SeattlePioneer

Hello Moosetracker, Thanks for your comments on the training module. I thought it was useful myself. It's given me a finer eye to size people up and look for programs they might be interested in supporting. For examplem, a couple of years ago I encountered a woman who was Tiger Cub Den Leader for her pack, and she seemed like an able person. I pitched her on being the "Chief Tiger Cub" for the district the next year, when I thought she might help train and coach new Tiger Cub Den Leaders. She didn;t want top do that, but this year she has taken on the onerous job of being the Cub Scout Day Camp Camp Director, and has done has done an excellent job at that. I also find our combined District Committee/Commissioner meetings to be rather boring, with people talking about stuff of interest to their specialty, but not to everyone. Often the meeting has gone on for 90 minutes ----too long for my taste. Our committee has done brainstorming sessions and identified scores of people thought of as prospects to approach to help with district activities. I don't that anyone has actually TALKED to these people, but they've been identified! I'm getting better at sizing up people's interests and finding them areas they would be interested in helping. Because of the internet training, my interest has been meeting the interests of potential volunteers, not filling slots the district needs filled. So anyway, that training has been useful to me.

Ummmm.... I don't see that anyone has taken the on line training recommended in the opening post. It might help to answer some of the concerns raised by people posting.

> Not that there's anything wrong with THAT! Seattle Pioneer District Membership Chair I actually perked up a good deal when I read that part about the Membership Chair getting some help....

The City of Seattle and it's parks department have the usual litany of protected groups --- but how does it work in practice? City pools organize special pool swims aimed as Muslim groups. That means swims at which only women are permitted to swim, and men are prohibited from serving as lifeguards or other staff during such swims. The windows are blacked out during such swims lest a man might observe women swimming. That violates a bunch of different city codes and rules, but of course it doesn't matter. These swims are sponsored by a laundry list of community groups, most of which have elaborates non discrimination codes as well, which they ignore to gratuitously sponsor these swims.

This week my tarp is sheltering the cooking station at our Cub Scout Day Camp against the sunny 70 degree temperatures we've been having and the possibility of showers Thursday.

Two stakes at each corner. One stake at each ridgeline pole. If you want a pole to add additional support inside, that is generally held up by the tarp without support.

I construct tarp shelters out of a regular grommeted tarp of pretty much any size you wish. I use six 2"x2" poles each 8 feet long purchased cheaply at Home Depot or any lumberyard. Four of these are cut down to six feet and are used to support the four corners of the tarp. All eight have a nail driven into one end that fits in a grommet hole. The two eight foot poles are used in the middle of the tarp to form a ridge line to shed water. I cut some cord to stake out the supports, with a small loop to fit over the nail sticking through the grommet hole and a taught line hitch for the other end. Two of these cords support the corner posts with stakes driven in the ground, one cord is used to support the ridgeline stakes. Actually, I use one cord for the corner ropes, with a loop tied in the middle and taught line hitches at each end --- but perhaps people would find that refinement confusing. With really large tarps you might find an additional pole set up inside the shelter to support and stretch the top of the tarp useful. Learning to set these up is a great patrol project and competition as well.

There is a very good on line course "Staffing the District Committee" which applies to the Commissioner service as well. I recommend it. Here a link that may take you to it: http://olc.scouting.org/courses/dcom/course.cgi?marker=0&courseid=30&euid=K06FF61444AB4094B931133062915570&SessionToken=K398D154F9524BC5AD5154909200099301380E91113C406A8C64853017327033 If that doesn't work, you need to go to myscouting.org, click on e-learning and look for "Staffing the District Committee" as a supplemental course.

Ironing --- piffle! Who uses STARCH to get that crisp look?

As I understand it, if you send a uniform to be dry cleaned you should expect to have everything Badge Magiced on to fall off.

Sure. In a system of progressive discipline, only serious infractions will result in someone being discharged or booted out on a first offense. Other infractions will result in warnings on a first offense, and additional infractions may result in additional warnings, suspension for varying periods of time before someone is discharged. The idea is to place pressure upon the individual to correct his behavior, and give him an opportunity to do so. One of the nice features of this method is that it does not require one to be able to plumb the depths of a persons soul, as Baden P seems to be able to do. It deals strictly with observed behavior. I take Baden P at his word with his claims of this kind of ability, but it's a skill that I do not have, and thus relying on it as a method doesn't work for me.

As Beavah suggests, I consider myself to be pretty easily conned. I think that's quite common as he suggests. It's one of the realities of life I have to be aware of and for which I try to compensate by various means. One of those means is the concept of progressive discipline, as described earlier. That method involves holding people accountable for their actions consistently. It gives people opportunities to reform their behavior, but also makes it clear someone will be shown the door if they continue violating rules of behavior. One of the facts of life in Scouting is that if adult leaders fail to take action with a youth causing problems, that harms other Scouts in the troop who can be the victims of a problem child. If the adult leader was the victim of such behavior, he might be less tolerant of it. I prefer to keep in mind the victims of an abusive youth, and I feel I owe them the protection that should be afforded them by the Scout Oath and Scout Promise. So I have no problem making it clear to a problem child that he must expect to either shape up or be shipped out.

Of course the little darlings will never lie to you.

MOST districts are struggling to find the volunteers they need to organize the activities districts should be providing for units, such as good Roundtable programs which require skilled and experienced leaders to organize. Frankly, I give your district chair credit. He was there and he recognized the opportunity to attract a likely volunteer to help lead the Roundtable next month....

I can feel a new Guide to Safe Scouting rule requiring that hard hats be worn on all hikes....

The model for discipline and discharge in employment situations is often that of "progressive discipline." For minor offenses, that may involve a verbal warning, a written warning and then suspension(s) before termination. For serious issues such as assault, theft and such, discharge on the first offense may happen. That's a pretty good model to apply to Scouting as well. It encourages problems to be documented and dealt with, not ignored. Dealing with disciplinary problems is a responsibility of adult Scout leaders in my view. Ignoring problems in hopes that they will go away is not responsible adult leadership in my view. Too often, problem children tend to have their bad behavior indulgently ignored or dealt with ineffectively, in hopes that it will go away. That's often because the adult leaders aren't the victims of that behavior --- if they were, they might take it more seriously. I recommend the progressive discipline model for Scout units. It puts everyone on notice that bad behavior must be corrected if a youth is to remain in Scouting. It puts the maximum amount of pressure on the boys to change his behavior --- which is what we want.

Another issue for unit leaders who are inclined to "work with" problem youth who have "issues." Keeping problem children in Scout units means that the experience of other Scouts may be impaired. Fairly often, such children can be pretty cunning, showing a relatively sweet face to adult leaders but they may show quite another face to Scouts in the unit, especially younger and/or vulnerable boys. It may be difficult to catch and document bad behaviors, and if one is inclined to excuse bad behaviors when they are documented, that means that problems are being ignored. Not a formula for a successful Scout unit, in my opinion.

MY DE e-mails me inquiries from families interested in Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts or adults interested in volunteering. I follow up on that, saving him the time. And I can afford to spend more time on that than most DEs do, I think. When I was a furnace repairman, I happened to get a cell phone call from a person with no heat just as I was driving by their house. I stopped and rang the doorbell, and the customer opened the door while she was still talking to me on the phone! You can't get faster furnace repair service than THAT!

August--- Methods of a successful popcorn sale So far, that will include presentations by the Cubmaster and son team that sold $4400 in popcorn, best in the counsel. Also a presentation on managing Scout accounts and using Scout accounts to motivate boys and families to sell popcorn. I'm shopping for local Xperts to talk about some of the business and organizational aspects of the popcorn sale. September --- Model fall recruiting night featuring an ice cream social and Raingutter regatta race where adults will build easy to make model boats and race them. October ---- Recruiting new leaders and secrets of efficient rechartering. February --- spring model recruiting night, featuring some high energy activity (like the raingutter regatta or stomp bottle rocket launch) and with Scouts invited to help show how that works. Parents and Scouts invited to atytend and do the activity. June --- Pack annual planning methods and summer outings. Still have a few holes to plug ---- please suggest your ideas! These CS Roundtable programs last no more than an hour, and we have skilled and experienced leaders making presentations. Our aim is to educate leaders in units that don't have everything figured out already, and to give leaders from units that do some additional ideas.

Hello qwazse,

NATIONAL not being responsive? How about DISTRICT officers! Occasionally I identify problems with units or activities I think need attention. If I don't have a better person to refer that issue to, I customarily send an e-mail to my district chair and district commissioner. It's rare that I get a reply, even though I'm an active district committee chair well known to these eminences. Does National train district officers in their methods of being non responsive?

> So... how is that working out? Even if children don't make the same mistakes we did, that will just give them the opportunity to make a whole bunch of NEW mistakes! The new mistakes may be worse than the ones you made.... I like to say that people are divided into three groups: A small group who listens to parents, teachers and such, accumulates wisdom from books and follows the advice accumulated with wisdom and prudence. The largest group that learns from their mistakes. Another smaller group that NEVER learns! I was NOT in the first group....

> Circa 1985 or 1986 I turned in an adult leader application for a person I thought well qualified to be an Assistant Scoutmaster. I got that rejected ----no ladies allowed at the time. I sent in a letter to the CSE arguing that this was a loss, and that this lady ran her own law firm in addeition to being a dead shot with a rifle. I'm not sure if the lawyer line or the dead shot line might have had any influence, but a month or so later I got quite a detailed and polite reply to my query. Furthermore, a few months later BSA overhauled it's "adult MALE association" standard to allow women in positions previously reserved for men and allowing men in positions previous reserved for women (Den Mothers). I don't doubt that my cogent and compelling arguments made all the difference in changing those policies!

Last year I took charge of the Cub Scout Roundtable since no one else was paying attention. I usually ignored the "official" Roundtable program in favor of program targeted on dealing with particular serious problems most Cub Packs have to deal with, and often don't deal with effectively. I tried to present programs that would improve those skills and get the best leader on the subject giving their best ways of solving those problems and issues. For example, we did a Roundtable on methods of recruiting new adult leaders, and another on the best methods of recruiting new Cub Scouts. August we are doing a program on managing the popcorn sale, with an emphasis on motivating Scouts and parents to sell and on effective ways for pack leaders to organize the popcorn sale. As Cubmaster, I've identified the issues that were my biggest problems in rebuilding a pack, and supposed there were others who probably needed help with such topics as well. We went from a corporal's guard of attendees to having what I'd consider reasonable turnout --- 15-20 people attending each month I met with another district Scouter tonight and we put together a list of topics to discuss this year, and we will share in putting on the program. So I'll have a partner and a capable person to help with the program. Maybe that will get us through another year. Anyone care to comment on their own roundtable program and what they'd like to see done at Roundtable?

I will be a volunteer Camp Commissioner, except for getting room & board. Based on the discussion in this thread, I'm not going to prepare any training. I was asked to show up in uniform and that's what I'll do. I'll find out what tasks I'm needed for on the job. I expect it will be an interesting experience.