Dedication to Scouting Part 1: Dedication Vs. Active Participation

So really what does "Im dedicated to Scouting" mean? Well when you actual look at dedication to any organization dedication is hard to give a specific definition to when each person in reality has their own standard of what they expect of themselves. Well here we are just going to look at a little bit of what dedication is and hopefully help you as Scouters or Scouts figure out what it means to you. This isn't something that can be standardized and applied to all Scouts. Now some of you are probably going to say "dedication is directly linked to active participation, so since when usually have standards for active participation why don't these basically the same concepts give the definition of you have to participate in X number of hours per week or the number of activities and meetings you attend in x amount of time?"

Well for me that answer isn't as simple as you might think and thats because when you look at these words definitions they are similar but do not mean the exact same thing. Basically what it comes down to is the fact that yes there are many words that are similar in nature but in general english was created in a way that doesn't give the exactly same definition for two different words. Now I realize that this doesn't apply to every word but in general this idea tends to work. So, why is it then that so many people treat these words as if they were exactly the same? Its because that they are pretty much as close as you can get when it comes to words being similar in nature without the words meaning the exact same thing.

If this is really true then it should be able to be proven and the only way to do so is by giving the definitions of each of these words. The dictionary I will be using to define these words is the online dictionary known as:

http://www.dictionary.com

Well then lets define our first term which is the word dedication and according to the dictionary it means the following:

Dedication is complete and whole hearted devotion to something. IE that something include a career, ideal, organization, or pretty much anything else that you are willing to spend the time required to work on achieving complete and whole hearted devotion.

Next in order to define what "active participation" means we must first examine the words separately and then combine them into a single definition. Yes the second part will be open to interpretation and I highly encourage everyone to define what these words truly mean to you because even when your using the dictionary there are many ways to define a word that could make the word mean something radically different than the definition you are using. Well since it makes sense to define the words in the order of which that phrase is currently put together I will first define the word "active." Active according to dictionary.com means the following:

For what the purpose of this post we will be use the definition that refers to how someone spends their time with X organization. So, active therefore means that you as a member of an organization participates regularly in the organizations activities.

After we have defined the word "active the next step in this process is to define what "participation" means. Again we are using the same resource to define these words to be able to say that we constantly used the same source. Therefore the definition of this word is as follows:

Well in order to continue using the same force we are going to use a dictionary that does not define the word as it is being used on a really good basis but for purpose the definition will work good enough. Its definition is its the fact of taking part as in some action or attempt.

Defining these two words obviously to some time so to combine them appropriately will take a couple of sentences to mesh these terms together into one definition. Warning: again I would like to repeat that this is entirely based upon my opinion and interpretation so if you think differently don't be offended but instead share what you think about the topic and after defining all the terms above we come to the point where we have to combine these words into a single definition, so here it is:

"Active Participation" means its the action or attempt of someone being involved in a particular topic, idea, person, place, or activity on a regular basis with a regular basis means the person is on a continual and regular basis is taking action or attempting the thing that the person is referring to.

so to some up dedication basically describes the relative number of times that a person commits to a certain thing when that persons does the thing more than several times. While active participation refers to a person that is acting or attempt the thing you are describing with these two words when its something that someone does on a consistent basis.

Since we have now defined all the terms for this series of posts next time we will focus in on what does dedication to Scouting mean and then finally we will examine and try to help identify the qualities of what active participation demonstrates to others.

Yours in Scouting Service

Mark West

Assistant Scoutmaster/2012 Summer Camp Chairman

Troop 1316, Troop 1616(aka 669), Troop 125

Tustumena District/ Denali District/ Eklutna District, Great Alaska Council

NSJ '05 Youth Participant NSJ '10 Subcamp 7 Youth Staff NSJ '13 Subcamp Staff

WSJ '07 Youth Participant WSJ '11 International Service Team(IST)

Eagle Scout OA Brotherhood Honor Big Horn Denver Area Council NYLT QM Philmont AA '08

If you are paid to do Scouting, you are called a professional. If you are not paid to do Scouting, you are called a Volunteer. If you pay to do Scouting, then you are called a Scouter.