Adventurer Dwayne Fields becomes new UK Chief Scout

[RememberSchiff]

9/5/2024:

"Dwayne Fields been appointed as our 11th Chief Scout to lead our half a million young people and adult volunteers for his values, commitment to help young people, and outstanding leadership qualities. During his time as Chief Scout, Dwayne aims to inspire even more young people and adult volunteers to join from all backgrounds. "

More details and photos at source:

https://www.scouts.org.uk/news/2024/september/dwayne-fields-becomes-new-uk-chief-scout/

 

[Eagle1993]

Looks like a great choice.  Entertaining high adventure dude, active in social media.

UK continues to surge, recognizes the importance of new media and outreach to where you consume today.  Their Chief is 41 years old, has Insta and Twitter accounts in addition to being very active on YouTube.  First black Briton to reach North Pole.

 Our Chief is 68, no Insta or Twitter.  He is on YouTube but tell me which guy kids will follow...

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 6 by Eagle1993
Corrrected that he is the first Black Briton to reach north pole. First black man was (possibly) Matthew Alexander Henson.

[RememberSchiff]

So is Bear Grylls available?

[Tron]

On 9/6/2024 at 8:48 AM, Eagle1993 said:

Looks like a great choice.  Entertaining high adventure dude, active in social media.

UK continues to surge, recognizes the importance of new media and outreach to where you consume today.  Their Chief is 41 years old, has Insta and Twitter accounts in addition to being very active on YouTube.  First black Briton to reach North Pole.

 Our Chief is 68, no Insta or Twitter.  He is on YouTube but tell me which guy kids will follow...

 

 

 

 

 

Great points. I'm starting to  think the underlying answer is that SA is far too interested in creating "leaders" instead of good people with outdoors skills. 

On 9/7/2024 at 6:37 PM, RememberSchiff said:

So is Bear Grylls available?

I hope not. IMHO anyone of us could throw a rock and find a more qualified person than Bear Grylls.

[qwazse]

Krone: This (NOAC) is the largest gathering of scouts outside of National Jamboree.

World Scout Jamboree: hold my beer.

[RememberSchiff]

On 9/14/2024 at 9:53 PM, Tron said:

Great points. I'm starting to  think the underlying answer is that SA is far too interested in creating "leaders" instead of good people with outdoors skills. 

I hope not. IMHO anyone of us could throw a rock and find a more qualified person than Bear Grylls.

IMHO, you will likely end up with a sore arm and just find someone too slow to duck who may only change the name.

"Following a decade of membership decline in the 1990s, Scouts saw exceptional growth when Bear became Chief Scout. It was a brilliant pick (and as a volunteer, he's never been paid a penny for the time he's given). Young people and volunteers, hungry for adventure, decided to join the movement in their droves. Bear transformed Scouts' image, attracted new volunteers* and motivated us all with his ‘never give up’ attitude."

IMHO, we could use some Bear Gryll's attitude here and less closed room discussions with questionable growth projection graphs. 

Source:

https://www.scouts.org.uk/news/2024/july/saying-thank-you-and-goodbye-to-bear-grylls/

*Dwayne is working to recruit more volunteers.

My $0.02

Edited Thursday at 11:30 AM by RememberSchiff

[AwakeEnergyScouter]

On 9/14/2024 at 8:53 PM, Tron said:

I'm starting to  think the underlying answer is that SA is far too interested in creating "leaders" instead of good people with outdoors skills. 

It seems that way to me as well.

When I was a scout myself, I didn't even register a lot of the leadership training as such, because it was just something to deal with in order to go on epic adventures. Like I think a good number of folks have said repeatedly before here, the kids aren't signing up for leadership and character, it's what they get in the process of the sausagemaking. The kids want ADVENTURE. A Chief Scout that radiates cool suitably dangerous adventure is a great messenger for that reputation.

I haven't surveyed all NSOs and MOs of course, but I don't think it's a coincidence that both Scouts UK and Scouterna are growing, are culturally "around", and are selling primarily outdoor adventure. When Scouts are mentioned in Swedish entertainment and news media, we're portrayed as fit, competent, and organized at survival skills. One match fire, all that jazz. We are always portrayed outside. I saw my now cub scout perk up when they saw that in children's shows. They're almost certainly not alone.

When I see Scouting America portrayed in US media, it's mostly around civic/patriotic themes. That isn't bad, but it isn't alluring to the children the way outdoor adventure is. The parents probably like to see that, but becoming known in our local communities as the premier arranger of outdoor adventures for youth is probably strategically important if we want to magnetize kids.

Now, a cool Chief Scout isn't the only way to create that reputation, of course. We scouters can talk up the adventure we're arranging to people in our communities. Our pack had a strategy discussion last year about leaning into outdoor adventure and (age-appropriate) responsibility for making it happen last year, and we're all heartened to see that the program bar for outdoor adventure has gone up to about where we wanted to put it. We're geared up to offer all the fishing adventures on both campouts and separate fishing trips this year so that we're offering camping, fishing, and hiking on a monthly basis. We need to beat REI and all the various get outdoors groups in terms of reputation as a great on-ramp to outdoor skills. We should be people's #1 choice for that.

Edited 12 hours ago by AwakeEnergyScouter
Accidentally quoted too much and it was confusing