Scouting, Volume 40, Number 4, April 1952 Page: 6
32 p. : ill. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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GOOD
TIME
CHARLIES
FRONT LINE
STUFF
Dealing with real problems
and real people. This time it
is Exploring. What is your
solution, Mr. Advisor?
Edited by
JIM MOISE
f^JVER HEAR AN EXPLORER LEADER Complain, "All my
bunch wants to do is to have a good time?"
Plenty of leaders have said that, and some may
even have wondered what would happen if their
gang went off the deep end socially.
Here's an answer from a man who found out. We
print in full the letter of Explorer Advisor B. K.,
whose Post wandered off the beam in search of that
good time. And is still wandering.
Editor, FRONT LINE STUFF
Dear Sir:
"I would like, through FRONT LINE STUFF,
to tell a story. A sad story about the decline and
fall of a perfectly good Explorer Post, B.S.A. I
know the story better than any other man. I'm the
Advisor.
"A year ago we had a flourishing outfit, one of
the top Posts in town. We were strong in every
department; active outdoor program, planned
schedule of service, a lively social program. We had
a good Committee, an interested sponsor, a fine
meeting room, plenty of recruits. Swell set-up. A
year ago, that is.
"The trouble began gradually and innocently
enough. Of our four monthly meetings, the most
popular was always the social one. In even-num-
bered months, the social would be a stag event; in
odd-numbered months a date affair. It was inevi-
table, I suppose, that somebody would eventually
suggest that if one social a month was good, two
would be twice as good. Somebody did, and the
trouble is, we listened to him.
"After kicking the idea around awhile, the gang
decided it would be a good thing, and I went along.
The second meeting of each month became a stag
social, the fourth became the date social. Our non-
social Exploring program was thus confined to the
first and third meetings.
"For the first few months this worked pretty
well. Oh, our advancement slipped some, and a
couple of boys transferred to another Post. But
nobody suggested these things were the result of
the increase in good times, and besides the majority
seemed to like the two monthly socials just fine,
particularly a certain group who were always
plugging for extra social affairs every time a holi-
day rolled around.
"About now I was getting a little worried. But
every time I said anything the boys would remind
me that Scouting is fun, and ask was I, the best
Advisor they ever had, trying to Simon-Legree
them out of a wholesome- good time? Oh, they
were clever all right, and it was after just such a
buttering-up that somebody proposed to make the
third meeting of each month a Sport Night.
"Sport Night, they explained, would mean an
all-Post visit to the school gym for basketball, or
the "Y" pool for a swim, or in nice weather to the
park for baseball. It seemed like a good idea to
everybody except me, so in deference to my gray-
ing hair and ulcers they put it through on a 90-day
trial basis.
"We were now reduced to only one regular meet-
ing a month, and even this was becoming little
more than a planning session for the three socials.
Further, the group that particularly liked the
socials had now become a single-minded clique,
and were getting very choosey about who was
going to join the Post and, especially, who wasn't.
"Pretty soon the decline started in earnest.
"Some of our best boys decided they didn't like
the set-up, could do nothing to change it, and be-
gan dropping out. Advancement and our once
well-rounded program dropped off to practically
nothing. Recruits stopped showing up. Our summer
expedition had to be cancelled through lack of
interest. We were on our way out.
"Today, we are nothing more than a snooty little
social club of good time Charlies. Any similarity to
an Explorer Post is purely accidental.
"The sponsor is alarmed. The Committee wants
to start all over and reorganize. I have a feeling
they blame me. Maybe they're right. I won't
argue. But —
"Just have your Front Line Stuff readers tell me
two things:
1) An Advisor is supposed to advise, not to boss.
How else could I have handled this?
2) What'll I do now? Try to salvage what remains
and rebuild? Go along with the Committee on
complete reorganization? Or resign?
Sincerely yours,
Advisor B. K."
SCOUTING
FOR ALL SCOUTERS
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Boy Scouts of America. Scouting, Volume 40, Number 4, April 1952, periodical, April 1952; New York, New York. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth329205/m1/8/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Boy Scouts of America National Scouting Museum.