Eagledad

>>WEBELOS LEADERS MUST TAKE OUTDOOR LEADER TRAINING and use it...I get very tired of hearing "well, she or he volunteered to be the Webelos leader but she doesn't camp"...(sound the buzzer) find someone else.

Now that is thinking outside the box. I love this scouting stuff. Barry

Of course we can go back and forth on just how close is not close enough, but I don't think distance is as much a factor as it is adult reactions to boy behavior. My observations are that boys will not lead as men until they are convinced the adults will not step in and take over. That kind of culture takes years to develop in a troop. I like to tell adults to practice watching from the shadows. Get close enough to observe the behavior without interrupting the behavior. The problems with many of adults getting close is some adults dont want to see the bad behavior that needs changing, or they

>>So, my question is how do you start changing attitudes about getting people to training?

>> I'm starting to think that the boys who are or have been Boy Scouts have got used to not keeping commitments they have made because they "Got away" with it in the Troops they were in.

>>Hence... a Scribe should feed to the Advancement/Membership coordinator, but not have direct access to data entry or report output.

>>Now that I'm a tad wiser, I might help make the Troop more boy led by charging the Scribe with responsibility to send updates to me from the PLs...

Oh I understand. I didn't think you were on any kind of Ego trip; my warning is more to watch out for any kind of appearance of it. It is not hard to come off appearing that it is SueM's troop and sues vision. Our troop just had its 20th anniversary. The present SM had all the past Scoutmasters give a brief writ up about their experience in the Troop that was included in the Troop Banquet program. As he read these writ ups coming in from the SMs, he found out that basically everything I was trying to teach the adults while I was Scoutmaster was started by the SM before me. He did not rea

What a wonderful post SueM. I think that is a fantastic idea and I wished I thought of something similar when I was trying to mentor the adults toward our Troop vision. Something else you can do while you are guiding them in this process is refer them to books, articles and documents that support the mission and vision you keep talking about. You add integrity to yourself and the program because they learn the vision is not all your creation, it is a vision generally held by the scouting community as a whole, at least by those who set their program to a higher standard anyway. One

There is usually one adult who is dominating enough that the rest of the group will just blindly follow. There is the obvious risk that the scouts will drop out instead of transferring to Troop B. In fact I found that is the likely result. I must say ma, of all the post I've read from you on this forum, this one describes your personality the best. I wish there were more like you in scouting. Barry

Dang, Eamonn beat me to it again. For me, scouting is the real world scaled down to a boys size. I always look for real-world situations to teach scouts small lessons now before they get in the real world. If we have camp rules, its for a reason, and usually safety. But, I usually went through the SPL and PLC to set the rules, not the almighty power-addictive adults. When our troop started having problems with coke cans, I first explained to the SPL why cleanliness had a lot to do with safety, animals, bugs and so on. Then we started doing surprise camp inspections where it was embarrass

Happy Easter All Well, Eamonn beat me to it again. When our Troop got to a size where we had a big committee, I started meeting with just the CC and a couple other trusted members to hash difficult subject. We discussed the situation until we came up with a good solution to propose to the committee. The problem stated that many members only show up during committee meetings is one I've seen happen, not in scouts, but churches and schools that are doing fairly well. Folks are always looking to get in a good thing. One other thing I started doing when these kinds of things happe

Hi gwd, I haven't offered much because Eamonn expressed my thoughts. But I would suggest your troop consider sending other adults, expecially the CC. This is a very good course in team building, team leadership and understanding the importance of Vision. A CC will come back a much better team leader and likely increase your ability to Scoutmaster. Together you two might become a powerful force for the program and the families of your Troop. Barry

Hi All I dont think women should be the first choice for Scoutmaster. Yes, I seem to be stepping into these kinds of topics lately. But I have expressed these opinions before without getting into rough seas because the groups in the past has been adult and not reading more into it than intended. I once had a discussion, very civil, with a very close friend who was about to be a female scoutmaster. She was all caught up in the political correctness defence mode in our discussion of female scoutmasters. At one point, I told her that I agree that women can better as good if not better

>>Why 10-fold? Why not 2-fold...as in once for untrained men and once for untrained women?

>>The problem is that introduction is just that... an introduction.

>>The two new guys have no ties (older brother, friends, etc.) with the troop. Any help, advice, suggestions, as always, are greatly appreciated.

>>Among the classes I attended were "First Class, First Year", "How to Retain Older Scouts", and "The Patrol Method.">All things that should be and are covered elsewhere, and very little on the intended subject of the course.

Our experience is two new scouts can be added to a patrol before it adversly affects patrol dynamics. Our troop likes to mix new scouts into existing patrols unless we get more new scouts than two per patrol, or the new scouts just want to start their own patrol. Sounds like a pretty good SPL. Barry

Next to women in troops, bugling was a difference that really stuck out from experience as a youth. Even among 20 troops a camporees, not a single bugler. We tried really hard to get one in our troop and we had a couple, but they were nothing like the buglers we had in the 70s. Sometimes back then, we had two at a time which can make you tingle if done well. Yes, I'm afraid it is a lot art. Barry

Go to other troops close by and trade counselor list. This way you are going outside your troop but still getting experienced counselors. Barry

>>I've seen one troop where the Troop Scribe was responsible, working with the advancement chair.

Wow, there is some great stuff being written. Not to long ago there was a thread where we discussed the time it takes to build a Boy Run program. I think for those of us who have gone from rags to riches, we felt it was between 6 to 10 years. There is a reason it takes so long. You are building a cultural philosophy within your troop. Just because you say scouts are in charge doesnt mean they fully understand what that means. It is important to understand that boy run is different for each one of us and boys do not have any control of how boy run they can go. Its totally up to the adults

Boy, sounds like you are doing everything right. That you talked to the scouts dad about his behavior tells me more about you and your style of scouting than anything else you wrote and Im impressed. Most adults need to understand that you are just one member of the families team in raising their son. I was very close to my scouts, but they knew there were no barriers between me and their parents when it came to their performance. We are all in this together. As for your questions, its hard to add to EagleInKy. your are visiualizing a perfect patrol. In reality, what you get is not near a

>>cool activities including the new "Bikeathalon" where you ride a mountain bike with an air gun on your back and then you stop occasionally to shoot, much like the Olympic event, the Biathalon, except with bikes.