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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!ihnp4!alberta!jim
From: jim@alberta.UUCP (Jim Easton)
Newsgroups: net.kids
Subject: scouts - retention
Message-ID: <638@alberta.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 11-Sep-85 20:03:22 EDT
Article-I.D.: alberta.638
Posted: Wed Sep 11 20:03:22 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 12-Sep-85 12:00:28 EDT
Distribution: net
Organization: U. of Alberta, Edmonton, AB
Lines: 31

***
	A couple of years ago I began to notice the problem of retention.
Boys vote with their feet - if they don't like it they leave.  I began asking
myself and the boys why did they quit scouting and in particular why did
they leave my pack.

	Last spring I participated in a regional workshop on "retention"
and discovered that our pack was actually better than average and that the
problem was worse than I had suspected.  I took a few ideas of my own to the
workshop and discovered a few things I hadn't noticed before.  eg.  despite
a large dropout rate our membership doesn't change much so we must be good
at recruiting but no good at keeping.

	I am not going to present any conclusions in this article because
if I were to get started on that this article would be much longer than I
intended.  Instead I will save that for a later article and ask for ideas
from scouters, from the boys themselves and from parents of boys (including
those who have left)  In particular one might address the following questions:

	- Do we have a problem?
	- What do boys expect from scouting?
	- What do adults (parents and scouters) expect from scouting?
	- Why do you stay/did you leave?
	- What can the scouting organization do?
	- What can the individual scouter do?
	- What can parents do?

	I also invite guiders, guides and parents of guides into this
discussion as I believe that they must be having similar experiences.

	Jim Easton (..alberta!jim)