One Last Verbal Snapshot of the BGC

For this final blog post, I would like to do a verbal snapshot and impression of another person at the BGC who I find incredibly interesting, and a key part of what makes the club unique. The person I chose is Dave Steele*. Dave is an integral part of both carrying out the over arching image and mission of the club, as well as the main staff member involved in the club's day to day activities. He is an interesting person - despite having little educational background in recreation (he majored in a liberal arts field), Dave is incredibly enthusiastic about the club and making sure it runs smoothly and in the way the mission of the establishment dictates. Because of this, Dave is a bit of a rule enforcer. He does not tolerate the breaking of the rules, and will always pull a volunteer aside if they have broken a rule to correct them. Because of this policy, he is not exactly popular with the service learners in general and even the work study staff. Earlier in the semester, once, in class I mentioned that a work study staff member kicked some boys off a game that was on the line of being inappropriate because a higher ranking staff member was about to enter the room; that person was Dave. He can be a bit of a tee-totaler, but he is also quite multifaceted. When you might expect someone with such a love of rules and decorum to be boring and quite the downer, Dave is quite the opposite. For instance,there was a day when all the staff members dressed up as their ideal career. What did Dave long to be? A lounge singer, complete with ruffled pink shirt, purple plastic microphone, and flamboyant wave. He traipsed around in the club all day, waving at children and occasionally even bursting into song. Now, you might think this would lead to the members not taking him seriously, but no. On the very same day, I saw Dave pull a misbehaving member aside, and speak to him pretty sternly without ever removing the play microphone from his hand. The result was astounding: the child was reformed instantly, not even needing Dave to say much of anything. It is apparent that though the kids are eager and able to have fun with Dave, they know that what Dave says is not a suggestion. Dave is the type of person that is essential to the functioning of any successful youth recreation: fun, enthusiastic, and willing to lay down the law. *Name changed to protect privacy

My Difficulties as "Ethnographer" vs. "Insider"

I have found the process of taking field note to be both challenging and interesting, as it was difficult for me to separate myself from the BGC itself and to not fully become one of the members of the community instead of an ethnographer. I did not anticipate this being a problem, and in fact I chose the BGC largely because I thought I would be more comfortable there and more able to access insider information. However, it seems to me that this insider information may have been more of a burden than an advantage, much like the ethnography we read about the med student and the ICU. I am, I think, overly informed and too much a part of communities like the BGC to be able to objectively observe and reflect without substantial effort on my part. This was not aided by the fact that the BGC is not by any means a place where it is easy to take a step back from the scene at hand, or to quietly jot down notes about the situations that unfold. Rather, there is continually someone that needs help or something that needs doing, and not doing either of those things means you're not doing your job as a service learner (at least in the eyes of the BGC). So where does this leave me in terms of field notes? Well, mainly, doing quite a bit of observation. Even then, though, I find it to be incredibly difficult to resist the urge to tell that small child dangling off a banister that he should probably find a better activity, or to join in on leading an activity with a particularly frustrated looking volunteer. However, I realized that this fact was a realization in itself about the culture and community that is present at the BGC, and as I looked around during my observations, I found my suspicions to be confirmed. Literally every adult at the Boys and Girls Club is either actively engaged in a task or very actively seeking one out - laziness is really not apparent. This is different from what I have experienced in other youth organizations where I have been involved, and is not what I had expected to encounter. In conclusion, I found that through my difficulties and frustrations with my field notes, I had made a startling discovery after all: those who spend their time at the BGC, for whatever reason, are truly motivated to energize and aid the club.