Re: Adult Patrol Names
Michael Bowman (mfbowman@USSCOUTS.ORG)
Sun, 18 Apr 1999 11:44:28 -0400
Hi Irene,
Yep, all you asked for was names. Just like at roundtables you may ask what
seems to be a simple question and one where you want just a simple answer.
However, you may have other Scouters within hearing distance who've "been
there, done that" and want to share based on their experience. It may turn
out that what they can tell you from experience will save you from having to
learn the same lessons all over again or it just may be an opportunity to
share thoughts.
Lets look at it like this. Suppose you stopped and asked for directions to
a place where you wanted to go shopping. Now all you wanted to know was how
to get from point A to B. Well the person you asks decides first to tell
you about a police radar trap down the road and around the corner, then
tells you about a great ice cream place because its hotter than hades
outside, and finally suggests to you that the place you want to visit is
more expensive than another place which is just around the corner from the
ice cream parlour. In fact he suggests that you park there, enjoy a cone
and save some money at the other place. Now I suppose this lengthy
digression from the answer you wanted could irritate, overwhelm, or please
you depending on how you wanted to take it. If you can see the concern and
care in the stranger's eyes, you may see that this person is trying to help
out.
That is sort of how it is here on the list. We have a number of experienced
Scouters like Mike who try to help and offer suggestions. They are not
meant to overwhelm or even be terribly critical. They are more like the
stranger trying to give a chance for a cool ice cream and a bargain shopping
store.
The difference is that there are about 2000 people on the list. Often a
question that you or someone else asks is the same thing that others are
wondering about too. When you raise the topic, another Scouter may decide to
share philosophy, experience, and help in response to you, but mostly for
the benefit of other folks that are reading what you wrote and asking
themselves questions about it. So often a comment given in response to a
posting isn't really intended to be exclusively personal, rather for both
the writer and the rest of the folks on the list.
This posting is an example of this. You raised an issue with a statement.
It is a good issue along the lines of why did I get such a long response on
a related subject when all asked about was ... This happens often here.
And many who are new to the mechanics of a list are scratching there heads
saying, well dang how come I got this kind of answer or why did he answer
like that. We've had some misunderstandings on the list and so I thought
that by writing a bit about the mechanics of things, it might help more than
one person. On the other hand there may be a few that roll up their eyes
and say "there he goes again." :-))
Mike
Mike Bowman, Vice President
U.S. Scouting Service Project, Inc.
Website: http://usscouts.org
E-Mail: mfbowman@usscouts.org
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Scouts-L Youth Group List [mailto:Scouts-L@LISTSERV.TCU.EDU]On
> Behalf Of Irene Kempf
> Sent: Sunday, April 18, 1999 11:01 AM
> To: SCOUTS-L@LISTSERV.TCU.EDU
> Subject: Fwd: Adult Patrol Names
>
>
> All I asked for was names!
>
