MattR

We had a PLC meeting this week and I kept it in terms of talking about what the scouts did, or will do, to deliver scouting to their patrols. So, it was completely about the people and not the usual who has to do what. It raised the level of discussion and their interest immensely. Call it leadership if you want but it was really about keeping the scouts focused on the real goal. I "redirected" anyone that said something that wasn't about their patrol. If a scout said he was going to make phone calls I asked him what the end purpose was and that making phone calls is only a tool unless his pat

If instead of calling it leadership skills we call it working with people skills, most POR's have that. Before the QM puts the dutch oven back in storage he inspects it for being clean and if it's not he can either clean it himself or he has a people problem. I just saw a scout this past weekend in a very similar situation. He didn't want to "be the mean scout." He's very confident at doing tasks. Not so much working with people. Leadership skills would help in this situation. Understanding tough love would also help. I asked this same scout if he'd be willing to do exactly what Stosh men

There are plenty of "leadership vs management" descriptions on the web. One idea is that leaders focus on people while managers focus on tasks. Focusing on people brings them together with a common vision, or takes care of them in Stosh's words. Focusing on tasks means get things done, with less concern on how it impacts the people. They both have tasks to do but the leader is more interested in how those tasks impact people. Obviously people would rather follow a leader than a manager. The two groups have different personalities. Leaders are going for the big picture and are willing to take r

DANGER, WILL ROBINSON, DANGER. I just lived through something that started off just like this. Hopefully your case is different. I had a very smooth talking narcissist. Unbelievable experience. All talk, no walk. Complete disregard for any rules or authority. He lied and lied with all sorts of reasons why we prevented him from doing what he volunteered to do. And just the nicest guy. He could sell ice in the Arctic. The very long story short is he harassed and bullied adults in the troop to the point where we threw him out. Even his son was picking up on this, but that was probably because he

Good job Click. I'm glad it worked out. I honestly didn't see a good scenario here but you probably found the best one. Relevant trivia: one definition of the word Israel is to struggle with God.

+1 Stosh: a uniform will help visibility. +1 Sentinel: The BSA "field" uniform is really a dress uniform, and an activity uniform should be worn for campouts. I didn't know this was national's idea. I went to scoutstuff.org looking for an official activity uniform and there isn't one. I saw references on the web to a red polo that Stosh mentions, but it is no more. I think it went out with the arrival of the Centennial uniform. What I did find are what looks like some really good shirts for the outdoors. They are simple T-shirts or polos that are the khaki or forest green. They are made

But the original topic was visibility and, honestly, selling what scouts is about to the public. What we are is fun, adventure, and service, but the photos imply pomp and formality. (Sentinel, I googled "US boy scouts" as well as "UK scouts" and "French scouts"). Just look at the top page of the US boy scouts google image results and tell me the BSA doesn't have a horrible image problem. On the first page there are 12 images of scout emblem clip art, 2 Norman Rockwell images, 2 references to membership problems, 5 images of scouts saluting, 2 jamboree images, and a scout showing off his bling

I'm with Skip on this one. Ask the scouts what they want. The fact that we have to iron our uniform suggests it doesn't belong outdoors. ​I googled for scout pictures in the US, UK, and France. The UK and French pictures all have lots of pictures of generally happy kids and a few of Kate and Bear. Grylls is saying "Every kid deserves an adventure." On the US side there are also some happy kid pictures but also lots of pictures of old out of shape scouters, bored kids saluting, plenty of trail life usa photos, and several other controversial pictures (guns, gays, Madonna, etc). Ther

Whenever I start getting down about scouts I get away from the adults and spend more time with the boys. Cheers me right up. It's what they do best.

We mostly ignore what's in the workbook except that there be a plan. If what they're doing is a collection then I also ask for a goal. The plan is to force the scout to think things through enough such that when things go wrong he can figure out how to adapt. It also sets expectations as to the scope of the project. If the plan is "I will plant some trees" then I'll ask for more detail. How many trees and what size. What I don't want is a scout planting two trees that each came in a 2 gallon pot (i.e., a half hour of work for one person). I've had scouts redo their project. It's not like they

I wouldn't ask them if they want to go on a hike. I'd ask them if they want to go fishing, and by the way, it's a mile from the trail head. As soon as the snow melts ....

You're right, bringing up politics or religion at a party is a sure way to get labeled as a creeper. However, if your religion or politics come up as a side light to something really cool you've done, then you're good as long as you don't push it. So, forget about politics (there is nothing cool about it). Religion is okay in the context of doing some good. Boy Scouts is easy to bring up. Just tell them what great things you're doing and don't mention Boy Scouts until they ask, and they will. If they want to talk more about it then talk more. If not, leave it at that. You'd be surprised how m

Yea, everyone looks young, except, Roger, who is ....? Santa Claus? My guess is every one of us has lots of stories about the good things that kids get from scouts. If not we wouldn't be here. My guess is many parents would respond to those stories. I'm not sure how to get them out but if half of all kids are being raised in single parent homes then there are a lot of single parents that are praying for help in raising their kids.

Let's start a new program, called FASSS Scouts: Fun, Adventure, Science, Sweating and Skills ... Just trying to push some buttons. I read that book a few years ago and I really liked it. One thing great about the outdoors that is really hard for kids to understand is that the best things are never planned. The most fun, inspiring, or encouraging is never expected. Kind of like a good joke. Another consideration is that different kids respond to different things. Some kids like a physical challenge, some like fun, camaraderie, science, fishing, adventure, .... So, for each kid it's differ

I sat through a roundtable STEM presentation last week. Oh my goodness. Don't get me wrong, I'm a STEM guy through and through in my career. I see science everywhere in the outdoors. But this is not science. This is cramming something wonderful into the merit badge mill. Investigate your calculator and explore the different functions. This is not boy scouts. Scouts is fun with your friends, adventure, competition, and new skills. This is a bad, middle school science program. This is pages of mind numbing requirements because they don't trust the teacher. Compare this to a robotics competition,

I had a talk with one of the younger PLs tonight and I spelled this all out to him. I put it in terms of he was responsible for "delivering the promise" to his patrol and the promise was all the reasons why anyone is in scouts. He liked it. And when I said he has to learn how to say no to the SPL he really thought that was cool. ​I did something similar for some older scouts but I told them they all would have to help each other if they were going to do all the fun things. We also talked about purpose and how different scouts are there for different reasons. I could see some light

That's why I suggested it was the crux. Qwazse, you bring up another point. With "only worried about themselves" is it that the scout can't even share, or is it that he needs to actively try to make things better for his patrol? I have a troop full of scouts that can share, but actively try and help each other? That's a foreign concept. I now have patrols that are on their own without a dictating SPL so I hope this idea takes hold.

Ever wonder why the statue of David is nude? There are lots of nude statues of Roman generals. This statue is screaming Greek and Roman art and comes from the idea of "heroic nudity" in art. To quote (wikipedia because it was easy to find): "Heroic nudity or ideal nudity is a concept in classical scholarship to describe the use of nudity in classical sculpture to indicate that a sculpture's apparently mortal human subject is in fact a hero or semi-divine being. This convention began in archaic and classical Greece and was later adopted by Hellenistic and Roman sculpture. This concept oper

Good observation. Maybe the crux is getting the scouts to care about each other.

I thought that's how crews were made up. Qwazse, why the cohesion problems? Or how long does it take for cohesion to take place? I chucked ad-hoc patrols years ago. The issue is the scouts are the ones that want to create them. They like mixing it up. They don't like cliques in school. Everyone said people these days don't want to commit to a group like Rotary or Elks, so why would scouts commit to a patrol for years? One point nobody said anything about was getting scouts to commit a month out. I think that would help a lot if the meetings were important preparation for a campout.

Based on the millennial thread .... Many scouts are over scheduled and everyone seems to be time poor. Patrols get hurt by this when only half, or less, of a patrol shows up for a campout. This results in ad-hoc patrols formed the week before the campout, or huge patrols being formed to preempt the loss. Neither is good. Here's another idea and I'm not saying it's good, but what do you think? The idea is that patrols are only created for a month before a campout. The scouts commit to that patrol and that campout for the entire month. After the campout the patrol disbands. Scouts that

We have them. They ask lots of questions of the scout. It's mostly explaining the process, which really is contorted. That project book is difficult. We do it because whenever I ask an Eagle candidate if he's ever done anything similar, where he has to deal with the wide open nature of the Eagle project along with real people and their quirks, they always say no. This is where the "adult association" method really works well. There have been problems with lazy scouts and adults that step in too much but for the most part it's very positive.

Thanks for the laugh. A few years ago I was backpacking with my troop when we came upon some ladies backpacking that, uh, were trying for a different set of tan lines. It was steep terrain and no place to go so they discretely turned. They were more embarrassed than the scouts who didn't notice a thing because as usual they were staring at their feet. Not much to miss anyway.

We ask scouts to put in enough description and detail that they can give the book to someone else and they could run the project. The only point is to get the scout to think through all the details. Things usually change but the scout has enough insight that he can easily deal with the change. So we will ask a scout to fill in more information before we'll sign it.