International Communications
Patrick G Skelly (scoutldr@AOL.COM)
Mon, 7 Mar 1994 13:37:16 EST
Norman MacLeod, in another chain, comments:
> I am trying to connect as many of the local American Scouts as possible
> with the larger family of Scouting outside their considerable borders.
There
> is little interaction with the rest of the world s Scout Associations on
the
> youth level, possibly due to the fact that you have to have written
> permission (with a valid reason for making contact) from your local
council
> here to get the address and phone number of a Scout Association in another
> country.
Perhaps the reason behind this veil of secrecy is that we have been asked
from above not to allow our Scouts and Scouters to go to other national
organizations seeking pen pals or traders or inquiring why they do or don't
do thus and so.
The following quotation is from "Scouting 'Round The World", 1990 edition, a
book authorized by Jacques Moreillon, Secretary General of the World
Organization of the Scout Movement.
"If you need the address of Scout organizations in selected countries,
contact the International Commissioner in your organization.
At the request of organizations in many countries, the address list for
national Scout organizations is confidential, and is provided only to the
headquarters of each organization. The list is confidential because many
organizations are not able to handle the volume of correspondence which comes
to them from sources other than national organizations in other countries."
Having said that, please recognize that there is nothing said about people,
acting as other than organization staff members, communicating and bartering
among themselves to their heart's content.
But isn't Canada a special case? Yes, but only for official business. There
is a jointly agreed policy and procedure between BSA and BSC. In summary,
Council Scout Executives and Region/Area/Group/Division Directors may
communicate directly with their counterparts in the Boy Scouts of Canada,
with information copy to the International Division Director.
And we surely have (in the USA) a similar joint agreement with Mexico, even
if only to coordinate the Pimaree and Amistad camporees and the (southern)
Hands Across the Border Conferences. But again, it would be for official
business.
There are probably a number of such agreements in the six regions of the
Scouting movement, especially so in the European Region which seems - to me -
to be moving toward its own sense of European Community.
- Pat Skelly, "Scout_Ldr@AOL.com", just a Scouter
Terry Howerton Sakima Group, Inc. SCOUTER Magazine Kansas City | 
