Thoughts on Diversity and Scoutreach

[Eamonn]

Thanks in no small way to OJ and his involvement in the OA, I found myself doing a presentation on Scoutreach and the OA Scoutreach Mentoring program /Award. This has somehow got out of hand and now people are looking to me as if I know what I'm talking about.

Bringing Scoutreach down to its very simplest term I see Scoutreach helping us the volunteers ensure that every Boy has the opportunity to be a Scout and the member of a Troop. A real Troop that does real Scouting, things like going camping, advancing all that good stuff.

Once we are committed to the idea that we will offer every boy that opportunity everything else ought to fall in line. I am not saying that it will be easy, but once the commitment is made it is very doable.

When I was prepping for the presentation I was going to do I asked a pal of mine who works in the National Office if he knew if National had any good handouts. He was at home with the flu. Scoutreach is not in his division and I really couldn't have picked a worse time. He did give me two names of two guys who work in or with Scoutreach. I contacted both. One was dealing with Native Americans. A very nice chap, but what he was doing was not a good fit for us here in Southwestern Pennsylvania. The other Chap was also very nice but he was working with Spanish speaking youth. Again not a very good fit for what and where I am.

All three of these really nice guys said that maybe I ought to look at the Rural side of Scoutreach.

I looked at the area in which I live and sure there are lots of big fields and a fair amount of family farms. I have to admit that I have yet to meet a rich farmer. Farmers sing the blues almost as good as restaurateurs. They have all their money tied up in the farm. I have talked with Lads who have been unable to attend some events because they have had to help out and work on the farm. Most of the farms in this area are dairy farms, so we don't have any migrant workers coming in to pick anything.

Farmers are as a rule very frugal types, but the ones that I know in our area are very pro Scouting and pro values.

During February I attended a lot of B&G banquets and I was a little surprised to see a few non-white faces. In fact the Pack that I used to be Cubmaster in, which is having a really hard time had two African American Cub Scouts. Membership in the pack is now way down so these two Lads make up 20% of the pack!!The Black population in our little town makes up only 1.1%

I also seen a few black faces at the B&G in the next town. They have a 1.7% black population. This might not seem like a big deal but five years ago we had not a one!!

Our Council covers two counties, the one I live in has a population of 369,993 of which 96.2% are white. The other county has a population of 148,644 of which 95% are listed as being white.

Sad to say the Council Professionals do not seem to grasp the idea of giving every boy the opportunity to be a Scout. They want to go in and offer something that is a very nice activity and is a good turn but it isn't Scouting. In the next little town, they went in and started a Cub Scout Pack. They never got more than five boys. The guy they hired to go in and run the pack?? Failed to turn up most of the time and it failed. This Scoutreach Pack, was 440 yards from where the pack that has been there for ever meets!! Sure the Scoutreach pack met in a community hall that is part of a subsidized housing development and sure there was some sort of a partnership with HUD. I feel we could have gone in and recruited a Den Leader, paid for his or her uniform, paid for training and made a Scoutreach Den, which would be part of the pack. In time maybe with some financial help we could have these Lads cross over into the troop.

Some Professionals are telling me that this isn't the way it works and that we need to have units in the housing developments where these kids live. I think this is bull, the kids attend the same schools as the other kids in the area. Sure there will be different and new problems when we reach out to these Lads. Maybe the Scouts we have now do everything that they can to avoid these kids, maybe a few parents will be upset that we are trying to bring Lads in that they have told their kids not to associate with?

I like the idea of us reaching out and providing the opportunity of Scouting being there for everyone. While maybe there is a need on Indian Reservations or in places with large ethnic communities to alter or change the program? I'm not sure.

I do think that we the volunteers can make this work and any interference by well meaning Professionals only gets in the way.

Eamonn.

 

 

 

 

 

[bucabaker]

I know that the Scouting professionals have from time to time really ticked off our Pack volunteers by coming in and starting up a new pack in our recruiting area. We are in a very small city with typical inner city makeup. We do try reach out to everyone. My Webelos II den was 40% minorities. The Scouting Professionals would have been far better to come to the Pack and say we want to help you recruit more scouts and make an effort to reach out to the schools that you are not getting a lot of members from.

 

But they chose to ignore the existing pack, go out and start new Packs. These Packs have failed within a year with only a few transfering over to our Pack. Better to work with the existing infrastucture than build all new.

[bucabaker]

I know that the Scouting professionals have from time to time really ticked off our Pack volunteers by coming in and starting up a new pack in our recruiting area. We are in a very small city with typical inner city makeup. We do try reach out to everyone. My Webelos II den was 40% minorities. The Scouting Professionals would have been far better to come to the Pack and say we want to help you recruit more scouts and make an effort to reach out to the schools that you are not getting a lot of members from.

 

But they chose to ignore the existing pack, go out and start new Packs. These Packs have failed within a year with only a few transfering over to our Pack. Better to work with the existing infrastucture than build all new.

[Eamonn]

A very dear Pal who is a Scouting Pro has pointed out that not everything that is being done gets in the way of the volunteers.

The Soccer program for Spanish speaking youth seems to be a well thought out program, which could work.

To tell the truth I have only glanced at it and when I said that we might be able to make a few changes to it, so it would work in our Council I was informed that we were not allowed to change it. That came from our SE, who has a track record of not knowing very much!!

Of course not every one who is a Scouting Pro. Is not a twit. Most are really nice hard working people who love Scouting every bit as much as we the volunteers do.

I do not have any problem with new units. Packs, Troops and Crews should be like restaurants, with one on every corner so that Boys and Parents can choose the one that suits them best.

Starting new units in any area where there isn't one is a good thing. But the goal has got to be that in time any unit will be a regular unit not dependent on Council employees to go in and run things. Sure we may have to look at ways of funding some of the activities that these Scouts may want to do. But finding money for kids is not that hard. I know that if ten Scouts from a Scoutreach Troop wanted to attend summer camp, I could pick up the phone and have the money in less than an hour. People will pay to send a Scout who needs a hand to camp.

Eamonn.

[rpushies]

Hi Eamonn,

 

I'm not sure I understand your reference to OJ and the Order of the Arrow?

 

But if you are looking for support literature on the Scoutreach topic go to the http://www.scoutreachbsa.org/ web site and on the Publications and Resources page you will find a link to a PDF file that has just about every resources you would want. Many of these resources are BIN items. Bin items are a fairly well kept secret that can be ordered by your council at no charge. It may take your council a while to get them ordered but they are available.

 

Now to the meat of your posting. Scouting should be made available to every boy that has a desire. Amen, brother! Just think of all the boys that could benefit from involvement with a quality Scouting program. Volunteer and professional Scouters should really not be at odds on this topic. It comes down to leadership within your district and council. I mean real leadership that has a vision of what Scouting can become. The volunteers and professionals really want the same result. Their focus is just different. When I was a District Executive, I would have treasured someone like you that can really see the importance of Scouting to a young boy who may not have much else to hold onto.

 

Professional Scouters have a very important mission to serve Scouting. They focus on three fundamental issues: Finance, Membership and Program. Often they look to good volunteers like yourself to carry the banner of program. Finance and Membership are often more difficult to delegate to volunteers since they have such a profound affect on their ability to stay employed. If you take a look, membership is part of the requirements for Quality Unit, District and Council Awards.

 

When it comes to membership it very common for the professional to have goals for both new units as well as new members. This can cause some real difficulty as evidenced by the recent reporting on NBC of membership irregularities in some councils. These are extreme examples of how some professional Scouters may have tried to cope with the significant challenges of membership growth they are given. The reality is national membership in Scouting is slipping. Not a lot, maybe 1 or 2 percent, but our numbers are getting smaller. This puts tremendous pressure on our whole organization.

 

It's up to you and me to make the difference. There is a whole army of like minded volunteer and professional Scouters waiting to follow our leadership to help Scouting grow.

 

Yours Truly in Scouting,

Rick

[Eamonn]

Hi Rick,

OJ is my 16 year old son, who is very heavily into the OA, at present he is serving his second term as Vice Chief - Admin.

I did use http://lld.oa-bsa.org/docs/S43-ScoutReach%20Mentoring-Syllabus.pdf

Making a power point presentation. The materials that are available from National are good. However they seem to deal with in the "Extreme" Places that are in no way like the area in which I serve.

In your posting you say:

" Just think of all the boys that could benefit from involvement with a quality Scouting program".

I like most volunteers am total committed to a Quality Program. I do have to admit that at times I do have a hard time making or understanding the changes needed in order to make the program work.

I can and do understand how a charter can have "John Doe" as a name in a unit that has a transient community.

The thing that is bugging me is the lack of planning that goes into some of these units. This of course could be a local problem?

What is being delivered is not a quality program,at times I'm unsure what it is? I do know that it is a far cry from anything that might be termed as Scouting.

While the Kids are real kids, I have to wonder if we are more interested on names on the page than we are about the quality of the product?

The hardest thing about starting new units, is selling the idea to the adults that have been selected to deliver the program. It seems that if we place a paid person to do this we then make no effort to help whoever the organization is, make any headway in becoming an everyday traditional unit. The end result is that we have something which may be the most wonderful of good deeds, but it sure isn't Scouting.

Eamonn.

 

[rpushies]

Hi Eamonn,

 

You wrote, " While the Kids are real kids, I have to wonder if we are more interested on names on the page than we are about the quality of the product?" I think you have a valid point. Having run an in-school Scouting program for my council and then becoming a professional Scouter, I have seen Scouting from a perspective that I did not understand before. Im not saying that I completely understand it now, but I have a more complete picture of the Scouting movement.

 

Are you directly involved in starting these Scoutreach units in your council?

 

Yours Truly in Scouting,

Rick