Success!

[RMcCown 10]

Howdy all

You may have seen my infrequent posts, asking some questions, or lamenting an adult-run Troop. Well, I've got good news. But first, some backstory.

 

When my son, now 14, crossed over into the troop, I was impressed by the lip service and 'rah rah' the scouting program was given by the then leadership of the troop. They did outings, merit badges, camp, all that. Sounded great.

 

In less than a year, my wife and I realized one of two things, either 1) scouting change a heck of a lot since I was a scout in the early 70's, or 2) these parents were way to involved in the troop.

 

I volunteered to be an ASM, and my wife dove into being MB coordinator. She left after a year, due to the prevalent "Im going to offer this merit badge only to my son, and the other 3 boys that need it right now" attitude. The committee chair and the rest of the board was basically rubber-stamping anything the Scoutmaster wanted done. After a year, we realized that my son had crossed over into Webelos 3. No PLCs were being held, there were no patrols besides in name, and the meetings were an unorganized mess.

 

A couple other dads got involved as ASMs as well, and we all started talking to other Scoutmaster and members of council, finding out things we just didnt plain know. I started attending roundtables, and bringing stuff back into the troop, only to be ignored, or given a 'thats nice' pat on the head. In frustration, 18 months ago, I told them I was leaving the troop. The committed, and the SM asked why, and I held no punches. We were so far off Scouting's path, that I didnt think we could get there within my son's scouting career. We had many meetings, and it turns out the SM had never gone to position training, and wasnt really aware of what to do, so he just took over. He wanted to stop being SM anyway, so they offered the position to me. I told them Id take it, but that I wasnt interested in being in an adult lead troop. Id train the boys (since the older guys didnt know what to do), that Id be willing to do hands-on for a while, but the boys HAD to run the show.

 

Well, last January I was made SM. We already had been having PLCs this past year, and those were going ok. Not great, but ok. But in the last 8 months things have really turned around. We had 26 boys at summer camp (a record for us, usually a dozen or so), and had over 140 merit badges. We also sent 6 guys to Eagle week (never done that at ALL), and we just had our first boy-run Planning meeting for the year. A great success.

 

I sent out my first email of the scouting year to everyone tonight, and it feels good to be part of a troop that is going in the right direction. It took a couple years to turn us around, but we're headed on the right course now. This September we're having our first troop-run position training, and we're tracking our PORs with 'leadership blue cards'.

 

All in all, we're doing ok. A lot of it is due to things I've read on the forums here.

 

Thanks for reading my ramble!

 

YIS

-=Bob McCown

Scoutmaster, Troop 132, Concord MA

[Beavah 205]

Bravo Bob!

 

:)

 

Never stop learnin' and tryin' to do even better!

[Gunny2862 11]

Kick it BOB! Oh, it sounds like you already have!

Congratulations! Now keep the training going.

[AvidSM 11]

Bob - It was a pleasure to read your post. All I can tell you is be patient with the boys and keep stressing the basics. You are certainly headed in the right direction.

[insanescouter 10]

I snap to attention and give you a Boy Scout Salute. Awesome job!!!

 

Scott Robertson

http://insanescouter.org