Re: "Slow" scouts
Bruce E. Cobern (bec@PIPELINE.COM)
Thu, 4 Jan 1996 16:43:44 -0500
On Jan 04, 1996 13:31:08, 'Milt Forsberg <miltf@UX1.CSO.UIUC.EDU>' wrote:
>I have often wondered which is cause and which is effect. Is it the boys
who
>will stay in the program are the ones who get to First Class or is it
because
>they get to First Class that they stay longer? My feeling is the first
>statement is correct.
Thank you. I agree with your statement and I believe that is the flaw in
national's logic when they designed the whole First Class/First Year push.
Obviously, those who stay long enough to earn FC have made a commitment to
the program and so will stay longer.
I was asked earlier in the week if I could post some further statistics
from my troop concerning retention, ranks, etc. By tonight I will have the
figures and will post them, but preliminarily we had a discussion today of
what the figures were showing and there were some surprises.
I will only make one comment here, now. In the last five years NO Scout
who has progressed to at least Star in our troop has left before their 18th
birthday. There have been a couple of exceptions like one who died, one
who transferred, and two who moved to Europe. Other than that it appears
that those who reach Star have made a commitment to stay with the program
to the end, whether or not they eventually make Eagle. Both of us (the MC
who was running the info for me and myself) found that to be very
interesting.
I happen to believe that those committed to the program will stay to first
class and beyond and those who don't commit to the program will not stay.
If we push them to first class earlier I don't believe that they will
ultimately stay longer. I believe that the "commitment" rank might just
move up.
More tonight or tomorrow when I can post some interesting statistics from
Troop 1, Flushing, NY over the past five (and hopefully also 10) years.
Stay tuned.
--
Bruce E. Cobern
Terry Howerton Sakima Group, Inc. SCOUTER Magazine Kansas City | 
