emails

[Apache Bob]

Several times in our Troop the SM or ASM has asked the Scouts to email them about different subjects. For example: are you going on a camping trip, let me know if you are going to a MB college, tell me when you need a SM conference. In other words, miscellaneous items between meeting.

My question is about youth protection. Here you have an adult dealing directly with a boy without another adult involved. Should the adult be sending a cc or bcc to another leader to protect the boy and the leader?

Or am I making a mountain out of a mole hill.

I could also ask the same thing about facebook.

 

 

[artjrk]

I use email and Facebook as ways to reach my scouts. Its a form of communication that I know will reach them between meetings. I do not see any difference between these and calling the scout on the phone. As far as youth protection I think the leader is safer hear because the communications are in writing and both parties have a copy. If you have worries go ahead and copy the parents as well.

[scoutldr]

I recently discovered Facebook and established a "Troop XX Alumni" page and have been inviting scouts and former scouts and their families to join. My goal is to someday have a reunion, and it is interesting to see what the guys are up to some 10-15 years later. I was worried that having "Mr. Scoutldr" as a friend might not go over so well with them, but so far, all have joined when asked. I do kinda cringe at what I might discover, since their Eagle boards are coming up...but so far, so good. I do resist the urge to chime in with comments, when "Billy" says "I'm bored with nothing to do", and I want to reply, "So...how's that Eagle project writeup coming?"

[The Blancmange]

My question is about youth protection. Here you have an adult dealing directly with a boy without another adult involved.

You must object to phone conversations as well? Actually phone calls would be worse becasue with email and FB there is a record of the interaction preserved.

[Mafaking]

 

I email scouts directly. Have to. All too often the parents don't pass along the information to their son.

 

You will find that the family email you are sending to is actually Dad's work email and he forgets to pass along the information. Or the parents don't understand and there fore ignore the information to bring X to the next meeting.

 

email isn't too much different than calling the scout on the phone. The parents don't listen in then.

 

 

 

 

[Beavah]

Yah, what all da others said, eh?

 

No YP issue with email. Safer for you and the boy than telephones.

 

Facebook even more so, since it is very much "public".

 

Of course, I'm all for teachin' the lads how to handle the spam and other crap they get, and da risks of posting in certain venues. But if you're goin' to teach that stuff, yeh have to be communicatin' with your boys in something resembling at least late 20th century technology.

 

Beavah

 

[skeptic]

My problem is that even with email, they hardly ever respond. Most admit to seldom checking mail; and, as noted, many parents simply forget, or do not feel it necessary to pass on much of the time. They too are bad about even looking at the email. Sometimes wonder how they ever get by if they never read stuff.

[shortridge]

My mother, who works as a children's librarian, reports that Facebook has largely replaced e-mail as a form of teenage communication. They don't check their e-mail except maybe once a week, if that.

[Oak Tree]

I can confirm that Facebook and texting have essentially replaced email for getting in touch with all the teenagers I deal with. I've done both of those to get in touch with Scouts. Not all the Scouts in my troop are my "friends" nor do I have all their phone numbers, so I sometimes have to rely on phone calls or email to the parents.

 

But Facebook has its own email and its own chat, and for the kids, everyone they are friends with in real life, they are friends with there too. So why would you even check email? Facebook has no spam.

 

For younger kids, it might make sense to copy the parents. For older kids, no big deal. It does raise a question about what to call yourself. When you refer to yourself as Mr. Tree with the kids, but as Oak to the parents, how do you sign your emails? A thread will start off being to a parent, but then a response will end up being to a youth and your name veers back and forth...ah, the dilemmas.

[Lisabob]

One thing that helps ( a bit) is setting very clear expectations about who will check emails, for what, and when. For example, my son/SPL and his SM do email back and forth, but the SM nearly always calls and say "I am sending you an email about xyz with details." Then my son knows to look for it, will check, and usually answers. Otherwise, he checks email when he gets around to it - but facebook, daily. I don't think kids - who grew up on this technology - understand that most adults are still on email only (at best).

 

Still, I'm not sure I'm excited about using facebook for conveying anything more complicated than basic meeting reminders. It isn't set up for lengthy material, you can't do attachments, etc.

 

My question is, why do we still do old-fashioned routine patrol calls (with dubious results) when all the boys are on FB? Why not just do FB patrol messages? Write on your patrol members' walls, etc.

 

 

[Mafaking]

 

facebook shamshbook.

 

My son gets his homework assignment through emails.

 

The business world runs on emails and will for the next 5 - 10 years. The email is the old type written MEMO that anyone over 40 should remember. Written and documented communications are part of life. The scouts should get used to these forms of communication.

 

Getting, forcing or cajoling a scout to use proper written communication should be part of the handbook. Actually it is for the scribe.

 

Dropping down to text, tweet or anything else to "better reach" the scout is out of line with the other things we are trying to accomplish.

 

 

[evmori]

Youth protection issues on e-mail? Now that is the 1st time I have ever heard someone bring that up!

 

YP has nothing to do with e-mail! And nowhere in YP training or literature is it even inferred!

 

Why would you think YP has anything to do with e-mail, Apache Bob?

[gwd-scouter]

I remember a while back the issue of youth protection and email/facebook came up. Seems more people at the time thought it was important to cc the boys' parents when emailing them. I may not be remembering correctly, though.

 

Everyone on in our troop, boys and adults, know that I don't text or use a cell phone. Call me at home in the evenings or at work during the day and leave a message, but if you want a quick reply - email me. Works really well with adults. I don't have emails for most of the younger guys. Doesn't matter anyway since they are supposed to be talking to their patrol leaders. The guys on the PLC, on the other hand, all have email and are good at responding to me. They cell phone, text, or facebook each other.

 

I use facebook, too, but not to post something on the status messages. Rather, most of the guys and parents are friends with me and I go to their page and post a message in their facebook email. That, as others have said, gets checked much more regularly.

 

Parents and a few of the scouts also catch me online when I'm facebook and send me instant messages from time to time.

 

A couple of the boys set up a Troop facebook page and invited everyone to join. It did very well at first, but I don't think anyone has posted there in about six months.

[packsaddle]

I exchange emails with boys as well as students for what seems like ALL the TIME! I never worry about it one way or the other. What I have found is that if I avoid the nonsense or attempts at humor, and just stick with straight business - giving them solid information - they mostly try to do the same thing. You know, it's that 'leading by example' thing.

 

A couple of other practices: I keep EVERY email in an archive.

I follow the rule, "if you think you can get away with it, don't do it."

Stay formal and professional. I am very careful with email, text messages, facebook, etc. if I'm corresponding with a child or a student. (my boss, on the other hand, sometimes feels the need to take some extra valium afterwards)

If you never write something that can cross the line then you have nothing to worry about. I save all the pent up frustration for messages to the idiots at insurance companies and the morons who work for banks.

[Oak Tree]

Ed, I can take a guess at what Apache Bob is thinking. It's not that it's a written rule anywhere, but that sending email to a youth feels like "one-on-one contact".

 

One-on-one contact between adults and youth members is not permitted. In situations that require personal conferences, such as a Scoutmaster's conference, the meeting is to be conducted in view of other adults and youths.

 

I agree that it's not a YP issue, but I can see why it sort of feels like one.