Re: National Website
(no name) ((no email))
Thu, 11 Jul 1996 12:26:26 -0500
I want to answer the second paragraph first, please:
Dave Rogers wrote:
>Maybe you recall, I sure do, I got a four-page flame from Settummanque, the
>blackeagle (MAJ) Mike L. Walton, which, as a relative newcomer to the on-line
>establishment, was a first for me. On our two-day drive to Philmont, we
>passed around and read all your suggestions regarding Philmont and other
>topics of interest. And they all had a good laugh at me getting royally
>torched by blackeagle.
>
>Well, now it's my turn to read and enjoy. Thanks for the homepage interest.
I didn't feel that "I torched you", Dave. I believe that I made some comments
along with others that some agreed upon, and that others disagreed on.
That's what in a great part, is what this mailing list AND citizenship
itself, are
all about. If we all agreed on EVERYTHING, this would indeed be a rather
blah world!! That includes our perceptions, thoughts, emotions and
information concering our participation in a youth program!
If you felt "torched", I'm sorry you felt that way. I don't by "nature",
"flame"
anyone here on this list, mainly because I while I have my Nomex (tm)-lined
jacket close by the desk, I don't want to be flamed myself. But it happens, and
when it does, I simply take my hands from the keyboard, don the jacket and
matching gloves, and try to take as much of the heat as possible.
I think that I wrote in 1990 when I first started posting here that "there will
clearly be some Scouters that do NOT agree with a word I'm saying. That's fine.
That's the way that it should BE, because clearly, I will not always agree with
every word that I'll read here myself!
>This thread is particularly interesting, since right before I left I asked
>the rhetorical question why shouldn't the BSA Homepage be all that it can be?
>Why couldn't it make the BSA interactive, a clearinghouse for the answers to
>the questions we all ask on SCOUTS-L?
That's a great question, Dave, because it cuts to the quick of all of
the respondents to this string of postings.
The BSA works THROUGH a National office and DIRECTLY through over 300
local Council offices. Each local Council has the authority and
"permission" from
the National office to "run Scouting" in the best way THEY see fit in a
particular
area of our country or within other nations.
The many questions we post here at Scouts-L are NOT "national-level" questions
for the most part; they are questions of a localized nature which may or may not
have national impact or national slants to them. It is like the Principal
of a school
being called in to answer a question of a student within a classroom. The
teacher
feels slighted, and therefore may feel that future questions may ALSO go
directly
to the principal to answer. The Principal, concerned with the way that ALL
of the
teachers are monitoring and doing their work, simply don't have the time to go
and answer EVERY students' question. So he or she publishes a series of books
and other materials and makes them available to the teachers in the school. The
teachers use the materials, adapts them to his or her classroom, and distributes
the information to the students. Only when the students have questions that the
teacher cannot answer with some degree of absoluteness does the TEACHER
or the STUDENT (or both) approach the principal and ask for an answer.
We try as hard as we can here within this forum to use each other as
"principals"
and "teachers", and sometimes the roles interplay here. However, as many have
noted here, it's NOT the same as being able to "write National" and get an
answer.
The BSA National Office only wants to do business *presently* by two methods:
One, is by you asking your Council Scout Executive to forward a message to
the National staff about a question or concern. In MOST cases, the message will
be attempted to be answered at the local Council level. Why? The National
Office keeps track of how many "inquiries" are sent to them or are presented to
them from each local Council. Too many "inquiries" and your Council stand a
better than average chance of a National/Regional staff visit.
This is why many Councils don't forward those inquiries and questions directly.
The second way, is by you directly writing to the appropriate National office
staffer or office in Texas. In most cases, you will get a response (be
patient: the
purpose of the NATIONAL staff is NOT to answer mail; their jobs in life are to
develop and interprete new ways of "Scouting" for the LOCAL outfits!) and
so will your Council Scout Executive as a professional courtesy (*frown*).
This is the way that the BSA WANTS the information flow to occur and the way
that they feel the most confortable with *presently*.
I would love, Dave, to say that the BSA or the GSUSA really *cared* about us
all here on Scouts-L or other forums. The truth of the matter is, they care
very
little. Why? Because they have _Scouting_, _Exploring_ and _Boys'_Life_, which
combined with those letters sent to the program and support divisions by
volunteers, professionals and members, are MANY, MANY TIMES MORE than
the postings sent here on all of the electronic Scouting forums. However,
as I've written here several times in the past, technology has a way of clubbing
even the BSA over the head, and therefore the BSA had to do something to at
least "try and keep up".
Their web pages are their first good attempt at doing so.
When we see that more people are logging onto our forum and other electronic
forums, and less reading or even getting the printed materials sent to their
homes
quartely or monthly, then we will start seeing a move toward the kind of
interactive
communication between the National Offices, the local Councils and the volunteer
or professional in the "field".
In subsequent postings, I'll answer some of the other questions and comments
concerning the BSA's web prescence. I too, do NOT agree with some of the
stuff which the BSA did; however, I can understand why they did it and for
what purposes the pages were "sold as" to the BSA's National Executive Board.
Again, Dave, I'm glad you're back from Philmont and that you've gained a lot of
additional information and skills to your participation in Scouting!
Settummanque!
(MAJ) Mike L. Walton (Settummanque, the blackeagle) (
co-Owner, Blackeagle Services of Kentucky (502.826.7046) __)_
174 Chapelwood Drive, Henderson, Kentucky 42420-5036 | ** |]
(H) 502.827.9201 (F) 502.826.7046 (W) 888.284.4848 (yea!) coffee?
anytime!
(Email) blkeagle@midwest.net/kyblkeagle@AOL.COM
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