Changing names...

cjohnston

Revise

Vote Up

Vote Down

In Progress

I've noticed that our lingo can be confusing for new parents. If your membership chair is a diehard Scouter he may rattle off Woodbadge, BSBLT, CSBLT, BALOO, NJLT and a host of others. We need to make it a part of our culture to not use our acronyms with newer volunteers. For instance, FOS should be Friends of Scouting. We are scaring away potential volunteers who would rather ease into the waters. Roundtable could be called Continuing Training instead of conjuring ideas of Sir Arthur and his knights.

We are steeped in tradition but is this adherence to earlier catch phrases preventing us from moving forward?

Idea # 47Volunteers

Moderator Comments

12/10/08
From: Stephen Medlicott, Marketing Group Director

Good thoughts here. We are continuing to evaluate how we position the BSA, especially among key audiences such as new Scouts and parents and volunteer leaders. We will share this information with our communications team/copyeditors.

Comments

cguarnie 1 year ago

I'm not sure that changing names is really the solution to the problem. In any organization there are culture specific terms used to describe events, ceremonies, ranks...etc. Individuals who strongly support the organization will learn what those names mean. We should be looking at ways to make the terms we use in our organization more available to volunteers. Sites like ScoutParents.org can be used to level the playing field and orientate parents into our organizational culture. We can also use the New Leaders Essentials training to orientate volunteers into our organizational culture as well. No matter what we change our names to there will be some sort of organizational assimilation that will need to take place. Better orientation and education is the key.

mbarbern 1 year ago

We certainly do scare a lot of people away. We always have to look at who our audience is. At a round up with new parents we ahve to be very careful not to use acronyms. We have to put ourselves in the shoes of that brand new Cub Scout parent with no Scouting history. Not trying to be negative, but this will be difficult to implement since Scouters have gotten very used to the accronyms.

cnimer 1 year ago

I agree with both of these comments. Changing the acronyms probably would not be acceptable, but we should be careful how we phrase things so as not to confuse or intimidate potential volunteers. I recently had a training on grant writing come through my council and one of the documents they included was a regular person's translation booklet for scouting terms. When grant writing, or presenting, we should do our best to eliminate these terms altogether if possible or at least reduce their occurence.

cjohnston 1 year ago

Better education may be the key but at the same time I will say point blank people look at our acronyms and funny names and think we're crazy. Why should it take years to figure out Scouting when I can go Coach at the Y and be handed a clipboard and figure it out in a night?

jgarrett 1 year ago

I am grateful that volunteers in my district are sensitive to avoiding lingo and jargon where possible. I, too, have felt that a more accurate term for our monthly leaders's forums should be available. When I first went to Roundtable as a Cubmaster, I was not, of course, expecting armor and chain mail, but "Roundtable" did not describe what I experienced. Maybe "Monthly Leaders' Forum" is a more accurate description. But would we have to call it, "MLF"?

tiwells 1 year ago

I couldn't agree more. Let's stop using acronyms.

Could we also stop using crutch words, such as "unit." I had a Cub leader approach me one time because he had no idea what people meant when they were using the term "unit." I've had leaders refer to troop as Boy Scout summer camp as units. Why? They're troops.

jsolis 1 year ago

Business culture-specific terms will always exist. However, keeping them to a minimum only helps.

Judy Sizemore 8 months ago

Status Changed from Active to Complete.

Judy Sizemore 5 months ago

Status Changed from Complete to In Progress.

Post New Comment

Activity Chart

Controversy Meter

Categories