Is there hope for a "Webelos 3" Troop?

[SueM 10]

Scouter 4321,

 

One of the things that I did from the start was to start "promoting" the BLT concept to the boys themself at every opportunity that I had from the time I took over as SM. I told them that this was my goal for them and just kept saying it. At first, they didn't have a clue as to what that meant or what was going to be expected of them, but little by little...as I took every opportunity that I saw come along to explain more about what it meant and "challenge" them to step up and show leadership and they are starting to do it! I'm 15 months into it now and over the holidays, the boys totally planned our annual nursing home holiday visit and while I was involved with the committee meeting last week, decided that they wanted to go camping this month and spent the meeting planning it and their menu! If they show the slightest interest in a project..jump on it and throw the challenge out to them to plan it and do it!

 

Yes..the boys will try and take the easy way out..but that's normal behavior for ALL kids! [And even us adults too!!] We as leaders just have to not LET them cop out. They need a firm understanding of what their responsibilities and our expectations of them are and then the adults have to stay on top of them (in the sense of encouraging them through the SPL) for a while to see that they are doing their jobs. Praise the efforts and progress they are making and give them even MORE responsibility and freedom and I think you'll see things start to click quickly.

 

Do your new elections...focus your attention on training your new SPL and helping him learn how to have the confidence to be a leader! Make a conscious effort to throw everything that comes up back to the SPL for his "approval". Try to keep all your ASM's on the same brainwave too as nothing slows down progress (IMO and experience) as a rogue ASM who doesn't understand or agree with your objectives for the troop!!

 

Keep looking for that "one ray of hope" at each meeting and pretty soon you'll see the sunrise!! Keep us updated on the progress!!

 

Sue M.

[Eagle76 10]

Well, Scouter4321, you haven't had many responses to your last questions, so I'll stick my oar in, but bear in mind that I am engaged in the same struggle, and don't know all the answers.

 

First, regardless of what some of your committee members think, Scouting is not just a youth fellowship group. In fact, I plan to use this very argument in any future debates if there are objections to becoming more boy led.

 

Second, I think it is the SM's job to push the program toward being boy led, and provide the necessary guidance and support. It doesn't involve the Committee, and it's not the place of the "quasi-PLC" to bless, since they don't have the authority to vote not to follow the BSA program.

 

Third, in our own struggle we did exactly as you suggest at the most recent troop elections: spell out the responsibilities and expectations for the leadership positions.

 

Finally, I'll just add a "Hear, hear!" to SueM's last post, especially "We as leaders just have to not LET them cop out. They need a firm understanding of what their responsibilities and our expectations of them are and then the adults have to stay on top of them..."

[gwd-scouter 11]

Scouter4321

 

How are things working out with our Troop? Hope you've found some words of wisdom on this Forum.

 

It's been 2 months since I last posted to this topic and wanted to give an update on progress of the Troop becoming more boy run.

 

In December, the PLC planned and carried out their first completely boy run Court of Honor. Great job done by all. The only adult part was mine at the end when I did a SM minute.

 

This month, they've been planning their cold weather camping trip. 1st week, Patrols got together to suggest what they'd like to see done at the campout. Then, 2nd week PLC put ideas together and Scouts voted settling on two main events - targeted advancements for Scouts not yet at 1st class on Saturday morning and Orienteering for everyone in the afternoon. Asst. SPL wrote out a schedule of times and those older Scouts responsible for each particular instruction.

 

Next week, they plan to make out their meal plans and duty roster for cooking, cleanup etc.

 

So far, for 3 weeks the only thing I've done is ... well not much really. Can't wait to go on the trip and see how all their plans work out.

 

Over the year I kept sharing my vision with the Scouts of what I thought our Troop should be and what part I will play in getting us there - "train them, trust them, let them lead."

 

At first this was met with great resistance - that's not how we did it before, SM _______ always did that for us, etc. But, they seem to be coming around to the idea at last!

 

Making their own yearly plan for outings for the first time, first Scout planned Court of Honor, and now first entirely Scout planned campout coming up. That to me is a significant change in just one year. But, I know we still have a long way to go.

 

The experience I've had this past year has taught me many things. Most importantly, I tell remind myself each week that as their Scoutmaster I will:

 

- follow through with what I say I'm going to do (or, don't make promises you can't or don't intend to keep)

 

- be consistent and fair

 

- be prepared to let them make mistakes (as long as safety is not an issue)

 

 

[SueM 10]

**Part 1 - Long Post Warning** I wanted to share the weekend "epiphany" that my Webelos 3 troop had..mainly because we were so THRILL with it and also to offer some hope to those others out there who may be going through this too, as an example of how things don't happen overnight and take time and patiences...

 

Ok..I'm now almost 16 months into my attempt at transforming the troop. Several weeks ago as I was involved in the committee meetings, the boys spontaneously decided to plan a camping weekend..put together their menus, shopping list etc. Had at least one adult how said he'd attend. So in the pursuing weeks, I continued to ask the boys if they were sure they had everything they needed or planned for..reminded them that they needed 2 adults and to do a tour permit, etc. and made sure that those things were taken care of. Last monday then they went out and packed the trailer with no supervision. On friday morning I stopped to unlock the trailer and it was a TOTAL wreck!! Everything was just thrown into it, so when my ASM came to haul the trailer I told him that I had no idea what all was in the trailer but what ever was missing, the boys were to do without for the weekend...this was going to be an eye opening "guess what happens when there are no mothers at camp!!" weekend!! (even though i technically fit that description!)

 

So, they arrived on Friday night and cooked their dinner and realized that they didn't have ketchup & mustard for their hamburgers...fingers were pointed..some boys got mad..tried to convince one mom to go and get some..which she didn't do under threats from my ASM's...Next morning...they didn't have syrup for their french toast...more grumbling. Ah Ha!! we say...how can we solve this problem the next time??? Scouts reply "Better planning and checking food totes!" Ding ding...light bulbs have gone off!!

 

When I arrived in the morning, 2 of the first year scouts were around the fire. I had brought some breakfast for my ASM's as I was relieving one of them for the day. The 2 young scouts are hungry. I asked them who was doing the cooking and they told me who it was and that they were still asleep. I didn't say anything more to them but sat down at the fire with them a bit later and it was clear that they were getting more and more upset at being hungry and the cooks still asleep so all of a sudden they got up up and got a stick and both went and starting smacking the tents of the boys who were supposed to be up and cooking to wake them up!! Ah Ha again...Boys taking control of making sure that those who are supposed to be doing things are doing them!!! I'm grinning ear to ear by now!!

 

Last lesson was one in problem solving..since this is a local camping spot on the farm of one of my ASM's it's fairly close to town..but not too close. So the boys were determined that they were going to order Pizzas for lunch. I didn't really approve of the idea but hey..I'm telling them that I want a BLT so if that what they want...at first we figured that maybe they would not have the amount of money budgeted that they would need and I also did not believe that anyone would deliver out that far. We were also somewhat hoping that they wouldn't be able to get it so they'd have to eat PB&J sandwiches for lunch to reinforce better planning. So as they started to make calls to various places, they did find out that they couldn't get it delivered out there..so now they start working on solving the problem..Who lives somewhere where they do deliver and can we get them to bring them?? They call several people who are not home so no luck. Next attemps was to ask us if one of US would go an pick them up. Nope...only have 2 adults in camp and one of us can't leave!! (grumbling from boys about stupid BSA policies!!) Next one boy calls mother and tries to manipulate her into going and getting them she says forget it!! Finally another boy WAS able to get his mother to do it...it was hard to be mad at them for working so hard to solve a problem..so I'm very proud of them for succeeding.

[SueM 10]

Part 2 -

 

As I got the boys together to start our real objective for the weekend (talking about troop operation & troop planning) we started out with a reflection about what they had learned so far on the overnight and of course the overwhelming answer was how to plan better. They started pointing fingers at each other so I reminded them that this was not the right thing to do, but just to remember the lessons learned and do a better job the next time. It lead into the discussion on troop operations well as the 3 questions asked were What are we doing right? What is Wrong? What do we need to change? Boys gave lots of suggestions about what they liked, didn't like and I offered explanation as to why some things had to be like they were (as per BSA policies)

 

[i want to also add (before someone says something!) that my SPL was doing his best to lead this discussion..I had also taken the opportunity earlier to go over the new JLT earlier with both the SPL & ASPL...so I had them both open the discussion with sharing their vision for the troop and the personal goals that they had told me earlier with the boys who were there.]

 

We then spent the remaining time trying to plan a calendar..I didn't get it ALL done, but they were coming up with good suggestions for things they wanted to do and were also taking charge of planning them.

 

We're getting there....I am very happy with the progress boys are making..we still have a long way to go though..