Serving who? What?

[Eamonn 61]

Sunday was a strange day.

We had planned to go to Deep Creek , Maryland and put a couple of boats that have been donated in the water. Not really to go sailing, but more to see what work we needed to do over the winter.

Saturday was a wild day as far as the weather went. We had high winds, rain, snow and thunder.

When I checked out what the weather was to be like in Deep Creek on Sunday it didn't look good.

So we worked on the boats in my back yard.

When I had first thought about starting a Ship, I'd sent an e-mail to a link that I'd found on the Sea Scout web site.

I was really impressed when a very knowledgeable Sea Scouter got back to me and offered to help get things going.

While we don't live in each others pocket, over the past year I have met with him a few times and we exchange E-mails fairly regularly.

I think of him as being our Ship's Commissioner.

He came on Sunday and gave a hand.

I really like him and value his thoughts and opinions.

We worked on the boats for about 4 hours and then the Scouts started to find reasons to leave. I kinda think the Steeler game seemed a little more interesting than what we were doing!

I walked him back to his truck and as ever the sight of tires started a "Parking Lot Meeting"

I said that the Ship hadn't attracted the youth I had thought we would.

How when we started I had hoped to recruit the Scouts who were bored with Boy Scouting.

OK so maybe I had this vision of me riding a big white horse and saving all these bored kids from quitting!! It just didn't happen. We have a couple of Ex-Boy Scouts, a few boys who were never in Scouts and the girls have never been in anything.

The average age of our Sea Scouts is 17.

I mentioned to my friend that I thought that there was a market for Sea Scouts in two of the local colleges.

I had spoken with the Lad who was my ASM at the Jamboree. He is very active in the OA and in Scouting. He said that he thought that the college he attends would be open to Sea Scouting and that he sees lots of Scouts who have mentioned to him that a Crew would be a good idea.

My Sea Scouter friend said he didn't think this was such a good idea.

His feelings are that we need to focus our efforts on recruiting the 14 year olds. If we can get youth of this age they will be more lightly to do things around what the Ship is doing, where as with older youths they tend to try and see if there is room for Sea Scouting.

This makes sense.

I have always tried to follow up with Scouts who miss meetings before they get out of the habit of attending meetings.

I however am a little unsure of who we should be serving?

Of course the idea of a group of "Home Grown" Scouts who are dedicated to the Ship and do their best never to miss anything is a nice one.

Where as older youths who already have a lot of irons in the fire and don't have the same dedication make life a lot harder for the adult leaders.

Younger Scouts are more lightly to take an interest in advancement, where the older ones will pick and choose which activities they want to participate in. Some of our younger Scouts don't need a reason to turn up for things they just do.

I'm sure that the answer is to have a mix of both groups, but this is hard as the pick and choose group set an example that isn't maybe the best for the younger Scouts?

Eamonn.

[CNYScouter 46]

I also found Sunday an interesting day.

We had Quarterdeck training all day.

It went better than I expected. 5 Sea Scouts showed up

All the elected officers showed but the Boatswain (thats another thread).

 

Winds were very high 35mph. We saw gusts up to 55mph.

I know this because every time a big gust started, someone had to run over and check the weather station to see how fast it was blowing.

During breaks one the Sea Scout brought his skateboard and was using a small tarp as a sail.

We even had to stop and take a break to tie down one a sailboat that had been flipped off of its trailer.

 

I too thought that the Ship would be able to recruit the Scouts who were bored with Boy Scouting.

I am finding that these bored Scouts have been so turned off by the program they have no interest in even looking at the ships program.

The older boys that are still in Scouts like the programs they are in and see no need to go into another program.

 

I talked with a Scout Leader last night that was interested in the Ship.

His troop had a Crew associated with it but it folded last year when all of the kids went away to college.

They now have a new group of older Scouts that are looking for something else.

 

All but one of the young ladies who joined the Ship has or had a brother in a Scout Troop and they see the Ship as a way to do the things the boys are doing.

We average about 15 in age.

 

I have been looking at different groups to recruit.

 

I talked with a Girl Scout troop leader who said her girls were looking for something more exciting to do.

She said that her and the other Moms that ran the troop just didnt have the skills to do the kinds of things that their girls wanted to do and the Ship might interest them.

 

The Ships DE has offered to do another mailing from the Learning for Life survey that is given in High School.

These generally draw about 10% interest.

Most of the initial Sea Scouts that signed up came from this mailing.

 

As with any good Scout Unit you need a mix of younger and older youths.

I think that recruiting them at 14, just as a troop recruits at 11, is the way to grow a unit.

I do have to agree that the pick and choose they older kids seems to do may not be the best example.