Can this become more prevalent, with a bit of effort, on local levels? https://www.mariettatimes.com/news/local-news/2024/03/smith-scouts-become-leaders/

[skeptic]

https://www.mariettatimes.com/news/local-news/2024/03/smith-scouts-become-leaders/

Finding ways to incorporate the community locally might be the best way to redeem the program.  My experience with the general public when we do flag and patriotic stuff at the local government center, or on some occasion in the past when hiking, has almost always been supportive.  Many have gushed and said they had thought BSA was gone and were really happy for our work and efforts.  I suspect this may be far more prominent than the nay sayers will admit.  Just my view.  

 

[RememberSchiff]

“Organizations like [the Scouts] are symbiotic in that the Scouts benefit from accomplishing their requirements, and the community benefits from the fruits of the Scouts fulfilling their goals,” said U.S. Army Lt. Col. Reuben Doornink.

“Scouting has been a big part of my life through the years and being an Eagle Scout can help form near- immediate bonds. Scouting is similar to the military in that I know if my family needed something, I could put it in a chat group and have 10 people at my door,” said Doornink. “One thing that being a Scout taught me is, ‘Keep working on the task regardless of how daunting it may seem.’ I think the most important skill is to persevere toward a goal and learn a little selfless service.”

Doornink is slated to retire from active duty in the next several years, with hopes to relocate with his family to Florida or back to the Midwest after leaving uniform. Until then, he plans to continue in his role as Scout leader with his sons and counts his Scout family as an inspiration to continue serving as both a Soldier and a Scout.

“The [group of] people I have had the pleasure to work next to has been a blessing unto itself,” he said. “The cross section of people in Scouting varies and each leader brings a skill set that is unique to their occupation and interests [but] the team that converges to support the entire Scouting effort each and every day is remarkable.”

More including photos at source:

https://www.army.mil/article-amp/275699/soldier_scout_leader_midwest_native_builds_legacy_as_example_of_selfless_service

[qwazse]

On 4/26/2024 at 5:18 PM, skeptic said:

Finding ways to incorporate the community locally might be the best way to redeem the program.

I’ll go one further: integrating the local community is the only way forward.

There are hundreds of ways to do this.

Waiting for National’s next marketing campaign is the least effective.

[OaklandAndy]

1 hour ago, qwazse said:

integrating the local community is the only way forward

Totally agree! We actually work with the local multicultural community center in town. We are starting our first, hopefully not last, pack yard sale with all proceeds going to the center to help support their after-school and summer programs. In turn, hopefully we have enough exposure to recruit some of those youth that go to the center. If not, oh well. That was never the aim anyways. 

[AwakeEnergyScouter]

Our pack just participated in our local part of a worldwide conservation status check in urban areas called the City Nature Challenge. Because the overlap of scouts and scouters with conservationists isn't an accident, the person organizing our city's effort on behalf of the city was a scouter for many years and still runs a survival camp for troops. So we got to talking about more scouts than just our pack participating, and looped a commissioner in, who in turn connected the city organizer with council. So far, so good, let's do a good turn and be Earth Protectors.

We connected with council a bit too late to really market it through them, but our pack had a blast with it! Lots of really paying attention to nature. But as far as the community is concerned, we did it on the downlow because council asked to exclude the BSA logo from all the organizations participating displays! (To save the city a charge of $5000 to use the logo.) Even if scouts had been a significant portion of the observations in our city, the visibility would have been close to nil. Other non-profits and even for-profit companies helped as groups on behalf of their organization and were recognized for it. 

It struck me as a policy that was clearly well-intended, but also a bit self-centered. Obviously we don't want to be too attention-seeking, but people do also need to see us around doing our thing for people to feel like we're a part of the community.

Edited May 5 by AwakeEnergyScouter
Fixed autocorrect typo