Youth Led? A matter of trust?

[Eamonn]

One of our Ship's Mates (ASM) is also our COR.

I do like him,enjoy his company and do think that his heart is in the right place.

His big failing in my view is that even with me pestering the beejeebers out of him, he never follows through with things that he is supposed to do.

If I were to ask him to drive to Timbuktu tomorrow and he was free, he would do so with no problem. But ask him to do anything next week and he is either unsure or forgets.

He also seems to never let up reminding me that he has two son's in the Ship and everything costs him three times as much.

The two boys are as different as chalk and cheese. They are only 11 months apart.

The older one suffers badly from ADD, has a learning disability and lacks social skills. I like kids a lot, but even I find I can only take him in small doses!! He is 16 now and Dad tells me that they have a daily fight trying to get him to take his meds.

The younger one is a real class clown, with brains to burn. The Lad it seems can turn his hand to anything, is very athletic and even though he clowns around is clever enough to know when to quit.

At the Election of Officers, the younger one was voted in as Storekeeper and the older one as Yeoman!!

I knew having a Yeoman with a learning disability was going to be a challenge, but I reminded myself that is why I get paid the big bucks.

At the October Quarterdeck Meeting a decision to hold a fund raising spaghetti dinner was reached. The Yeoman was to see if the Elk's would be available on the Saturday in January.

Not really a big deal as all he had to do was ask his Dad who is the treasurer for the Elk's to bring it up at the next Elks committee meeting.

Sadly due to poor planning the date of the November QD meeting fell on the same day as the first day of hunting season, so only two Scouts attended the meeting which wasn't really a meeting.

As we meet on Mondays, we will not be meeting till January 7. The dinner was to be held on January 20. We have a real busy month in January with trips to Maryland and New Jersey.

We held our QD meeting this past Monday after our regular Ship meeting.

Nothing had been done about asking the Elks, in fact nothing had been done.

Our Ship's Mate said he would ask. I was counting on the fact that he would forget and a couple of weeks would pass before we got an answer.

So the Scouts changed the dinner to a hoagie sale. They gave me a list of 3 dates. I contacted the Borough as we have to have a permit to sell on the street. It costs $1.00 and is more about making sure that only one group sells than anything else.

I go to give them my dollar, the Lady tells me that the local Volunteer Firemen have the first and third Saturday of each month (2 different firemen) She goes on to tell me that these date go really fast and if I want any others I need to get them in PDQ. So I without the approval of the QD go ahead and book 3 more dates!!

I feel bad about taking this on myself, but the Ship does need the money and some of the Scouts could use some help paying for our summer activities.

As soon as I got home I did e-mail all the members of the QD to let them know that -Yes indeed I had sinned!!

I hated to go ahead without the green light from them.

I'm sure if things don't go well that they will say it is all my fault. I did have the Ship's calendar with me so I made sure that no dates clashed.

So what would you have done?

Eamonn.

[FScouter]

It could be argued that by booking dates without consulting the group, you are a controlling adult on a power trip. What youve taught them is that everything always works out fine and that if they dont do the work, you will. Or it could be viewed as just taking advantage of an opportunity that presented itself at the permit counter.

 

Either way, the youth leadership must now deal with the consequences of the sin youve committed. That would be to decide which of your dates will work for the crew, if any, and to start planning the event. Theyre also obligated to cancel with the city any date they dont want. And they owe you 3 bucks too.

[oldsm]

I would have done exactly what you did.

 

In my experience, youth frequently fail to follow through. They don't seem to get too upset if an event gets canceled or throttled back because of their inaction. Money doesn't seem to be a big issue for them, because their parents are always willing to reach into their pockets.

 

There's another problem with youth following up on some of these things: town hall (for permits, etc.) is usually open only during the hours these kids are in school. That automatically restricts their access.

 

Sometimes we adults just have to assume the responsibility and communicate the result to the youth. I think you did the best you could under the circumstances and have no need to feel guilty. You were providing some of that thing we call adult guidance.

[Beavah]

Yah, I think it's OK to ask yerself "What would the kids do?"

 

I would expect an SPL or Crew President if they were standing in the same line and usin' their brains and were told the same information to do the same thing. Part of leadership is stepping up. Part of bein' an example of leadership is steppin' up, too.

 

Bigger question is why you were the one at the Borough office, eh? If it required an adult signature and was a business-hours-conflict-with-school thing, then I vote

 

"No foul. Case dismissed."

 

 

 

 

[Eamonn]

I went to the office because:

* They asked me to!

* The hours thing.

* The Ladies in the office don't take requests from kids.

I do feel that I did overstep my mark!!

Even if my reasons or I see my reasoning as being for the good of the Ship.

Sadly I don't think I have done such a great job of explaining to them the cost of running the Ship and how badly we need funds -I'll have to work on that.

Of course the sad thing is that I can't undo what has been done.

With hindsight maybe I should have seen if the dates could have been penciled in and I should have contacted the QD members.

Still they now have to decide if we are going to make the hoagies? Or just have them delivered?

Eamonn.

[FScouter]

If they asked you to go to the office on their behalf, I'd say they handled it using you as a resource. That's no different than the yeoman asking his dad to check on the availability of the Elk's building.

[Eamonn]

The following is a copy of the E-mail from TJ our Boatswain:

"Well seeing as we are in the hogie buisiness now, are we going to make them, or order them?

 

In an effort to redeem myself?? I replied that it was up to them to choose.

I need to have a word with him about his spelling!!

Eamonn.

 

[OldGreyEagle]

Whether its a Dagwood, a Sub, a Grinder or a Hoagie it's all the same thing. Eamonn, any idea why they call it a hoagie?

[Eamonn]

No I have no idea.

Never heard of any of them, till I crossed the big pond.

Bad thing is I really don't care for them.

As a rule when we buy them,I take the filling out and remake them using good Italian hard crusty bread.

Eamonn

[CalicoPenn]

It seems there are a few ideas as to why Hoagies are called Hoagies but the most commonly accepted is that Italian immigrant ship builders who worked on Hog Island, an island on the Delaware River near Philadelphia often had large meat and cheese filled sandwiches made by their wives for lunch. When "someone" decided to make and sell sandwiches like this, the "someone" called them "Hoggies" after the island where they were first seen, and this eventually became "Hoagies" likely because of the regional dialectical pronunciation of the word "Hoggies".

 

There are a few other theories as how the Hoagie got it's name but the commonality in these tales all seem to be Hog Island so I suspect that there is something to the idea that the sandwich was named after the island.

 

CalicoPenn

[OldGreyEagle]

Calico, your story coincides with mine, see we have educated a forum!

[Eamonn]

A very popular yell at Campfires in the UK is:

"Oggy, oggy, oggy."

Reply: "Ohi, Ohi,ohi"

A lot more oggy's and Ohi's go on!!

What most Scouts don't know is that this was in fact a call to Lunch.

The Cornish Pastie (an Oggy) is the original packed lunch for the Cornish tin miners. A meat savoury through most of it, it was sweet at one end and the crimped pastry formed a handle that could be used by the men with dirty hands.

I thought that Americans changed our Oggy to a hoagie!!

A well made oggy is a thing of sheer bliss!!

Eamonn.