🚀 go-pugleaf

I personally would like to see it end so we could compliment each other, but
we're not the ones who have launched the challange.

One of my leaders saw and taped the CTV interview last night (the version on
the 11pm news,
and both versions that appeared on the CTV cable channel).

 While I fully expected Andy M, in characteristic fashion, to present the
exective view of SC, it concerned him to  see that some information on BPSAC
was presented in a way that was misleading. When describing BPSAC, rather
than focusing on the "traditional", they described us as "conservative", and
played us as "old fashioned" ( using old fasioned imagery and descriptions
which was used to contrast the clips from
SC's modern commercial video production). The leader  thought that the media
and people may be missing the point of BPSAC when they hear the
word"Traditional".

"Unless they have more information about the BPSAC and what "traditional"
means to us and the program, the tendancy is to translate "Traditional" into
plain'old fashioned'.' The comment was made ( when describing some of the
key differences between BPSAC and SC) "Not all groups will accept girls".
Then a graphic went on the screen which listed a few points, the first one
stating "Girls will not be accepted!" (Check out
http://plaza.v-wave.com/index.htm/about.htm and see that the FIRST Scout
signed up in Canada was a GIRL!)  The other points listed were obtuse and
not clearly positive references on BPSAC. They might have mentioned that we
are 100% volunteer, low-cost, democratic, geared towards youth-leadership
but they chose to highlight other less signifigant details or put a negative
slant on the points.  Girls and boys have the same options in BPSAC, so it
would have been equally true for the interviewer to have said "not all
groups will accept boys", and to have put a graphic "boys will not be
accepted" on the screen. I think there was an obvious attempt to present a
scewed backwards view of BPSAC while painting a rosey picture of Scouts
Canada.

We will be writing to various people at CTV to express concerns about the
misleading report, specifically the boldly stated suggestion "No girls will
be accepted".

In the end, he thought the CTV interview and news item ended up just being a
small promo for SC and a dig at BPSAC.

Overall, the fact that so much scouting material has been in the public eye
has potential for increasing numbers, but the facts have to be clarified.
The volunteers in the BPSAC will be far more prepared during the next round
in an attempt to show that they are not antiques or backwards just because
they use a traditional approach to modern scouting. I will be doing alot of
public speaking over the next month to ensure the BPSAC is cast in the
proper light, unless, of course Scouts Canada drops its' challange and we
start working together.