A Troop full of Misfits

[gwd-scouter 11]

I really like the guys in our Troop. They come from different family dynamics, different economic circumstances, different schools, different everything. Having just received a large bunch of new Scouts, our Troop is in something of disarray at the moment. Unlike other troops, ours is not filled with natural gangs of friends or even just two guys that have been buddies for years. Our three oldest scouts have been friends since childhood, but they are the exception.

 

I read on the forum about Troops of boys that get along well, have bonded in their patrols, work hard, play fairly, and in general help create an easy going, fun spirited, enviably perfect Troop. Even have a couple of those in my district if what I hear from other Scouters is true. Then again, maybe they only paint the rosy picture and leave out the nasty details.

 

By comparison I would say my Troop attracts the misfits. Oh yes, we have a great many scouty scouts that are always helpful, cheerful in the face of adversity, try to do their best in any given situation. Some of them are our new scouts, some our existing scouts. Friendships are forming. Then there are those boys, old and new, that see their world in a 'what's in it for me' fashion. Those boys that are just downright lazy. Those boys that suddenly get 'sick' when it's time to work, but magically are cured when the fun begins. Those boys that have no respect for their junior leaders and are very happy telling others what to do. The amazingly immature boys and, unfortunately, the parents that enable them.

 

I see the year ahead full of challenges and opportunities for growth and maturity, not only for the scouts but for the adult and junior leaders as well. It will certainly be interesting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[packsaddle 753]

Gwd, I sympathize, although I don't like the term 'misfit'. I'd be more likely to apply that term to college faculty. Sorry, couldn't resist.

This unit was like that years ago. I note that in a leadership position, a person can be tempted to see the 'warts' as much larger than they really are. Try to keep that sense of humor and perspective.

[gwd-scouter 11]

Pack, do you place yourself among the misfit faculty? Yes, I will certainly maintain my sense of humor. Otherwise, I'd go mad....or, perhaps I'm already there.

[kenk 11]

That sounds like my son's troop. For that matter, it sounds like my daughter.

 

I'm an ASM in my son's troop. The troop recently changed SM's. He is doing a FANTASTIC job of working to follow the Scout program. My hat is really off to him. He is really focused on several key things:

 

-The patrol method - having patrols develop menus, buy food, camp, sleep, eat, clean as a patrol. Every patrol has some boys who want to do nothing, want to get into trouble, or are the "Scouty Scouts". They work it out themselves with a bit of coaching from an ASM.

 

-Youth leaders - The troop always had positions of responsibility, but in the past many of them didn't really do much - if anything. Now the SM expects them to do at least something. The PLC really makes decision. The SM listens to them. The SM is working on stopping the Troop Committee from trying to run the program. The SPL has some struggles, but the SM really backs him up, helps the SPL stay organized, but still tries to do it quietly - letting the SPL shine.

 

-Training - we quickly realized that the boys (and parents ... and some untrained adult leaders) didn't know how Scouting was supposed to work, and if they didn't know that, they couldn't be expected to know how to do it. We hold elections 2X per year and now have youth leader training as soon as possible after the elections. We also have a parent's night to train parents - though they don't know its training. We are also starting to really pester the untrained adult leaders to get training - the ASM's are the hardest to get into training.

 

-Yearly planning - for the very first time the Scouts themselves are allowed to plan the year's activities. This is not easy for them. When asked what to do - well, they really don't know. They tend to want to do what they did last year - probably because they don't know what else they can do. For next year's planning the SM is encouraging them to think outside of the box. Right now its a bit like pulling teeth, but I honestly think it will get better as time goes on.

 

-Scout Skills - the troop keeps focusing on the basic Scout skills (T-FC) and tries to repeatedly give opportunities for the Scouts (old & new) to use those skills in real life or near-real life - rather than just troop meetings. The troop is getting better at that as time goes on.

 

If the program is there and the boys are actively involved, then misfits or not, they are going to have fun and learn lots of stuff (planning, buying food, Scout skills, leadership, ...).

[Eagle732 27]

"Then there are those boys, old and new, that see their world in a 'what's in it for me' fashion. Those boys that are just downright lazy. Those boys that suddenly get 'sick' when it's time to work, but magically are cured when the fun begins. Those boys that have no respect for their junior leaders and are very happy telling others what to do."

 

I think every troop has a few of these "special" Scouts, mine demand my "special" attention. If laziness is not addressed it will spread. I liken it to cleaning up after my own kids, if I do it for them they will never do it themselves. However if I interrupt their fun and make them do what they need to do then they get the idea that it's easier to do what they need to do than to have me come down on them. On our last camping trip I interrupted an intense game of Capture the Flag because dinner dishes weren't cleaned up and food put away.

 

The good news is if you stick with it most will come around and be productive members of the troop.

 

 

[packsaddle 753]

Gwd, yes, I guess that by definition, since I'm one of them, I'm a misfit. But then, I knew that back when I was a boy scout. H'mmm, maybe there IS something to that predestination thing.

[DeanRx 69]

The "misfits" are the reason for scouting, are they not? While I agree it would be much easiler for all involved (especially adult leaders) if everyone bonded quickly and all worked together really well.

 

But, if that happened perfectly, then what does the boy NEED scouting for?

 

All kids (given the chance) are lazy and will try to avoid work. Those that do welcome work have been TAUGHT that hard work is the path to long term rewards... teamwork is the path to successful groups, and that when everyone does their part, the benefit to the "whole" is that everyone feels needed, feels pride, and can get to the "fun" faster.

 

Your "misfits" just haven't been taught those lessons yet. If you are bottom heavy in young scouts, then you likely have more "pupils" than "teachers" for these lessons. Thats a challenge. If you have seasoned scouts that have yet to learn these lessons, then I would suggest taking a strong look at how the BSA methods are or are not being applied in the unit, maybe some program tweeking is in order.

 

If its a majority of the scouts with this type of attitude, best to let them fall on their face a few times. Nothing makes a person willing to listen than a big serving on humble pie. BUT, you must have adult leaders willing to ALLOW failure. If they jump in to pick up the pieces, the scouts will never learn.

 

As a 2nd Class Scout, I vividly remember a campout in which my patrol planned our meals for the weekend as Beef Jerky, Smore's, and canned sardines. We failed miserably at our preparation because we forgot to pack a can opener (so no sardines) and someone forgot to buy the marshmallows. So the patrol was stuck eating beef jerky, chocolate bars and graham crackers all weekend. Plus, we failed to procure any powdered drink mix or Kool-Aid, so it was washed down with nothing but water for the 3-day camp.

 

Now, I'm sure in hindsight that some of the adult leaders SAW this fiasco coming a mile away, BUT they allowed it to happen. It was amazing how well organized and planned our next campout went for our patrol. If a parent or adult leader had stepped in and "righted" the situation in the planning phase, the lesson would not have been retained as well by us scouts.

 

I guess my point is - a LOT can be learned from misfit's failure's, and I'd be willing to bet most Eagles were misfits at one point in their scouting careers.

[ghermanno 11]

Maybe this will help, I hope the link works:

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/18/AR2008011803722.html?referrer=emailarticle

 

 

YiS,

 

Rick

[Eamonn 61]

gwd-scouter

I think if you check out the back of a Boy Scout uniform shirt, your going to find that there isn't any holes for the Angel wings.

Kids are kids. Scouts are kids.

 

When people talk about "Building A Troop"? All to often they talk about membership or advancement.

While of course membership and advancement are kinda important!

Building a Troop is a lot more.

First it's very important to remember that it is not going to happen over night.

It's going to take time, in fact the more time the Troop is around with caring knowledgeable adults who stick to their guns the better it will grow and become.

How much time?

There isn't any magic number, but I'd say it takes about five years to build the foundation that makes a Troop a Troop.

In the past I have posted how I was asked to return to the Troop where I'd been a Scout in and started with two lads kicking a soccer ball around. (I'm not going to re-tell the whole story!!) In them early days I was worried about just getting kids to turn up.

I was being a real soft touch!!

When it became clear to the boys that they wanted to be more than just a group of kids who met in a Scout-Hall to kick a ball about, that's when the fun really started.

Almost from day one I took the old "Never do anything for a boy that he can do for himself" To heart.

I really tried hard not to preach!

I went out of my way to encourage with words like "Of course you can!!"

To be honest I never had a lot of time for Patrol Flags and yells.

We had a inter-patrol competition, with the Patrol gaining the most points wearing a special necker for the following month. A chart on the wall showing how many points each Patrol had earned each week.

Points were given for all sorts of things :

Inter-patrol Games

Attendance.

Uniform.

Earning a rank or badge.

Along the way some things which might sound like no big deal became important.

Having meetings start and end on time. (Every now and then we would meet at the hall and leave at the time the meeting was to start and go play a wide game, just to remind everyone that the meeting started at 1900)

In the early days with more Lads joining the Patrols were a real mess. Once we got past eight Patrols things seemed to settle down a bit. (We had Patrols of six. Mainly because the Patrols slept in six men tents.) After a while we really tried to sell the idea that once you joined a Patrol that was your Patrol for life!

PLC Meetings were held once a month normally on a Saturday afternoon. These were not just a sit down meeting, but a chance for me to go over the skills we would be using for the next month.

I kept a written record of what we did each and every meeting with comments about what worked and what didn't.

At the one end of the hall was a small kitchen. If someone was being a pain in the neck, he was invited to join one of the adults for a little chat. (of course the door was open)

Again this was done in a very friendly relaxed way.

I think or like to think that the Scouts knew that we the adults really liked them, care about them and wanted them to have a good time.

We went out of our way to look for and sell new ways or different ways of doing things.

The first couple of years the food the Scouts cooked wasn't the greatest. (In fact it wasn't good.) We were fortunate in having Scouts from all over the world. A lot of Indian and Pakistani families so having them cook the food that they ate at home just made sense.

Making the youth leaders feel special and important was a big thing.

Easter Camp was only for the PL's and the APL's (APL's because chances were that they one day would be the next PL)

We tried where possible to camp where we would be camping that summer.

After a few years unwritten traditions just seemed to stick.

The Scouts knew that I enjoyed a good camp-fire. They really had no choice! Somehow it just became "Our thing". We would have our own campfires and invite other Troops to join us.

The adults looked at what worked and tried to improve on it and looked at things that didn't work and looked for alternatives.

For example the Troop had since I was a Scout had a monthly Church Parade at I think a Methodist Church. The Scouts didn't like it, I wasn't happy about it! So we contacted the local hospital (Charring Cross Hospital in Fulham) and had the Scouts once a month wheel the patients down to the services. The Scouts had the option of attending the service or the hospital gave a coupon that was good for the staff caf - Needless to say the caf seen more Scouts than the preacher did!

When a PL brought up what seemed like a silly idea at a PLC rather than just cast it off as a silly idea we looked for ways of making it work. Most times it ended up being nothing like he original idea, but everyone was a little happier!

One big thing for us was that all th adults were friends. We really liked and dare I use the word loved? Each other! We met for an unofficial meeting every Sunday after church for a pint and made plans and talked about what was going on.

We enjoyed what we were doing, we had fun and laughed and smiled a lot.

Please take my word for it, if you stick around for the next ten years or so, your going to see things in a very different light.

Eamonn.

[gwd-scouter 11]

Oh yes, I know very well that building a troop is not about membership or advancement only. In my case, this sudden influx of new scouts makes it seem that our troop is starting over. Over the past year our nine guys really have done marvelously well together. Sure, they aren't all scouty scouts and, seriously, who would want that? Very boring I think.

 

Maybe I became complacent in the comfort zone of our little troop. In all honesty that is probably more true than I care to admit. I know a couple of our guys expressed concern about more than doubling our troop size almost over night. Always impressed by the wisdom of some of those young guys.

 

Indeed we are bottom heavy with young scouts, almost like starting a new troop. Our three oldest most senior scouts are entering 11th and 12th grade. No, they are not quitting scouts by any means - they love our program since they are most responsible for making it what it is - but I do see they are very eager to turn over the reigns of leadership to our handful of middle school guys. Interesting to me how these three older guys are more critical of the upcoming junior leaders' capabilities than I am. At least they see where training is needed and are willing to help them learn.

 

Nope, no angel wing holes in their shirts either. It wasn't very long ago that they were clueless and somewhat selfish scouts taking on leadership for the first time. Even though none of the guys in the troop now were there at the time, the legend lives on about the year Patrick stood in as SPL since our then SPL didn't go to summer camp and the "beating" he gave to another guy with a broom.

 

As I said in my original post, it will certainly be an interesting and challenging year. The middle school guys are going to have to step off the shoulders of the older guys and start learning to work together better. They will carry on the hard work done on their behalf by the adults and older boys that turned our troop around to what a boy scout troop should be.

 

The large group of new scouts and parents/adult leaders will know nothing else than a patrol method boy led troop. For several years we operated as one patrol with the idea in mind that the guys would understand the concept and would be ready when the day came that we would recruit a bunch of scouts and could actually form two or more patrols. That day has arrived. We are experiencing some growing pains, though. Senior Scouts pulled away to work as Troop Guides with the New Scout Patrols has forced our middle schoolers to act more on their own. So far they aren't doing particularly well, but I see glimmers of hope. Seriously, when our glorified senior scouts were in middle school and taking on leadership for the first time, they were pretty horrible at it too.

 

Experienced Scouters will help the new adults to see that while to the untrained eye what goes on may seem like chaos, it is a part of a great troop in action.

 

Ten more years Eamonn? Not likely. At least not 10 more as SM. I really am enjoying the job, but I do see a time coming when I should step down and let the younger folks take over. Then again, I'm reminded of something one of our new scouts said. He looked up at me and said, "Mrs. B., this is going to sound like an insult but will you still be my SM when I make Eagle - you're kind of old."

 

You bet I'll remember that at his Eagle ceremony!

 

 

[Narraticong 15]

Misfits? Is that a bad thing? Our troop has now grown to 19 boys in just two years of existance. Several of our boys came to us from other troops where they just didn't fit in. One of these kids will soon receive his Eagle. Another is now our SPL. Yet another is one of our PLs.

 

No, we aren't especially "Scouty". We don't often have uniform inspections, don't require Class A uniforms at every meeting. But we have fun. We go camping. The boys learn Scout skills and are getting pretty good at them. Camp food still can not be considered gourmet. But the boys get along real well, care about each other and look out for each other. They are learning to "do the right thing".

 

One sure sign we are moving in the right direction was the comment from one of our Dads. He had attended a camporee with us a year ago, but had not camped with the boys since then. Last week the troop attended a camporee during which it rained quite a bit. Difficult conditions for a bunch of 11 and 12 year old Scouts. This same Dad was along (as a new ASM). When we got home, he commented on how far they had come in one year. On his first experience they were "not much better than Cub Scouts". But now, he was impressed with their camping abilities.

 

To this Scoutmaster, that is proof that they are coming together. I agree it will take five years to establish ourselves. Traditions are being developed. Leadership roles are being defined. Adults are gaining experience in how to be mentors rather than bosses.

 

Do we still sometimes look rag-tag and disorganized? Yes we do. But I am convinced that is the proper path for a boy led troop to follow. I am proud of our "misfits" and proud to be their Scoutmaster.

[packsaddle 753]

"Mrs. B., this is going to sound like an insult but will you still be my SM when I make Eagle - you're kind of old."

 

I have to point out, Gwd, that this was 'code' for, "are you still going to be alive?"

Actually, I have been asked this question directly from two boys. And I DID remember it at their ceremony.

 

But to cross-pollinate this thread with another for a moment, the idea of being bottom-heavy or some other variation of the idea can be viewed as a deviation from an even-age distribution.

In population biology we can make very nice predictions of the age distribution in populations based on recruitment to each age class, losses from each age class, and similar factors.

I actually applied this using the Leslie Matrix model and showed how the structure of a feeder cub scout pack dramatically controls the longer-term structure of the subsequent boy scout troop. This doesn't alway work perfectly but in cases where the underlying assumptions hold it does work well. In others the model can be modified to make the assumptions fit better.

If you have a new troop with mostly young scouts, the recruitment from a pack or other sources must be roughly equivalent for about 4 years in order to attain a reasonably even-aged distribution. This produces stability in the overall numbers of the troop as well as within the age classes. And it emphasizes a point I made in another thread that emphasis and attention to the cub scout pack can have a huge positive effect on the troop.

This thumbnail representation glosses over a lot of detail but I thought is was relevant to what Gwd and Narraticong mentioned.

[Narraticong 15]

Ahhhh yes...the Leslie Matrix model. If I am correct, Baden Powell invented that model, whereas Greenbar Bill perfected it.

 

What the heck?

 

Are you saying that if you recruit the same number of kids from Cub Scouts for four years, you'll have an even age spread group? Isn't that obvious? Did you really have to do a study? Was it government funded?

 

Yikes!

 

Ken

[gwd-scouter 11]

Still alive? Thanks, Packsaddle. I can always count on you to brighten my day...

 

Funny, but I do sometimes look into the mirror and still see a young woman looking back. Of course, I remember thinking when my mother was the same age as I am now that she was REALLY OLD!

[packsaddle 753]

Good Morning! That's me, little mister sunshine!

About that mirror, do you ever think to yourself, "Mirror, mirror, on the wall.....?"

Don't answer that. But I know what you mean. I try not to look, myself. Tend to cut myself shaving a lot. The problem is I KNOW what will be staring back at me - but I still try to THINK in much younger terms. Helps to relate to the boys and students. And in some respects it works the other way around too. They help me think in their terms as well. I still have a professional goal (OK, maybe not so professional) to deliver an entire lecture in Valley Girl speak. I've been able to do a few paragraphs from time to time....or maybe moon walk my way across the blackboard...the stunned looks in the class are just priceless.

Tried doing Nixon. Blank stares. I guess that goes too far back.