Scouting Ireland has signalled it is planning to embark on a Structural Review. To this end, a survey will have arrived in members inboxes in recent days. Theirishscouter decided to make a submission…

Coming as it does, following the appointment of an experienced and professional Chief Executive Officer along with several other recent appointments to key volunteer roles that seem based on the experience of the individual and not their tribal allegiances, this looks like another encouraging signal that green shoots might finally be springing from the moribund wreckage of six years of torrid (and horrid) in-fighting, back biting and seemingly wilful destruction of what was, as it turns out, always a very fragile entity.

No, the unresolved stain on the character of Scouting in Ireland – the legacy of abuse of children, mostly in the former Catholic Boy Scouts of Ireland and to a lesser, but albeit no less unsavoury extent in the Scout Association of Ireland – remains unresolved and still requires a workable and equitable resolution.

However, difficulties even on this horrific scale will be better tackled with everyone’s shoulder to the wheel.

The structural review asks lots of pertinent questions and theirishscouter could not resist injecting a hint of er, impertinence into the answers, just to see precisely what the review committee is going to use this information for.

It may well be that this process is merely a box-ticking exercise and nothing meaningful will happen. Cynics however may be in for a surprise as the committee members were not only named, but there were also a few interesting figures within, including some people with real experience and competence.

So, what does theirishscouter think a new or revised structure for Scouting Ireland should look like?

DEMOCRATIC FRAMEWORK

The absence of democracy since 2018 has done more to undermine the fundamental tenets of Scouting in Ireland than anything else.

Non omnino finitimus, it was faintly hilarious back in 2018 to see some with apparently impeccable democratic credentials make promises to get the structure over the line and then perform quite the volte-face to stamp out member input with all the sycophantic zeal of Alfred Lickspittle.. (and who was the ‘Master’?) A humorous story for a future article…

Yes, the democratic deficit led to some difficult decisions being made more efficiently. It also had the effect of removing most people’s ‘skin in the game’, hence the present wasteland at national level, notwithstanding some recent, welcome green shoots.

If Scouting Ireland is to have a future as a force for good in Ireland and is to become a national entity that can move the dial on issues affecting young people, it must once again become a volunteer-led, grassroots driven organisation.

The fact is people give more to something that they feel a part of. More time, more energy, more passion, more money. Members have been disengaged from the national structure for too long. They are the engine of the movement. It’s time to fire them up…

YOUTH PARTICIPATION

Smiling young people in bright t-shirts and multi-coloured neckerchiefs are great for publicity, but ‘youth participation’ nationally in Scouting Ireland doesn’t go much further than that at present.

Young people are, by their nature disrupters, rebels and challengers to the status quo. Actual leaders of a youth organisation are only doing their job if they allow young people to do theirs by taking the former right to the edge of their comfort zone. And sometimes beyond.

Youth participation should be uncomfortable for adults. It should be age appropriate of course, but the discomfort for the grown-ups should always be present.

When old men in fellowship patrols start harrumphing and writing angry messages on social media, THAT is when you know the youth participation structure is working. At the moment, it is not.

SAFEGUARDING

Safeguarding is here to stay. It probably should have got here a lot sooner. Let’s not kid ourselves, however. It was ALWAYS wrong to harm a young person. Right thinking leaders in the 1930’s would have removed abusers from the organisation – and rightly so. Just because some well-connected figures were not removed in the 70’s and 80’s does not mean the mechanism was not there to do so. The mechanism was always there. The will, it appears, was not.

We need however to ensure that safeguarding, whilst managed carefully, professionally and sensitively is not managed opaquely. It needs safety checks. We need to ensure that there is never scope for one individual or a small number of individuals to make arbitrary decisions or judgements for the wrong reasons that could affect a person’s entire life and permanently destroy their reputation in an instant.

Let’s be clear: when a member of the public hears the term ‘safeguarding’, they think ‘child abuse’. Due process with clear oversights and checks is of critical importance. It is a balance that requires swift and uncompromising action to protect a young person, yet careful consideration of legal, ethical and moral consequences if the matter at hand is not about the protection of children.

Root out people who pose a risk to children. If someone is just plain difficult (or is simply making life difficult for you), find a different way to deal with that problem. The risks of resorting to the safeguarding system to (for instance) manage disputes between adults looks like it could be a very dangerous road for all concerned.

OPERATIONAL PROWESS

The board of Scouting Ireland was never intended to have an executive function. It was conceived as an oversight body. One must assume groupthink took over within the cloistered comfort of the Millennium room at National Office with the resulting assumption that no others could possibly govern. The net effect of this has been a stunted support structure at national level.

Scouting Ireland has roughly thirty times more adult volunteers than it has paid staff. The prevailing ‘paid staff good, volunteers bad’ narrative that was parroted by various nonentities led us to the ‘sunlit uplands’ of a wonder world where paid staff would run the entire association. The board would chirp out the odd unsigned motivational email to the hard-working cash cows (sorry, members) on the ground. and everyone would be happy.

Rather like Brexit, the sunlit uplands did not exist. Scouting runs on volunteer effort, or it does not run at all. Yes, paid staff have an important role, but it does not and should not extend to dictating to Scouters. Scout volunteers like a big say in their organisation. They also dislike being patronised. Hence, we have seen a huge ‘opt out’ from national level – a gargantuan loss of energy, time, experience and passion.

Volunteering contracted sharply after covid (in Scouting and beyond) Getting committed volunteers is becoming more and more difficult. Like customers in a business, it is far easier to retain than recruit. Even in the (vastly more efficient) UK Scout Association, prospective adult recruits often leave / come to their senses before the application process has been fully completed.

Between the Board and the members should sit a well-developed support network, led by volunteers with energy, passion and experience in each field, supported by staff who share the vision of helping local volunteers to give their young charges the best possible experiences in scouting.

This means volunteer-recruited senior people leading teams that can do big things. Big events, big PR campaigns, big initiatives to move the needle on key projects, big thinking about the future. It means a CEO leading the charge, coordinating a vast, diverse team of volunteers and staff, who all work together and towards something great.

Will there be disagreements? Yes, of course. Will there be headstrong personalities? It is Scouting – we specialise in growing headstrong people. Will it somehow just work because a leader with the right attitude, the correct skill set and no axes to grind can get a lot done?

It must surely be worth a shot?

The board cannot do everything. They are there to oversee, to advise, to support. The day to day is down to the CEO, a strong team of well-motivated, well-compensated staff and the army of volunteer experts waiting to be invited to get involved.

FUN IS ACTUALLY OK

Ian Elliot may well be an esteemed expert on safeguarding in religious organisations, but he did not understand how Scouting worked – certainly at the time of his involvement in Scouting Ireland.

Mr Elliot quite rightly, but completely unnecessarily highlighted that volunteers should regard their involvement in Scouting as a ‘privilege’. The subtext presumably was any enjoyment could not or should not be derived. Had Mr Elliot understood Scouting a bit better, he would have realised that there very few volunteer Scouters who are not patently aware at every stage of their involvement just what an immense privilege it is to work alongside and support the development of young people.

It is also entirely ok to enjoy this work. It would be rather strange if one did not. Who volunteers for anything they do not enjoy? Scouting will never again be a national force for good in Ireland if those involved are not having fun.

TECH BRO

The survey asks for views on moving some training to an online format. The UK Scout Association is one of a few NSO’s that is making greater use of online formats to deliver certain types of training, with great success.

The material can be accessed at a time and place that suits the user – very handy given the hectic lives many people live much of the time. There are ways to ensure the course is fully completed and a certificate can be downloaded/printed when the course is complete.

Yes, there are certain types of training event that are arguably best done in person. Long may these continue. However, the basics to get a scouter up to speed on safeguarding and the major pillars of being a functioning adult volunteer in their group, could be covered online, reducing cost, complexity and most importantly time commitment.

DEMARCATION

The UK Scout Association are engaging in the same sort of annoying dumbed down role descriptions that Scouting Ireland is obsessing with. For instance, out goes ‘District Commissioner’. In comes ‘Lead Volunteer’ (this is the place where the rolling eyes emoji would go ).

One thing the relatives over the water are not doing however is allowing any blurring of the lines between the value of volunteers and the role of employees. In most national teams, (I suspect Safeguarding and Finance are two reasonable exceptions where recognised qualifications, a full-tine commitment and possibly a signed NDA are needed), the volunteer is the lead, and the employee is the support. The volunteer recruits and leads volunteers and the employee recruits and leads employees. The ‘lead volunteer’ (yawn) and the ‘lead employee’*, must work together to deliver positive outcomes. As adults, they either know how to do this or they learn to do it – it is not complicated. Scouting Ireland should do likewise.

*(employees get to keep their titles, because presumably titles matter in one’s career)

ENGAGEMENT

Very encouraging to see another email this week from Scouting Ireland referencing the forthcoming General Election and for the first time ever, taking a stab at counting the number of first preference votes that Scouting as a national entity theoretically wields.

The email is alas unsigned, so takes on the characteristics of a flier dropped in your door. It also puts all the work on the recipient (no mention of what national office is going to do), but it is a start, albeit a rudimentary one, towards some sort of strategic vision of how Scouting in Ireland sets out to engage with the political, corporate, civic and academic worlds we rub alongside. Many of us belong to one (or more) of these worlds. Better understanding of our mission, our values could lead to a slow restoration of our national reputation and – in time – pave the way for longer-term sustainable relationships that benefit Scouting and the work it does.

BABY STEPS

The Structural Review feels like it could be a tentative first step towards some sort of new chapter for a once great youth organisation. If you have not contributed to the survey, theirishscouter would recommend that you do. It may be a box ticking event. But on the other hand, it could be a baby step in the right direction.