RE: What's in a Name?

> Jane W. wrote
"In practical terms, it means we have a couple thousand
> dollars worth of T-shirts, jackets, and literature that say we are
> Explorers, which our post and members really can't afford to replace."
>
My council recently merged and we had a similar problem with our
Explorer band that I was in. We had uniform shirts and jackets that we
all wore that had our council name on them. Im not sure if you have
jackets that everyone buys and keeps or if the post owns them- but we
bought our own jackets. When they changed the Council name we started
ordering the new Jackets and shirts with the new name but we used the
same style so they looked very similar. Over the years those of us that
were there have moved on and now you only see the old shirts when
someone comes back from college to sit in for a concert. It was not
that big a problem to just let attrition take its course. If the post
owns these items it will take longer to slowly replace them with the new
name as things wear out, but it can be done.

"Gaining recognition and respect for programs and awards takes time."

I agree. I have noticed this over the Gold award due to all the changes
that the name has gone through. Silver -> Explorer Achievement Award ->
Gold. It is a very good award that forces you to demonstrate the
ability to organize events, participate in the post, and understand
something about the explorer values. But no one knows about it. I was
the only person to earn the Explorer Achievement award in my council.
The reason no one else has earned it is that it was an award no one knew
about- they just knew silver didnt exist. Then they found out there was
still an award. I ended up the one who finished it before it changed to
Gold. Now our council tries to have a few people earn gold each year,
but the recognition of the award is still trying to get out farther than
the council annual dinner.

I also have to disagree with the knee jerk idea.

There has definitely seemed to be a rift between Posts that are oriented
towards the Career/job market area and those oriented towards the
outdoors. Both have their merits and can teach leadership (which I
think should be kept as a major goal in all the programs) and skills.
But the style of leadership that the two types of posts need are very
different. Business style posts need to teach youths about the career
and focus more on organizing and coordinating activities to reach a
common goal through a more "paperwork" oriented means. Getting 8 of
your friends to listen to you about cleaning up the dishes and
organizing transportation for a hike is a little more personal. Im
exaggerating a bit (so please dont get up in arms if Ive offended
anyone) because the difference is subtle- but there. Plus the goal of
leaning a career and learning about the outdoors is obvious enough.

This split can be a very good thing for Exploring.

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