Youth Beat Report

[Kudu]

Interesting survey of Scout verses non-Scout boys.

 

http://scout-wire.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/YouthBeat2010_ComparisonReport.pdf

 

Or

 

http://tinyurl.com/d582wgs

 

[packsaddle]

Is there a report to go with the results?

[moosetracker]

Shame Kudu - releasing to the public documents that are to be internal & confidential!

 

did not understand the part on the For each of the activities and sports below please tell us if you do it for fun or as part of a team/at a competitive level. then we have the % of scouts vs non-scouts in the various grade levels.. but don't see the distinction of if it is for fun or team/competion..

 

[Twocubdad]

Seems to me you would see the same results if you substituted just about any youth activity which requires boys to be motivated, active and have parents to encourage and support them. Church groups, sports, academics, community service.

 

Strikes me a one of those surveys which to support a pre-established purpose rather that generate any real insight.

[T2Eagle]

This looks like marketing/propaganda more than any kind of real data. Without knowing who and how many respondents there were for the groups, demographic information like socio-economic status, and some regression analysis to show that the two groups were demonstrably the same, this kind of survey doesnt tell us anything.

 

On second thought, it does tell us where some of our FOS donations are but shouldnt bespent.

 

[Basementdweller]

Glad I am not the only one who was perplexed by the survey.

 

What was the purpose? Who was the audience? Desired result??????

 

 

To me the results are not surprising.

[BartHumphries]

Perhaps the report is saying that those without the extra money required to participate in extracurricular activities (extra gas to drive back and forth instead of riding the bus with everyone else, extra time to pick up/drop off, extra money for supplies/uniforms, etc.) are surprise, less likely to be participating in extracurricular activites (such as sports, community organizations), less likely to be eating three square meals a day, and are otherwise impacted by their lack of money.

[skeptic]

Here is the link to where the report was found. I was not really aware of this particular part of the National site, and find it pretty interesting. Take a look; it is surprisingly helpful in some areas, and actually appears to try and address some things brought by we "trench peons". At least a step in the right direction it seems to me.

 

 

http://scout-wire.org/2011/12/

 

 

 

[Eamonn]

Reading this reminded me of times when I've been in the doctors office reading magazines with banner headlines that read "Latest poll shows American youth want Lady Gaga for president."

With the presidential election coming I'm sure that we are going to be hit with a lot of polls. Many will tell us that their poll gives us an insight to the mood of the nation.

Of course it's up to each of us how much stock we might want to put into these things.

To be fair to the BSA, I think that trying to get a handle on and know who their customers are is not a bad thing.

Sadly it does seem rather than just trying to find out what kids want, they try and twist things a little so as to make Scouts seem a little better and more holy than your everyday run of the mill kid.

Ea.

[Kudu]

14.7% of Boy Scouts (grades 6-12) do NOT camp!

 

Increasing the number of Boy Scouts who hate camping was our Chief Scout Executive's much publicized goal for the BSA's centennial year.

 

I believe similar Scout/non-Scout "research" was done in previous years. It would be interesting to measure the effectiveness of his awesome CEO "leadership skills."

 

Yours at 300 feet,

 

Kudu

http://inquiry.net/leadership/sitting_side_by_side_with_adults.htm

 

[CalicoPenn]

"14.7% of Boy Scouts (grades 6-12) do NOT camp!"

 

Yeeaaahhhh, I'm not sure I would come to the same conclusion on that statistic (though I understand how one might). In the same question set, which asks if you do an activity for fun or as part of a team/at a competitive level, one of the activities is walking and if we use Kudu's way of reaching the conclusion that 14.7% of Boy Scouts grade 6-12 do not camp, then we have to say that...

 

40.3% of Boy Scouts (grades 6-12) do NOT walk!

 

I think we all know that isn't true, don't we?

 

The question doesn't ask if they camp, it asks if they do it for fun or as part of a team/competition (Moose - I think it's an and/or question (do you camp for fun and/or as a team/competition) not a comparative question trying to determine if you do it for fun or if you do it as a team/competition).

 

Now I'm not saying that there might not be some Boy Scouts that don't camp - but the survey doesn't actually ask that question, and its as likely that there are Scouts that answered that question thinking that by fun or team they meant outside of Scouting and I'm pretty sure most of us have met Scouts that don't camp for fun outside of Scouts - just like there are plenty of Scouts that don't walk for fun.

 

That's the problem with developing conclusions based on surveys and polls like this - it's too easy to state a conclusion when a specific question hasn't been asked, or different survey takers interpret the question differently and most of the time, we never get to see the data or questions so that we can question the conclusion being reached.

[Kudu]

CalicoPenn writes:

 

"I think we all know that isn't true, don't we?"

 

Typical Leadership Logic: Establish Unreasonable Doubt to "prove" that the obvious meaning is not the real meaning or "purpose."

 

The obvious meaning of "Camping" in this survey is "Do you camp?"

 

Just as the obvious meaning of "Walking" is "Do you go for walks?"

 

CalicoPenn uses the same Leadership Skills Logic to prove that the Five Mile Hike does not require walking because the real "purpose" of the requirement is "navigation:"

 

"So what is the purpose? Look at the whole requirement, and how the requirement is subgrouped. Note the emphasis on learning map and compass skills, then utilizing map and compass skills...He could be driven in a car while he navigates...That's what this requirement is all about - navigating."

 

http://www.scouter.com/forums/viewThread.asp?threadID=327760&p=2

 

"So what is the purpose" huh?

 

Is it any wonder that our Indoor Leadership enthusiasts do so love their FAKE "Game with a Purpose" Baden-Powell quote?

 

Yours at 300 feet,

 

Kudu

 

"He could be driven in a car while he navigates" (Baden-Powell, the founder of Scouting).