A Letter from BSA’s Chief Diversity Officer & Vice President of Diversity and Inclusion

[fred8033]

3 hours ago, Eagle94-A1 said:

Youth want challenges. Youth need to make mistakes and learn the hard way,  albeit in a safe environment. Youth need responsibilities.  

Absolutely agree with this.  BUT the question is what challenges?  I view that as the pride of successfully camping in a torrential down pour or cross country skiing at -20F or a 50 mile camping bike ride or a ...    Youth also want responsibilities.  Setting up tent.  Cooking.  Being responsible for themselves.

What youth do NOT want is to be preached at.  It's why the scoutmaster's minute works so well.  A light reflective moment that SMs can leverage.  ...   example ... I hope never again to see adults hovering around injecting as a patrol creates their meal plan and decide who's going to shop.  

 

[mrjohns2]

2 minutes ago, fred8033 said:

I hope never again to see adults hovering around injecting as a patrol creates their meal plan and decide who's going to shop.

Amen. 

[fred8033]

10 minutes ago, mrjohns2 said:

Amen. 

This is a long-stated position of mine.  

BSA needs to be careful about their messages to the adult volunteers.  Adult volunteers too often hear that BSA is about leadership.  Thus, their job is to teach leadership or to teach scout's how to lead / how to run things.  What I often see is the worst possible message and lessons.  IMHO, BSA should be telling adult volunteers to teach scouts how to setup a tent or cook a meal ... or better yet ... enable an experienced scout to teach a new scout how.  Let the scouts naturally learn leadership / getting the job done by doing / being active.

Leadership is a great benefit of scouting.  

BUT, scouting is about DOING.  

Edited December 13, 2021 by fred8033

[Eagle94-A1]

44 minutes ago, KublaiKen said:

The last segregated council was integrated in 1974.

That may have been the official year of integration, but some councils took longer unoffically. One council I have been in did not integrate until the 1980s. While the segregated districts "merged," they still kept doing their own events.

 

11 minutes ago, skeptic said:

It is not the Oath and Law that are flawed, but the individuals that choose to not adhere as most of us, "today", interpret it.  We come back to the idea that somehow we in this time in history are responsible for the misguided peceptions and attitudes of another era.  

Agree. we are not responsible for the past. We need to focus on today, and prepare our youth for the future. While we need to be cognizant of the past and how it affects today, we need to focus on solving the issues of today.

[KublaiKen]

If one believes we are trying to fix the past, then I would agree that is impossible. But I don't think that's in the intent or execution of what is happening today; I believe we are taking the lessons of the past and trying to fix the present, which includes quite a bit of downstream impact (intentional and otherwise) of many decades (centuries, societally) of very bad policy and practice. And a valuable tool in identifying and eradicating (or mitigating) those ills is asking the people who suffer from them what they think.

[Mrjeff]

I agree Fred, I  have never heard a kid say that they joined Scouts to learn leadership, responsibility, life enriching lessons, diversity or inclusion.  They want to camp out, play with fire and knives, and go swimming.  If we provide that, the rest will come!

[SiouxRanger]

8 minutes ago, Mrjeff said:

I agree Fred, I  have never heard a kid say that they joined Scouts to learn leadership, responsibility, life enriching lessons, diversity or inclusion.  They want to camp out, play with fire and knives, and go swimming.  If we provide that, the rest will come!

I have long maintained that the Scouting is in the entertainment business.  It provides fun and challenging times (shooting, swimming, playing with fire (safely), knives,) learning new things, and comradeship with their friends, while those devious adults slip leadership, assuming responsibility, planning, ethics, morals, into the program to be absorbed seamlessly (perhaps with a bit of suggestion now and then).

[Mrjeff]

Thats whats I figured, too!  

[mrjohns2]

18 hours ago, Mrjeff said:

They want to camp out, play with fire and knives, and go swimming.  If we provide that, the rest will come!

And the closer we get to school is the surest way to have them leave. 

[RememberSchiff]

I split off the recent discussion of saw and knife accidents to

 

[RememberSchiff]

"Elizabeth Ramirez-Washka joined the Duke University Office of Counsel in February 2023 where she advises Duke University and Duke University Health System on matters involving employment and labor law, employment litigation and regulatory compliance."

"The BSA originally invited Ramirez-Washka to join the movement as associate general counsel... In 2020, she was named the BSA’s vice president of diversity and inclusion and chief diversity officer, becoming the first Hispanic woman on the BSA’s executive team."

“Scouting has been a great experience — its rich heritage has stood the test of time for more than 110 years,” she says. “It’s been a pleasure and privilege to be part of this incredible organization and help BSA continue to grow and evolve with the changing times — while always holding true to our core ideals and values — such as kindness, integrity, respect, courtesy and care for others.

...

“Scouting reinforces the values of your family. You learn how to be a leader, how to deal with conflict and how to understand different perspectives. We need to continue to lead by example and build communities where every person feels respected and valued to Be Prepared to welcome all interested families to take advantage of the many benefits that Scouting provides.”

More at sources:

https://ogc.duke.edu/profile/elizabeth-ramirez-washka/

https://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2023/03/02/catching-up-with-outgoing-bsa-vice-president-elizabeth-ramirez-washka/

 

Edited March 4, 2023 by RememberSchiff