Jump to content

scouter659

Members
  • Content Count

    58
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by scouter659

  1. I wonder if anyone can share any ideas or opinions on this one. Almost 2 years ago, a very dynamic assistant scoutmaster took over for the retiring scoutmaster of our troop. He has been with the unit for many years and was a natural choice among all of the leadership and committee that he should do the job. Hes a great people person and the boys loved the idea as well. His greatest strength is his ability to train junior leaders and that has resulted in better than average youth leadership in the troop. He is a really NICE guy but that is somewhat of a problem. During the past few years the g
  2. In just over a month from now I'll be going to my 6th consecutive Summer Camp but this is my first since taking over as Scoutmaster earlier this year. I spend almost every waking moment thinking about how perfect I'd like it to be, although I know that things aren't always perfect. But I am preparing and think I have put together a good plan for our Junior Leaders to truly run it. I am arranging for 5 of our Staff members to have various jobs for the week in camp and am assigning one of them the task of making sure, with the help of others, that a small campfire is burning by 9pm in case I dec
  3. Ive just started to get up to speed on your story and it all seems crazy to me. I have been involved, through my son, with our Troop for about 15 years and just last December became Scoutmaster. Heres my quick spin. I guess I look at every boy as an individual. They come in all shapes and sizes, not to mention personality quirks. Hmmm, sounds like most adults I know. Arent we there to teach, spread the principles of Scouting and train them to be leaders? We have a boy who has been with us for 3 years who has down syndrome. HE has been a miracle and just by his presence has taught all of us mor
  4. Thank you all very much. To be honest, your responses were what I was hoping to hear. Funny how a parent can throw you off your game sometimes and actually make you doubt what you're doing is correct. Or maybe it's that important to have a good conscience and have the need to reaffirm your decisions. I love helping to conduct the training program and feel that if even one boy is so inspired to become a better leader and human being then we've done our job. The web site I was referring to by the way is www.scouter659.htmlplanet.com My hectic schedule precludes me from doing a lot of updates b
  5. Hello all: Just would like to get a few opinions here. This weekend were going to be presenting our 6th consecutive Troop Junior Leader Training Graduation Weekend. This is an event that we created that is the culmination of a yearlong JLT course that we have developed over the years. Without getting into specifics that would require many pages of written volumes, were very proud of our course and have developed a website that, as we understand it, many Troops use as a model to design their own JLT courses as well. I wanted to give you a little background before getting to the meat of my i
  6. Like many of you have said we allow matches but we don't like lighters. And it's also true that most of the boys don't bring them anyway. We do, however, issue matches to Patrols when we train them on and they cook with lightweight stoves. We actually also teach match lighting techniques because, believe it or not, a lot of boys aren't accustomed to that. We see many of them strike the match and watch as it goes out before reaching an igniter. So in our Junior Leader Training course when we teach things like dual fuel stoves, we also teach them the proper way to strike a match and cup their ha
  7. We have an interesting Troop Junior Leader Training website you may like: www.scouter659.htmlplanet.com
  8. HOLD EVERYTHING! I found it. I am preparing for the end of our year-long Troop JLT course and I really like to use this poem...can't believe I misplaced it. I'd like to share it with you all & I'll explain how I use it. The JLT candidates are lined up and each get a piece of nylon rope about 8 inches long and we ask, "What can you do with a piece of rope like that"? We get a few answers but then we ask each boy to tie a square knot to the next one, and the end of the rope to the next boy and so on. When it is one long length we ask them again and get a host of great answers. We then read t
  9. I'm wondering if anyone is familiar with a little poem about rope and the analogy drawn in the verses is all about the ties that bind friendship in Scouting. I used this poem for the last few years at the end of our Troop JLT course and I seemed to have misplaced it. If someone out there knows what I'm talking about or has a copy or can provide a link where I might find it I would appreciate it. I believe I found it once somewhere in the vast collections of Scoutmaster Minutes on the web but I have checked the major ones and can't seem to locate it. I check out the forums every few weeks and h
  10. I joined our Troop as Committee Chairman (why I took on that job immediately is a long story...perhaps someday 'round the campfire) when my son was 11. He will soon be 23 and is still an active ASM. About 9 years ago if someone would have told me I would go to (what was then Scoutmaster Fundamental Training) I would have said you're crazy. I went, loved it and it inspired me to create a year-long Troop Junior Leader Training Course. About 5 years ago if someone would have told me that I'll be going to Wood Badge, I would have said IMPOSSIBLE...no time for THAT. I went, it was incredible (O
  11. Hello all. Actually I was the person that posted in the previous thread regarding the Leaders Meetings. I dont think youre out of touch at all. I do think that the leadership structure of most Scout Troops vary from Unit to Unit. In our case, we have in excess of 20 very active ASMs, 12 of which are Wood Badge Trained (four of whom who have served on Staff) the rest except for one great new guy are all basic trained. We are a close knit group passionate about the Unit and helping to turn young boys into better human beings. We also subscribe heavily to the boy-run concept and Patrol Method of
  12. Yes it is sticky, isnt it? We had a similar situation in our Troop where a dad who was also a leader had to go for a variety of very good reasons. Now he and his wife are divorced but somewhat amicable. Their son is in our Troop and doing well, a great kid. Mom watches him (and us, the leaders) like a hawk but she is, inside, a good person who also understood the problems with the dad. True we could not remove him from Scouting, and that wasnt our intent but he WAS detrimental to the Unit. Its sad and, fortunately, very rare when something like this happens. I wish you luck.
  13. Thank you for all of the great replies! The structure of our Troop is that Committee meetings are actually separate things, as are our leader meetings, PLC's etc. I think because of the uniqueness of our leadership group this action would be most appropriate at this time. I feel kind of bad for the one Scouter (Fat Old Guy) who replied giving the impression that their Scoutmaster is IT and what HE says goes. Personally, I am a big fan of the 'Shared Leadership' concept and, as I have just taken over the position, I am NOT looking to make sweeping changes...just ones that I believe will improve
  14. I would like to get some opinions on something. I just became SM of our Troop of 40 boys and large leadership team, 20 adults, just about all trained. We have frequent leader meetings throughout the year as we are constantly tweaking and adjusting our program. Some years ago there was a bit of a controversy concerning allowing our Senior Patrol Leader and, possibly, Junior Assistant Scoutmasters (we currently have 2) to attend our Leaders meetings. I have always felt that they should, if not have input, at least see how that process happens. I also think it may not be such a bad idea to get a
  15. GM Buy Power Manager for a Chevrolet Dealership. In between battles, I am thankful to have the time to do Scouting. I am also lucky that the dealership is very pro-Scouting. We can do unlimited car washes here for fund raising and the management is very supportive in my efforts to be involved in such a great organization.
  16. I agree with a few of the other posts that mention that a little more information would be helpful. We recently experienced a problem like this. It was a complicated matter that would take up an awful lot of space to get into but the bottom line was that he had to go. He was quite a negative influence on an otherwise very smooth sailing ship. We discussed the matter with our Dist. Executive and Dist. Director as well as the head of our institution before sending him a registered letter that basically described the reasons for us asking him to leave the Unit. Understand that this kind of thing
  17. I don't know if anyone else experiences this but, sometimes, we don't always get a large participation at our Courts of Honor. We hold 2 per year. One just before Christmas and the other at the end of May or early June. Sometimes we do just fine. It has been suggested that our Troop think about trying a "Red and Green" dinner at the end of the year, similar to the "Blue and Gold" of Cub Packs. In essence, we would prefer to have the event catered and would charge a small fee for the dinner etc. I think it's a nice idea but here's my main reservation. Our Troop camps every month all year long
  18. Yes Dan, I am here and will certainly continue to keep checking this post until the responses are exhausted. I really have learned a few things here and do consider myself open-minded. I have decided that I am going to be patient. After all, knowing that she sits in the vast minority of opinions of the running of our Troop (actually sits alone) I think that if I stay prepared enough to respond to her suggestions respectfully in case I am harpooned by her again like at a parent meeting, I should be ok. No, I do not just feel that I am always right. The responses here really have tempered my fee
  19. This email communication is really difficult because the human touch is so lacking. I really just wanted to let you know about our level of Training. I guess we don't have a level of experience of dealing something quite like this because in all of the years that I have been with the Troop no one had ever complained about the program like this and she does so quietly. Probably because she knows that she may be the only one who feels this way. To clarify further, we have not (yet) sent her a letter. It was her ex-husband who really had to go. I guess what I am impossibly trying to explain is in
  20. I got quite caught up in the responses from evmori and bob whiteTo be fair, I should offer a little more information. Regarding your question of training; there are 12 Wood Badge trained leaders in our Unit. I, myself, have taken Wood Badge and just finished being a Troop Guide on Staff for the last course in our Council. The rest of our leaders have all had Basic Leader Essentials, Leader Specific Training and Outdoor Skills. The lady's husband was 'formally' asked to leave our Troop a few months ago after running around to other significant volunteers with stories that eventually reached u
  21. I was wondering if anyone has any thoughts on something like this. We have a really boy in the Troop who is into his third year and coming along just fine. Mom and dad are divorced and he lives with mom. Mom comes down and sits through virtually every Scout meeting and that is no problem. The problem though is that she continually criticizes our program to the leaders. She also, sometimes, is interfering in subtle ways. For example, if she happens to see some random moment she doesn't like an older boy making some off color comment to a younger Scout, she will go ahead and just speak to the Sc
  22. I learned a great deal from my Wood Badge course NE III - 151. I learned that if the program is executed correctly you can't help not to produce better human beings. There were so many fine moments on my course. If you've considered Wood Badge but aren't sure, there's something to be said about being in the middle of 50 or 60 Scouters who 'believe' in the organization aims and principles. It will rub off on you. I recently finished my ticket and am planning a bead ceremony in December. I have also been informed that I am under consideration to serve on the Staff of the next course. After
×
×
  • Create New...