Scoutmaster Podcast 127

And now it's the old Scoutmaster. I went to camp and there was a very inspiring speech by one of the counselors about starting from the bottom and working your way to the top. That's right. Didn't spend a whole lot of time in his department, He was the aquatics instructor. Hey, this is podcast number 127.. Hey, hey,

Welcome back to the Scoutmaster Podcast. This is Clarke Green. If you can't tell, I'm kind of working on a little bit of a summer cold. Wow, Summer cold in the heat. Yeah, it's great times here. Let's take a look at the mailbag.

Bob White's Blather tweeted us and said thanks for mentioning Bob White Blather in last week's podcast. That's Frank Maynard, Bob White's Blather.

I mentioned you again, Frank, So the mailbag's been a little thin this week. I am sure that everybody's out camping. I certainly hope so.

But here's what I want you to do this week: Tell me your favorite story from camp. Go to scoutmastercgcom, follow the links to the shout-out page and you'll find out how to leave a shout-out for your troop or one of your patrols or one of your scout's accomplishments, or indeed one of your fellow leader's accomplishments, And you can also just tell me a great story about summer camp this summer. That's really all that you need to do. Scoutmastercgcom, Find the shout-out page You can call in. You can do that, Or you can just send me an email, scoutmastercgatverizonnet, and we'll talk more about how to keep in touch when we get to the end of the podcast.

But this week in scoutmastership, in seven minutes or less, we're going to talk about troop meetings And then we've got an email question and that's going to do it for this podcast. So let's get started, shall we?

Scoutmastership in seven minutes or less? Not too many boys. If you ask them, go ahead and ask them. Ask your scouts. Not too many scouts would say that one of the big reasons that they joined scouting was to attend troop meetings. No, they want adventure, right.

They want to have fun with their friends. They want to have fun, They want to learn new skills, They want to explore the outdoors. But we put an awful lot of effort and an awful lot of time into troop meetings And troop meetings could be the catalyst for all these great things that boys want to do as scouts. They have to be fast-paced and interesting and varied and engaging right, And they need to lead towards those exciting troop activities in the outdoors. They need to be the kind of glue that holds a troop together. If we look at a troop meeting as a couple of hours to fill once a week, we're going to scramble for all kinds of different resources and just try and program two hours of stuff.

I'm going to suggest that that's not a very good approach. Let's look at- Let's assume- you go camping once a month. That means you have two or three troop meetings to prepare for a camping trip And let's say you meet for an hour and a half, two hours every week.

So you've got somewhere between four and six hours of trip preparation time And that's what those troop meetings can be. You've also got other purposes that you can serve. It motivates.

Are your troop meetings motivating? Do they motivate scouts?

Do they motivate them to be better scouts and to encourage them to learn and practice scouting skills and to advance in rank? Do the meetings strengthen patrols?

Do they promote patrol spirit? And, more importantly, are your troop meetings a laboratory of leadership?

Are they allowing scouts to exercise leadership? And troop meetings are especially effective at this because they need to be planned, organized and carried out by the boys themselves. Scouts take ownership in the meetings and they're empowered to lead the events that make up each meeting.

Boys need the resources to make their troop meetings successful And as adult leaders we can provide support and guidance that will allow them to make the most of those resources. But perhaps the most important resource for them in developing effective troop meetings is the troop meeting plan.

Is there some kind of framework? I'm going to talk about the one that we all hear about all the time. It has seven distinct steps. It's a format that's been developed over many years of scouting.

Experience Presents scouts with an effective framework to put together troop meetings And so if they work within this framework, it will give them some focus. It will give them a framework for enjoyable, productive, meaningful and timely troop meetings.

So there's seven distinct steps. There's the pre-opening part of the meeting. There's the opening part of the meeting. There's usually some kind of presentation or skills instruction. There's a time for patrols to meet. There's an inter-patrol activity.

There's a closing And then there's that time after the meeting. Let's say your troop meeting is 7 o'clock. Your adult and youth leaders begin to arrive around 6.30 in preparation for the meeting.

Now we take advantage of that time in my troop to have the patrol leaders council get together and go over whatever plans they have for that meeting And just to kind of get things set up and staged and ready to go. But there's also this pre-opening, because as boys begin to arrive for the meeting, as scouts begin to arrive for the meeting, there should be something going on- Any kind of a game or project or something like that- designed so that the scouts can join in as they show up. And that person who is in charge of that should be ready to start about 15 minutes early, Right, And keep that activity going all the way up until it's time to begin. And when we begin, we're at the opening, And when we begin the meeting, that's the opening of the meeting. That is, the senior patrol leader is going to run that, He's going to call the meeting to order, He's going to have the scouts line up or circle up in some kind of formation And we're going to make sure we do that by patrols.

And there needs to be kind of formal opening, A flag ceremony saying the Scott oath and law, things like that. Some people change that from week to week.

We have a pretty standard approach to that, But anything that says: okay, here's a tiny, here's a little bit of ceremony, This is serious what we're doing. Here's the ideals. It's going to set the tone for what happens that evening.

Now, after that opening, we're going to move on to skills instruction. Skills instruction is a pretty tough nut to crack for a lot of people. The best thing to do is to relate whatever is happening in the meeting to the upcoming outing.

So try and work that skills instruction there. Somehow We'll do that. Sometimes we'll do an introduction to a merit badge- Not a merit badge, because I don't, because merit badges really don't belong at troop meetings.

You know, I think a lot of people do that. I think that's a mistaken approach. Don't put merit badges in troop meetings. Don't do merit badges instruction at troop meetings. You're kind of shortcut part of the merit badge process. When you do that.

You can do the introduction to one, Have a counselor there, Have them talk about it, Have them try out some skills. It has to be hands on, It has to be engaging, It has to be interesting. But whatever this skill instruction is, it shouldn't be a bunch of scouts sitting in chairs listening to somebody talk And it certainly should be scouts instructing scouts whenever possible.

So after the skill instruction you're going to move on to patrol meetings And at patrol meetings the patrols have some things to do. They need to take attendance, collect dues, They need to plan the patrol's involvement in the upcoming troop activities. They probably need to select a menu for a hike or a camp out. They need to assign patrol members to specific tasks And they need to work out any other things that the patrol needs to work out. At that point The length of the patrol meeting really depends on how much business the patrols have to handle. It might be 5 minutes, It might be 20 minutes And that's up to the senior patrol leader, as he plans the meeting out, to have that ready to go.

It's also good for the patrol leaders to have a framework for their patrol meetings. You know they'll be a part of it that's business, a part of it that's discussion, a part of it that's planning. But they also need a good framework to work with And they need to keep the pace up and they need to keep it moving and engaged.

They need to avoid distractions and they need to get their patrol get their work done and get ready to go, Following the patrol meeting and inter-patrol activity that you know maybe 15 to 20 minutes. It can be a game, It can be based on the skills instruction that you've already had.

You know, guys, when we come back from patrol meetings we're going to have a not-tying relay or something like that. So you might want to take some of your time at patrol meeting to practice some of those skills.

Inter-patrol competitions should definitely have some kind of programmatic tie-in so that where it relates to the other things that the boys are doing and the adding that they're preparing to go on, And then the meeting closes And that is where the Scoutmaster gets to say something. At this point, when we get to this point in the meeting, the Scoutmaster should have been observing, Should have been, you know, towards the back of the room watching and seeing what's going on. Let the senior patrol leader go through the leadership things. Let him make a couple of mistakes, help him out if he wants your assistance. Don't barge in and ask him if he wants your assistance.

Let him know that you're there, that you'll help him out, And you know you have time to do a Scoutmaster's minute. And then- and I think it's always a good idea in closing the meeting to have some kind of a formal way of closing- We close with the Scoutmaster's benediction. May the great master of all scouts be with us to a meeting again. A very simple thing.

And then after the meeting, you know you may have some issues to deal with in resetting the meeting space back up- If it's a shared meeting space, you know cleaning up and things like that. And we usually have a brief stand-up meeting with the patrol leaders council. The senior patrol leader will get the patrol leaders to go over his plans for the next meeting and discuss them and discuss what needs to happen in the ensuing week, What kind of information needs to get out to scouts, and things like that. Seven pieces of that framework: A pre-opening, an opening, skills instruction, patrol meetings, an inter-patrol competition, a closing and a time after the meeting where plans for the next one are discussed.

Briefly, Using a framework is important And I think I would encourage you: if you are doing merit badge sessions at troop meetings right now, rethink that. Rethink that.

That was the thing that we did for a number of years And we thought about it, talked with the patrol leaders council about it And they were quite amazed that they did not have to do merit badges at troop meetings because we had done it for so long. They just thought: well, this is what you do, And I think they were happier about the way that their troop meetings go after that. I hope that helped. This is Cliff Jacobson and you're listening to the Scoutmaster Podcast with Clarke Green.

E-mail- that is folks, And here's an answer to one of your e-mails. E-mail- that is folks, And here's an answer to one of your e-mails.

Recent e-mail I received. My son's scout troop went to summer camp for two weeks. My son could only go for the first week because he had summer school. The first week all merit badges were to be earned within the troop, not with the camp. That week there was a demerit point system to earn the right to go to the trading post. My son was sent home on the second day of camp.

He asked the Scoutmaster if he could go fishing and he was allowed to go And then he went to the trading post. He was seen by the senior patrol leader and he was sent home and the Scoutmaster says that he no longer trusts him. He was told he cannot come to any scout meetings for three months. My son is working on his Eagle project but the Scoutmaster said he's to have no contact with any of the scouts.

I know my son disobeyed, but I think this is a little excessive. The sender of that email is going to remain anonymous for obvious reasons, And yeah, that does sound kind of excessive and I'm sorry that you find yourself in this unfortunate position. Unfortunately, I hear from folks with similar stories from time to time.

Now the advice I'm going to give you is conditional on your side of the story, and that's only one side. You say the Scoutmaster was provoked to take these measures for a fairly simple thing.

You know, a boy said he was going to go fishing and then he stopped by the trading post. He probably wasn't supposed to but he did it anyway.

You know that's aggravating. There's some hints in that question that kind of indicate this Scoutmaster may be being a little unreasonable, I think, certainly in the punishment that he made it out. I mean a system of demerits controlling the Scout's visits to the trading post. It sounds a little, a little bit on the edge of somebody with some control problems to me.

And sending a Scout home for, you know, basically telling a lie and doing something that he wasn't supposed to do. I can understand that to a certain extent, but the boy just went to the trading post.

There's got to be a more constructive way to deal with this, shouldn't there? And then not only sending him home, but giving him three months suspension from troop activities.

This is not a Scout who's just, you know, dithering away his time and everything like that. The boy's working on an Eagle project, And so this Scoutmaster got angry.

And you know what? Sometimes you get angry as a Scoutmaster. Sometimes you lose your temper, sometimes you do things that you regret. Welcome to the world of being a human being right Now. Frankly, this Scout could be a bit of a pain. I mean, he may have a real attitude.

He may be, like, consistently poorly behaved- And there's nothing personal there, It's definitely a possibility. But even if this Scout is a real pain and he's really poorly behaved, one would hope that a Scoutmaster would be a little more understanding, a little less drastic and a little more constructive in his reactions. I mean, every teenage boy has their moments.

Now, as far as how you as a parent deal with this, there is little to no chance you're going to change the Scoutmaster's mind or the way he's doing things. You know, he may be one of these guys who involve themselves in scouting and they become tyrannical little tin pot gods. If it were up to me, I'd toss all these guys out on their ear, but it's not up to me. There are just a couple of basic ways forward. You and your son stay with this troop, and it's tin pot god of a Scoutmaster. Or you find another troop, Depending on the kind of relationship you have with the guy.

Maybe you can sit down, maybe you can speak with him, maybe you can reason with him a little bit. But it doesn't sound really likely because, like I said, there are some things that you've indicated in the email that kind of lead me to believe, hmm, maybe tin pot god. There's some things that you've said in the email that kind of lead me to believe that this guy is kind of that way.

You know, and I really don't know if you're going to be able to make any big changes Now- you've got to sit down with your son and you've got to say: look, you know you did something absolutely wrong and I think that the punishment that you're receiving is a little drastic and I'm willing to support any way you want to handle this going forward, And I don't think we're going to change the Scoutmaster. I don't think we're going to change the way that they do things. They're not the only shell in town.

We can go and look at other troops if that's what you'd like to do, and I support you. I'm disappointed in your actions, but you know I will. But I'm going to.

I'm going to be as supportive and I want to be as supportive and encouraging as possible and I want to see you become an Eagle Scout and I want to see you happy in Scouts. So that's the way you're going to work with your son to try and figure out what your next step is. I will tell you that boys are in Scouting to do things with their friends and I'm going to assume your son has friends in the troop that we're speaking of. As much as you may not like the way the Scoutmaster does things, your son's friendships are likely to be much more important to him. It's really got to be his decision in the end.

So if he's willing to go visit other troops and see if there's one where the Scoutmaster is not such a problem, and if you decide to change troops, do this for me. Would you Just ask the folks at your son's current troop for his records. Thank them for their help this far and walk away. Don't recriminate, don't holler, don't do anything else other than leave. Changing troops is actually a pretty simple thing to do. It's not that big a deal administratively.

Again, your son's decision to make what I'm telling you is based on 30 plus years in Scouting. You're not going to change this Scoutmaster and the culture of that troop. It doesn't happen. If you must press your case, if you really think that you have to do something, don't talk to the Scoutmaster. Speak to the committee chair or the charter organization representative or indeed the head of the chartering organization.

Now, clearly, what you've described to me- and again I've got one side of the story, that kind of reaction to a fairly one of the mill kind of thing happening. That's pretty antithetical to the way I see Scouting. It doesn't sound as though it's compromising the physical safety of children. It just sounds like you got a Scoutmaster with a bit of an attitude. You've got a right to be upset about that. It's a bad situation, but you're going to teach your son a great deal by the way you handle it.

You're going to maintain your temper, keep your cool and you're going to work with them. This kind of thing happens. Boys are boys, and not that that excuses bad behavior.

But we have to understand sometimes as leaders, that this is not a personal slight on us. When a boy does something, this is not aimed at us personally, and if we take it to personally we tend to overreact. I know I do so. If you have a question that you think we could help you with, tell me and you're going to find out how to do that in just a moment.