Sentinel947

Merry Christmas to all!

I think there is a tendency to reinforce negative thinking on a forum. Not necessarily because we're negative, but because the positive things are happening in our units, district and council, and we come here for support on the things that aren't going so well. I don't think this requires a whole new thread, but I'm greatly optimistic for my troop. The New Scoutmaster took over in May, and from May until now I've done my best to support him and pick up slack as he learns his role. I found out in November that I've been accepted to Graduate school, and that starts in January for me. I'll

Always the option of finding another Troop if you don't like the leadership of the current one. The other option is to talk directly to the Committee Chair about your concerns. They decide who sits on the committee, and in what capacity. A third option is talk to to a district commissioner if your unit has one, they may be able to help mediate. As for the boat, it's pretty straight cut and dry for me. Either it belongs to the Troop( actually the CO), and the Troop should fix it, then retain control of the boat after it's repaired. Or it's privately held, and the owner lets the Troop use

I think it'd be hard to sell too. It's in the middle of nowhere. People only come their because it's Philmont. People only work there for low pay because it's Philmont. Remove the property from being a BSA property, and it loses much of it's value. The only thing it would be sold for is resource extraction, and that'd be a darn shame.

What effect would National's bankruptcy have on the Councils?

World War one also had the loss of German and Ottoman possessions in Africa and the Middle East. The arbitrary borders drawn by England and France creates many of the problems those regions have today.

This lines up at what I was told at the WoodBadge/NYLT CDC last month.

I was in your shoes. Eagle at 17. Did some Scouter reserve and jumped in as an ASM officially at late 18 or 19 years old. Wait on Wood Badge. It would be more helpful later on as a refresher. I took it at 22. As for IOLS and SM specific, you have to take them to be an ASM, and if you're anything like me, I helped teach my IOLs. Made some lemonade out of those lemons. Also, sometimes troops are bad. So the training can be corrective for folks who had weak troops as a youth. I definitely learned a few things from SM specific and I was in one of the "good" troops. If you didn't,

@Eagle94-A1 This is for the best. Both for you and your sons. Find a unit that gets it and appreciates your help.

I thought Wood Badge had some helpful offerings in how to run a unit, but they were incidental and part of other topics. It certainly wasn't the nuts and bolts of how to plan a program or run a unit. I think that's actually a huge hole in the training curriculum of SM Specific/IOLS --> Wood Badge. Conversations/presentations on Sample Troop/Patrol meetings, conflict resolution, coaching and mentoring of youth, servant leadership concepts. At least in my course, one of the five tickets could be a personal goal. One of the five needed to be related to diversity in scouting. The other thre

@Summitdog Welcome to Scouter.com. Full disclosure, I've attended Wood Badge, will probably staff it in the next few years. I like @qwazse's list. We've actually recently discussed some support and objections to Wood Badge in a thread located here. https://www.scouter.com/topic/30580-wood-badge-roses-and-thorns/?page=1 . The value of the course is dependent on your local area and the culture created by your council and staff. I recommend talking to Scouters you know and respect in your council to get the scoop. If your council's program is not good, a neighboring council may have a c

When it comes to athletic endeavors? Maybe your Scouts and Scouters are above average athletically, and certainly some of mine are, but plenty of them are not. Hence, average.

If you take a slice of any group of American adults, the majority would be overweight. Given the sedentary nature of work in America today, and the large amount of calories in processed food, it's inevitable that many Americans are overweight. Most of the Scouters I know are overweight to some degree. Some of the best Scouters I've volunteered with on the district or council level were overweight folks. I'd hike circles around them on a backpacking trip, but they have excellent character and are fantastic mentors of youth that I've been honored to know. Certainly physical fitness i

You've done your best to work through it. You've ensured there is adequate succession for the pack. Well done. Going forward, from Cubs to Boy Scouts, it's a big transition if you haven't already been involved with the Troop. Take some time to get adjusted, and to de-stress from your cub pack time.

That may be folks at your local council. I took NRA Rifle Instructor training and didn't get anything close to that amount of advertising materials. It was straightforward apolitical training.

I'm not a SM, but I've been an ASM for a while now. My only advice is to build up your ASM team, develop them. And figure out which ones would be your substitute SM when you cannot make an event. There are some things in your marriage or the lives of your family that are more important than a Scout trip or outing, so build up the team that will help you achieve that. The current SM and Committee Chair can help you get that process going. Best of luck to you!

My troop typically does one outing in August that is open to families. Any more than that is my breaking point. I'm not in this to chaperone family camping trips, nor would I be necessary.

I'm glad I met your expectations. I've got a nasty tongue. It's a personal character flaw of mine. I'm not sure I'd have your discipline.

I'd add http://scoutleadership.com/ "Working the Patrol Method." It's an easy read, digestible book. The Scoutmaster is the top guy, so if you want to effect change, you have to lead from behind, or below, without undermining him. The ideal position for you to be in is an ASM, where you can serve as an adviser to the Scoutmaster and potential work with the Scouts, with the Scoutmasters approval. The issues your troop are having is common for troops. There are few extremes from my experience. There's what I call "Webelos 3" which is where the adults treat Boy Scouts like cub scou

I won't take that much credit. I'm following the leadership of folks in my council. I'm trying to learn for when I get tapped to take on Scoutmaster at NYLT or higher level positions at Wood Badge. I've been turning down requests to volunteer at the district, but with my time in the troop starting to reach it's natural conclusion, I may pick up some district volunteering as a chance to keep involved while I'm working my MBA. So while I have good role models in those programs to learn from, people on this forum who have very different experience are important to hear from and learn from as well

Yea. Again, a lot of this are local situations, so it's hard to pull hard data on this kind of thing. As for general criticisms, I've learned to not take it personally. I try to look at where people's opinions come from, and take them as a challenge for my own conduct, and an opportunity to effect things I can control. Maybe there are misconceptions I can correct. I come back to religion as a similar parallel to Scouting, and Wood Badge in general. Like proselyting a religion, we're trying to sell folks on an idea and program of self improvement and growth. If the messenger is flaw

Thanks! I really enjoyed Wood Badge, but I try to be open minded about where it can be better. I had "type 1" and "type 2" adults in my unit when I was a scout growing up. I jumped into Wood Badge at 22 mostly as a way to encourage our Scoutmaster to go. He needed it. It made him a better Scoutmaster, but it wasn't some enlightening experience for either of us. Good training, fun, I still keep in touch with many staff and participants from my course, but not anything the way some folks rave about Wood Badge. Still, I have a pretty positive impression of it. I don't even know if I was a Sc

Absolutely. My comment here has some bolding for emphasis and clarity. As a lot of Wood Badgers in my area like to say "Feedback is a gift." I've actually really enjoyed this thread, because it gives me things to look for in my own Councils' NYLT and Wood Badge programs. Obviously not all these critiques apply to every Wood Badger or every Wood Badge program, but it's still great feedback. I obviously can't speak for every Council, but I think mine has a decent handle on some of these things with our Wood Badge and NYLT programs. I definitely do see some of these critiques in my council.

I've completed NYLT (2009), and Wood Badge (2015) and also served as adult staff on NYLT(2018). They are incredibly similar courses. Their content is similar. Where they differ (or should if they're done right) is the mindset the participant should be in. NYLT a Scout is supposed to live the life of a scout in a model troop and participate in the activities that challenge them and their patrol. Wood Badge is similar, but it's more about witnessing and participating in how a model troop is run, and the presentations are tied back to how adults can coach youth in leading the troop. Wood Badge in

So they utterly missed the fact that the staff is roleplaying the role of scouts and not adults? 🙃