MapleScouter

Well, I'm currently a scout, yes, but that title will eventually leave me. I'd rather use "scouter" and not have the name be outdated and bugging me in X number of years should I eventually decide to go back to scouts after college and all. (That, and MapleScouter is a pun of something else.)

Anyways, I don't hold educational choices and values against any of the scouts in "my" patrol (since saying the patrol to which I am the patrol leader of sounds awkward). I respect all of the kids in my troop, regardless of the school they attend or their values. What if I in my post I had replaced the mention of my school with a program like NYLT? It's not like I'm conceited towards everyone that hasn't attended NYLT, but I would feel a degree more qualified than those who hadn't.

It's just that based on the historical lack of patrol outings, I feel that the chance of them having a patrol outing in a patrol other then my own would be much less and their program would be weaker. Again, if they feel that they would be better off in making their own patrol, they're allowed to go ahead. I can't veto that, and if I could I wouldn't. But I feel that these younger scouts, having been in the program less than a year, are better off (at this present time) under a patrol leader who I feel to be reliable and dedicated.

When they're all good proactive scouts pursuing the "ideal" patrol method, of course a split will be in order. I don't think at this stage in their scouting career, though, they're ready. Definitely when they feel (or I feel) that they can do it on their own, I'll let them schism or replace me as PL, but not now with all these new scouts as they are. Again, they know that they can leave the patrol if they want to. Patrols are open within our troop, and they'll vote with their feet if they feel I'm not giving them enough responsibility.

And, it's not like I don't "tolerate" mediocrity. I would just very much like to see everyone excel in their scouting career, and, although it might initially come a lot from me, I eventually hope for all of them to become self sufficient. Youth development is one my main goals with the patrol. Yes, they need their chances to fail, but I don't think failing as a PL is the best option for them right now.

I'll be sure to be open to their comments and concerns.

Thanks all of you. I'm taking all your comments into consideration.

Thanks Behavah, in particular, I hadn't though of consulting the opposing PL's.

And I would hardly call these treatises. Maybe in the issues and politics forum there are some ideas that are borderline, but not here. hehe

~Maplescouter(This message has been edited by MapleScouter)(This message has been edited by MapleScouter)

I'll say quite frankly that I'm not a troll (although I'll also admit that I'm also biased, haha.)

Anyways, certainly "well spoken" teenagers have to exist, yeah? For there to be the whole discussion about failing and sub par education, somewhere people have to be doing better since it's all relative, right?

If you still think me a troll, then perhaps you have trouble imaging an academically successful kid in scouting? I'll admit the two passions aren't too well associated. Take the scholarship merit badge, requiring "satisfactory" behavior, grades of 80% or more (and, if not, just have improved them since the grading period prior), and be aware that school will help you in the future. Granted, there's more, but it's all stuff that's pretty simple and not too much is expected. Scouting isn't really an activity to stress academics too much.

The (indigestible) demographic information was originally there in that post to make my qualifications more digestible, which in turn would give you a better idea of who I am as a student, scout and person to lead my massive patrol. My problem was over-qualifying myself to the point of condescendence and inconceivability, which I still apologize for.

Although, where did, "few social skills" come from? Of course I value all of my patrol as friends; but, at the same time, as with any extracurricular, there's both a time for business and pleasure, yeah? In terms of experimenting to develop efficient organization, I view that as something of business (which I separate distinctly from the "fun" parts of scouting). The whole deal isn't mutually exclusive.

And no, I'm not necessarily 16; don't go making too many presumptions. へへ

ーMaplescouter(This message has been edited by MapleScouter)(This message has been edited by MapleScouter)

I'm sorry if I came across as a bit condescending. I'll admit, I googled Dunning-Kruger, and if the bias is there I hope I'll realize it.

Anyways, new scouts can choose their own patrol upon joining and change at will. The adults have been pushing for the scouts to have more control and be more proactive, and I think allowing open patrols is an example stemming from this. No scouts have openly supported a split. It's just that, given my troop's history of patrol outings, I feel bad to let off some of the scouts into a patrol that hasn't and more likely won't do any patrol outings. In addition, if there hasn't been the will in any scout other than me (don't want to sound egotistical here) to proactively pursue a patrol outing, the will may be even less present in a patrol of maybe half or a third of the population. I could, though, conceive a split after a few of our patrol outings, so that both patrols have an experience and example to try to emulate with their own patrol outings. Yes, the wheel has already been invented, but the car hasn't been rolling along as well as I feel it can, and if enabling it means attaching 2-3 wheels to a single drive shaft for a while, why not?

As to the summer camps and the parent committee, it is the scouts that are supposed to be making the main decisions. The parent committee is just there to keep the PLC in check (from, say, choosing the same summer camp every year), and I'm not comfortable with using a security measure as a way to levy my patrol's will against the standard process of summer camp selection.

Oh, and as to demographics, I apologize if they were irrelevant. The British scouters seemed to have their own perspective on issues like homosexuality, and I thought that throwing in some differences in the way I was raised might alleviate some of the tension I expected in my somewhat abnormal disposition towards the patrol method. My perception of scouting, when I joined this troop a few years ago, was based largely off my grandfather's/uncle's stories and experience from scouting in (insert country here), so I may have gotten off on the wrong foot. The entire second paragraph was entirely unnecessary, though.

Again, I deeply apologize; thanks for your feedback,

~MapleScouter

(This message has been edited by MapleScouter)(This message has been edited by MapleScouter)

Hi scouts and scouters,

Since it's my first post, I'll give some introduction to myself.

I'm quite... unique for a Scout, demographically speaking. I live in one of the only Republican districts in Southern California (in which my troop is chartered), but am more like minded with the Catholic prep school which I commute to for about half an hour every day during the school year. I'm one of two kids in a troop of only 60 that isn't white, the only scout that is an actual immigrant and, although I was born in Asia (I'll be a bit general here), the only scout that bears Canadian citizenship. English is spoken between 60-70% at home.

Without trying to sound elitist, I feel that I'm more trained for leadership than many of my peers within my troop. My father is an IT professional, and I have permeated from him his decades of experience and knowledge. My mom has her degree in psychology, although I forgot if it was developmental or cognitive. I have studied some sociology and government theory at school (although I wouldn't say at a university level), and, although the school doesn't formally rank, I'm more or less at the top of my class. Me aside, only about 4 other kids in my troop attend private schools, and I'm philosophically/ ethically/ morally/politically/ and etc. differently minded from my scout friends. Being strongly influenced and in favor of the Canadian method of alien integration(the whole mosaic vs melting pot model thing), I'd say that I've had the strength to not melt down and assimilate.

Despite these quirks, though, I'm quite well favored in my troop. I became eligible for and was elected the PL of the troop's largest of its 5 patrols just this last term. I am in charge of 17 scouts, myself included, and am very committed with the program and to my boys.

Given this, I have some unconventional ideas and experiences as a PL that I'd like to keep a sort of anonymous digital journal for, and your input is always appreciated. I feel that I may be overstepping my boundaries as a PL with some of these, doing much of this without informing the PLC (although I have nothing against doing so. If I did, though, I'd be the most high maintenance of the PL's to the ASPL directing patrol managment, since the other PL's don't seem as nearly as active as I am.) My troop with all its boys has a very strong program, although the patrol method is comparatively weak. In the past year there has probably been only 1 patrol outing total within the whole troop.

Anyways, as to the patrol, I plan to have a semi-full leadership team for my patrol itself, which will grow as needed. The PLC to regular scout ratio is about 1 to 5, and 2 to 15 is just unsustainable for my patrol's subPLC. The patrol is made up of 2 demographics of boys, young enthusiastic scouts that bridged recently and older scouts which leave something to be desired with discipline. They gave the former patrol leader quite a headache, but I'm appointing this former PL my second APL, to manage the older boys. My primary APL is an eager younger scout which I plan to develop as a potential successor; I feel that he doesn't have enough influence on the older boys given his age to be effective in controlling them. In addition, I'll have a patrol scribe who keeps records parallel to those of the troop (since the adults are nervous about giving me access to troop records, and doing so would require some hassle).

In addition to its subPLC, I've divided the patrol into 2 sections. The first section includes the younger scouts, who report directly to the first PL and transfer records to the scribe. The second section includes the older scouts, who report records to the 2nd PL or the scribe (so that they can do what's comfortable for them as, being somewhat relaxed teens, they might not report in otherwise.) The boys of my troop have struggled to develop an effective troop bureaucracy for months, and I feel that what the troop has searched for I can give to my patrol. Division, here, is just for ease of general management.

Secondly, with summer camps choices for 2012, as has happened comparatively with historic presidential elections, the popular vote favored summer camp B but, given that every patrol is worth one vote, the represented vote favored summer camp A. My patrol, and the second largest patrol, representing the majority of the boys in the troop, voted against the next 3 smaller patrols for summer camp. I favor summer camp B very strongly. Now, both summer camps are being presented to the parent committee by their supporting parties in a few weeks. I hope to outpresent summer camp A such that the parent committee will be compelled to veto in favor of summer camp B. The presentation of summer camp A is being given by a good scout, an eagle, in fact, but I feel that with enough effort and the right practices I can deliver a very convincing presentation without directly attacking summer camp A. I'm trying to let my parents make their own decision and keep them unbiased towards me in deciding whether or not they should veto. Would you consider my plans unethical and harmful to the democratic process? (I won't explain the summer camps and why I think one is superior, since I want to separate this debate over the idea from whole ends justifying means dilemma.

Given my patrol's size, I'm finding the use of digital documentation increasingly necessary. I'm quite tech savy, being on my school-issue laptop about 8 hours every day for business or pleasure, and am planning to use googledocs or some other such service for patrol records for NHP (since there's no way I'd be granted direct access to troop level records; not even the troop scribe has managed to gain access, although historically troop scribe hasn't been too active a position.)

To encourage scouts, I'm planning to award things like patrol patch accessories, seating priority during line up and editing rights on googledocs with rank advancement, model behavior and scouting achievment. In addition, I'm going to give my subPLC cheap little scribe/insignia pins, since they have their work cut out for them and should have some sort of uniformed recognition for it. Their their jobs rival those of the PL's of smaller troops given the work involved. I'd want all incentivies to be related to the program and not something random like ice cream.

The troop executive board has thought of splitting the patrol for a while. I'm actually quite against this; there's a reason incoming scouts choose this patrol more than any other. I feel that under my guidance I can make the experience for the boys better than that which they would have under other patrol leaders. It's just that, for better or worse, I'm not one to appreciate mediocrity well. I hope that I can teach this to my patrol and become a model patrol for the greater troop to follow.

Thanks, I'd really like your input in my little socio-govermental experiment!