Disabled Scoutmasters

[Gunny2862 11]

In our Council and a regular attender at our councils campground we have a disabled SM. He can walk about 50 yards at a time but not necessarily repeat it all day long. He uses a regular three wheeled electric scooter and gets around very well to where he needs to go for purposes of getting around an established campground.

 

I don't expect that he goes backpacking nor should it be required necessarily that he do so, he has ASM's who can fulfill those functions and as Kudu might note, Adults aren't required for overnight trips (I might add)especially if the Scouts are well versed in outdoors skills.

 

I don't think this is necessarily different than the aging SM who keeps the program vibrant and effective thru his personal leadership, vision, and experience but doesn't necessarily have to put his foot on every foot of ground the Scouts do to be effective. His efforts might lie more in establishing a core of effective trained ASM's who carry out the "on the ground" portions of Scouting - while that job might by the book lay in the Committee Chairs position, it's just as likely that either the ASM's come in thru the back door as camping parents or once selected would never again really be impacted by the CC as far as applying or learning the program goes.