From the Listowner's website:
Table of Contents
WELCOME While the groups discussed may be heavily weighted towards the programs of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA), we DO INCLUDE WAGGGS (Girl Scouts and Girl Guides), Boys' and Girls' Clubs, and other world-wide scouting and youth organizations. We also welcome you if you belong to NO national youth organization. I realize this is a rather long file to read but the time taken will be well spent. Hopefully many of your initial questions will be answered here. The guidelines set forth will help make for a more enjoyable SCOUTS-L for all. I would also highly recommend that you keep a copy of this file. It contains a lot of reference information that you WILL need in the future. WHAT DO WE TALK ABOUT ON SCOUTS-L? We talk about a wide variety of issues and topics, from the silliness of a "Woodbadge animal" to the very seriousness of child protection policies that many organizations have recently installed. While we don't profess to have the answer to EVERY issue or question, we do spend a great deal of time answering as many as we can. In most cases, we not only answer the "where it can be found in the literature" question, but also give some practical applications of why it is or is not so. We tell stories of how our units or groups are doing, to inspire and to just share with others our anxieties, our fears and our joys. We get personal occasionally, because we have grown to be more than merely people discussing youth programs...we've become friends. We care when our fellow members are in the hospital, or when their new son or daughter is born, or when we attended our first training session or when we decide that perhaps our service is needed elsewhere. And we are listened to, comforted, and encouraged to move forward by the others here. We get lots of useful answers and suggestions and we joke around with each other from time to time. Then, we move on to another topic and the process starts over again. As you can imagine, not everyone here is in total agreement every day with all issues and resolutions of issues. We do argue, we express ourselves with deep personal emotion, but we also remember that we are in the company of fellow Scouters...people who understand that disagreements are a part of being human; that the disagreement is with the other point of view, and NOT the other person. Therefore, you will NOT find here the outlandish language and ongoing discussions about topics that have no real answer to them. We don't have time for such nonsense...we're too busy discussing issues that CAN be resolved. We try as hard as we can NOT to censure or ignore ANYONE's point of view or thought on ANY topic, but we have "driven some topics deeply into the ground." Please check the logs *before* bringing up a sensitive topic that we have talked about before. Also, please think before replying to a issue which "may set off firerockets." If you have any concerns, please let the list administrator know or send him a copy of your proposed posting BEFORE you post it to the list. We would also appreciate it greatly if you sign your name somewhere in the posting so that replies can be "personalized" to you rather than a pseudonym. This makes it nicer for you to be recognized as an individual. Finally, the list quality has been maintained by the number of questions that we've answered over the years. In many cases, the questions we've asked have also been raised by others who are not on the list, only to be ignored or discarded. Some of our questions --and our collective answers-- have resulted in program or policy changes by the BSA or other organizations. This is *your* chance to ask questions that you felt "stupid" asking local officials; to get the REAL answer to that policy that someone told you was "in the book and that's the way it is"; to resolve just WHERE do you wear that new award that your son or daughter or you received. We are MORE than willing to answer ALL questions, concerns, or problems that you may be having with your unit or organization. However, we do so ONLY with the understanding that you cannot get answers anywhere else. We don't want SCOUTS-L to be your ONLY source of information about what should or should not be done. We urge you to seek out the local offices of your youth organization BEFORE posting here...it avoids embarrassing "gaffes" between you and your organization and it also keeps us from coming between youth agencies and your unit. The advice given here is given on the same basis as what you would receive from a friend (which we all hope to become). None of us speaks on behalf of a youth organization in any capacity, except in the cases where we have identified ourself as a volunteer or career executive. You are free (and encouraged) to extract and download the information shared and share it with those that you work with in your youth agency or group. In this way, you are not letting the information die! Many Scout "roundtables" use the information from this list each month! So now that you know what happens here on this list EVERY DAY, here's some common information that you need to be aware of: zUSSSP: Scouts-L Find Find Hardcorel f k Escort 9500ix Website tUSSSP: Scouts-L Find Find Hardcoreh Find 9500ix Search |