I'm optimistic

My youngest Son, “Hawk” as I call him around the house, is a Scout.

I have spent the last few weekends and evenings trying to complete “re-charter” for my son’s Boy Scout Troop which is essentially an exercise in herding cats. Thankfully our Troop is on the smaller side and the majority of the parents appreciate that I’m a volunteer squeezing in time for Boy Scouts around work and family.

I find myself in Boy Scouts because of my middle son now 20 years old. This young man offered me the opportunity to meet the local fire marshal here in the county I live in and up in the mountains in the county where we like to ski. Fun times. Luckily for him, both fire marshals wanted to impress upon him the understanding of why what he did was dangerous, and they were less interested in consequences. After those experiences I decided my youngest son would be exposed to the opportunity to learn to spend time outside in a more responsible manner. Enter Cub Scouts.

At this time we’ve finished our 5th year in Scouts together, my youngest son the Scout and myself the Volunteer Mom. I can see how much more Scouting offers. While I am sure things have changed over the years, Scouting remains a leadership lab. For example, the boys plan their meals for campouts, shop for the food, cook the food and clean up the food. The Troop is divided into Patrols and the Patrol is led by a Scout. To earn advancement the boys must take on different leadership roles in the Troop. They must take opportunities for public speaking at award ceremonies, plan gatherings, plan service projects and execute on their plans. The leaders will allow them to fail, gently and sometimes not so gently. The leaders still laugh about the time some Scouts thought it would be funny to eat nothing but bacon for breakfast, lunch, and dinner on a campout. Sometimes the boys learn more from failure than success.

This brings me to the thought I had last Friday at the Virginia Chamber Foundation and VEDP Summit I had the opportunity to attend. The final panel discussion was titled “Ensuring Virginia competes to win” and one of the speakers was Jillian Balow, Virginia Superintendent of Public Instruction. Governor Youngkin followed with keynote remarks, again speaking to a ready workforce.

As I was driving home, I was thinking about internships for both High School and College Students as well as work opportunities for Trade School students more focused on electronics and IT systems. I was also thinking about the plethora of organizations that already exists and the temptation to begin new ones. Specifically, I was thinking about short internships and workshops that could be aligned with a Scouting Activity. One of the things Scouts encourages is exposure through merit badges.

I was also wondering what other organizations are already out there that we can collaborate with to enhance “workforce readiness.” And expose students early on to encourage their interest in certain subjects. My mind skips to an opportunity my oldest daughter had in our local High School. She took and engineering class in which groups designed a boat. The boat design was submitted to the apprentice program at Newport News Shipbuilding, Newport News VA. Several designs, perhaps 4, were chosen to be built by the apprentices. And then the High School students raced the boats they had designed. My daughter’s team designed one of the boats that was built. End-to-end that was an amazing project for a High School student.

I guess my point is, we can volunteer with intent. We can organize learning opportunities and collaborate to bring both leadership learning and awareness to the many job options. There are many organizations out there already. We can join an organization that exists; we can splinter off and make new organizations. But however we choose to offer our time, energy and resources I am optimistic. The future is bright.

I am aware of the troubled history of the organization. If you, or someone you love, has been hurt by an organization such as the Boy Scouts of America I am sorry and I do not mean to belittle or casually ignore your experience.