Sept 24, 2011

Charles W Dahlquist Gen YM Pres: SB's, LDS/BSA Relationship

Nov. 10, 2005 I had an opportunity to attend an instruction session with Charles W Dahlquist, the General Young Men’s President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was about the LDS?BSA Relationship. Many rumors had been circulating for several years about the LDS church removing Scouting from it’s program. I had been in a meeting at Thanksgiving Point several years ago and had been told at that time that the church had no intensions of doing any such thing. However the rumors persisted and at this meeting Brother Dahlquist told us that it was not true and if anything was true it was that the LDS was moving closer to Scouting. He explained that the units of the church that were trying to move away and do just the Duty to God program would fail since the leadership principles taught in Scouting were essential to that program as well and if ran with Scouting would be much more successful.  (It was interesting to me since the original name for Duty to God seemed to have been pulled from The Scout Oath anyway.)

He also explained many other special points that I had so wanted to hear since we had been trying to teach it in scouting for several years. He explained that we need leaders in Scouting that have the four T’s. T number one was a testimony. Every Scout leader needs to have a firm testimony of the Gospel and at each activity teach the boys by ending with a Scoutmaster’s minute which would help the boys to gain a testimony of their own. The second T was training. Every leader involved with the boys needed to be Wood Badge and where possible Philmont Trained.  Those who come back from Wood Badge have a testimony of Scouting and a working knowledge of how to teach it to the boys. The third T was tenure. He explained that the average tenure of scout leaders in the church is 6 to 9 months. “You cannot influence the life of a boy in 6 to 9 months.” He explained that we need to call leaders for a minimum of three years. The fourth T is Time. Every scout leader must be able to spend time with the boys. Summer camps and weekly activities being a major part of that time but also just time to spend with a boy who may need a little extra help.

He also talked about Safety. 17% of all registered Scouts in BSA are LDS. However 50% of the accidents are in LDS units. We have got to be safety aware and practice Common Sense. There are three factors influencing this statistic. One is a lack of training. Two is a lack of tenure. The Third is a lack of the use of Common Sense. He told of a young Scoutmaster that died while on a rock climbing activity. The initial report said that there were three trained repelling adults, and that it was just an accident. The second report though told of the challenge the boys had issued to the Scoutmaster to come down as fast as he could so he took a running leap and the first anchor failed followed by the other four as he fell to his death leaving behind a young family. Common Sense.

He also talked about Fund Raisers and that the best one would involve the boys having to work for money to go to scout camps. There are three ways to fund scouting. The first is the $50 allowance in the ward budgets. The second is having the boy pay his own way and the third fund raisers. He explained that we too often leave out the second one abd the most important one at the same time . We need missionaries who are not afraid to work. There is no better way to train them outside of the home than in scouting. Teach boys to work.

He also explained that we are to never leave a boy behind because he may not be active. He told us to be sure to register every boy and then turn it over to the leaders to capitalize on that investment through getting the boy involved in Scouting.

I loved every minute of the meeting and have probably left some important parts out but want you to know that my love for scouting came because of leaders who were not afraid to include me in some of their “own” time. That is another story.