The Renaissance in a Relevance of Scouting

Thanks to @craigshelley of www.Twitter.com for this article on Disney’s expansive investigation of boys ages 6-14.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/14/arts/television/14boys.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1

Brooks Barnes does an excellent job conveying that the media giant has for the most part lost touched with a market that they once owned the lions share without contest. Disney and its team of anthropologists and psychologist has identified many difficult obstacles in reaching this age group, many of which are already clearly understood by the Scouting community.

Day in and day out, we reach out to this precise audience, but any Scouter in any color uniform can tell you that with each graduating year, it becomes more and more difficult to draw an unfamiliar boy into the culture of Scouting.

I believe the solution, may already exists.

The games portion of the Disney XD Web site now features prominent trophy cases. (It’s less about the level reached in the game and more about sharing small achievements, research showed.)

I found this to be a fascinating realization. In almost every conversation I have about why Scouting doesn’t work in one way or another, or what pulls boys away from the program, it is almost always the draw to sports and competition. Perhaps that pressure is external or parent driven. Even now, Disney has shown that a method for socially displaying ones small achievements can drive and retain an audience. Scouting does this. We garner advancements and achievements in almost every feasible category.

With the age of adulthood, we as leaders and as professionals view these ranks and achievements with a long-term message. I have heard many leaders say that if they could just get the boys to understand “how important these things will be when they are older,” or “what this will mean for college.”

I can simply state that message will fall on deaf ears. The meaning of each and every advancement is greater in and at that moment to individual boys than any long term view of the future. The boys of today live for the now and the current and have little regard for the future.

I think that line of thinking, a message of immediacy and instant gratification, falls right line with the overall tone of the messages on this page.

So, if Scouting defines the model of personal identity and achievement that Disney has spent millions in research to understand, why is our message missed? The mind of a boy is a complicated arena. Probably best described in a reader review of the article:

Boys are complicated - just like girls are. Some boys do indeed like action, video games, and sports; other do not. Some boys are voluble while others are quiet. So attempts to pick up one or two key traits (or "boy secrets") inevitably fail and risk extending hackneyed gender ideologies.

Can we make the connection? Can we break the barriers of preadolescence with tools that have proven rock solid for 100 years? I’d say it sure beats the alternative if we can:

Ben, a 12-year-old friend who had come over to hang out, responded, “After a long day of doing nothing, we do nothing.” –interviewee on the definition of the word “crash.”

Wedge 2.0 - the Great Divide in modern communication

In the last few weeks, I have witnessed this organization attempt to step into a new tier of communication through several Web 2.0 platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, and at present Blogger.com. As each of my colleagues begin to explore their own uses for the technology and begin to carve small footholds and build followings, it has been fascinating to observe the reactions of the people involved and witness to the project.

Since the early onset of social platforms like Blogger, Friendster, and Myspace, the vast majority of people rarely, if ever had personal interactions with the technology. It was seen in the majority view as something of a trivial source of unsubstantiated information and certainly not a pillar of business success.

Most audience members outside of a college audience, merely saw the ability to find their 7th grade lab partner on Facebook as pure novelty.

And then came Twitter.

Twitter is a logical step in evolution. At one time we were able to blog, then we built profiles and had walls and status updates, and during all of this we crafted an understood language that fit anything in 140 characters or less through text messages. And so now, we have Twitter.

The most interesting aspect of this latest version of Web 2.0 has been the emotional response by otherwise unscathed bystanders.

I had one member of our staff engage in one of several very interesting debates over the relevance of Twitter. He stated that he has managed every aspect of his job, grown his culture and his business, and developed iron clad business acumen over a 30 year career and never once had to rely on something so asinine. “Why do we need to be on Twitter?!”

It dawned on me that people are legitimately feeling threatened by the Twitter phenomenon.

After 45 minutes of explaining the context, history, Web 2.0 evolution, it boiled down to a simple answer that we do not yet know the Why. We do not know nor understand what will make this a successful venture. But what is clear, is that a solid presence in the Web 2.0 playground is necessary. We must be there today to be relevant tomorrow.

My colleague is not alone. I was nearly quick to dismiss his angst as an out dated generational gap. But since that moment, I have had so many conversations with people who see the culture around them changing on the wave of Twitter that it becomes isolating and threatening. I have even begun to craft my responses to “Why Twitter?” and “Who cares?”

Perhaps my next response will be a solid answer for those two exact questions from the perspective of an executive with the Boy Scouts of America, a Rotarian, and a contributor.

Recruiting on a Tuesday

It's Tuesday morning and an hour from kicking off Spring Recruitment at Lanoka Harbor Elementary School in Forked River. This is always an exciting time and an opportunity to directly connect to our exact audience.

This year's kindergartners will get their first direct opportunity to join the Scouting movement. They will get a few minutes to hear my pitch and receive a flier to take home to their parents. We have spent a great deal of time and energy trying to make the call of action as powerful as possible.

Every flier will this spring will tell parents to come to the school on a certain night, contact someone directly, or visit www.BeAScout.org to find their local and most applicable unit.

I do wonder however, how long this form of delivery can stay relevant. We essentially rely on the sales pitch in the classroom to make it home to the parents on the shoulders of a 6 year old. Our message must be viable and viral.

One of the greatest recruiting tactics we have is for parents to talk to parents. Parents can transcend the impact with much greater impact than any attempt that I may make in the classroom. We, as an organization, have make the commitment to expand on that and provide the tools necessary to close the gaps and leave no child behind.

In the works are a lot of projects to gain exposure on sites like www.Facebook.com, www.Twitter.com, www.Blogspot.com, www. TwitterMoms.com and even www.EVite.com. Through these new channels, we will expand and see greater and greater strides towards what the next 100 years of Scouting will look like.

In the begining...

...there was paper. And people communicated through typesetters and the published word. Great care was taken for accuracy and precision with most everything distributed to their peers and localized networks of business clients.

With the digital age came a new generation that first discovered email and the electronic transfer of rapid data sharing. Business expanded away from tangible markets and into international networks that never before had been tapped. Nationalized economies became globalized and capitalism spilled over onto foreign soil.

Today, marks yet another wave of evolution, pioneered by a Web 2.0 generation of social bloggers, tweens on twitter, and micro blogging.

And here we find the great clash of the traditional and timeless values of Scouting that conservatively stay fixated on tried and true methods of connecting to its audience against a tidal of wave of excessive consumption of mass media and social transparency that drives the daily footsteps of today's youth.

The day has come in which the business models for most every American and global industry must adapt not only to the changes in economic climates or the instability of world markets, but the socioeconomic impact of the average 15 year old with a cell phone and a laptop.

This is a generation in which the status quo cannot be spoon fed or marketed to, rather chooses its own popular culture based on viral movements and expansive social networks.

How does Scouting remain relevant in this climate? Close the gap. We can no longer rely on the aged Scouter to win the young minds of boys through bacon-crisped stories of earthen beds and stove cooked meals. The age of romanticism is over.

Today we must simplify the message to its core. We must be able to connect and engage boys and parents alike in a meaningful and staccato format. Without hesitation and without sacrifice we can remain relevant.

That is the "barbaric yawp" of this blog; the marrow of its bones. The entries to come will discuss this topic and work for any organization that seeks to make its message heard to a generation that needs the power of possitive message. I look forward to the discussion.