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Would you award service hours?

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  • #16
    Yes, we should be teaching our youth to do service for others without requiring reward.

    However, then why are we REQUIRING service hours?

    While not all service hours are service in a time of crisis, they are all a service to someone in need. Why is it OK to acknowledge some service, but not others.

    What makes it rude to ask for acknowledgment of service at a vigil, but not service to an 80 year old neighbor, or service to your local VFW at a recognition of deceased veterans?

    Seems a bit hypocritical to me.


    • T2Eagle
      T2Eagle commented
      Editing a comment
      qwazse nailed it. you have the impression of a problem, not necessarily a real problem, and then you make up a rule to fix your not actually a problem.

      There's a T21 requirement for troop and patrol activities outside troop meetings, so we make scouts write them down and show us they hit the number. The requirement is signed off, the scout never bothers recording that kind of stuff again and goes the rest of his scouting career pretty much going to all the activities he would go to anyway, his participation level neither better nor worse as a result of whether he had to write it down.

    • Hal_Crawford
      Hal_Crawford commented
      Editing a comment
      Well said qwazse. I would love to see your flow chart for the G2SS. ;-)

    • qwazse
      qwazse commented
      Editing a comment
      Pretty much the same, except insert steps for actuaries and claims agents, maybe a few lawyers and judges.

  • #17
    Once more we have those that simply cannot make a decision if there is any amount of gray in the discussion. Very few things in life are completely black or white. In this case, if I read it correctly, this scout was almost new and not from the unit directly affected by the tragedy. He came from the outside because most likely it was suggested he help by someone in his own unit, or a friend in the home unit. I would agree that a simple acknowledgement to the boy's unit is all that would be needed; then that unit can make the decision as they see fit.

    We should not confuse a good turn and service hours. Generally the definition of a good turn is to do something at the moment it appears to be needed, not a planned and scheduled event. Part of the problem IS that the terms often are mixed or joined, such as the "Good Turn to America", which in reality is not a good turn at all, but scheduled and planned service. Most real good turns take almost no time, and scouts probably do them without even realizing, such as the door opening or the "helping the old lady across the street" joke.

    Ultimately, it is a decision to be made at the unit level as to how you might address these things. We clean up camp sites when we leave, but that is not service hours, it is what we do in relation to Scouting and Leave No Trace. On the other hand, we have gone out on trail maintenance projects with the Forest Service or Trail Boss led events, and part of that is picking up litter. But, it is service hours as well for most of us.

    Half or more of the problems, subjects of confusion, and beating of chests pro or con on these forums are about things that simply require a bit of common sense and local, unit level decisions. Why can't we just do our jobs and make rational, and fair determinations? That is what leadership is.