This Mission thing

[Eamonn]

At times I'm easily confused.

One Doctor's office we visit has copies of Prevention Magazine in the waiting room?

Along with Prevention there seems to be a lot of copies of Guideposts. (I used to keep OJ's copies of Boy's Life now I drop them off at our local Doctor's office.)

When Her Who Must Be Obeyed sends me to the store, I do a far better job when I have a list of what she wants.

Without a list I seem to stray into the music department and forget why I went shopping in the first place.

Very often at Christmas, I'll return home from Christmas shopping and find I've bought myself lots of new stuff.

Sometimes I feel bad that I do a better job with the 12 points of the Scout Law, than I do with the 10 Commandments.

Every now and then I'll look over the Methods of Scouting, just to see if I'm on track.

When things seem to not be on track, I at times will go back to the old 11 Leadership Skills. Very often if I'm honest with myself I'll see where I messed up.

So having a Mission Statement does help.

Sometimes I do have a hard time with mixing up Vision and Mission.

My problem is that I tend think of the mission as the vision of the future and not as what I'm doing.

While both the Ship and I have goals, we don't really have a long term strategic plan in place.

I have been involved with what might be viewed as several successful Scouting units and we never seemed to have a long term strategic plan in place.

Could it be that we were just lucky?

Eamonn.

[Narraticong]

My guess is that 95% of the grass roots leaders and 99.9% of the boys do not know or care about mission statements, value statements, etc. Let the pros occupy their time with such. Being part of the generation which tries to define itself by mission statements, I know they are supposed to be "short and direct". How about "Be Prepared"? Pretty clever, eh?

 

Why do we care- we know Scouting done right achieves the goals. Last week I visited the Adler Planetarium in Chicago. There was an exhibit on astronaut James Lovell which included a mockup of his childhood bedroom. On the dresser was a picture of Boy Scout James Lovell. Has anyone who ever saved a drowning person credited what they learned in soccer camp?

 

We know the answers. Scouting works. Just stand up for your convictions and keep leading by example. The fact is the program and our leaders WILL have a positive effect on countless boys. Always has, always will.

[Fuzzy Bear]

The good thing about trying to make something relevant for youth today is that everyone soon discovers what was already important.

 

The Scout Oath

The Scout Law

The Scout Motto

The Scout Slogan

The Aims if Scouting

The Skills of Leadership

The Methods of Scouting

 

These have both vision and mission.

 

I am unsure what has come along that can compete or replace things that work so well.

 

The two stars on the Scout Badge represent Truth and Knowledge. These two stars are separate but never equal. Sometimes the light that shines from the One crosses into the path of the lesser. When it does, we have something very special. FB

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Eamonn]

Narraticong

I hate to be disagreeable.

But...

Yes there is always a but.

When you say:"My guess is that 95% of the grass roots leaders and 99.9% of the boys do not know or care about mission statements, value statements, etc."

I kinda think a lot of people who have been involved or taken the 21st Century Wood Badge, might beg to differ.

Eamonn

[Narraticong]

Not being a graduate of 21st Century Woodbadge, I have no basis from which to disagree with you. And maybe I was being a little "over the top" to make a point.

 

However ("Howevers" trump "Buts" in the rules of rhetoric), the point I was trying to make is that we seem to be moving away from what BP and Green Bar Bill envisioned. A simple, outdoors based program which would turn boys into men who are morally upright citizens who can survive and prosper in whatever situation they might find themselves.

 

Mission statements and visions are nothing more than fluff. My vision is that if I use the Scout Oath and Law as the guidelines in my Scouting program I will be successful in my mission. Simple enough, don't you think?

 

Call me a dinosaur, but I believe we have gotten off track since we started getting involved with missions and visions. I think it started with those blasted red berets...

[EagleInKY]

I disagree, missions and visions are much more than fluff. Now, while the actual text of the statement isn't that important, the fact that scout leaders need to be driving toward that mission/vision is essential for the success of the program. In fact, I think a lot of the times when we see problems in units, it's because the leader has taken his eye off of the mission and focused on an issue at hand.

 

I've done a lot of thinking about this recently. I know this is very "academic", but I think it helps it make sense to me. Think of it like a pyramid (or ladder, if you prefer). At the top is the aims (character, citizenship, fitness). The aims are supported by our values (Scout oath, law, motto, etc.), By living according to these values is how we'll reach our aims. Beneath the values are the methods. These are the categories of "stuff" we need to include in order to give broad exposure to the values. The methods are supported by policies, which govern what we do (YPT, G2SS, etc.). Beneath that is the program. This is how we deliver the methods (within the policies) to teach the values in order to reach our aims.

 

Aims

[Eagledad]

>>Mission statements and visions are nothing more than fluff

[OldGreyEagle]

First of all, dont be dissin' the red berets, they were the coolest thing going until Curtis Sliwa outfitted the Guardian Angels in them and Boy Scouts had to take them off.

 

Next, Mission Statements are as much fluff as people allow them to be. If your company has a Mission Statment because somebody read every succesful compnay needs a Mission Statement then maybe all that statement is is fluff. But companies that do live their mission statments tend to be succesful. Then there are companies whose owners never bothered to develop a mission statement, they figured they would take care of the customer and every thing else would work out fine. (That works as well, )

 

One of the recordings I have of B-P's speeches talk about what is Boy Scouts, and he sums it up as the boys are trained to be "good men". Men of character, good citizens and "healthy" (Phyically fit)

 

I dont think todays BSA is all that far from those ideals. The Outdoors program is the vehicle that delivers Scouting. We have a Model Railroad Crew in the Council who teaches many of the same characteristics through model railroading although I am dubious in the physical fitness part. But leadership, self confidence, problem solving, etc are all part of what they do.

[Fuzzy Bear]

Fluff is not a word I would use either after reading Barry's description. The rub is that the Aims were already in place along with the Methods, The Oath, The Law, the Slogan and the Motto. The problem in the past with units that I worked and Scouted with had to do with people forgetting or not knowing the Aims. Actually, they forgot the Methods and right on down the line. They didn't connect the dots. I can see where a Mission statement and a vision keeps people pointed in the right direction. It is all too easy to forget that many either don't know or underestimate the importance of where we have agreed to go with Scouting.

The next point on forming, storming, norming, performing is psychobabble taken right out of Group Therapy/Dynamics. This is an excellent way to train people in how groups form and the processes they go through on their way to a goal.

I know that this doesnt count but have you ever been to a Church service where a prayer started things off or a prayer was given before a Sunday School class. What about a prayer before a meal or a prayer said out loud in a restaurant. Irrespective of anyones beliefs, it gives direction to all that follows. FB

 

[Eamonn]

Some time back I posted how much I'd like to see the Ticket part of Wood Badge moved to a little later in the course.

It seems to me that as soon as the participants hear the word ticket everything else gets pushed aside.

I really wanted the participants to understand what their vision and their mission was.

Being the sly little Course Director that I was, when we handed out the sheets for the ticket items (goals) The top couple of lines on each page were set aside for the participant to write his vision and mission statement.

While at times I do mix up the vision and the mission, I don't see it as fluff.

Back when I became a District Chairman, it seemed that everyone in the District seemed to almost take pride in us being the smallest of the four districts in the council.

I knew from the get go that I had 3 years to try and get done whatever I wanted to get done.

My vision was for us not to be the smallest district.

The mission was to improve retention, recruitment. This led to improving training,making district events more fun and trying to ensure that they were better planned. This led to us looking at communications and before we knew it we were back to the 11 leadership skills.

I like to think of myself as being very much a "Program" type Scouter.

I wasn't very happy being away from the youth members and sitting through meeting after meeting.

Much as it might sound like I'm patting myself on the back!! (Yes I do have an ego!!) We did pull it off, we became the second smallest district in the council!!

We have some of the most dedicated Scouter's in the world in the district. They all know the Oath and Law, their values are the values that are found in the Oath and Law.

Once I shared my vision with them, the District Committee, the Commissioner Staff and the other members of the key 3 and they "bought" into it. We seemed to have a renewed purpose and life in the district.

Commissioners would call me and tell me how well packs and troops were doing. Unit Leaders would stop me and tell me how many new Scouts they had.

I sat looking at membership reports, looking at the weak units trying to find ways that we as a district could help them out and maybe help them grow.

Fluff?

I don't think so!

Eamonn.