Scouting Ireland’s supreme governing body, National Council, met in Dublin on Saturday. The meeting was perhaps the best chaired National Council to date; official, but not officious, brisk but people got their say, good-humored too.
Delegates perhaps already had an inkling upon arriving that the day was going to be a strange one, but its unlikely anyone could have predicted the events as they unfolded.
Steve Cull
The Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children this week joined a coalition of organisations under the leadership of BeLongTo, Ireland’s national organisation for LGBT young people, to support a Yes Vote in the forthcoming Marriage Equality Referendum. The ISPCC is collaborating with Barnardos, Foróige, Youth Work Ireland, the Migrant Rights Centre, the Children’s Rights Alliance, Pavee Point, Headstrong and EPIC (Empowering Children in Care) who are all supporting a Yes Vote.
Can you spot a large youth movement that is missing from that list?
Continue reading Why Scouting Ireland must support Marriage Equality
In less than a week, Scouting Ireland will make an historic vote and one that will set the course for the future of the association for some time to come.
Next weekend, Ireland will not notice a lot. Dublin will be bustling with shoppers as usual. Buses will take on and disgorge passengers at the RDS. Locals (and perhaps some delegates to National Council too) will imbibe pints at ‘Horse Show House’ across from the venue. Nonetheless for Scouting Ireland, Saturday, April 18th will be an important day. The association will choose a new symbolic leader. A new Chief Scout.
Continue reading Which T.R.A.I.L to ‘connect’ to?
Concern is growing among members of Scouting Ireland that the costly bureaucracy that increasingly inhibits local scouting’s progress, is also getting out of hand in terms of cost. Expenditure is increasing steadily, yet revenue is shrinking and little seems to be getting done to address this.
The trend has coincided with a reduction in the transparency around the finances of the national association, whilst ever more administrative demands are placed on the shoulders of local volunteers.
Theirishscouter has been examining copies of the association’s accounts from 2007-2013 and offers a cursory analysis below….
Continue reading Account ability?
Scouting Ireland’s National Council will elect ten, possibly eleven new members of the National Management Committee of Scouting Ireland in early 2015. This represents a thus far unprecedented opportunity to set an agenda for the coming three and possibly six years. A central part of setting that agenda will be the decision made about whom the association elects as its next Chief Scout.
The Irish Scouter, not known for being overly traditional, has some rather traditional views when it comes not so much to the role of Chief Scout, but to the personal attributes a Chief Scout should have.
Take a look in the business section of any bookstore or glance at popular business websites and the word ‘authenticity’ is rarely far away whenever ‘leadership’ is mentioned.
The basic premise of many leadership articles is that authenticity is a critical part of being a leader. Leadership is a tough game and many people try it and find themselves wanting, not least when it comes to staying authentic and true to their own values.
Continue reading Leadership. And Authenticity
Strategy is a word that many of us do not readily associate with our day-to-day involvement in Scouting. Clipboards and spreadsheets can seem somewhat out of place in the middle of a field, in torrential rain, when the immediate priority is putting up a tent or getting a fire started.
At different times in our Scouting careers, we all set out to seek advice from others. The receipt of guidance has been described as the passive consumption of wisdom – a great way to tap into the experiences and learning’s of others.
Theirishscouter opposes censorship.
Freedom of speech, even when you do not like what is being said (perhaps especially when you do not like what is being said), should be defended.
Continue reading Freedom of expression in Scouting Ireland (Part 2)
A writer with theirishscouter was censored today on the Scouting Ireland Chat Forum. A post was removed and the account was suspended. Before the post is published here (with associated details), in the interests of fairness, a rationale will be sought for the deletion. This is important because a lot of people are talking about transparency and fairness at the moment.
theirishscouter 