Re: "Policy changes" by LDS Units
Rex Goode (rexg@IMS.COM)
Thu, 22 Sep 1994 08:25:03 PDT
Paul H. Brown wrote:
> On Wed, 21 Sep 1994, Rex Goode wrote:
>
> >
> > In my stake, for many years, Varsity and Exploring were virtually
> > ignored. The whole YM program was put into a troop, with the older
> > boys serving as SPL, ASPL, and other leadership positions. Finally,
> > some GA (General Authority of the Church) came and insisted that they
> > follow the program and register Varsity Teams. I personally believe
> > that the local Council pushed for this because they wanted the extra
> > registration money for the additional units.
>
> How did the retention of the older boys change after registering them in
> the new units?
I was not having a retention problem for the older boys. There were times,
because of the demographics of my ward, that our troop was all older boys.
I made sure that the troop I was running was attractive and exciting to
all of the boys. When I was first made SM, it was only the younger boys.
The older ones had left for more interesting things. After a couple of
years, they had all come back and we had a great time. What I'm saying
is, that I don't think lines between Varsity and Boy Scouting matter
as much when you're running a high-quality program.
In our stake, we have had a lot of interest in a Varsity program lately.
My ward still just registers them because the Council insists. All of
our young men are registered as Boy Scouts, but those 14+ are double
registered as Varsity as well. This doesn't give the council much
extra money, since the boys only pay for one of their registrations.
But there is that unit registration fee.
For the other wards in my stake, the retention rate has not changed
dramatically there either. The wards that were running quality Boy
Scout programs are also now running quality Varsity Teams. The others
are same-old-same-old.
When I was first Scoutmaster, our stake held a meeting for all Young
Men's leaders, including Scout leaders. They said they were concerned
about boys who were not interested in Scouting and told us it was now
their policy that we provide a program at the Church on the same night
as Scout night for boys who were not interested in Scouting. I've never
seen such a backlash in a Church meeting. It's hard enough to find
quality leaders for one program. Now we were being asked to staff two
different programs, and to actually compete with ourselves. One or two
wards I heard about tried it. It destroyed their Scout programs, because
the choices started involving things like knots vs. ice cream parties,
first aid vs. bowling, etc. Only the hard core Scouts stuck with the
troops. The rest opted for the "fun".
--
Rex Goode -- I used to be a buffalo...
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| When you're slapped, you'll take it | Rex Goode |
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| Cairo (Bogart to Lorre) | Beaverton, Oregon (503) 626-7117 |
| in The Maltese Falcon (1941) | rexg@ims.com |
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