Re: 2 Deep in the Car
Dewitte A. Baisch (dbaisch@DATASYS.NET)
Tue, 16 Feb 1999 19:01:43 -0500
Howdy, Ginny, and Scouts-L gang!
After reading your post to the mailing list about 2 deep leadership in
vehicles, the first question that popped into my head was "Huh?" I
sometimes wonder where Scouters come up with some of these things in the
first place. Had I heard this at roundtable or any other Scouting
venue, my first inclination is to ask the speaker to show me where this
is written. If the speaker can only give a verbal reference to having
read it somewhere and cannot produce the actual document on the spot, my
next inclination is to dismiss the message as more of the endless stream
of rumors that people are fond of passing on without ever taking a
moment to verify the facts.
Here is a scenario using what you heard at roundtable IF it were true:
Troop 9999 is going on a campout. Troop 9999 is new and only has 12
Scouts, all of whom want to go on the campout. All of the registered
leaders have pickup trucks and none of those are the "king cab" variety
(meaning only 3 people per vehicle). On this campout, only six of the
registered leaders are willing to drive. Six other adults are willing
to tag along, if necessary, but don't want to drive. Now, if 2 deep
leadership in vehicles were true, exactly half the troop would have to
miss the campout because there would be room in the vehicles for 12
adults and 6 Scouts!
I haven't seen the 1999 Guide to Safe Scouting yet, but I do have 5
years worth of these guides and they all say basically the same thing
about adult leadership when traveling in vehicles. I also view the BSA
Youth Protection video every year and have taught youth protection at
several Scoutmastership Fundamentals. This roundtable speaker, like a
sadly large number of adult leaders, probably has not seen the Guide to
Safe Scouting, and probably not the Youth Protection video either.
Roundtable is an excellent place for discussion about issues concerning
leaders and it really helps if someone there has the literature at hand
that shows what the real guidelines and policies are.
Here's another scenario, and it IS based on the Guide to Safe Scouting
guidelines: Troop 8888 is going camping. There are 25 Scouts in this
troop who all want to go. They have two 15-passenger vans at their
disposal. On this trip only one registered leader can get away to go
along. He is over 21 years of age. A parent, not registered, is willing
to drive one of the vans. On the day of the campout, the 2 adults and 25
Scouts load up in the vans and take off...legally, lawfully, ethically
and morally correct, and fully authorized by the BSA (oh yeah, they did
file the necessary tour permit!)
In a nutshell, to protect both the youth AND the adults in our Scouting
units, due care must be taken to ensure that there is never a situation
where a single youth and a single adult who is not that youth's parent
are ever alone together. Two adults and a single Scout, no problem. One
adult and two or more Scouts, normally no problem (all outings require a
minimum of two adults, regardless of the number of Scouts [yeah, I know,
EXCEPT on an authorized patrol event where no adults are present {Hah!
Beat you to it!!!}]).
The one and only real duty of an adult leader in a Scout unit is to
train the youth leaders of the unit so they can train the other youth.
But the main responsibility of the adult leaders is to see that they
themselves are properly trained! Fast Start, Scoutmastership
Fundamentals, roundtable, Wood Badge, and eleventy-seven bazillion
pieces of Scouting literature are available for this on-going training
requirement.
Just when you might think I've said more than enough, I have to leave
you and the othe Scouts-L folks with this: If it isn't written
somewhere, it probably isn't true! It is simply a RUMOR. And that can
be something capable of RUining MORe people!
Yours in Scouting,
Dewitte A. Baisch (Sandy)
Scoutmaster, Troop 411, Circle 7 District, Alapaha Area Council,
Valdosta, Georgia
"...if it ain't raining, we ain't camping!"
