Scoutmaster Podcast 112

And now the old Scoutmaster. Hey, I had this report from halfway around the world, That's right, Peter LaRue, in South Africa. He said last weekend we went camping And as we got closer to the campsite I saw a sign that said Campsite Left.

So we turned around and went home. See, it's not just me, okay.

I mean, bad jokes are an international commodity, aren't they? Thank you, Peter. It is podcast number 112..

Welcome back to the Scoutmaster Podcast. This is Clarke Green. Let's take a look at the mailbag. See who got in touch over the past week. Let's see Brent AD 70 left us this nice comment on iTunes. He says I love the blog and even more pleased with the podcast.

I wish the older episodes were available, However. I hope that becomes a future enhancement. Thanks for sharing with us.

Well, thank you, Brent. Thanks for the kind word. I'm glad to hear you're getting something out of the podcast. The older episodes are available at scoutmastercgcom. If you'll go there, you'll see a menu across the top. One choice on the menu is podcasts.

If you'll click on that, you will see that there is a podcast archive and you can go there. All the podcasts are not residing there on iTunes, so you've got to do a little bit of computer magic to get them on your iPod, but it's not that difficult.

So, yes, you can get the older podcasts, the older episodes, that way. Mike Manser wrote in about last week's podcast, number 111.. We had an interview with author and adventurer Andrew Skirka. He said: as soon as I read Andrew's article in Scouting Magazine, I brought his book. My troupe will go to film on in 2013.. I looked at this section and read his recommended gear list for Filmont.

Did you know that that's actually in the book? I don't think we mentioned it last week. There is actually a part of the book that deals with Filmont Scout Ranch and what to bring. He says. I turned to that section. I read his recommended gear list and I'm going to save a lot of weight using that list as compared to what we would carry if we used Filmont's gear.

The rest of the book is great too. It gives suggestions for gear in different parts of the country and in different conditions and it's based on real experience.

I think it's a must read for scouts and scouts. Our boys have a backpacking trip coming up on the AT and I've pointed our senior patrol leader in the hike light direction. He's working with our instructors and patrol leaders to make this theme a part of our next few meetings. I'll be going along and going as light as I possibly can. I'd like to say I'll be an example, but I see it more of a necessity for the knees. Amen, Mike, The less you have to carry, the less you have to carry right.

Your Scoutmaster Minute on the vision we should share as leaders was right on target too. Well, thank you, Mike. Thanks for being in touch. We also heard from Rick. Rick said: hey, the book is a great suggestion, Clark. I just finished it.

Do your recommendation and it is now my go-to guide as well. It is outstanding. Thank you very much. Alan Green wrote in about podcast 111 with Andrew 2, and he said: Clark, this guy was great. I wish you had had him on. Two weeks ago, though, We went backpacking this past weekend and I had three first-year Scouts who had never backpacked before.

Even with my expert teaching on lightweight backpacking, they still brought heavy gear and backpacks that did not fit them properly. I did tell parents to get those Dragonfly backpacks you had. On another blog page. Alan, I'll tell you that we solved the gear conundrum by just putting all of our gear orders into one and ordering it from a major distributor. The nice thing about that is, if you order as a scout troop from most major distributors- Campmore, REI, Eastern Mountain Sports- they will extend you, usually like a 10% discount for group orders.

We've done that now for years. We have an established list of gear that we put on there and we get the parents to buy, and it keeps the expenses down. They don't have to go out looking around trying to shop for things without really having any really good knowledge of them. I just recommend it as a good way to go. Larry Geiger also wrote in about my interview with Andrew. He said I thought that the point about concentrating on hiking and not on camping was important.

There is a point at which a person has just too much weight to be comfortable or for the hike to be enjoyable. Discovering that point and how to deal with it is a place we all must go if we're going to hike very much Or hike into.

You know our 50s and 60s, right, Larry? So yeah, there's the weight you trim from the backpack and the weight you trim from the Scoutmaster.

That can be a bit of a problem sometimes, but hey well, thanks everybody for being in touch. And I would like you to get in touch too. You can email me at scoutmastercgatverizonnet. Go to scoutmastercgcom. There's a contact form there too, if you'd like to use that. The blog and the podcast and everything is a conversation.

It just can't be a pronunciation for me because that gets kind of boring and I run out of things to say. Believe it or not, Yes, I would ultimately run out of things to say.

So having your input, your experiences, your comments, is always greatly appreciated. Once again, scoutmastercgatverizonnet, scoutmastercgcom is where you'll find the blog.

So in this podcast, it's only me. I haven't quite run out of things to say, And we're going to be talking about the roles that we play as scout leaders- not our volunteer positions, but some of the roles that we end up playing. And I have a little Scoutmaster's minute that's intended for Scoutmasters, about some of the things that I learned from a very experienced coach, And I hope you will find it all useful.

So let's get started, shall we

Scoutmastership in seven minutes or less. If I ask you what you do as an adult involved in scouting, you're going to tell me what your volunteer position is. If somebody asks me that, I would say I'm a scoutmaster. You might say you're a scoutmaster, assistant scoutmaster, cubmaster, den leader, troop, committee person, round table something or other counsel, one of those deals, You know. That is the title, the volunteer position that you occupy.

The other thing that's a little more subtle is we also play roles within those positions. Now, this isn't just a purely academic exercise where I get to use a lot of $9 college words, But I think it's important to differentiate between the volunteer position you have and the different roles that you play, Because when you're playing a role, you should be kind of cognizant of the elements and skills that affect that role.

So are you confused yet? You have a volunteer position.

Within that position, you play several different roles and there's elements and skills that affect the way that you play that role. So, for instance, as a scoutmaster, at times you may end up being a manager, an administrator, a coach, a mentor, a counselor.

Do you understand what I'm saying? You're going to play different roles.

So what exactly roles are there? Well, the ones that I just said.

Let's look at those real quick and just think about that. Managers are usually the people that keep the plate spinning. They have to marshal resources and dispense them in as efficient a manner as possible. They keep abreast of developments and they incorporate them into their strategies. They're managing things. Administrators, on the other hand, are ones that have to interpret and apply policies.

They make judgments and issue opinions. Their authority is broad and decisive because they've got to be able to administer the things that they're responsible for, And a manager and administrator is a different role.

A coach: what do coaches do? Well, coaches detect and develop potential. They do that in teams and in individuals. They draw out the best qualities, They define goals and game plans. They oversee the practice and mastering of skills. They know the rules and they require that the rules be followed and they advocate for their team.

That's what coaches do, A little bit different than that administrator role or that manager role. Scout volunteers play the role of mentor and counselor at times. We bring a holistic approach to individual growth in advance. But rather than just- you know- the concerns of a group, we're looking at individual growth. We seek to understand the goals of our individual scouts and help them achieve them.

We want to guide them past obstacles and help them overcome difficulties. Unlike managers or administrators, mentors don't have a whole lot of authority to make changes or demand that things be done. Mentors are there exercising empathy and making some suggestions and things like that. They're really on an individual's side.

Every once in a while, we have to occupy the role of a disciplinarian. We have to maintain established standards of behavior. We use the rulebook, of course, as a means of positive and the negative reinforcement. Every once in a while, we play the role of leader.

Well, what do leaders do? Leaders make decisions. Leaders set goals. They exercise authority. They bring people together under a common vision. Leaders have a great deal of authority to cause change or to make progress.

Sometimes we find ourselves in the role of an advisor, and an advisor uses their kind of unbiased expertise to offer non-binding guidance. Well, let me give you some advice. I'll advise you to do this. It's not an instruction. They're advising. They're knowledgeable and experienced in their field, but they're really just consulting participants with little to no authority in the matter.

Teachers and instructors guide people to acquire a given set of skills or knowledge, and we occupy that role at times. So there's these different roles that we play within the context of a volunteer position.

Well, what skills do you need to be able to play those different roles? One skill I think is really underrated is observation. Observers, by definition, aren't participants. They're passive onlookers, They're spectators. They're students of activity, They're students of relationships. Developing the skills of a disinterested, unbiased observer can really open a whole new way of approaching problems.

It can open a whole new way of evaluating the effectiveness of programs and learning about the relationships and playing a given situation. I like to think of myself sometimes as an observer, kind of like an anthropologist, observing the behavior of another culture or observing animals out in the field. I try to approach observing totally free of bilis, as if I am looking at something for the first time and I don't have any knowledge of it at all, And that's usually when I end up learning things.

Knowledge is an asset and learning is a skill that we need to have in these different roles that we exercise in the context of a volunteer position, And we get this knowledge by observing and reading and listening and participating and training. All these things are going to build knowledge.

We can always learn more, though, and evolve to continuously strive to learn better about our work. Vision is another important asset and an important skill to effectively playing these roles within our volunteer positions, Helping coalesce the aspiration and hopes and dreams of the scouts that you serve and your fellow volunteers.

What potential is there in your group? Can you discover and realize? That is a very important skill to try and develop, to have some vision.

Positive reinforcement- Now that doesn't sound like a skill, but it is Thinking about. You know the scouting way of not using hazing or push-ups or punishments, but to positively reinforce good behavior to the exclusion of bad behavior.

It's a challenge, but it's something unique to scouting and it's something that we need to develop as a skill. We also need to possess some skills as teachers and instructors. You need to understand how to help people learn, how to inspire them to think for themselves.

So these are all important skills and assets to use. There are some elements that are interesting to think about in the context of these roles. One of the elements is authority.

Now, authority, by definition, is the power to command people to action, the power to shape opinions and thought. That's authority, And authority can be very positive if it's used properly and it can be very negative if it's used improperly.

So authority is something for us to understand and to begin to understand in the roles that we play as volunteer leaders. Responsibility is another crucial element to understand, and it's one that I think usually people have a pretty good understanding of- that.

We're invested with an elemental trust for the guardianship of our scouts and the places we go and the things we use, and we're accountable for progress and development and change. We're answerable for our actions and directions and decisions And authority and responsibility. They are twins just about. They go together everywhere. If you have responsibility, usually that comes with a measure of authority to be able to realize those responsibilities. A couple of other elements that we don't often think of, probably, but bias is one of them, and bias sounds very negative and I'm not necessarily interested in couching it in negative terms.

But you know we have to realize that just by being human beings, we're going to have some biases. Just by being adults, we're going to have some biases.

We're going to have preconceived judgments, and now these judgments may be irrational or they may lack basis. In fact They may be skewed by our own personal experiences and they may tend to make us act one way all the time instead of others.

And biases, you know, if you're biased in a good way, that's good. If you're biased in a negative way, that's negative.

But we should understand that bias is an element that affects the way we play these different roles. Coercion is another element, and coercion is something that we probably aren't always aware of, especially when we're talking about this kind of imbalance of power between adults and youth.

We can compel youth to actions because we can leverage our power and knowledge. We can compel them to act and choose the way that we want them to choose, by the force of our personality or argument or intimidation.

So coercion is important to understand. So let's go back and look at this one more time. You have a volunteer position. Within that volunteer position, you'll play several different roles. You may play the role of manager. You may play the role of administrator, of coach, of mentor and counselor, of disciplinarian, of leader, advisor, teacher or instructor.

The skills you'll be depending on to be able to play those roles effectively are the skills of observation- Another asset, another skill is knowledge in the acquiring of knowledge, Observing and reading and listening and participating in all the training that we can to build our knowledge of our work in scouting. Another skill and another asset is vision.

We need to be able to coalesce the aspirations and hopes and dreams of our scouts into a plan. We need to help them find their way.

We need to learn how to use positive reinforcement. We need to be effective teachers and instructors. Remember the elements that affect these things: The element of authority, the element of responsibility, of bias and coercion.

Now, once we understand the roles that we play within our respective volunteer positions, the skills and assets that are required to be able to play these roles effectively, and the different elements that affect the way that we play those roles, a lot of answers begin to formulate themselves. I'll give you an example. I'll give you an example. I'll meet with my patrol leaders council before our next troop leading and I'll ask the senior patrol leader how things are going.

Does he have everything that he needs? And in that I am playing the role of kind of a manager or an administrator. I'm checking in with him to make sure that he's doing his job and make sure that he has the resources that he needs, that he's playing by the rules.

Whatever issue may arise out of that, if he's short on a plan or if he doesn't have the resources that he needs, well then I might turn into an advisor and a coach. I may be asking him: well, where are you going to find that particular resource?

What are you going to do to make that happen? And so I've left the role of management and administration and now I'm advising and coaching. I need to watch out that I'm not letting coercion take over, that I'm not trying to get him to do what I want him to do. I'm trying to help him discover what he's trying to get- none- and trying to help him discover the best way to make it happen.

So the meeting happens and there we are, we're standing there for the opening and a couple of the boys are just, you know, lined up with their patrol and they're playing in the corner of the room and I might walk over very quietly and I might ask what's happening now. Well, what role am I in?

I'm in that role of, maybe, the disciplinarian, you know, where I have some authority to exercise and I can go over and I can say something to them. And yeah, you know, I would like my youth leaders to do it, but maybe in this instance, I'm the one who had to step in and make that happen.

So I've been in the role of disciplinarian for 30 seconds or whatever. And as the meeting proceeds, I end up meeting with a couple of scouts and doing a Scoutmaster conference, where I am in several different roles, maybe as coach and mentor, maybe as administrator, maybe as a manager in there, And I'm thinking about responsibility and authority.

Well, what's my responsibility in this particular role that I'm doing right now? What's my responsibility as a mentor, for instance?

Is it to provide all the answers and to teach? No, not necessarily. It's to help develop in them the skills to find the answers, and not to issue them a set of directions, but help them find direction.

How does bias affect that situation? Well, you know, maybe I've had a run-in with this particular scout two or three meetings ago where I had to be in the disciplinarian role.

Well, should I be biased towards him at this point? Should I base the way that I'm working with him now on all my past experiences, Or should I kind of open my mind a little bit?

So I've done my Scoutmaster's conferences and I'm off and I'm looking in on the meeting room and I'm just kind of looking around and the patrols are meeting right now and I'm observing. I'm not really interested in stepping in and making changes, I'm not interested in managing or administering anything.

All I want to do is observe for a few minutes just to see what's going on. And then the meeting closes and the patrol leaders council gets together for a bit and I may be in the role of administrator again. I may be in the role of manager, But typically I'll be in the role of a coach.

I may ask them some questions, I may try and help them find out why something worked really well or why something didn't work particularly well. And all the time I'm trying to think of the elements that are affecting the role that I'm playing.

Am I working from bias? Am I trying to coerce them into something that I want to see happen?

Am I using my authority properly or improperly? Am I dispensing my responsibilities properly?

So that's a very broad, raging example of what I'm talking about In the roles that we play within the volunteer positions that we occupy, the assets and skills that we need to take to those roles and the elements that influence them. So in English, the scout motor is B-prepared in Afrikaans. In Afrikaans, we are coerced.

Does Peter the Blue and Eliesta on the Scoutmaster podcast?

That's right, it's time for a Scoutmaster's Minute. I was a wrestling coach for- oh, a half a dozen years or so And, like a lot of coaches, I tended to get emotionally involved with our matches Even more on the level of a player than a coach. This could cut both ways. I mean coaches who get viscerally and emotionally invested in your teams. They can become a little temperamental. They can become a little mercurial and barometric.

They'll focus on victory rather than building skills and teamwork. Because you know, if you've ever played a sport, you know how intense it can be, how intense game day can be.

If you've ever been a coach, you know that you are going to share that same intensity with your players. Now I had a fellow coach at the same school who was much more experienced than I and he had an analytical and calm approach that I really admired. He could watch a match quietly without getting all worked up and getting all crazy and losing his voice like I did on occasion.

He could then take what he saw in that match to a practice and develop skills and teamwork, rather than create some cinematic moment of the inspiring coaches lecture scene that you know I gave a shot at a few times. His quiet approach made the moments where he did speak to inspire all the more meaningful and all the more powerful. That coach had many more years of experience than I and I began to see the reason and the intelligence in his approach and I started changing the way I coached. I was calmer, I was happier and I was more effective. I learned that I could be fully invested in the team without having to be emotional and over the top.

Now, when I talked with this other coach, it was clear he was no less frustrated, no less upset about things or no less hopeful and no less emotionally invested than I was. The difference was he had a longer view of the situation and he'd develop useful ways to channel his energy into actions that would build the team. Scout leaders and coaches: both are invested in the success of their players or scouts. Driving them, threatening them, punishing them, dragging them towards success is really tiresome for players, for scouts, for coaches and Scoutmasters. It's almost impossible to maintain that level of energy year in and year out. Trying to do that makes a Scoutmaster touchy and grumpy and unpleasant.

To my mind, the best thing I can do as a Scoutmaster is listen and observe. If I can listen and observe non-judgmentally, like a disinterested third party, all the better. When I'm doing this, I've hopefully really put the whole thing in the hands of the scouts. I'm not personally invested in the success or failure of their efforts, I'm just observing. Then I can advise, coach and mentor them in a way that will really help. If I'm participating emotionally, I'm going to respond emotionally, And if I'm observing, if I'm watching, if I'm listening, then my responses are going to be a lot more measured, a lot more effective and a lot less tiresome for my scouts.

They're also going to make me happier. They're going to make me more effective and they're going to relieve my level of stress. If you can cultivate a calm, deliberate approach of observing and asking questions, you're going to make yourself into a happier scout leader and you're going to have happier scouts.