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Children are natural explorers.
Aside from learning essential outdoor skills such as wilderness survival, first aid, navigation and knot-tying, being a scout can offer countless core values on the path to becoming an adult.
It might appear old fashioned to some, but in today's social media and technology-driven world, Liam Morland, chair of Scouting Waterloo Region, sees scouting as more important and worthwhile than ever before.
“Scouting is not as popular as it once was. Scouts Canada has been on a membership decline since the 1960s and has lost about four-fifths of its membership in that time,” Morland said.
“More recently, COVID-19 was a big hit, but even before that, numbers have been in decline.”
When it comes to scouting, there’s not much Morland doesn’t know about the organization.
“I joined scouts when I was seven and I’ve been a member continuously ever since. I moved into leadership roles when I was in my teen years,” he said.
Over the years, Morland has earned numerous awards including the Chief Scouts Award.
“I did my thesis at the University of Waterloo. It was about Scouts Canada membership retention. After university, I worked in Switzerland for a year at the World Scouts Centre in Kandersteg,” he said.
“In 2007, I presented my thesis at the World Scouts Scientific Congress in Geneva. This event included people related in scout research around the world. So yes, scouting has always been a big part of my life.”
While membership has fallen in general, and with various groups closing, some organizations are seeing growth.
Morland said membership decline could be due to a number of factors.
“Some factors are outside of the organization. There are a lot of other activities that exist. There is more competition today, so if you want to succeed, you’ve got to up your game,” Morland said.
“A huge amount of people join scouting each year, but a large number of them stay only for a year or two, so retention is the key. What I found when writing my thesis was that there were low rates of retention among groups that did not have strong programs.”
Morland said he also found many scouting groups do not engage in as many outdoor activities or have opportunities for youth leadership.
“The ones that did, they tended to keep their members, and the ones that didn’t, did not,” he said.
Programs at Scouting Waterloo Region are run entirely outside.
Independent from Scouts Canada, the organization offers traditional scouting opportunities where outdoor recreation is meant to promote strong values, building self-confidence, and promoting healthy and active living. Programs are designed for boys and girls ages five and up.
“With scouting, it's far more directed by the youth. They do a huge amount of the planning. We sit down with the troupe and say ok, what are we going to do this year? Hiking? Biking? Paddling? There’s so many different options. They take part in the planning part of it,” Morland said.
The registered charity offers scouting opportunities in Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge. Outdoor programs take place once every two weeks on weekends.
“We meet at a conservation area or at a local park for four hours on a Sunday afternoon,” Morland said.
“During that time, everyone learns outdoor skills. They go on hiking, canoeing or biking. They learn how to repair their bikes, how to wear a helmet properly and how to check their brakes.”
Morland said everyone works together to develop leadership and team building skills.
"They go camping. Everyone sets up their own campsite. They learn how to tie knots for putting up their tarp, how to light their stove, and they cook. They make up a duty roster that says who’s cooking and cleaning," Morland said.
"This helps them to learn how to work together as a team. If there’s problems, they learn how to solve them together.”
Scouting Waterloo Region offers full-week camps in the summer, as well as weekend camps throughout the year.
"The last weekend camp we had was to St. Catharines to see the eclipse. We had 17 youth on that trip,” Morland said.
For more information or to join Scouting Waterloo Region, visit here.
“People can join year-round. We have about 70 youth and adults who are part of Scouting Waterloo Region,” Morland said.
Scouting offers youth a variety of opportunities to develop leadership skills.
“Adult volunteers put a challenge in front of you and you have to work together to overcome that," Morland said.
“It’s like an indoor rock-climbing wall. You can make it easier or harder. The adult leaders adjust the difficulty of the program so that it is at a level that is challenging, but achievable.”
Adult scouters are there, Morland said, but you do have to climb the wall yourself.
“And once you make it to the top, it’s an accomplishment that you can be proud of,” he said.
“One day, they can look back and say, I built my own fire, I set up my own camp site. I see scouts who have gone off to university and they say that because of scouts, the have greater skills such as cooking and shopping skills compared to their room mates.”
Morland said Scouting Waterloo Region offers opportunities to develop skills and be physically active in the outdoors.
“And everyone enjoys being with friends. The social aspect is really important for our members,” he said.
“These are all skills that you don’t really get elsewhere.”
