- Due to the official BSA policy of refusing membership to homosexuals and atheists, many (all?) public schools now prohibit Scouts from recruiting on campus. When I was a kid, mimeographed leaflets were handed out to let the boys know about pack meetings. Rallies were held in the gym. No more. The BSA has lost their best recruiting tool.
- Too many parents don't have (or won't make) the time to participate. Scouting is not short-term day care where you can drop your kid off for an hour or two while you go shopping. When your son becomes a Scout, you are also committing yourself. Many parents don't realize this, and after a while they get tired of it. (I'll wager that most of them don't really have more important things to do, Scouting just interferes with their TV time.)
- It's intimidating for volunteers. Say you're a dad who wants to help out. Your son belongs to the pack. You still have to go through a background check, you must provide character references, and then you must pass a series of tests and finally take a class, just to prove you aren't a danger. This goes for all volunteers.
While the few remaining parents who are active with their sons in Scouting struggle with an endless series of popcorn sales and other fund raising drives, those at the top work in a nice new office building filled with paid staffers (PDF file). Nice salaries for an organization with declining membership, too. The packs provide their own funding for all of their activities, so why the palace on the North Loop? And what do these people do? I never saw one of the top leaders come out to us in the 3 years my son and I have been in Scouting. When it came to recruiting we were told, "You're on your own." But we still had to send in our dues.If I had been in charge, I would have leased space in a cheap office warehouse somewhere to run the basic necessary operations. The BSA is supposed to be about helping our sons, it's not about nice offices. With the money saved I would have started a permanent fund so that the local BSA could run advertising campaigns to recruit members before the start of each school year. We need more effective membership drives and fewer United Way begathons. When was the last time your son saw an ad promoting the BSA on Saturday morning TV?
15 comments:
The people I admire most in Scouting are the single moms. There are more than a few of them, and they doggedly go along with the program even though many of them know nothing about tasks like setting up a tent or how to best shape a block of wood for Pinewood Derby. They learn alongside their sons. I think these women are great.
My son started Cub Scouts a couple of years ago, and I've been very disappointed in his experience. More than half of his time is taken up with fund raising. Then there was the Boy's Life article I read that suggested that cooking over the campfire wasn't the best choice, because it was bad for the environment. During the same period, my son was in 4-H. We've never paid dues to 4-H, we've never been asked for money. In fact, each year 4-H PAYS the kids for the projects that they completed. Last year, my son took home about $60.
"The BSA is supposed to be about helping our sons, it's not about nice offices."
Lesson #1: As a man, you're considered public enemy #1:
"It's intimidating for volunteers. Say you're a dad who wants to
help out. Your son belongs to the pack. You still have to go
through a background check, you must provide character
references, and then you must pass a series of tests and finally
take a class, just to prove you aren't a danger. This goes for
all volunteers."
I never did the scout thing but I was in the YMCA Indian Guides. You want to talk about a group that people hated. They are now the Y Guides and tone down the Indian aspect. I learned so much about Texas history and specifically the Alabama Coushatta. Sad. Those were some awesome times and I still have my necklaces with the animal claws (same idea as the Scout merit badge) and my handmade leather patch vest. Some of my best memories of my childhood and time spent with my dad were YMCA memories.
Oddly enough, even though it was sponsored by the Young Mens Christian Association, a few of the dads and kids in my tribes were openly atheist. The Y didn't care at all. Though maybe it was the Clear Lake rocket scientist and astronaut group we had but I remember it was never a problem.
Still, I could imagine someone from the Y coming into a school to talk now. Geez, they'd probably set them on fire in the name of PC.
My grandmother was Horace A. Moses Executive Secretary and I was in Troop 84 back when they were numbered sequentially. Made Life and still regret not attaining Eagle. The BSA is most certainly under attack but it isn't PC to say so or who. It also suffers from internal conflicts like conservation vs. pioneering. Even the suburbs of the 2000s are really planned urban communities further marginalizing core activities. My eldest is up for her Gold Award, the equiv of Eagle in GS but the middle has dropped out lacking interest. You speak true Lou.
Due to the official BSA policy of refusing membership to homosexuals
No wonder they wouldn't let me join... the scout leader took one look at my blonde highlights and neon-pink spandex bicycle shorts and said "Uhh, yeah... I don't think so, kid." ;-)
G'day Lou,
We face the same issues in Australia.
My wife is a "Joey" leader (joey's are pre-cub scouts). The numbers are hard to sustain.
Relevance has always been an issue. There are also now so many sporting activities and other activities that kids can do, that it's hard to compete. We have huge numbers of sporting activities, (football for instance), which include "training" evenings. So the scout movment can't compete. Add to that the cost of it all (mortgage crisis here as well, with both parents working), and the sporting groups are far, far better organised at funding, plus they get funding from major sponsors of the sports.
Having said that, scouting is still one of the cheapest activities there is.
We don't have a lot of time spent on fund raising, and a lot of the Nanny state (let's wrap the kids in cotton wool) mentality has made it harder. Note that sports injuries are "acceptable". It's positively schizophrenic!
On the "sexuality" front, Penn & Teller did what I thought was their best ever effort on the BSA back on episode 1 of season 4, I think.
Firing the machine gun at summer camp was fun. Learned a lot about safety and respecting weapons. Just how would that go over these days?
We shot .22 rifles when I went to YMCA summer camp in the 70s, Rob. I bet they don't allow that now.
Lou, the YMCA still has .22 rifle shooting at Camp Cullen. My boys are in the Y-Guides and we do this camp once a year.
We also do the Boy Scouts. I agree the BSA makes it difficult to volunteer.
All dads participate in the Y-Guides campouts. Only a couple of dads participate in the BSA campouts, and even then there are too many rules (background check, medical physicals) that probably discourage most dads from participating.
My oldest son had something stolen at the summer BSA campout, by one of the other scouts. If I had been at that campout, I would have packed all the boys up and brought them home. Whatever happened to having boy scouts live up to higher standards?
That's good to know. I think I'll look into getting my son into summer camp there next year. I have very fond memories of summer camp. Two weeks of annual bliss, free from the parents. We slept in unairconditioned cabins and I loved it. I never understood why some kids were scared to go to summer camp or longed to go home. Summer camp is paradise!
They oughta have something like that for adults. I'd sign up. But I will demand A/C.
I think a big part of the problem is that this country's residents (citizens and non-citizens) currently have much more of a "what is in it for me / what can you do for me" attitude than previous generations. The quality of being trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, and obedient relates to interaction with other people. You can't do any of those if everything you do is motivated on pleasing yourself.
The background checks and other rules are there to help keep child molesters and people with violent tendencies away from your children. Sure it can be intimidating to have to do all that paper work but if you have nothing to hide then it shouldn’t be such a big deal.
As for the decline of scouting, it’s only as good as the parent volunteers. If you take interest in your child and show interest in scouting they will be interested too. This year we had record sign up in our pack. We are three month in and are still having good attendance. Motivating parents is just as important and motivating the kids.
Most of the people who work for boy scouts are volunteers. There are very few paid positions.
Yes the scouting policy on sexuality sucks. However it can’t change until popular and religious ideas of sexuality change or, BSA risks major loss of support and membership.
I'm an Eagle Scout and Vigil Honor member of the Order of the Arrow (for those of you who know what that means...)
I'm now 36 with a 6-year old son, and I have no intention of putting him in the Boy Scouts. Why? Because the Boy Scouts teach intolerance for other religions and for homosexuals.
We are doing the Y-Guides instead. So far, I couldn't be happier.
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