fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2081 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2081 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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[Paul Ryan / Matthew Morrison]

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[The Incredible Hulk]

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[inuyasha and mobile suit gundam]

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[My Chemical Romance]

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[The Closer/Major Crimes]

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[Perception]

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[The Circle/ The Engelsfors Trilogy]

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[The Shoes-Time To Dance (official music video)]

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[UC Gundam]

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[Friends]

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 017 secrets from Secret Submission Post #297.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 1 - too big ], [ 1 - repeat ], [ 1 - posted twice ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I'm working on an idea for a long term project and wondering if it's a good idea or if I should just drop it. Some random input would be nice.

Would anyone be interested in a group similar to the American Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts, but for adults or all age groups?

Basically encouraging getting outdoors and adventures and learning new things. I'm thinking things like levels that you'd have to climb to open new skills, badges and Achievement Icons as rewards, website so you can set up local groups. Hopefully a type of handbook similar to the Scouts (I'm only familiar with the Girl Scouts, but they have a book with all the different badge skills with instructions etc.) That type of thing.

Like I said, long term project. It's kind of a big project and would take time just to get the basics under way. So I'm wondering - good idea, bad idea? Or does something like this exist and I'm just unaware?

I think it sounds like an excellent idea! I'm seventeen now, and used to be in Girl Scouts, and I'd get involved with something like that.

Actually, the main problem I had with GS (since you can technically be a Scout until you're in college, at least for girls) is that it was all geared towards younger kids - all the badges were centered around learning about something or how to do whatever, which was fine at 10 but seemed a little pointless at 16. So an all-ages version of that kind of thing would be very welcome, including a chance to meet other people with the same interests outside of school. (While the other people in my generation are mostly nice, some of them make me fear for the future.)

One problem I can foresee with this, though, beyond any lack of participation, is funds. Girl Scouts has an annual fee they collect, plus the money the individual troops get from cookie sales and the like. If you're handing out badges and/or uniforms, you'll have to get them from somewhere.

But aside from logistics, it's a fascinating idea, and I'd like to see where out goes if you do take out up.

In the UK, there's Venture Scouts (boys and girls) and Senior Section Guides (used to be Rangers, which sounded cooler) (Guides is girls), and there's all sorts of stuff geared for Scouts and Guides from 16-26 really, with achievements and awards to work for. There's also a general tradition that if you stay on to help with the next generation as a leader, or join as a leader, that there's opportunities for you to do stuff with the younger ones and without them.

And the Guides at least have the Trefoil Guild, for the much older crowd, so that they can basically act like a Guide unit, except they're all old women. They go on hikes and things, and fundraise, and all sorts. I assume the Scouts have similar. I know there's stuff where adult Scouts get special woggles and things, for passing some course at a certain location.

Oh, and adult Scouts and Guides can volunteer at the World Centres, travelling to places like Switzerland.

Oh also, my university had a club for Scouts and Guides, where they basically did the fun adventure stuff and worked for the older achievements. I gather that's pretty common.

That sounds awesome and very similar to what I'm planning. I'm not aware of anything like that in the US. All of the Scouts programs that I'm aware of are really aimed at younger kids. As the other anon mentioned, it does go through high school age but I feel that a lot of it is really aimed at a younger audience. There is also the connection with Christianity that the Scouts programs have in the US and I'd really like to create a program that is not connected with religion at all and accepts all gender identities, sexual orientations, etc.

Thanks for the info!

I wonder how much of the US Scouts' squickiness over gay and transgender members lies in them not having gone through the great Bonfire we had in the UK over everything to do with working with children, after the class-action cases really forced everyone to confront how all organisations had been enabling child abuse and not dealing with it properly, from scout masters to teachers to social workers to choir masters, and so on. After that, and the general witch-hunts and panic, things settled down somewhat with entirely new rules about avoiding potentially abusive situations and screening of anyone working with children or other vulnerable people.

We're still bedding some of the stuff in, straightening out the kinks and working out what is reasonable and what is over-reaction. But, everyone feels rather more relaxed now that we know anyone left unattended with children at least doesn't have any recorded black marks, and it is considerably easier to bring up concerns.

Absent any of that, parents presumably flail around for any heuristic that might possibly feel like it lowers risk. Note that I am not suggesting any actual link between pedophilia and homosexuality, but I am saying that parents who feel there is no system in place to properly weed out dangerous individuals and so on, might feel that having an adult in charge of young people who could even possibly be attracted to them is too risky. I would expect the same parents to object to a woman in charge of a group of boys, and a man in charge of a group of girls.

In short, if you'd just hurry up and deal with your alarming child safety issues, even if you have to go through the ludicrous "Torches and pitchforks outside the Pediatrician" stage that we went through, people might relax more about a whole load of things. But I'm not sure how you get a whole country to suddenly realise something is a problem and call for legislation and a culture shift.

*I'm not saying the UK has fixed it all. The stuff about children in care being exploited by people in the area is sickening, and must be addressed. But I can feel fairly confident about sending a child to school or to a youth group like Scouts.

There is also the connection with Christianity that the Scouts programs have in the US and I'd really like to create a program that is not connected with religion at all and accepts all gender identities, sexual orientations, etc.

AFAIK, that applies to Boy Scouts, not Girl Scouts--Girl Scouts are much more inclusive.

I'm pretty sure that, internationally, both the boys and the girls organisations are theistic but non-specific. I know that some countries have Scouts and/or Guides that are specific to a particular religion, but then usually there is another group of Guides/Scouts in the country that cater to the rest.

The Promise, in its various forms, must mention a spiritual aspect as well as a civil aspect and keeping the law (three-fold promise). But, how that spiritual aspect is expressed can vary, and is usually negotiable. But spiritual development, within your culture's tradition, is a required part of the programme along with physical, mental and ethical development.

It's always interesting on Thinking Day to look up Guiding in the countries where our Thinking Day Fund goes that year. On the WAGGGS (World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts) website. There are Guides in all sorts of countries and cultures, dealing with all sorts of situations.

Canada has (in certain communities) the Canadian Rangers, which sounds very much like the kind of thing you're talking about, except you don't get merit badges but we do have guns and are pretty well-known for being really good shots. Like high competition level. But they are there to act as scouts and be a relay between the local police forces and the army in the event of a disaster, so there's a lot of practise exercises where you head out on ATVs and camp out in the middle of nowhere while practising various skills.

All in all it's pretty awesome and if you're Canadian then check into them if you're into that kind of thing because part of the awesome part of it is that instead of paying to participate, you're considered Reservists and get paid to go out and do all this awesome fun stuff.

[ SECRET POST #2081 ]

Boy/Girl Scouts type of thing

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Re: Boy/Girl Scouts type of thing

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Re: Boy/Girl Scouts type of thing

Re: Boy/Girl Scouts type of thing

Re: Boy/Girl Scouts type of thing