Another side to this retention discussion

[buffalo2 14]

While it seems most appropriate to address retention from the aspect of the Scout himself, there is the issue of parental support. How many times do we see a lad going through a tough time in his life and respond by dropping out of Scouting?

I believe that much of the time its easier for his parents just to let him react with a poorly thought out response to a longer term issue than to deal with the root cause, and we lose another boy to the program. Further believe that this comes from these parents not knowing enough about Scouting in general or their son's unit.

There's a pretty fine line between supporting and pushing...

 

So how do we share these ideals that we hold most important and demonstrate the values of Scouting without sounding rabid? How do we draw these parents in and offer them ways to contribute? Do we scare them off with all of our scheduling and organization and multiple acronyms? How do we address the 'Eagle and out' mentality that some parents maintain? There may be another side to all this that accounts for all the Weblos Scouts that don't cross over to a Troop but its beyond me!

 

Questions are easy and sometimes not well expressed, but answers are a little slower in coming I've found...

[SagerScout 10]

I absolutely believe that lack of parental support is behind many boys leaving scouts. If Scout Parent sighs and rolls his or her eyes, and grudgingly gets up from the video soporific of the night to drive the kid to scouts, barely slows the car down to let him out (tuck and roll, kid!), never asks about his advancements, whines about the cost of the uniform and camp and having to sell popcorn - it's gonna take a pretty sturdy 12-year old to buck that kind of message. The same parent might willingly pay for a video game system that costs as much as an entire YEAR of scouting activities... because it keeps Son in his room and out of their hair.

 

Then the parents gather and say "I just don't know what's wrong with little Johnie. He's hanging with the wrong crowd and we don't know what to do with him...and he just stays in his room all the time."

[slontwovvy 10]

There are two ways that we can convince adults that Scouting will be good for their boy. The first one is much more important. We must convince them that (1) Scouting will be worthwhile for their boy and (2) that the adult will benefit and have fun from their involvement. If we can do those successfully, we will have parental support, which is the Holy Grail in Scouting.

[sctmom 11]

My parents were good parents. They were very involved in the private school we went to. But that was it. Each of us 3 kids tried different activities while growing up -- baseball, basketball, cheerleading, Boy Scouts, Brownies, painting lessons, church. They never complained about the cost or having to take us, but they never questioned when we quit. For whatever reason, they never saw any benefit to these activities. They never volunteered for these extra activities. Now, they would tell you they didn't discourage us. But they didn't encourage us, they didn't sit us down and say "why do you want to quit? can we solve the problem you are having?"

 

I also just don't get it. I never was in Scouts, my brother went on 1 campout with Boy Scouts, but somehow I always knew there was something about the program making it worth trying for my son. How do we get the parents to understand the importance? At this point, I feel I don't have a clue.

 

My son was a Cub Scout and has been in Boy Scouting a couple of months. I can already see a difference in his maturity at meetings. At first reluctant to go anywhere without Mom, I'm now being told to drop him off at the door. Social maturity being an issue with him at school, I see this as worth every dime I spent on that uniform. And there is SOOOO much more ahead of him.