Re: A Bad Night at Scouts

Richard,

Don't give up. I hit that point in 1991 with my troop, and even my
committee was against me. I confided with my Unit Commissioner and the
District Commissioner. They were actually alot of help for me and gave me
the information that I needed to keep the towel beside the ring and go in
punching.

If your committee is behind you, talk to the committee chairperson or
organizational representative, and they can help you with your Assistant
Scoutmaster, i.e. the Wanna-Be Scoutmaster. In response to the election,
did the ABSENTEE SPL appoint a good ASPL? If so, depend upon him, and he
will see how the election was a mess, which he could ask the committee/PLC
for another election.

Remember, I have been there before, and I am still sticking in there,
because I believe in the movement.

Ed Roberts
Committee Member Troop 1033
Beltsville MD

I used to be an Antelope.....
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Original Text
From Richard Ickler <ICKLERR@DELPHI.COM>, on 12/13/94 12:04 AM:
Tonight I had one of those Scout meetings that I would really like to
forget.
Unfortunately I can't. As the Scoutmaster, I really felt like a failure
even though I knew that it was a situation out of my control.

I have really been making an effort to overcome my instincts and allow the
boys to develop their own program with just some oversight. Still, it was
all that I could do to allow the boys to make the disastorous mistakes they
did. It was SPL and PL election night. For SPL they had two good
candidates
and one candidate who is popular and a nice guy but this was his first
meeting since June. Guess who won (Mr. Absentee). For Patrol Leader of
the
older boys Patrol they had three candidates, one who was qualified, and two
who were ineligible, one because he wasn't First Class which is a
requirement
in our troop, the other because he had only been about four meetings over
six
months and isn't yet registered in our troop. They elected the one who
isn't
yet registered. I'm now going to have to figure out how to deal with
showing
them that they made a major mistake without being the "Big Boss".
Fortunately, I have until January because we follow the school holidays.

After that fiasco comes the "coup de grace". Since I took over as
Scoutmaster I have had to deal with an Assistant who really wanted the
Scoutmaster title but wouldn't do the job. Since that time, he has been
constantly playing the kindergartener with wounded pride. He has not
missed
a chance to make snide remarks or to resist anything I might suggest. In
the
last couple of months he has decided that he (through a surrogate) was
going
to do the annual planning meeting. Tonight it was announced that they were
going to a local mountain resort this weekend. This was the first time I
heard about this and when I said that I couldn't go this weekend, ASM's
response was a very sarcastic, "what do you have to do this weekend?" I
hope
that they have a fun time but unfortunately that is exactly what it will be
because no one who is going will spend any time on planning. At this point,
I also expect to simply accept whatever plans they make and start over
again
as part of dealing with the PLC election fiasco.

I really was close to quitting tonight but I think I still have a few more
months of fight in me before I throw in the towel. Now I just need to
figure
out my next move. Any suggestions/comments are welcome. I will also
graciously listen to criticism.

YIS

Richard Ickler
Scoutmaster, Troop 14
Long Beach, CA

icklerr@delphi.com
icklerr@corp.macom.com

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