Privileged Scouting | Jabbering All Day Long

<Adult scratching his head>

Adult 1:- Need a young person to shake to hobnob with a group of VIP’s

Adult 2:- DC son

Adult 1:- Great Idea

<Picks up phone>

—– 0000 —–

I have a couple of questions for you Do we as a movement allow certain people in scouting to always do the same thing? Are any of your scouts getting privilege treatment?

I am sure you will answer “No I treat all our scout equally” and to that I say “Bollocks”, Privilege treatment occurs at every level of scouting.

At Colony/Pack/Troop/Unit Level certain YP get chosen time and time again to under take privileged roles.Be it as simple as carrying the flag at Church Parade or representing the group at the District Young Peoples Forum (YPF) we have our go to scouts the ones who we know will behave engage and not cast dispersion on the Group.

At a District level there a certain groups who always seem to represent the District at County YPF or if young people are required to escort VIP they all seem to come from the same group/Unit district.

At County level particularly in the run up to a Jamboree the is a continual use of the Jamboree unit for items, event, occasions that could be seen as privileged.

Untill recently I thought that is where is stops however I have recently been aware that it also happens at National Level, I guess this is in part due to the rise in use of social media, but I have noticed that it seems that the same people are being used for presenting the birthday badges or attending film screenings, or in promotional photo shoots.

While I don’t begrudge any of these people the opportunity they are getting, I feel that as adults we must look inward and ask why do we do this.

Is is as simple as it is the path of least resistance?

Should we sometimes try to give that opportunity to someone different, maybe it will be the incentive to become more involved or to be less troublesome.

What do you all think?

TTFN

TTFN

Kiff

©ChrisMeadows2012

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4 thoughts on “Privileged Scouting”

I don’t think there is much fairness within Scouting. I have seen district teams made up of family members of the DC and close friends too. They’re usually given roles that don’t suit them, they have no idea about the role and they don’t do anything with that role (no new ideas, no development, no group/unit support etc)- they’re just there because of a close friendship or relationship to another district team member… Which is frustrating for some of us as it seems that the only way we can get support is if we have a close friendship with a member etc. Its also frustrating when we hear that they’ve treated themselves to expensive meals from district money as ‘team building’. Grrr.

So, no there’s little fairness imo. Someone, with the right skills and enthusiasm, is missing out on an ideal role all because the DC wants his family and friends close. It’s groups, units and leaders missing out everytime.

Kiff on 15 July, 2011 at 06:39 said:

Hello Anon

While I see your point I would suggest that this might be an isolated case the role of DC is an appointment made through the appointments process and the person is usually put forward by the County or Area Comissioner and is responsible to the CC/AC.

I would suggest that if what you say is the case then you should highlight it to your CC/AC as it is something the county would want to address.

As I said challenge what is the norm, put yourself forward to the CC/AC for the role of DC and implement change

TTFN
K

I’m so glad you feel this way too, I thought it was only me who had this feeling, There is definitely a heirarchy in scouting, I had exactly the same opinion on the Jamboree team as you’ve just said, and the more ‘privileged’ units always appear to win county/district events etc, or even when being given places in a team such as a jamboree unit, there is always a majority of I’m not sure how to describe it but the considered ‘pedigree’ scout units, and I’m completely against it, not only is it unfair on the YP who we’re here for after all but its going to put groups off attenting/applying for wonderful events such as the Jamboree when places are almost guaranteed to these people.

We tried to fight this mentality with our Jamboree selection process. Apparently before that it was a ‘who-you-know’, we made the process as open as possible. Individuals could apply online, we did campaigns online and in person across the county and after the selection weekend they were referred to by their number (names, addresses, group details etc were all removed and ignored at the time of selection).

Sounds like a good system yeah.

Shame some groups took it upon themselves to do pre-selections without our knowledge. One of the unit told me during the Jamboree that ‘loads of his friends in his group would have loved this, shame only 3 of us could apply’. This definitely wasn’t our rule… we wanted as many applications as possible! I can’t believe that this leader actually took that chance away from his own scouts!
Scotland recently posted..A little pick me up

anon on 14 July, 2011 at 23:38 said:

I don’t think there is much fairness within Scouting. I have seen district teams made up of family members of the DC and close friends too. They’re usually given roles that don’t suit them, they have no idea about the role and they don’t do anything with that role (no new ideas, no development, no group/unit support etc)- they’re just there because of a close friendship or relationship to another district team member… Which is frustrating for some of us as it seems that the only way we can get support is if we have a close friendship with a member etc. Its also frustrating when we hear that they’ve treated themselves to expensive meals from district money as ‘team building’. Grrr.

So, no there’s little fairness imo. Someone, with the right skills and enthusiasm, is missing out on an ideal role all because the DC wants his family and friends close. It’s groups, units and leaders missing out everytime.
- Kiff on 15 July, 2011 at 06:39 said:
  
  Hello Anon
  
  While I see your point I would suggest that this might be an isolated case the role of DC is an appointment made through the appointments process and the person is usually put forward by the County or Area Comissioner and is responsible to the CC/AC.
  
  I would suggest that if what you say is the case then you should highlight it to your CC/AC as it is something the county would want to address.
  
  As I said challenge what is the norm, put yourself forward to the CC/AC for the role of DC and implement change
  
  TTFN
  K
Luke on 25 July, 2011 at 23:57 said:

I’m so glad you feel this way too, I thought it was only me who had this feeling, There is definitely a heirarchy in scouting, I had exactly the same opinion on the Jamboree team as you’ve just said, and the more ‘privileged’ units always appear to win county/district events etc, or even when being given places in a team such as a jamboree unit, there is always a majority of I’m not sure how to describe it but the considered ‘pedigree’ scout units, and I’m completely against it, not only is it unfair on the YP who we’re here for after all but its going to put groups off attenting/applying for wonderful events such as the Jamboree when places are almost guaranteed to these people.
Scotland on 24 August, 2011 at 20:05 said:

We tried to fight this mentality with our Jamboree selection process. Apparently before that it was a ‘who-you-know’, we made the process as open as possible. Individuals could apply online, we did campaigns online and in person across the county and after the selection weekend they were referred to by their number (names, addresses, group details etc were all removed and ignored at the time of selection).

Sounds like a good system yeah.

Shame some groups took it upon themselves to do pre-selections without our knowledge. One of the unit told me during the Jamboree that ‘loads of his friends in his group would have loved this, shame only 3 of us could apply’. This definitely wasn’t our rule… we wanted as many applications as possible! I can’t believe that this leader actually took that chance away from his own scouts!
Scotland recently posted..A little pick me up