From: Jason Cruse (jcruse@SOCKET.NET)
Date: Wed Sep 06 2000 - 15:29:21 CDT
>>*WE* as volunteers need to fix ourselves, first, before we can fix
anything
>>else.
>What are three points we could start on, in your current view and
>understanding?
>
Well...let me think. Let me first make clear that I am *NOT* in any way,
shape, for form bashing on professionals here. I have done that in the past
and will like do it again in the future. But this is not about
professionals. It is about professionals doing jobs that volunteers should
be doing or local units doing things on their own without relying on someone
giving them a program.
I know that some people do these things...in some places...but they aren't
universal, and should be.
In how many districts do troops run camporees? Are ALL district level
positions filled and properly carried out by volunteers, including FOS? Not
any that I've ever lived in...
How many troops, not crews, but troops have their own super-activity in the
summer instead of relying on trying to get into a high adventure base 18
months in advance?
If a troop chooses NOT to participate in popcorn, how many still support
their council by designating a portion of their profits from a different
fundraiser as FOS for the council?
How many troops actually plan, conduct, and carry out a troop level junior
leader training program, so that their boys who go to the council's event
have some understanding of what they do before they go?
How many lodges print a "where to go" camping booklet, which is, if done
well, in my opinion, the second best resource a troop can have (behind Woods
Wisdom).
These are just a few to start with that came to my head immediately. We
start each planning year with the same question to the boys: if you could
do anything you wanted in scouts, what would you do this year. Some ideas
get axed immediately, for safety reasons (4-wheeling). You'd be amazed at
what else shows up...and how little "organized" activities, like council
planned events, show up. They are easy, they can be fun...they are useful
in their own way. But these youth can, and will, come up with other things.
We, as volunteers, have let professionals do our jobs, and then we complain
about what they do. How fair is that?
Jason Cruse
