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Show LETTERS EDITOR la It Worth It? Editor, News: Recently many of us donated $25 or more to the Boy Scouts of America, which might cause some to ask, is scouting worth the money? Where docs the money go 1 What good does it do? There are many things which your money is used for when you donate to the Boy Scouts. On a typical $25 donation $7 will be used for organizing new districts, forming new scout troops, cub packs, and explorer posts. It will also be used for the planning and guidance of such activities as roundtables, leadership training, district meetings, explorer program conferences and unit service. Then $4.50 of the $25 will be used to maintain and pay for the council service center. It will also pay for the maintenance of all the records on all the boys in the council of which there are 26,396. The $4.50 is also used to purchase office equipment, postage, telephone service and finally to pay the salaries of the seven office girls who staff the service center. Next, $5.25 of the yearly $25 donation will be used to purchase training films, record players, manuals, charts, roundtable and activity supplies, and to defray the costs of Scout-O-Hammas, Camp-O-Rees, Eagle banquets and the various workshop. The next item is probably more noticeable than all the rest. That is our camping service, which takes $3.25 out of the $25. This provides for camp equipment, camp maintenance, camp vehicles and the upkeep on those vehicles. It also pays the salary of the full time year round ranger at Maple Dell and the summer time leadership of the' five council camps. Finally, $5. is taken out of the $25 donation and used to pay for professional training, publicity, recognitions, annual scoutleaders meetings, insurance, and out national charter. So we can see where the $25 we donate is allocated in the council budget, but still, is it all r - worth It? That is a difficult question to answer because even the tangible results are not easy to measure. There are Indicators though and they come in the form of statistics. For Instance, in our area 96 percent of all the boys are participating in the program as apposed to 25 percent nationally. We also have 72 percent of the scouts participating in long term camping, in which only 47 percent of the scouts, nationally, participate. We have 67 percent of the scouts advance at least one rank each year. Nationally, only 37 percent advance each year. Furthermore, 8 percent of all the scouts receive their Eagle award, whereas only 2 percent of the scouts across the nation receive their Eagle award. There are many other indicators and this area is far ahead of the rest of the nation in almost any phase of scouting that can be measured. But there is anyarea of scouting that is difficult, if not impossible to measure. That is the development of the character of a boy. This, after all, is the stated objective of the scouting movement, to help young boys become men of strong character and high principles. Many men will testify that scouting had a great impact for the better on their lives and who could deny that. Indeed who could prove that scouting hasn't made our communities a little bit better place in which to live. Ultimatly, then, the question is not, whether or not scouting is worth it, but each of us should ask ourselves, "Am I willing to invest in the character of the future leaders of our community." Mike Davis, District Scout Executive Raymond Whitaker, Panguitch Stake President. Lorell Munson, Escalante Stake President. Paul Nielson, Beaver Stake President. |