Help or Hurdle

Last week I attended a district roundtable in the Pacific Skyline Council for the Boy Scouts of America. Roundtables are monthly meetings were adult leaders are given instruction and help on how to run the various scouting activities. It was my second Roundtable in this council and was very different from the ones I am used to attending in the Great Salt Lake Council. Thursday night I came away feeling like the adult leaders here in California create hurdles for the boys while in Utah they try to help them.

Baden Powell, the founder of the worldwide scouting organization believed that the Scouts should be run by the boys and not the adults. Thursday's meeting underscored why: because adults will only screw it up.

The topic of this month's roundtable meeting was on the Eagle Scout project. Eagle is the most difficult rank advancement in the Boy Scouts of America and is made so by a leadership service project where the scout is required to propose, plan, and carryout a significant project to benefit the community. The reason behind the project is for the scout to demonstrate leadership. It is a big deal and should not be taken lightly.

There were two people at the meeting that are responsible for approving projects and helping the boys attain the rank of Eagle. One of them posed the question about where to go for project ideas. A few ideas got tossed out with some being shot down for various reasons. I suggested they take a page from the Great Salt Lake Council's playbook and set up a website where scouts could go for ideas. My idea was shot down because it made selection of a project too easy for the scout. I bit my tongue as the discussion continued. It was only my second meeting and I didn't want to be known as the troublemaker. In the end, they decided that it would be a good idea to have a list of previous Eagle Scout Projects.

I suppose I should be glad that the group saw some merit in my idea, however I think they missed the point. The adults in the Boy Scouts of America should be constantly asking themselves how they can help the boys succeed as well as the scouting program. While the proposed solution does make one step in that direction it misses on one very important aspect: attracting new members. The beauty of my proposed solution is that it provides an outlet for schools, cities, and other community organizations to list projects where they could use the help of a service oriented group. Imagine the difference it would make if everyone saw the Boy Scouts of America as an organization that made a difference in the local community as well as created leadership and strong ethical values in today's youth.