Friends of Scouting…shoot me now please

You have mine.

You don’t have to pay it though. I’ve skipped various years with no detrimental effect.

I’ll be the nay-sayer…

Think of your contribution as if you were not a part of a religion-led scout organization. A week of camp for 200 bucks?? I’d kill for that if I was a secular scout parent.

I can sympathize with your position.

The one thing that always gets me about FoS is that it is always presented as “this is your share for your kids”. In fact, there have been times when it has been presented in such a way that parents feel like it is a fundraiser for their kids. The fact that the troop sees none of this money and it all goes to the local council to pay professional scouters salaries and operating expenses is never brought up. I understand why this money is needed, I just wish it was made more clear where the money was going when the FoS pitch is given.

We had our FoS drive and a month later held a fundraiser for camp. We had ward members asking us why we were asking for more money. When we explained it to them we actually had some members mention that if they had known, they would have just given their donation to the boys.

SMiLe

I have always donated to FofS. It costs money to keep the organization going. I also feel that it is a charity and is completely voluntary. It is just that in Mormon Culture we are conditioned by tithing pay or burn mentality that gets carried over to any donation sponsor by the church.

My bigger concern is that the church does not really follow the Scouting program. They mold and manipulate it to fit into their young mens program, which effectively handicaps it to the point of idiocy at times. Sure it works in some areas but I would say for the most part it is dying a slow death in the church. If troops could be run independent of the structure of the young mens organization I think scouting would have greater value.

My son just turned 12 and is now a full-fledged boy scout. To be quite honest, I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, I can appreciate how it will help him develop and provide a sense of camaraderie with the other boys in the troop. On the other hand, it bothers me that he’s participating in such a blatantly homophobic, socially backward organization where so much of the focus is placed on militaristic rank advancement. My daughter has been participating in girl scouts for a year now. Considering we’re in Utah and her troop gets no support from the church whatsoever, her troop is actually quite large and thriving. Most weeks she prefers going to girl scouts over activity days. In a way, it feels kind of subversive…and I think that’s why I like it. 😈

As for donating to friends of scouting, I used to give them 10 bucks a year whenever they came around. It’s been a few years since I contributed. Having read where the money goes, I don’t feel bad at all about it.