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Disappointing Turnout For Service Project


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Last night we had a service project that we did for our normal Monday meeting to deliver bags for food collection for our local food pantry.  We are going back out on Saturday to collect the (hopefully)filled bags. I was disappointed and a little frustrated with the turnout we had for this project, especially considering that it was on the same night as our normal meeting and it was out in the nice weather.  We only had about 7 kids show up for this and only one other registered leader besides me.  Thankfully, we had parents that were willing to stay to help out.  As a point of comparison, we had about 15 kids show up to do a hike the week before.  I know it is summer and I did have a few parents reach out and say that they couldn't make it because of conflicts, but most that didn't come didn't let me know.  I expected a low turnout for Saturday, since that is an addition to the calendar, so we'll see if the turnout is even lower then.

 

I am just curious to know if anyone else has issues with getting their scouts to service projects and any advice on getting higher turnout.

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Last night we had a service project that we did for our normal Monday meeting to deliver bags for food collection for our local food pantry.  We are going back out on Saturday to collect the (hopefully)filled bags. I was disappointed and a little frustrated with the turnout we had for this project, especially considering that it was on the same night as our normal meeting and it was out in the nice weather.  We only had about 7 kids show up for this and only one other registered leader besides me.  Thankfully, we had parents that were willing to stay to help out.  As a point of comparison, we had about 15 kids show up to do a hike the week before.  I know it is summer and I did have a few parents reach out and say that they couldn't make it because of conflicts, but most that didn't come didn't let me know.  I expected a low turnout for Saturday, since that is an addition to the calendar, so we'll see if the turnout is even lower then.

 

I am just curious to know if anyone else has issues with getting their scouts to service projects and any advice on getting higher turnout.

 

We had a few times when Scouts would not show up for service projects so we made them mandatory in order to attend certain events (e.g., shooting sports, go karts, etc.). After that we had much better turn out.

 

Sadly, since the current rank advancement requirements only require 11 hours of service, many boys these days simply check the box and nothing more. We had this issue for about a year until we (the PLC) made service hours mandatory for certain events. That changed the mind set and lead to greater participation. Only had one adult bring up GTA. We (the PLC) noted that we were not adding to any rank or badge requirements, just putting a standard for participating in popular events.

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We had a few times when Scouts would not show up for service projects so we made them mandatory in order to attend certain events (e.g., shooting sports, go karts, etc.). After that we had much better turn out.

 

Sadly, since the current rank advancement requirements only require 11 hours of service, many boys these days simply check the box and nothing more. We had this issue for about a year until we (the PLC) made service hours mandatory for certain events. That changed the mind set and lead to greater participation. Only had one adult bring up GTA. We (the PLC) noted that we were not adding to any rank or badge requirements, just putting a standard for participating in popular events.

 

  No what is actually sad is that for the most part today many boys and at times their parents (who may drive them to these) need to be bribed into doing something that we as scouts should want to do. I think many boys today miss out on learning the idea of the "Good Turm".  To some this might be holding a door open for somebody or the old helping an old lady across the street. As scouts we should be willing to help out whether there is something in it for us or not. The simple satisfaction of helping out just to help out is little by little disappearing. Although it may not be adding to the requirements it really isn't any different then the parent who offers a car to their son once he earns Eagle. The what's in it for me attitude or simply bribery.

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This fits into the high schools with mandatory service hours, so an entire generation is being trained to see service like taxes - do what is required, understand that it is needed, and move on.

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I concur. The service projects are not requirements, they are expectations. They may get credit for service hours, but will suffer heavily in the Scout Spirit section in my troop. Help other people at all times, doesn't make exceptions for when it is convenient.

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My first reaction is that delivering the bags sounds boring.  It also sounds like a project that is easy for a parent or scout to skip because they think that you probably don't need a lot of people.

 

We have a great turnout for service projects and our boys typically triple the service hours required for advancement.  The guys love it when they get to really do something as part of the older scouts' Eagle projects.  They enjoy working as a team and seeing the end result.  We do service projects on campouts where the boys work as a team with the older boys leading and where they get to see the finished product.  Add hammers, saws and drills and you've got a line of boys wanting to help.  The goal is to have them say, "that was hard work, but it was fun."

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This fits into the high schools with mandatory service hours, so an entire generation is being trained to see service like taxes - do what is required, understand that it is needed, and move on.

Not to mention extracurricular groups like NHS, church youth groups, confirmation classes, 4H, minor criminals, etc.

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When our Troop does Scouting for Food, we make it a Patrol competition. Patrol with most food collected by weight gets to eat a meal with the Adults on the next camping trip. Additional bragging rights for individual with highest total weight collected. BTW, we do NOT count this as service hours towards rank advancement- just something that we do as service to the community.

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This fits into the high schools with mandatory service hours, so an entire generation is being trained to see service like taxes - do what is required, understand that it is needed, and move on.

I agree. There are studies that show giving rewards to people for certain activities will actually reduce the activity. I remember reading about one study where they put a bunch of adults in a room, told them to wait for an hour. The room was full of puzzles and other games. The adults then spent the hour working the puzzles and games, talking to each other and having a good time. They then put another group into the same room, and told them they would be paid (something like $5) if they completed a puzzle. The adults each completed one puzzle, then sat like lumps for the rest of the hour. More puzzles and games were completed by the first group then in the second.

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The desire to help comes from the parent. Often if the parent is a willing and helpful person the scout will be. All too often the correlation between parents who can't give a darn and scout that doesn't care is high. 

 

As we have seen a lot in scouting, it is the parents attitude that makes all the difference in the world.

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When our Troop does Scouting for Food, we make it a Patrol competition. Patrol with most food collected by weight gets to eat a meal with the Adults on the next camping trip. Additional bragging rights for individual with highest total weight collected. BTW, we do NOT count this as service hours towards rank advancement- just something that we do as service to the community.

 

  We have a CO who does a food drive for the poor every year for Thanksgiving. Well all they ask us to do is box the food and distribute them. It takes just a little over an hour. Well because its for our CO (who also pays our rechartering) and the needy in our community I told the boys that this will NOT count as service project time. They didn't seem to have a problem with that. Then the parents found out and suddenly I was a slave driver. At the next committee meeting a few of these parents showed up to voice their concerns. After I explained myself most of them seemed to at least understand, except one. He told me his son's time was valuable and he should get credit. I told him his son was to expensive. The scouts were not the problem its these darn parents. Whatever happened to that "warm and fuzzy feeling" of just doing something nice.

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you aren't the only one.  Communication between parents and the pack/troop is difficult.  We communicate well to them, but its difficult getting replies or responses from folks.  I don't think you are alone.

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My first reaction is that delivering the bags sounds boring.  It also sounds like a project that is easy for a parent or scout to skip because they think that you probably don't need a lot of people.

 

We have a great turnout for service projects and our boys typically triple the service hours required for advancement.  The guys love it when they get to really do something as part of the older scouts' Eagle projects.  They enjoy working as a team and seeing the end result.  We do service projects on campouts where the boys work as a team with the older boys leading and where they get to see the finished product.  Add hammers, saws and drills and you've got a line of boys wanting to help.  The goal is to have them say, "that was hard work, but it was fun."

 

To be frank, it was kind of boring, and the volunteers running it were somewhat disorganized.  However, when we have an organization that we have helped before (our local food bank) that specifically asks us to help with something are we supposed to say, "I'm sorry, that sounds kind of boring for our scouts. So we won't help."?

 

And we also had issues with people showing up to help a kid with his Eagle Scout project as well (and that included hammers and saws and paint and all the fun stuff).  This young man had shown up at everyone else's project throughout his scouting career and he had an enormously hard time getting people to show up.  So it isn't just the boring service projects that we have issues with.

 

I agree that it is sad that we have to "incentivize" kids to show up although that does seem to help with some of your troops.  That may be something I bring up to the PLC.

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A good turn daily? If I do one that takes a minute, do I get an hour in every two months? And how do I keep track of all those extra minutes so I don't lose any. It would be a shame to put in all those minutes and then not get credit for them. I would hate to be couple of minutes short and then lose my Eagle.

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I don't disagree with what you guys are saying.  One of my pet peeves which I'll add to the list of complaints is that the people in orange jumpsuits picking up trash on the roadside have been sentenced to "community service." 

 

Our troop does a huge food drive every winter.  We collect ballpark 15,000 pounds of food.  It is a huge undertaking which we spend months organizing.  Running it is considered a position of responsibility for the fellow who takes it on (as a SM-approved leadership project).

 

It sounds to me that you ran into a perfect storm of summer doldrums.  Folks out of town, a not-too interesting program, disorganized beneficiary, yadda, yadda, yadda.   I know it's frustrating.  It takes the same effort to plan a program whether 3 or 30 kids show up. On the other hand, folks are voting with their feet.  Families make a decision to do something else independently of the others.  It's not as if they all got together and decided to blow off Scouts that night.  But I think from time to time it's good for the SM to vent a little to the committee and parents and remind them you are volunteering your time regardless.  But they owe you the courtesy of letting you providing feedback so the troop can adjust accordingly. 

 

Oh, and a sign-up sheet would help.  

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