Who Do You Serve?

[Eamonn]

Not wanting to take anything away from what was being said in the original thread.

Which I seen as something along the lines of "What to do with CO's who behave badly" (My take.)

 

For a little while now, I no longer use the "My" Word. Tending to use the "Serve" Word.

Kinda made sense to me when I first started using it. After all I didn't own the Unit, the youth weren't mine and I really had no ownership in it.

Now I'm asking "Who do we serve?"

I have heard people say that we serve the youth. (The Boys).

I do like the sound of that.

I'm just not so sure about it.

Youth members will come and go, some will be around for a fair amount of time, while others will just pass through.

Chances are one day if there are not enough youth the unit is going to not be there anymore.

In the "Real World" I serve my boss; in my case the State. I knew what my job would be and what was expected from me, how much I was going to earn and all that good stuff before I went for the interview and was selected.

If as Unit Leaders we are selected by the CO? Don't we really serve them?

The youth in the program are in fact their youth and the CO has opted to use the programs of the BSA to serve the youth that it serves.

While of course Council and District Scouts might be looked upon as serving the Council do unit leaders owe the CO their loyalty, their obediences? They after all were selected to serve by the CO.

So who do you serve?

Eamonn

[kraut-60]

Ea...you pretty much answered your own question...I would take it that we serve the CO. However, I prefer to see that I serve with other like-minded adults to serve the youth members of our troop.

 

Our CO is a Methodist church's Mens Brotherhood. we have a good relationship with our CO, but occasionally we hear some minor heartburn from someone in the congregation who isnt any kind of supporter of Scouting...last complaint was for a ripped open sugar packet that was left on a table in the kitchen...I'm sure it wasnt done maliciously, but some of these congregants have lots of time to nit-pick and find stuff to P&M about...this generally seems to be the older ladies domain of complaints.

[Lisabob]

Well I would not say I serve our CO, only because I've never been part of a scouting unit where the CO had (or seemed to want to have) a clue. In fact, in 2 of the three units I've been part of, I think that the CO thought of us as a pain in the neck and an imposition to be dealt with, when they bothered to think of us at all. This, despite making attempts to improve the relationships!

 

So I'd say I serve whatever youth are in the program at a given time, and perhaps our community by helping to raise kids who feel connected to something other than themselves and their game controllers. For all that H. Clinton got laughed at for talking about African proverbs and "it takes a village to raise a child" I do think she was right. I'd like to think I'm part of the village.

 

 

 

 

[Hal_Crawford]

My experience is similar to Lisabob's. I serve the youth. I have very little contact with our CO.

 

The CO has been kind enough to continue chartering the troop for nearly 60 years but there are very few if any youth in the congregation and none of them in our troop. For several years the CO had a string of interim pastors who did not pay much attention to us. We now have a new COR that is taking some interest so perhaps things are looking up.

 

As a troop we try to repay generosity by doing service projects for the church but there is no feeling that we are part and parcel of the church. Getting scouts to go to scout Sunday is rough because none of our scouts or scouters are of our CO's denomination (Baptist) and a number of our scouts are non-Christian. The Cub pack decamped for another CO but we have nice facilities (a great storage shed, built of brick by the scouts in the 1950s or 60s) so we do not want to leave as long as the church will allow us to stay.

 

Hal

[Stosh]

I guess in the long run I don't "serve" anyone. With that being said, I operate under the premise of: "Who do you make look good?" I am an administrative assistant in real life and when asked what I do, my answer is always, "Make my boss look good." When it comes to the troop I follow that same premise. I teach it to my boys. If asked what their job is the answer always comes out sounding the same: "Make my ______ look good. If it's a PL, they make their patrol look good. If they are a troop officer they make the patrols look good. If they are a patrol member, they make the PL look good. The ASPL makes the TOC look good and the SPL makes the PL's look good. I as SM make the SPL look good. From this perspective of support, I find very little functional problems in the unit.

 

As far as the CO is concerned, the boys generally spend extra time cleaning up the hall that we use and leave it in better shape than what we found it, leave it looking good, same for any campsites we use.

 

In my crew, we generally spend a lot of time before the public doing teaching and demonstrating our skills in a living history environment. That means we use period correct equipment, know our history and present it in the best light for the public. Our maneuvers on the field are spot on and we look good and present ourselves at a standard which gets plenty of compliments from the public as well as other reenacting groups. Because of that we get invites to events that some of the more lax units are not invited to.

 

When one does a good job functionally, there is a sense of pride in what we do because of these compliments which encourage our boys to do even better.

 

The scout unit goes to great lengths to present themselves in front of others to insure that these compliments never change over to complaints. I haven't heard any from our CO of either group, and I'm assuming it goes back to the #2 rule we operate by: "2) Look and act like a Scout."

 

We had a situation a few months back where a PL was having trouble making the meetings and things were not running as smoothly as the patrol would have liked. When I asked them what they planned on doing about it, the ASPL said he would have to step up to the plate, take over and cover for him until his stint in school sports is over. I asked the patrol members what they thought, and they all chimed in that they were going to have to work extra hard making their PL look good. Never in the conversation did the idea of replacing the PL came up.

 

I'm thinking that the more they make everyone else look good, the better they look in the long run, and the boys have figured this out.

 

Stosh

[Mafaking]

 

 

We (BSA Peoples) serve the public. The greater good of the community.

 

By installing in youths a sense of citizenship and character the public as a whole is better off. The CO and the unit leaders share in this service. CO's that decide to not re-charter a unit have come to the conclusion that A) A general public service is not our agenda only a congregational service is what we are after. B) Our resources can better serve the public by investing in other opportunities.

 

 

[Novice_Cubmaster]

After 5 years of Cubmastering, I came to the conclusion - I serve the parents. (This applies to Cub Scouting - not Boy Scouting).

 

If the Pack puts on the program correctly, we give parents a framework to do things with their son - often things a parent may not normally have done/gotten into with their son. We help parents get their views, beliefs, etc. across while the parents are still their son's primary source for such things. We don't replace parents, we facilitate for them. And to sugar coat it for both the scout and parent, we climb rock walls, camp, go tubing down a local river, fish, etc.

 

NC

 

 

[eagle97_78]

This is a good question. There have been a lot of really good answers to this question. A few of you have said that you serve the COs, the parents, and the youth.

 

First what we need to look at when we answer this question is: What was the reason that the Scouting movement was started? The reason in my opinion was to give young men something else to do that would instill good moral values into their lives.

 

The COs and the parents are not the ones that are affected by what goes on in the unit. The youth that we serve are the ones that are affected. We definitely are there as adults no matter what level of scouting you serve on, to serve the youth and help develop the young minds of tomorrow.

[evmori]

Simple answer - Now, the Scout in my district. When I was with a unit, the Scouts in my unit.

[asm 411]

I am with Mafaking. In the final analysis I serve the community as BP intended. I believe that BP was interesting in creating a world brotherhood of good healthy citizens. Though a military man he believed if we taught boys that good citizenship and brotherhood then wars could be prevented.

 

To obtain that goal on a daily basis I serve one Scout at time in whatever his needs are. Of course Scouting creates the needs which are for that Scout to be a physically fit citizen of good character who can make ethical decision throughout life based on the Scout Oath and Law.

[Eamonn]

Could it be that we serve ourselves?

Some of us have been Scouts and Scouting since we were youth members and for some reason have remained in.

While I could maybe cite some great high and mighty reasons why I'm still around, I think the main reason is that I enjoy myself and the people (Youth and adult) who are also in.

Others joined when their son joined. Many joined a unit where their son had friends. At the time of joining little or no thought was given to the CO. In fact a lot of people joined Scouts not knowing about the ties to the CO.

A large number (No I don't know how many!) of volunteers, at least the volunteers I talk with have very low expectations or maybe just don't understand the relationship that is supposed to be there between the CO and the scouting unit. Of course many CO's also fail to understand the same thing.

The end result being that we are left with a feeling of "Us and Them".

Some volunteers see the CO as some kind of necessity that at times needs to be worked around or through and any real idea of us (Scouting volunteers) serving them in a partnership that serves the youth that they want to serve is just not there. (I know of course that the next ten postings will tell about the great CO's that some do have!!)

Most of the adults I know are happy to serve the ideals of Scouting. We like and believe in the values of what we are trying to do. We want to do a good job of providing a program that will hold the interest of the youth that do join.

To this end we toddle off to the trainings, read all the literature, wait by our mail-boxes for the next Scouting magazine.

A good number will, once they have amassed all this information, make a decision what parts they will keep and use and what parts they are going to discard or ignore.

Often this decision will be made by the adults in a unit. I'm thinking about the "We don't do it that way!" or the "It just is never going to work!"

Right now I'm looking at the changes being made to Commissioner Service and I have without even seeing how it might work? Made up my mind that it is doomed for failure.

I know units that seem happy to pick and choose which of the methods of Scouting they are going to use and which they are going to ignore.

With this kind of mindset can be really say that we are serving the organization?

With some of the wrong doings and the shenanigans that some Councils were caught doing a few years back along with what seems to me to be the break down in unit service. I know I'm now a lot more skeptical and don't trust the people at the top who are supposed to serve us.

I'm very aware that things are tough.

I know that Districts and Councils seem to be having a hard time filling the spots that would result in more, better or even some unit service!

This has placed a very big burden on the professional and the District volunteers.

Still, I think it's sad when over half the pages in our bi-monthly Council paper are given over to pop-corn and FOS.

More and more of the volunteers I talk with now think that the units are there to support the Council and not seeing very much happening to support them.

With so much confusion and no one being really sure who they really do serve many of the units I see in the area where I live have groups of adults who as a group decide what they are going to do (And not do). They end up serving each other with the goal of providing the youth with the program that they feel is best. I'm not saying that they do a bad job. In fact many do a wonderful job.

The sad thing is all to often this group is so very close that when one or two members for whatever reason leaves the group the entire team breaks down and the unit folds. Which results in no one being served.

Eamonn

[fleetfootedfox]

I think it is not either-or. We serve our CO, the community, the boys, the parents, each other. What takes priority if these somehow conflict? I don't think anybody will fault us if we put the boys first.

[Eagledad]

Well looking at it in this context, I think I served the parents. I know I could care less about the CO. I use to tell parents that my job was to help better equipe their son for the day when he gets up in the morning to find his wife too sick to get out of bed, their babies crying to be fed, and his boss calling to find out why he wasn't at work.

 

Barry

[John-in-KC]

From my limited understanding...

 

We first serve the youth we are given charge over. Without kids in our programs, we may as well go join Masonic, Kiwanis, Rotary, ...

 

Our Chartered Partners are supposed to be licensing Scouting to serve the youth in their community. See Lisa's comment about a relationship gone sour, with a 2d order consequence that the CP doesn't want to give up the unit. Then you have a mess

 

We're supposed to be agents of our Chartered Partners in serving the youth.

 

Once a relationship goes South, it really is difficult to rebuild it.

[Gunny2862]

I work with/for the SPL and the PLC.

The IH can fire me but to date I haven't really done much work FOR him. The CO likes having us as a status symbol but doesn't really support us.

I think I serve the Scouts and by extension the Troop.

If I weren't serving the Scouts I don't think I'd be Scouting.

I don't think it will matter all that much when the current Scouts move on, because I'll still be serving the Scouts - to include when the day comes that the next fellow can bring more to the table as the SM, even stepping down will be serving the Scouts.