AnneinMpls

Good evening!

I met up with the SM of the troop I'm serving this morning at church. He responded with....amazement? perhaps, that they now finally have a UC. He told me they will probably fold the troop this year because they are down to 4 members. I mentioned missing seeing them at the Saturnalia Festival this year (our GS troop helps with smores, the BS troop usually serves hot cocoa). He said they weren't asked to help this year! The neighborhood/community is very up and down in its support of the troop (the folks organizing the Festival this year treated our GS kinda snottily too this year.)

This troop meets 2 blocks from the middle school my daughter attends, which is also attached to an elementary school. They meet at a Presbyterian church. The neighborhood is upscale/coffeeshops/pretty gardens, located adjacent to the inner city neighborhoods with high crime rates. (The SM and I both live in the inner city neighborhoods)

1. First I know I need to have a longer sit-down chat with the SM

2. Recruiting! I'm thinking, pitch a dome tent in the atrium of the middle school...thoughts?

3. I know we need to take a careful look at program and leadership - do you have more specifics for me on doing this?

Thank you!!

Wishing you a peaceful joyous and blessed Easter!

Anne in Mpls

Bobwhite, thanks! You've helped me think about how small patrols can function more effectively.

What do you recommend if only one member of a patrol shows?

Anne in Mpls

Hi avjens! Welcome!

What is the site like that you're using?

Are you a "unit leader" or is 25 the total number of girls for the day camp? Are the 25 girls borken down into smaller groups?

How many days of day camp are you holding?

Do the girls like to earn stuff while they're at day camp? Do you incorporate outdoor skills? Do you do lots of crafts or very few?

Sorry to throw so many questions - just may help us generate more ideas for you!

Wide games are wonderful - maybe similar to what you did with the Amazing Race theme.

Look forward to hearing from you!

Anne in Mpls

OneHour,

Looking over your options...

Which option gives you a sense of peace?

Anne in Mpls

Hi Joni,

I'm getting very confused. You started a thread about beating down SM defeatism. You described the SM being too adult-directed, riding their butts or however you put it, then later you said he was too hands off and just let the boys do what they wanted.

I can't really figure out what you're asking or wanting.

Help us help you

Maybe if you took just one slice of an interaction - like say, pick one meal on one campout, and gave us the play-by-play...

Still, until there is greater clarification of what your roles as the adults in the troop are, it's going to be very difficult to get any changes made. When we're you last in touch with your Unit Commissioner? You need this person asap!

A lot of what you're telling us in the different threads are just symptoms of a troop committee that is understaffed and disorganized. You working-way-too-hard doing-too-many-different-jobs is just a bandaid on the situation.

Let's see if we can achieve some clarity

Anne in Mpls

Kudu, I must say I am surprised by your tone.

What unites us in scouting is our allegiance to our oath and laws. Perhaps a moment spent in reflection may be of benefit.

In peace and in the Spirit of Scouting,

Anne in Mpls

Kim, wow! You've got a lot of program going on in just a few short months! for us that would be the whole spring and summer

You're near Seattle - does that mean sea-kayaking for your girls?

Anne

Acco, thanks! Yes, I could easily be romanced by the idea of being a "fixer"! For instance, I see that the church that charters the units has a fabulous website, but no mention of the pack and troop! Here I go waving my magic wand....and Presto! A church that loves their units to pieces, and highlights them on the front page of their website! Suddenly, the units have more new boys than they know what to do with, but it's all ok, because every parent is totally on board - all because of lil ole me

Umm, yha...gotta avoid that kind of thing, right?

Anne in Mpls

Welcome Sassafras! Looks like Cadettes are in for some interesting changes this year and next with the new program.

Joni - thanks for the update! your Brownies sound busy! How are the COA plans coming along?

Peace!

Anne in Mpls

Welcome ccjj!

You will be a real asset to your daughter's brownie troop for sure! Especially work towards getting them doing lots of cookouts

Blue skies!

Anne in Mpls

Welcome Belinda!

I'm not sure what's going to get rolled out when either. Since your girls are flying up within a couple months, you can go ahead with the current program materials. The new program will come in as an "add-on" at least at the start. In other words, keep working the current program, badges & signs, and bronze award, do all the things good leaders of Junior GS do: girl-adult partnership, girl-planning, get outdoors as much as possible. When the new materials are released, your girls will choose whether or not they want to do it, just like choosing a badge to earn. Your girls will I think have the option of remaining in Juniors through 6th grade - this is open to local interpretation.

Anyway! Welcome!!

Anne in Mpls

Thanks all!

The DC is giving me two units - the cub pack and troop at the same church. Neat thing is I know the SM really well - our daughters were in Kdgn together and we know each other from church (not the charter org.)

So far so good! Course, I havn't done anything yet

Anne in Mpls

Yupper, it is! Mpls is our mostly official (?) postal abbreviation.

How long will you be in town? If you have time I can give you ideas of where to spend it!

Anne

I'll give it go though others may disagree!

Here's your list of stuff - I'll add comments as appropriate.

First off, location is everything. You might find the same exact terrain in a city park or 50 miles from the closest town. The difference is you can make a lot of mistakes in a city park and it just won't matter You can wear the wrong clothes, not remember rain gear, have no first aid kit, break a leg - and you have the resources at hand to get you out of trouble.

So, use the resources close at hand during the learning stages - make your beginner mistakes in town

Hiking with no preparation - you can do this in town with no poor outcomes. If you want the group you're leading to be able to do more though, you want to begin laying a groundwork for doing things right, so just write down a quick plan of where and when you'll be, and what your emergency plans are.

Night hiking - in town the dangers are different than in the wilderness. Dress to be seen if walking along roadways. Flashlights & extra batteries, but teach everyone not to shine lights in faces! carry the flashlight pointed straight down at your feet - your eyes will adjust better to the low light conditions.

Hiking alone - solo hiking is just not a good idea. Teach the buddy system. and pair up buddies with buddies too!

Off trailing - consider environmental impacts

Hiking without anything - nekked? Not recommended in town

Hiking with just water - in town, at least know where your water sources are. you can hike around, stop in at a cafe or park building. Away from town, be extra sure of your water sources and have a way to carry water with you - hands free is better

Hiking in flip-flops - if everything is paved, then ok - they're your sore feet. If it's not pavement, you need a closed toe shoe. Sandals catch tree roots, endanger toes, etc.

Cave searching (the purpose of which is to find one to exploreI also want to add here that we did find a cave and decided that it would be unwise to go into it. instead we went and asked the head of the outdoor club what he thought and his reply when he found out we hadnt gone into it was. Why not?Did we miss something?!) - caves are for wildlife. do not disturb

Hiking in the snow (I did it once and will never do it again without someone who knows what they are doing) - snowshoeing can be good fun

Hiking in the rain/thunderstorms - dress for the weather, tops *and* bottoms. A lot of newbies dont realize there are rain pants. I find soggy pants to be much more uncomfortable than soggy shirts. Also, read up on hypothermia - polarfleece is a super good layer to always have on hand even if warm weather is expected. Rain can be cold! (Go to the thrift store - you can but used polarfleece jackets for $5. Buy adult sizes for the kids you work with - they'll fit over everything they're wearing. A polarfleece layer can correct just about any clothing problem with the low-income kids I work with)

Wading in creeks - definitely! dont hurt anybody's home. If you lift a rock to see who's at home, put it back exactly like it was.

Climbing trees - absolutely! Use spotters, and dont assist anyone to climb higher than they can get under their own power.

Crossing logs that have fallen over creeks (some of which are 20 ft. off the ground) If it's greater than waist-high you run the risk of very serious spinal injury.

Impromptu rock climbing - no. not impromptu, and not without training. Now, scrambling around on rocky ground is good fun - waist-high boulders, etc.

Jumping creeks - ok, just be sensible with it

Large groups splitting up and getting separated - accidentally or purposefully? A big thing is how to learn to keep a group together. With kidlets, there's a psychological badness about being "last" and slowest. Whoever is lagging behind, halt the group and send them up in front to set the pace. You might give them with an adult a 5 minute lead time. Buddy system always!

No real designated leader - bad idea.

Andas we have yet to learn anything else no rulebook. - get the group together to decide on rules after giving them some good guidance on what makes sense for the area you're hiking in. Stay in arms reach of your buddy, stay in sight of the adult at all times, report any injury to the adult, etc.

Hope this is sometihng to get you started

Anne in Mpls

Well, I sent the email asking about serving as a UC! For some reason I felt compelled to go to the council's website and see what was shaking because I'd heard some BSA units in our neighborhood were faltering. Found the district site, and these troops have no UC currently! So I put my name in the hat and have been invited to sit in on the district commissioner's meeting this evening.

What questions should I ask? What should I *not* under any circumstances ask? What medication should I be on? )

Anne in Mpls

Hi Joni

A couple things jump out at me...

First off, the troop's small size is currently working against you. Your troop might actually only be one real patrol.

There's a couple different ways to work with this, but all depends on *recruiting* to solve this over the longterm.

Choice A, keep the current 2(?) patrols, stinky attendance and all. Get some patrol competition going that will stimulate better attendance. This may smack too much of just maintaining the status quo and could fall flat.

Choice B, reorganize the troop into one patrol, and treat it as a Green Bar Patrol, or also called a Pine Tree Patrol. The idea here is that the SM acts as the PL *with the stated intention* that he is training the Pine Tree Patrol to become the PLC once the troop grows. Also with the Pine Tree Patrol, you continue to keep eyes on the prize - divide up, do some competition, etc. If you can time this about right...and a lot of crossovers are happening soonish, you can then turn these newly trained up boys to head up two new patrols. Leave the foibles behind, and start fresh!

Another possible thing to try, just like patrol leadership is rotated frequently in a New Scout Patrol, you can suggest having PLs rotate the SPL position frequently - now, it won't be full-blown SPL responsibilities like you would have with an experienced boy who would take on the job for 6 months or a year, but you definitely want the SPL to be the one up in front, opening the meetings, moving the troop meeting along, closing it out, etc.

It might be that your SM is trying to do one of these, but possibly he's just not real clear on which or what it is he's trying. Don't fault him for trying - it's just a bad place to be to have a tiny troop. More boys and it will be easier to move the adults back a bit. You might suggest setting max. limits on how many adults are camping with them.

The biggie is recruiting! Must have more boys!

Blue Skies!

Anne in Mpls

Wow! That's a really a tale! Good thing he's got documentation!

Doggie seems to be in really good spirits - he's getting himself up and down the stairs on his own, he's cuddling, and he's begging for lots and lots of treats - he's totally workin it!

He's also got plenty of energy returning today - he's tackled the cat and pinned him down for a good tongue-washing. So far so good!

Anne, lovin on her doggie in Mpls

This morning we're supposed to be celebrating GS Sunday. My daughter will be staying home to take care of our 95 lb german shepherd collie mix*. He decided to enter the house through the storm window last night at 7 pm. We were at the vet's until 10 pm. He had *5* blood vessels tied off in his foot, plus stitches. It's slowing him down to 65 mph rather than his usual 150.

There was a CHUNK missing from the bottom of his foot, so I'm very concerned about infection. Put a word in with St. Francis for him if you are so inclined! Thank you. He's on oral anitbiotic and pain meds. He keeps forgetting that he's got the hurt foot, so he does his usual lunging at the cats walking by, or pouncing off the bed or off the couch.

Sigh, poor lil alligator!

Anne in Mpls

Experience is the biggest teacher - sometimes you need someone to come alongside and interpret the experience with them though.

The people that can best do this are respected peers, or folks with authority and friendliness. So, an encampment weekend would be a good time - an activity that requires the patrol to work together, an area where SM can observe - structure it maybe so that SMs have a specific observation to do. So getting roundtable commissioners and UCs to head this up would be a good thing. I'm betting yours is not the only SM who can benefit from some structured opportunity to improve patrol function. Even put it across as a "help us test out this pilot program for improving patrol leaders' skills" etc.

If you're the CC or a committee member, or an ASM, you are *not* in the right position to directly make this happen. Get the commissioners' attention

Structured observation cna be a real eye-opener for adults. Even just a list of the leadership skills, and space to write down examples of their use, or a play-by-play of how the patrol met and solved a problem. Then have an opp. where the SMs get together and share their observations. The SMs that are more skilled in working with patrols will communicate stuff, the less-skilled ones will maybe finally get something that's been a roadblock for awhile. Definitely do this with a whole mixed group of SMs because if there's any "sting" of SM Reform Skool or so forth, they are not going to be in the frame of mind for learning anything new!

If you are in any of the troop positions I listed above, make sure that there is a clear expectation that you are totally ok with any chaos that might result from letting the boys step up. Put it in writing - make up a troop committee cheer - whatever - but communicate it strongly and believably that y'all won't string him up if there are bobbles and mistakes along the way. The more criticism he's subjected to, the less he will be willing to put the boys themselves in the line of fire so to speak!

Anne in Mpls (UC wanna Be! Hint, hint...)

Good on you Yup! I've been doing BOGUK for a couple years now - their websites are full of great information too - look for the poems on uses of different types of wood.

(BOGUK stands for Best of Guiding UK, and has since come to be their own blue furry mascot known as The Boguk.)

Anne in Mpls

I'm curious, how does one go about supporting struggling scouting organizations in other parts of the world?

Anne in Mpls

Welcome Carol

Neat to hear both you and your husband are active! And yes, I too tend to wear many *too many?!) hats...I've pared it down, loaded it up again, pared it down some more Right now, I'm Troop Leader for Juniors & Cadettes, and a council outdoor trainer. And general fussy trouble-maker/instigator in our SU

Trees! Fire! Knives! Yea Scouts!

Anne in Mpls

Welcome!

That's a lot of hats to wear! Sounds like you're already working to whittle that down

I understand about your cubmaster hanging on to those committee chair jobs - I singlehandedly kept our GS troop going through some rough times, and now that I have a troop committee chair, it's hard to let go! There's a lot of trust involved, and also a lot of doing stuff yourself without even realizing you've got someone competent to handle it. The best thing you can do is keep friendly communication going - that ball's in your court, because your cubmaster is already on "auto-pilot"

Again, welcome!

Anne in Mpls

Welcome Joni!

Tell us a little bit about what your troop is up to

And in case you don't hear it often enough - thank *you* for taking on that cookie mom job!

Anne in Mpls