Re: How active is ACTIVE?
Robert S Nix (bnix@JUNO.COM)
Sat, 1 Mar 1997 20:07:03 EST
Linda et al:
1. Sam Scout is one of your better Scouts. He is a good patrol leader.
His patrol likes him and follows his instructions. He is a good ball
player. For the three months that he chooses to play, he starts most
games, hits over .300, makes few errors, fields well, supports the team
efforts, and may some day be the team captain. However, he chose to
attend Scout meetings for half of his baseball season, so missed several
practices and a few games. Even though his coach knew his schedule,
Sam's skills were not consistently available to the team. As the team
must not be damaged by a part time teammate who would otherwise have been
a leader, the Coach picked someone else as captain and Sam was not
nominated for the all-star team.
Sam Scout picked baseball over Scouts; that's OK. When Sam becomes a PL,
make sure that he has a stronger than normal assistant PL who knows he
will become PL when Sam starts baseball. Have a plan A and a plan B
(Wood Badge in action?) Have additional plans in place to ensure that
this APL gets his six months of leadership as well. By the way, did the
members of Sam's patrol elect Sam, knowing his likely disappearance for
baseball? Or did a leader decide that Sam was ready and needed the
experience for his next rank? Did they also elect/select an APL? Look
back and see whether an adult's desire for Sam was the driving force, or
whether the other Scouts wanted Sam as a leader.
2- Remember a key point from Wood Badge: have a plan, work the plan. Are
your expectations of a PL in writing? Can you objectively review a PL's
success against a standard? What are your expectations? Some
suggestions:
24-hour notice on any meeting
1 week notice and head count for any trip
- also availability of patrol parents as drivers; available seats
designated food crew for any trip
written plan for the evaluation of patrol members and progress
reports
JLT trained
80 percent attendance; trained APL who knows the plan and can
step in
OK, I know, this is actually a lot of work for some adult to organize,
encourage, and enforce. Many of us (most?) do not run our troops this
way. Then we get frustrated (he's not here! where's the plan?
followthrough?) because we fall back to our own subjective views. That's
not fair. Because we all like Sam, we want to cut him some slack; we
don't particularly like his cousin Joby; so we are a little harsher, less
tolerant.
This letter was a real ramble. I'm sorry for that. The rules say "6
months". The rules don't say "continuous service in one position".
Close the bad door; don't cut Sam three months of slack. Open another
door and find a way that Sam can serve in three month segments. That's
our job, I think.
On Thu, 27 Feb 1997 07:20:21 -0500 LINDA K CLOSSEN <ZXRA59A@PRODIGY.COM>
writes:
>OK, Scouters, I am getting close to understanding" active".
>Give me one last question and I hope I can lay this to rest.
>Sam Scout is the PL of his patrol. He needs 6 months of active
>leadership and active participation in the troop or patrol to fulfill
>his obligations. For 3 months of the 6 months he is doing his PL job
>and for 3 months he is gone playing baseball. Do I count both the
<snip>
>____
>Yours in Scouting,
>Scoutmaster, Linda K. Clossen
>Troop 135
>
Terry Howerton Sakima Group, Inc. SCOUTER Magazine Kansas City |
