What Percent Scouting?

[Beavah]

the other 99% of the hours making up his life.

 

This post led me to thinkin' about how much time kids really do give to Scouting.

 

Assumin' 8 hours of sleep per night, there are 112 hours available in a week, 448 in a month, 5824 in a year.

 

Most Boy Scout meetings take 2 hours per week, includin' transportation time. Call it 40 meetings a year, 80 hours.

One outing a month takes about two days of awake time, 32 hours. Call it 10 monthly outings, 320 hours.

Summer camp takes 6 days of awake time, 96 hours.

 

So for a basic, fairly active scout, we get 496 hours, plus some time buyin' gear, makin' menus, buying food, getting ready for outings, sewing on uniform stuff. And then add service hours.

 

About 10% of his life is Scouting. (Not bad, though still way short of the average for television watching (20 hours per week, 1040 per year, or almost 20% by the time you add in movies.)

 

Now add leadership responsibilities for Star, Life, Eagle. PLCs, TLT, NYLT, and MB's. Up to at least 15%.

 

Now add OA, and high adventure activities. Up to 20% or more, I bet.

 

In a more-active-than-average troop, 25%.

 

Yah, safe to say we are a pretty big part of the "everyday life" of our scouts. We might even beat TV as a significant influence on our active scouts. And we rival school (8 hours per day *180 days = 25%, not counting homework and sports).

 

That's a lot of time kids give us, eh? Humbling. We must work hard to make it worth their while.

 

Of course, Mrs. Beavah would point out that the adults have to be there, too, and are probably givin' about 35% of their life for their "one hour a week."

 

 

[local1400]

Ya, Beav -lend me some toes! Who gets 8 hours of sleep anymore? I work a 10 hour shift(on occasion 12) and commute 3 hours round trip daily. But still give what little I got!