Why is he here?

[Eamonn]

I''m guessing that most of us have sat through the BSA video "Ages and Stages" -The one about a picnic.

It doesn''t do a bad job of explaining how boys see things at different ages.

I really have no idea why a parent signs up their son for Cub Scouting.

In my case, when OJ reached Cub Scouting age. I was supposed to be on a Council Properties Committee. The Committee rarely met. It was more or less something a few friends of mine did to keep me on the books!!

I was very busy owning and running two restaurants, working 16 hour days and HWMBO worked shifts at the local hospital.

OJ was just starting to play soccer and I was helping out as a coach. I think I might have seen the two hours a week I put in for about fourteen weeks a year as my effort to spend quality time with him.

I really didn''t care if he joined Cub Scouts or not.

He came home with the flyer and HWMBO was the one who signed him up. I was very busy, but did take the time to go to the Pack meetings. Which were about as exciting as watching the grass grow. Week after week we bundled him in the car and got him to the Den meeting.

He wanted to go. He wanted to wear his uniform. He loved the Pack meetings where he was recognized with beads and badges.

Within a year it seemed that all the adults in the pack were gone and my hiding place in the back of the hall where the meetings were held didn''t work out as well as I''d hoped.

I ended up being re-activated.

OJ''s enthusiasm for the program remained strong. He never missed a meeting.

By the time he was ten and a half, he had outgrown Cub Scouting. He had met all the requirements for the AOL. So in January a month before the B&G and cross over he joined a Troop. By now I was no longer with the pack and was District Commish.

The first two years he couldn''t wait to go to each and every Troop activity. He was ready, wearing his full uniform telling me to "Hurry Dad, we are going to be late!"

The SM of the Troop had been self-employed, but he got a real job and had to quit. His replacement was a real dope.

OJ''s interest started to dwindle. The new SM was handing out MB''s like crazy. OJ was asked did he ever build a Pine Wood Derby car? and next thing was he received a MB.

He changed Troops.

About this time he became active in the OA and was asked to staff a JLTC course. (The Council hadn''t offered one for a few years.) He really enjoyed the OA. He enjoyed JLTC,but it in some ways left him feeling like "Something wasn''t as it should be!" And he didn''t know how to go about fixing it.

He became more active in school activities. He was captain of the HS soccer team, in the choir, on the track team, in the school plays. He wanted to support the school teams even if it did mean missing Troop meetings.

In fact attending a Troop meeting was something he would do, if there wasn''t something else going on or if he didn''t have a better offer.

Now as I look back I see that he enjoyed being a Scout, he just wasn''t that happy being a member of a Troop!!

He liked staffing the JLTC courses, being active in the OA,working on summer camp staff, being a staff member at the Jambo and working on the trail crew at Philmont.

But by the time he was about 16 he had become a "Troop Visitor". If he had nothing to do on a Tuesday night he''d throw his Scout shirt in the back of the car and visit the Troop.

The Troop never knew when he was going to visit, so rarely had anything planned for him to do. So he''d hang out talking to the other Lads who were visiting, chat with the adults who were also hanging out then come home and tell me that the meeting was boring!!

As far as Scouting skills goes. He just doesn''t have them!! The first Troop was so advancement crazy that no one took the time to see if the requirements were met.

I think if there had been an attendance requirement in the second Troop he more than lightly would have quit.

 

Fast Forward:

Three weeks ago he was coming home late. (He works part-time in a pizza shop) There was a car crash on the road. He was the first person there. He used first aid to help one Lady. Sadly the other person was dead. He held the head of the other making sure she didn''t move. He''d checked out all the other signs. He''d called 911 on his cell. Lucky enough a nurse was passing in her car and she stopped to help.

They ended up flying the one person to a trauma center.

He was very shaken and upset when he got home.

But said "Hey Dad that First Aid that I learned in Scouts really works."

We will never know if Scouting did help him help others?

I don''t know if the Troop had said "You don''t meet our attendance requirements" if he might or would have missed the First Aid MB (He is an Eagle Scout)

I don''t know a lot.

I do know that even as a Troop visitor he got something that might not have been there if he had been asked to leave.

The Lady he helped is doing OK, she has three sons.

Maybe when the time comes they will join a pack and learn first aid?

Eamonn.

[Scouter&mom]

WOW!!! thanks for the reminder that we never know exactly what they may be getting, when we think they are just hanging out and having fun.

 

Will help me deal with those boys who make it part of the time and don''t seem committed. rarely go on trips, Mom won''t make committment for them to be gone.. she needs the older one to help with all her younger kids.. She has 5 kids from 13 to less than a year... At least they are there some of the time, and having the other adult influeces can make the difference.

 

[BrentAllen]

Eamonn,

I''m glad OJ was able to help. As upsetting as it would be to see a fatality, he probably feels a little elated that he was able to help the survivor.

 

First Aid is just one skill a boy will learn in Scouts. Some people go to the Red Cross and learn those skills, without ever putting on a Scout uniform. As you know, the main difference Scouting and any other youth program is that Scouting teaches leadership and responsibility. Those skills/lessons are taught in the patrol, using the patrol method, and through the PLC. Visitor or part-time Scouts do not help teach those lessons (they aren''t part of the group going through the phases of team development) and they do not learn them. So while Scouting has some value to part-timers, they are really missing the main point of the program.

 

Would OJ have attended more if the leaders (boy or adult) called when he was absent and let him know he was missed, and hoped he would be there next week?

[theysawyoucomin']

I confess to being one of those adults who say, "Why is he here".

 

Mostly I think the boys 16 and over who don't come to Troop meetings and help the wee ones to be selfish. I didn't think about the fact that they like Scouts but dislike the Troop.

 

Of course in a boy led organization, he (meaning all boys in this crowd, not just OJ) could grab the bull by the horns and run the show.

 

I think some of the boys that never show are there for the little silver "chicken" and every one else can go pound salt.

Can't sell popcorn, too busy to make ONE of the TEN weekend days to work Christmas tree sales, can't make one over the summer camping trip just for fun, no camporees. Younger Scouts don't know who they are.

 

Not how I want my son to be thought of.

 

OJ clearly had other Scouting activities that he was giving to and if he was on trial for being a Boy Scout there would be witnesses and evidence to convict him. Philmont, camp, Staff at Jambo the prosecution would have enough to make a case.

 

Our Troop would not have boys with the same resume.

Got my "chicken" I'm gone.