From: EC92@AOL.COM
Date: Fri Sep 01 2000 - 18:48:41 CDT
I'm a fool, I know that, but I based my life for the next year on what a
youth would do.
I have a rule. If I'm SM my son can't be SPL (or PL, for that matter).
Doesn't matter why, there are lots of other jobs for a kid to fill, not a
biggie, its just I'm not going to be one of these dad/son combinations after
seeing what sometimes occurs. Its one thing to be the kid's father, but to be
his SM, too, and virtually live the life of the troop continually? Uh-uh.
So we held our parents meeting, I even sat at the door as they left getting
names filled into openings, and we had four openings I remember:
*2 ASM's for one of the New Scout patrols (we try to use the parents that
came in, no one from this group will volunteer, and several told the SM
"Thank goodness they're yours now" when they dropped them off.)
*Scoutmaster (we usually go two years and rotate, no one seemed to want to
rotate this time)
*Committee Chair (same cycle)
So I signed up for nothing, and asked stupid questions about whether previous
CC's thought I could do it since its filling out the previous man's term (He
had to get a new job and had no time), just to get information together and
preparing myself for what I expected, to be asked to be SM. Then the guy who
is supposed to be leaving as SM said "We'll hold elections next meeting for
SPL". That was great, I could put it off.
During the week it dawned on me, if #2 were elected PL or SPL I wouldn't
serve as SM, and I told everyone that. Just my personal rule, something that
was told to me the very first time I took a BS training at PTC. It applied to
JLTC, but it made sense to me.
We left for last night's meeting and I asked my son what he would do. He'd
been asked to be ASPL at camp and when the SPL "abdicated" (I believe the
precise words were something like "Well, if I'm supposed to be responsible,
then I suppose someone else should have the job" -- which we took once, even
twice, but) the third time I was informed my son was now the SPL. He said he
probably wouldn't even run, no one would elect him. Silently I told myself
that a year as a SM wouldn't kill me each time he repeated it.
Guess which kid won SPL?
So that leaves one position, CC for the Troop. If I were to tell you in 35
years as a youth and adult there was one position I could tell you I never
held and it was Committee Chair would you believe me? I know what I'm
SUPPOSED to do, and even how to do it, its just I found something else I can
be a newbie at and I thought I had expired just about all of those.
So I wandered into the council today and spent $40 on books and I'll go off
on this long weekend with several projects to learn quickly. Some of them
aren't related to the current job description but they were new, so what the
heck. Also grabbed new position patches for us both.
I need to get my hands on that Troop Committee training, and fast, so I need
that item number. (See, I was so far out of the BS loop I ignored those
messages like I dump everything except handicapped CS messages right now.) I
also need to know what is currently considered "Fast Start" and "Basic" for
this position so I can finish filling out this form on my desk and turn it in
next week.
Hey, its only been several hours this week and I found out Thursday night,
what do you expect, miracles? But I need to walk into a council and order
that training and train this committee ASAP.
And if someone has the number for the Scouts Canada recruiting tape, I'll
take that info, too.
Tom Petrik
