Scouts' Dishonor?

Last Thursday morning I was greeted by the front page of the Akron
Beacon-Journal. The headline of the lead article read "Scouts Dishonor?" The
article explained that the Copley Township trustees had asked the leadership
of Troop 382 to vacate their meeting room and find another place to meet.

Through the article, and knowing the leadership of the troop, I learned that
the trustees saw the Scouts as vandals and typical youth with no respect for
authority. The Scouts were accused of vandalizing township property,
urinating on the walls, destroying trees on the property, being loud, and
disrupting operation of the fire department. The Scoutmaster had been called
into a meeting and was "read the list of complaints." Evidently, he was not
given an opportunity to respond or give the troop's side of the story. The
subject was supposed to be discussed at the next trustee's meeting.

Here's a little bit of history...
Troop 382 has been around for about 41 years. During most of the last twenty
years, 382 and 381 took turns being the better troop (i.e. one would be on
the rise while the other would be in decline). For 54 years 381 was
sponsored by Copley United Methodist Church, while 382 is presently (I'm not
sure how long) sponsored by the township police department. Troop 381 met in
the church basement, while Troop 382 met in a room on the third floor of the
township hall next door.

Last year, support at the church for troop 381 caused that troop to find a
new sponsor and meeting place a few blocks away at the VFW. Troop 381 was
just beginning to rebuilt after what looked like their last year of
operation. Troop 382, on the other hand had been growing steadily for
several years and is still a model troop in the district.

The Situation...
Copley Township is about to spend a lot of money renovating the township
hall. The trustees have made no secret of their desire for Troop 382 to meet
elsewhere. The troop has been running it's own show for quite some time
without much help from their sponsor, except the use of a public facility
the sponsor no longer occupies.

Since the police department's new building doesn't have the facilities to
support a Scout troop, they are happy to let them stay in the township hall.
Since the trustees don't actually sponsor the unit, they can't simply ask
them to find another sponsor without the okay of the police department. They
could compel the police to drop their sponsorship of the unit, but that
could cause a lot of bad press. Really, the only way they could get the
troop out of the public facility is to explain that the Scouts in the troop
are a bunch of vandals and need to find someplace else to meet.

The Problem...
By publicly announcing that the trustees wanted the Scouts out because of
vandalism problems, they have shot themselves in the foot. What community
organization would want a group of vandals meeting in their building? While
the leadership of the troop may have "leaked" the news to the ABJ, the
newspaper helped the trustees shoot themselves in the foot by printing the
article on the front page; and a couple trustees continued to shoot
themselves by responding to the reporters questions. While the troop may
actually get to stay in their meeting room, the bad blood between the
trustees and the troop leaders will continue to cause problems. At some
point in the future, the troop may find itself without a sponsor.

It has already been suggested to me that the two troops should merge into
one troop sponsored by the VFW. While I might have actually thought about
this a year ago, I wouldn't today. Troop 381 has come a long way in one year
(not as far as I had hoped, but...). Troop 382 is just beginning to benefit
from all of the hard work their leadership put in to build that unit up.
There are too many points of contention and possible disagreement to even
think about merging the troops.

There are two troops in Copley, Ohio. One is celebrating 56 years of service
to local youth, and the other is celebrating at least 41. Two years ago,
when I was first approached about becoming Scoutmaster of one of those units
the district planned to merge the two. Shortly after that, though, they
realized that the township was big enough to accommodate more than one
troop. The Scouts of Troop 382 who have been there for three or four years
deserve to have "Troop 382" stamped on their Eagle applications as much as
the five remaining Scouts of Troop 381 in 1997 deserved to have "Troop 381"
stamped on theirs.

I know what I would have done, and I know what I'm going to do. I have
already talked to the Scoutmaster of Troop 382 and pledged my support as a
fellow Scouter. The troop committee of Troop 381 and the VFW have offered to
let them meet at the VFW until another meeting place can be found. And
several area Scouters are already planning to attend the township trustee
meeting on May 14th. And our troop website
(http://members.aol.com/Scouts381/) has been modified in support of our
brother Scouts. So, what do you think? What would you have done if it had
been your unit? Your town?

YIS
Anthony J. Mako, ajmako@apk.net, http://junior.apk.net/~ajmako/
Scoutmaster, Troop 381 http://members.aol.com/Scouts381/
Home of the Unofficial Win95 Boy Scout Desktop Theme!
Great Trail Council - Copley, Ohio
"I used to be an Eagle (C-7-97), but I'll always be an Eagle (1981)"

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