Imagine that you are sitting across the table from someone. You say something. She doesn’t respond. Again, you speak. Silence. You try a third time. Same result. You have no idea if you have reached her, or if she even cares!
How do you feel? Hurt, frustrated, angry, minimized? What do you think of her? Rude, indifferent, insensitive, uncaring?
Now, imagine that you have sent an email to your fellow Sea Scouts. You’ve taken your time to compose it, you think it conveys something meaningful, and you press send. It travels through the vastness of cyberspace, but hits nothing to echo back that it has even been noticed. Is this any different than if we were sitting across a table?
We are taught as Sea Scouts that when a signal is sent it is critical that an appropriate response be made. We also follow the Scout Oath and Law. At the very least a scout is kind and courteous. If nothing else, some response is a courteous act of kindness.
We all get tons of emails every day. Most we ignore and delete. That may be okay for what we get most of the time. But, when it involves Southern Region Sea Scouting it is our connections that unite us. If you get a SR email and ignore it you weaken our unity!
So, Sea Scouts and Scouters of the Southern Region. Resolve to be united in the best organization in the world! If you get an email and have something to say in response, say it. If you have nothing to say, at least respond with “Got it,” “Acknowledged,” “Roger,” “Over,” “tiddlywinks,” or anything that tells the scout that you appreciate the effort to reach out to you.
That is being courteous and kind.
That’s the view from the quarterdeck
Monica Attaway – Area 2 Yeoman