Scouting's First Responders

Dial 911 anywhere in the United States and a call center answers ready to send help in the event of an emergency. Who are Scouting’s first responders when there is a problem?

Scouting has problems? Yes it does.

Hopefully they are small and infrequent, but when a real difficulty arises where does one look for help?

Serious cases like evidence of illegal conduct on the part of a Scouting Volunteer or evidence of child abuse that occurred inside or outside of Scouting demand immediate action. Both should be referred to the Council Executive. Why?

Council executives have been trained to deal with these issues and will alert the proper authorities, and/or direct you on how you should respond.

Serious difficulties can arise owing to disagreements on some aspect of the program or interpersonal conflicts. Who is responsible to resolve these problems and what resources do they use? When these difficulties arise people often pick up the phone and call the council office thinking that the District or Council Executive has the ultimate authority to resolve them. They don’t.

Within a Scout Unit the ultimate personal authority lies with the Chartered Organization Representative acting in concert with the head of the chartered organization.

Based on the policies and practices they have agreed to follow in chartering a Scout Unit they decide who stays, who goes and direct the actions of all the units Scouting volunteers.

There is no appeal process, no recourse, no higher authority- the decisions of the chartered organization are final.

Scout Commissioners, by the way, act in a wholly advisory capacity. They are invaluable counselors when the going gets tough. More minor problems and disagreements are resolved or avoided when Scouting’s Volunteers are trained. As thorough as training is it cannot address every question and as sharp as most volunteers are they can not retain every answer.

Thank goodness 99 and 44 100ths percent of the answers are written down!

Every Scouter should have access to; – The publication relating to their position (i.e. The Scoutmaster’s Handbook) – The publication relating to the Scouts they serve (i.e. The Tiger, Wolf, Bear, Webelos, Scout, Venture, Handbooks) – These three essential documents; Guide to Safe Scouting Advancement Committee Policies and Procedures Guide BSA Insignia Guide These publications contain clear, unambiguous statements of policy. (Human nature dictates that some folks will argue like a council of monks debating pins and angels but that can’t be helped.) If you really need help interpreting call your Commissioner, they are usually pretty adept at finding answers. (If a minor disagreement turns into a major kerfuffle see above) For just shy of 100 years Scouting has encountered just about every difficulty under the sun and provides volunteers with the resources to resolve them.

Whether serious or petty these problems are always surmountable – you just need to know where to look for help.