Time commitment by Boy Scouts?

[SeattlePioneer]

All too true, Venividi.

[Eamonn]

"Boys will participate in the things that they enjoy."

Yes that's what I said.

Seems a big leap from that too:

"Today my guys pick and choose what they want. Most could care less about their patrol, it's all about what "I" want."

 

A few years back the Rolling Stones came to Pittsburgh.

I paid $230.00 for a ticket.

A month or so later someone gave me tickets to attend a Rick Braun concert. Not being a lover or fan of Rick Braun I didn't go.

This doesn't make me selfish, just not much of a Rick Braun, jazz lover.

Take a stroll through my music collection and you'll find a very wide range of music. I consider myself music lover.

Scouts have every right to pick and choose what activities they want to participate in and don't want to participate in.

This doesn't make them selfish or not great kids or great Scouts.

I hate the cold. A day on the ski slopes is not my idea of fun, anything but! While I have taken a group of Venturers skiing it was only because the adult who was to take them backed out at the very last minute.

What does really irk me is when someone says that they are going to do something or be somewhere and then lets everyone down at the last minute.

This is one of my many pet peeves.

I'd sooner have a Lad say that he hates skiing and tell me that he isn't going than just not show up after saying that he would!

When we pressure kids into doing something that they really dislike?

We are asking for trouble and these high expectations are a reason why so many kids quit.

Sure we cover a lot of good stuff and well meaning stuff, but when we forget that kids join to have fun and remain only when they are having fun we miss the boat.

Ea.

 

 

 

 

[Venividi]

Good points, Eamonn.

 

I'ld also hope that they participate to have fun with their buddies, make new buddies to have fun with, and plan and attend things that they do together. In otherwords, to bond together to the extent that choose to do things together as a patrol rather than as individuals. Perhaps even trying something that wouldn't otherwise enthuse them, but choose to do so because a) they have fun with their patrol whatever they are doing, and b) they have a sense of duty, responsibility, and comraderie with their patrol that they participate in things like a service project, even if staying home and playing Wii is more fun.

 

 

[Eagle732]

Eamonn, Your decision to go to a rock concert was an individual decision. When Scouts pick and choose what they want to do it effects the patrol and troop as a whole. My son broke his arm during the first basketball game of the season and would not be able to play for the next 8 weeks. The next Saturday he comes out in his basketball uniform and says "Dad we have to be at the game in a half hour". So I take him to the game and he sits on the bench and cheers his team on for 8 weeks. I didn't have to tell him to do it, he just knew he was part of the team and should be there. He also goes on every camping trip and even though he doesn't like backpacking he still goes, he's part of the team. I hope this is what a boys gets out of being a Scout.

 

[MomToEli]

Eammon, I agree with you for the most part, but ...

 

A boy who feels like he is always compromising just so the group will go will also leave.

 

IMNSHO, we have a duty to teach the Lads in our care the fine art of give and take. Life really *isn't* all about him. Why would I want to support his illusion? The boy who will quit if he is expected to learn to participate in things that he may not like - well, so be it.

 

Maybe my perspective is skewed by having a unit small enough that one boy refusing to go to something could make the difference between anyone going or not. I've seen manipulation in action and it isn't pretty. Can't wait until Spring when crossovers changes that dynamic.

[Eamonn]

To be honest when I read:

"When I was a kid in Scouts many years ago it was a given that I would go on every camping trip. By the time I made Eagle I had only missed one camping trip ...."

It reminds me of the old:

Back when I was a boy we walked five miles each way to school...

If attending each and every event worked for you? That's great.

But maybe it's not the same for each and every Scout.

 

Sure there were times when I was a Lad when I looked at what was on offer and I choose to participate in events that maybe really weren't my cup of tea.

The reasons for this were varied.

Sometimes it was very much about being with my pals, knowing that while maybe the main event wasn't that great, but I knew we'd have fun anyway.

Sometimes it was very much about wanting to please the adults. This was mainly when I was a young Scout.

Sometimes it was just the opportunity to get away from home for the weekend and what was on the agenda or where we went wasn't that important to me.

 

My guess is that most of the regulars who post and join in the discussions here in this forum are very passionate about Scouts and Scouting?

With the level of commitment that most of us here have it can be hard to see and understand that not everyone is that committed.

There are a goodly number of Scouts who are great kids and great Scouts who are happy to attend the weekly Troop meeting and pick what other activities they participate in. For many Scouts and Scouting is just one other activity they participate in or belong too.

For many years I sat through the awards part of our Council Recognition Dinner. I was amazed how many other activities the guys who were on the receiving end of the Silver Beaver were involved in. I'd sit there and wonder where they found the time? I'd look at myself thinking that I'm out doing stuff almost each and every night, so where do these guys find the time to be so deeply involved in so many other good and worthwhile activities?

Most times I found that these guys did choose what they wanted to spend their time doing.

They didn't get involved in the silly stuff like spending forty minutes talking about the design of the next District Camporee patch.

When we talk about being thrifty? While attending a weekend with the Scouts is all well and good and for most of us both youth and adult it has to be really bad for us not to have fun. But when this takes away from what needs to be done, we aren't living up to the Scout oath and law.

Applying pressure to try and make Scouts attend activities is just foolish.

Ea.

[Eagle732]

No pressure from me to attend anything.

The easy answer is to increase the patrol membership from the traditional 6 -8 to about 12. That way when we go on a camping trip the patrols will be able to function with 5 or 6 members. Hard to run a good youth run program when the youth are part time participants.

[Venividi]

 

 

> Applying pressure to try and make Scouts attend activities is just foolish.

 

 

Better to provide incentive than pressure, though peer pressure can be useful.

[Eamonn]

I know that I've posted this before.

The Troop I was Scout Leader of back home in London met three times a week.

Wednesday was games night. The Scouts were free to play indoor soccer, table tennis, board games or do nothing and just hang out.

Thursdays we rented the local public swimming pool. Scouts could work on the swimming badges or just have fun in the pool/

Friday night was Troop night.

We camped almost every weekend in the summer months either as a Troop or Patrols took off to do their own thing.

We had small Patrols with only six Scouts to a Patrol.

Before it got too big and we split the Troop we had 96 Scouts.

While there was never any pressure from me or the other adults, the Scouts became so involved in the Troop that there wasn't much time for much else.

I was unmarried and had the time to do all of this.

Parents were happy as a good many of the Scouts came from what we called The Flats, here we might call them The Projects and many kids made bad choices and ended up on the wrong side of the law.

Ea.