including purging of old materials..." I would have thought they would want to keep the old materials. Isn't that one of the functions of a library?

Edit to add: Maybe I'm more sensitive to this because I'm getting close to being one of those 'old materials' myself.

Edited April 5, 2015 by packsaddle

[qwazse]

... they would want to keep the old materials. Isn't that one of the functions of a library?

Edit to add: Maybe I'm more sensitive to this because I'm getting close to being one of those 'old materials' myself.

Sore subject Pack. I'm one of those schlubs who thinks that any English translators since Jimmy's crew would have been better off dropped in the hands of some impoverished, yet inquisitive, peoples who don't have so much as a verse in their native tongue. Out with the new, in with the old, etc ... But the thing is formally named a resource center, so I guess that calls for innovation.

The guy who spearheaded this has his heart in the right place. He's an Eagle who's been working with his fellow young adults for quite a few years. He's known folks who were around for years and didn't even know we had a book room. If they did, a lot of our literature was anchored in the sixties and seventies ... and frankly a lot of our young people are wanting to get their heads around more ancient writings that we never collected and apply them to ethical dilemmas heretofore unknown. Frankly if folks made off with our books and never returned them, more good would come of it than them languishing on shelves for decades.

This was the right time and place for a change, he just needed the volunteers to get it done, and a boy needed a project he could be proud of.

[LeCastor]

Sounds like a great project! What I found interesting was this, "...Including purging of old materials..." I would have thought they would want to keep the old materials. Isn't that one of the functions of a library?

Edit to add: Maybe I'm more sensitive to this because I'm getting close to being one of those 'old materials' myself.

 

Being married to a library professional, I know there's a continuous weeding of out-dated materials that takes place in libraries.  In fact, she likes to share a librarian blog with me that showcases some really humorous books:

 

http://awfullibrarybooks.net/

 

Some of these would most likely not be in a church library, but I bet they have their fair share of titles to weed out.