Falling Membership - 2011 Annual Report

[Basementdweller 608]

Get outdoors......got a nice chuckle out of your post.

 

I agree with a good many of your points..

 

 

Summer camp......many of the SM's, I am going to say over half were probably in their 60's.

 

So where are their 30 and 40 year old SM's or ASM's?????

[Get Outdoors 15]

Ahhh...I struck some nerves, great!

 

So I'm off my rocker and being extream and unrealistice.....It really looks that way but have you had an open discusion with your youth and parents or paid attention to what people are saying? Each item I've listed, 1 -17 has been discussed, mentioned or complained about at one time or another in our troop. Since I've been the SM, it's been a tradtion that most Saturday night campfires are with youth and adults. It's a wide open anything can be discussed gathering. It's where we trully get to know each other. It's the best time I have in scouting. I'm pretty sure the boys enjoy it as well when they ask me what time are we doing campfire. Funny, My answer has been the same for the 100th time..."I don't know, when is campfire?"

 

 

Sure my list is extream but my point is that Scouting has a great tradition and I think we've come to a time where we need to be looking more to the future instead of the past. (proactive and not reactive) If we look how fast society in general has progressed in the past 10, 15 or 20 years, scouting has been left in the dust. Go back 100+ years ago...BP was ahead of his time and ahead of the curve. We are far from being that way today. The kids are telling us that, why aren't we listening?

 

Basement Dweller brings up a great point when asking where are the "young" 30 and 40 year old leaders. One of the reasons I beleive and have seen that the newer generation scouters be chased away by the older generation and some of the old traditions. We need to old timmers for the soul but the young folks need to be heart. Leaders in our small troop are all under 45, we have a very active, challenging outdoor program, great participation, we do a pretty good job guiding boys to first class, do ok with patrol style, right now we aren't doing so well on being boy led. (You can lead a horse to water.....) yet our 65 yr old unit comish gives me a bit of a hard time that we aren't doing it the right way. Someone stuck in the box.

 

Another main reason why we don't see younger leaders is it's a huge time commitment. I've coached youth sports, scouting is MUCH more time consuming. Generally speaking; the younger generations have a harder time with commitment. I feel that that the older generations are more givers and the younger folks are more takers.

 

If the BSA really wants to change and look to the future, it will take drastice changes, a big time shake-up. Call me crazy but the first step is doing away with Councils. Get ride of the paid people and bring in folks from the districts. The focus is then taken off salaries and bonuses and shifts to "what can we do for our youth?" Maybe this is another thread but....if councils where done away with next week, what would happen to your unit? What would your unit do differently?

 

The big question is: How do we keep the original scouting tradition alive but have a program that meets the desires of our modern youth? If we don't find the answer, I'm afraid we wont have a program to share the traditions with.

[Eagledad 2777]

>>The big question is: How do we keep the original scouting tradition alive but have a program that meets the desires of our modern youth? If we don't find the answer, I'm afraid we wont have a program to share the traditions with.

[JMHawkins 15]

Ironically I think you have it backwards. The program struggles from lack of adults with a youth scouting experience. If you don't know why scouting is fun for boys, you are more likely to point towards making it fun for adults.

 

Yes. B-P's genius was creating a program based around what boys naturally did for fun, cleverly designed so that growth and maturity were by-products of the fun. The spiffy-uniform, sprint-to-Eagle troop probably miss out on most of that by just making themselves another outpost of the Adult world in boy-land.

 

Of course, any adult who still has their sense of adventure can make it work, but I wonder if folks with non-Scouting backgrounds sometiems come in with the wrong idea of what the program is all about. Merit Badges, Eagle scouts, and helping little old ladies across the street. The notion of a group of boys having fun in outdoor adventures is the key to the whole thing, but the literature doesn't do a good job conveying that. LIke Kudu keeps saying, Patrol Method has been de-emphasized, so adults coming in without a background (at this point, maybe a fairly old background) in "old-school" Scouting might never even realize that's part of it.

 

[BadenP 93]

Barry

I totally agree with the last line of your post, however Get brings up some valid points. As far as the age thing is concerned, too many scout leaders when they get into their fifties are really scared to give up the reins,so to speak, because they feel they will lose their connection to scouting or the pride they feel being a SM or a Crew Advisor for so many years. However is that reasoning taking the boys best interest into consideration or is it just an issue of pride and loss for the leader. I gave up my Venturing Crew Advisor position for the crew at the age of 54 even though the crew and parents begged me to stay on. I had been preparing several associate advisors to take over for a while, and with the best interests of the youth in mind transitioned over to the crews CC/COR positions. I still go on many of the crews outings, which I love so much, just now I don't have to do anything but serve as a chaperone.

 

Sometimes a veteran scout leader needs to know when it is time to step down or get prodded into making that decision. It is never easy, there is always the fear of being discarded or feeling useless, however there are still things your unit will need your advice and help with. On my last official day as advisor the crew and parents presented me with a beautiful plaque giving me the unofficial position of Advisor Emeritus,shades of Follow me Boys, which I truly will treasure forever. Now as CC/COR I am still busy getting the crew the support and resources they need to run the super program they do. They still ask me to do instructional classes for the crew, and attend all their outings, especially the big outing each summer.

 

For me it seems I now have the best of both worlds.

[SeattlePioneer 144]

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I would bet that most districts have a crying need for Commissioners and district committeeman that would be ideal for a SM.

 

Perhaps when a Troop Committee Chair is ready to make a transition to a new SM they should give their District Chair a call and arrange for a new position to be offered to the SM.

 

 

 

[Get Outdoors 15]

 

 

On the flip side I think retired SM's would make great CC. They already know the program and goals and THEY BELIEVE.

 

 

 

I'm not sure I'm following you. If we grow the youth membership we should also get more adults in the pool of possible adult leaders, each year you get a fresh younger crowd that brings on a new excitement to the program. Scouting is an activity that the whole family has to buy into. For those that didn't grow up around Scouting, it's hard to grasp that scouting isn't all about MB's and helping old ladies cross the street. They don't get the challege that we offer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Get Outdoors 15]

 

 

On the flip side I think retired SM's would make great CC. They already know the program and goals and THEY BELIEVE.

 

 

 

I'm not sure I'm following you. If we grow the youth membership we should also get more adults in the pool of possible adult leaders, each year you get a fresh younger crowd that brings on a new excitement to the program. Scouting is an activity that the whole family has to buy into. For those that didn't grow up around Scouting, it's hard to grasp that scouting isn't all about MB's and helping old ladies cross the street. They don't get the challege that we offer.