Reaching Out
McMILLEN: I see you’re all nodding in agreement, including Mr. Fox. Actually we have never really questioned the need, have we? It’s the ways to use Scouting best and to get it to the rural boy, that bothers us.
FOREST WITCRAFT, SCOUT EXECUTIVE: Does it really need to bother us? Of course it’s hard to take Scouting out to the boys in the open country, but plenty of Councils have proved that it can be done.
I’m thinking of Draper in my South Dakota country, with a population of 190, Barnard with 60, Strandburg with 177, Stratford, Northville and Garden City adding 700 more—six communities with a little better than 1100, supportingten thriving Scout Units. I think of places like Tulare (population 244) with 19 Scouts, 17 of whom come from their farms. It can be done.
FOX: The crux of the problem is probably leadership. Can rural communities supply it? There is no question in my mind but that it’s there, but will men who do hard physical work long hours every day in the week give the time needed for Scouting?
HENRY P. CARSTENSEN, MASTER, STATE GRANGE: Part of the problem here is the tendency of parents of rural youth to take the attitude that Scouting is a non-essential activity, a luxury which they cannot afford.
Some good parent education would make it easier to get leaders and thus to spread Scouting.
CARRINGTON: There are ways to get men in the farm country. As District Chairman, I used a well-known method that worked wonderfully. I used a survey blank that asked boys the question “Who do you think is the best man in your community, and why?” The kids would name men whom we hadn’t thought of, and give good reasons. When we went to such men and told them why the boys thought they were tops, resistance faded away and we usually had our leaders.
In most communities the leadership is there if we know how to dig for it.
NICHOLS: Leadership may be there all right, but believe me,trainedleadership is sure lacking. That is where our Local Councils need to give us more help—short courses that busy men can attend. I think time and money spent by the Local Council assisting new leaders would be well spent.
WITCRAFT: Training becomes harder as the distance between your Scout Units increases. Here are a few ways we have been able to get training to our men:
(a) We run week-end training courses.
(b) Our monthly Round Tables are packed with training as well as fellowship.
(c) The One-Unit course is tops—the committee joins with the leaders in an at-home training experience. This may lack some of the advantages of larger courses but it has some of its own.
(d) We count heavily on personal coaching by our Field Executives and Commissioner Staff.
McMILLEN: Before we get too deeply into Council methods of handling country Scouting, let’s study it a bit more from the boy’s angle. What aspects of Scouting are most interesting and helpful to boys?
ELEAZER: I would say the most interesting aspect to the rural boy is camping. The most helpful is probably the achievement part of the program.
FOX: I put this question to the forty students in my vocational agriculture class, well over half of whom are or have been Scouts. The younger boys put camping first; the older ones put it on a level with advancement skills. All of them rated these two aspects of Scouting tops.
NICHOLS: One of the values I see my boys get out of camping is the ability to work with others. Too often rural boys do not have a chance to develop this important trait. That’s why group activity is especially important to rural boys too.
McMILLEN: A very good point, Mr. Nichols. Our rural boys aren’t different, but sometimes their opportunity to develop certain abilities and traits is limited: Scouting’s camping and its group activity can fill a big void.
Speaking about program, what do you think of the Merit Badge work?
FOX: In the first place, rural boys like to receive recognition for things they do, as well as any youth. I know that many of the Merit Badges encourage farm boys to improve their agricultural skills. Experienced farmers make good counselors in agricultural subjects.
NICHOLS: The rural boy possibly needs the Merit Badge program more than does the city boy because he has less access to these “idea sources.” He needs to know about trades and occupations, too, other than those found on the farm.
WITCRAFT: In addition to the values the Merit Badge program holds for the boy, it has two other big values; it has sold many rural people on Scouting because farmers readily see the value of such subjects as Beef Production and Soil Management. It has also brought many men into Scouting. A man gets a taste of Scouting while serving as a Merit Badge Counselor and, liking this experience, accepts other leadership responsibilities.
McMILLEN: Mr. Witcraft’s comment about adults reminds me of a frequent criticism heard in the rural field that such activities as Scouting interfere with a boy’s responsibilities to his farm home. Is this so, and need it be so?
L. O. PARKER, COUNTY FARM AGENT: It is true that they could interfere, but I don’t think it happens often. When the Unit Leader and Committee are rural people they will recognize this problem and avoid it.
ELEAZER: Getting to and from meetings sometimes poses a problem. Perhaps a less frequent Troop meeting would be the answer, with Patrol meetings in the boys’ homes in between.
NICHOLS: The camp may be the biggest problem, if it comes in the middle of the harvest season.
FOX: Camp doesn’t really have to interfere, does it? Each Troop would naturally schedule its camp dates to miss the busiest season in that area.
NICHOLS: I didn’t mean that the camping problem was hard to overcome. Certainly it is so important to a farm boy that we must get it in somehow. Going to the Council camp helps us realize that we belong to something bigger than our own Troop in our own little community. In the same way, inter-Troop activities help us keep on our toes.
PARKER: I certainly agree that camping is important, but it is the Scouting activity which is most likely to conflict with home responsibilities. Councils with rural territory should be very aware of the problem, and should handle it realistically.
CARSTENSEN: This whole discussion of competitive activity raises another question which we in the Grange feel is important. That is, that leaders of all youth movements should recognize the need for closer contact and understanding—the need for planning together so that their problems will be coordinated rather than conflicting.
We have tried to work this way in developing our Juvenile Grange program; we have made an effort to support such activities as the Boy Scouts, the 4H, Future Farmers, etc.
FOX: I am not too much concerned about the danger of competition. Neither the 4H nor the F.F.A. cover the entire country, by any means. Furthermore, my experience has been that boys can belong to both F.F.A. and the Scouts and do a good job of both. Then, too, since Future Farmers are all older boys, their activities become a continuation of the leadership training received in Scouting.
PARKER: We in 4H like to have our boys active in Scouting. Scouting and 4H strengthen one another. For example, Scouting recognizes with its Merit Badge awards the work our boys do in 4H projects. Scouting provides programs in non-agricultural subjects which 4H does not offer.
WITCRAFT: Let’s go even stronger than that. There isn’t nearly as much competition for a boy’s time in the country as there is in the city; that’s one of the reasons Scouting is so much needed in the country.
McMILLEN: All of this brings us face to face with the pay-off question: Granted that Scouting has a program needed by country boys, and that there are ways of making it work, what help is most needed by isolated rural Units, and how can the Local Council best provide this help?
ELEAZER: The help most needed by those of us who lead rural Packs and Troops is that which can be given by the Executive or a Field Executive. This is especially true when we start new Units.
NICHOLS: Training is our No. 1 need, and this includes our Committees. Our Council made a good move in filling its monthly District meetings with real training and a lot of good fellowship.
WITCRAFT: That word “fellowship” is especially important. When men live a long ways apart they need opportunities to get together. The Council must find ways to make this happen.
FOX: Financing rural work also seems to be a problem. I am not too familiar with Scouting, but I wonder if this does need to be a problem?
NICHOLS: This is probably more true in times of financial stress than it is now, but there is a problem to face. One thing is sure, the stronger and more active the Troop, the easier it is to raise funds. If the people of a community see that Scouting is doing a lot for the boys, they’ll support it.
CARRINGTON: In our Council we furnish Scouting service all over our area, but we think it’s right to apportion more Field Executive time to the Districts which are providing adequate funds to make that field service possible.
At the same time, we carry on an organized extension program in all areas with the hope that all will make use of Scouting and give it their support.
WITCRAFT: It is true that the cost of rural Scouting has often delayed Councils in coming to grips with the rural problem. Usually we have assumed that Scouting starts in the city, moves out to the small towns and eventually filters down to the village and open country.
The Council faces a practical problem. It has a certain amount of time and money. How can these be spent most wisely? The same amount of work that will organize a rural Troop of six boys at Olson’s Corners will organize a Troop of twenty boys in the headquarters city. It has seemed to be sound business to spend Council money where it would bring Scouting to the most boys.
But consider what this means to Olaf Torkelson, twelve years old, out at Olson’s Corners. Can we say to him, “Sorry, Olaf, but it will probably be several years before we can organize marginal places like Olson’s Corners.”
Our Council, at its coming Annual Meeting, will take action on a proposal by our Organization and Extension Committee that we shall henceforth recognize an equal responsibility to all boys within our area, regardless of where they live.
We believe such an approach would be financially sound, and that the rural area will support it.
FOX: I broached this question of cost, but actually I don’t think it’s serious. The open country has the boys, and wants them to have their chance. The money can be secured if we approach the right people. For example, some farm cooperatives now have educational programs. They might see big dividends in efforts spent to help Scouting develop leaders among rural youth.
Farming has become so complex that the country can no longer afford to let its best youth go to the city. Today farming demands the best brains as well as the strongest bodies the nation can produce. The modern farmer must organize, manage, finance, produce, and market.
Scouting can, and does help round out a rural boy’s life. It builds the kind of men the nation needs on its farms.
McMILLEN: This has been good talk. It has been all the more persuasive because we have heard the voices of men who have actually “reached out.” Rural Scouting is a fact that grows all the time.
One thought in closing: No one has much trouble to get boys into Scouting. But in order to keep the Scout groups flourishing, we need more men who will give leadership. I would like to suggest that no Council’s annual dinner, or outdoor event, will be quite complete unless the top leaders in farm and rural business activities are personally invited to see and hear for themselves. Pay them more attention and they will pay more attention to Scouting.