Scoutmaster Podcast 156

This edition of Scoutmasters podcast brought to you by the folks of Conahoe Creek Outfitters. They know camping and they know scouts. They are scouts And they know how to get you great gear and great prices for all your camping adventures. So go visit them at conahoecreakcom, at conohocreakcom.

And now the old Scoutmaster. We noted recently on the blog that the Meribatch Blue Card went under a slight revision dealing with the unit leader's signature Right. You remember that I have some inside information that may be of interest to you. That's right That the Meribatch Blue Card soon will be printed on material that will actually be able to go through the laundry and survive. How about that?

This is podcast number 156..

Hey, welcome back to the Scoutmaster podcast. This is Clarke Green. Let's take a look at the mailbag and see who we've heard from this week. Kelly is in Arkansas and she wrote in to say I'm actually a volunteer and staff member of the Girl Scouts in Arkansas. I absolutely love your 15 thoughts for scout leaders infographic. I'd like permission to adapt it a bit so that it's Girl Scout related and share it with our members. This is really an amazing site. It's full of useful information for all scouts. Can I put a link to your website on our site. Thanks so much for your time. And, Kelly, thank you so much for being in touch. I'm glad you're finding things useful. Everything on scoutmastercgcom is there to be useful, So do put a link to your site. That's absolutely fine If you would like to repost any of the materials that you find there. share the Scoutmaster podcast. whatever you like to do, The only caveat is just that it's attributed to scoutmastercgcom, That's all. But please, folks, feel free to use any of the material. You don't have to write and ask permission. Like I said, all we look for is that it's attributed to scoutmastercgcom. Thanks for being in touch again. Kelly Certainly appreciate hearing from you. Greg Combs is in troop 10 in Cornelius, North Carolina, And he wrote in to say thanks for all you do. Ron Herrera is in Harbor Creek, Erie, Pennsylvania, troop 97.. I'm the scoutmaster of a troop that went from four to over 20 in one year And we have been working hard to develop a great program for the scouts. The problem was is that we were creating the program. I now have an adult leadership group that's dedicated to turning control of the troop over to the scouts, where it belongs. We have completed the intro to leader training with our patrol leaders council and followed up with additional sessions to debrief past performances and where they're going next. What I'm finding the hardest part is actually letting go. I enjoy doing some of the planning, but I also know that it must move over to the scouts. I'm listening to the podcast and reading the blog. I've just downloaded the series on youth leadership and look forward to getting a couple of good pointers out of that. Thanks for the blog and for the podcast. They're a great source of not only information but inspiration. Thanks so much, Ron. Thanks for being in touch and I'm glad you're finding things useful. Ron, you know you're not alone. I mean, everybody finds it challenging in one way or another to get the whole youth leadership thing down. It's unusual, It's unique to scouting, It's something that we've never worked with before, most of us- and it takes some time. But my congratulations to you on committing to it and making it happen. You will never regret it and your scouts will thank you for it. Hey, back to our friend Bill Fleming at Conahoe Creek. How you doing, Bill? Doing great. Clark, How are you doing? We're doing great. You know we've been talking about the scout bundle that you've put together, which is a great selection of carefully chosen basic camping gear for a new scout or even a scout that's been around for a while. And one of the choices that you made in there is a headlamp, And I think that's pretty much what everybody uses now. I remember the old days of the flashlight and I'm real happy to have a headlamp. Tell me a little bit about the headlamp you chose. Well, I'll tell you, headlamps in general I think are one of the best inventions for guys that are camping. I remember as a scout washing dishes in the dark holding a flashlight in my mouth so I could see what I was trying to do. You know, then you drop your light and then you kick the light trying to pick it up And you know it's just a misery. But the headlamp will help prevent part of that And this headlamp gives a good illumination, good run time. It uses AAA batteries, so it's not a strange battery that you can pick those up anywhere. And one of the things that amazes me about the LED technology in headlamps is how long they last. It seemed like the batteries in the old-style flashlights ran out all the time. These LED lights- they don't use much electricity, so they keep going and going. Oh yeah, they do very well. We have several other lamps there again. If you want to switch out to something that's brighter or different, contact us and we'll help. you know, customize that bundle for you. This product is one of the Bear Grylls products from Gerber. It's part of this gear bundle that's customizable to fit your needs, fit exactly what you want, And you go to connehocreekcom- c-o-n-o-h-o-creekcom for this and you'll get in touch with Bill Fleming and he'll set you up with the kind of gear that you need at a really great price. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact us and you know that's what we're all about at Conneho Creek. One more time: connehocreekcom, c-o-n-o-h-o-creek. When you do your shopping there, use the special coupon code for the Scoutmaster Podcast. Get an extra 5% off with coupon code CG113.. CG113..

Our next Scout Circle, which is a live presentation and broadcast, will be coming up on February 10th and our guest is going to be David Scott, who is the author of the book The Scouting Part. February is our anniversary month. We thought it'd be interesting to have a little bit of scouting history in February. If you haven't got David's book The Scouting Party, there'll be a link to how to get that book in the post that contains this podcast. It's really a fascinating story about Baden Powell, Ernest Thompson Seaton, Daniel Carter Beard and some of the other early players in the Boy Scouts of America- Really really interesting dynamic between those three. And read the book and join us on Sunday, February 10th, between 9 and 10 Eastern Standard Time at scoutscircleorg for that live broadcast. So coming up in this podcast, in Scoutmaster Ship in seven minutes or less, we're going to talk about reading Scout requirements and then we have a couple of emails to answer in our email section And that's going to take up the rest of the podcast. So let's get started, shall we?

Scoutmaster Ship in seven minutes Or less.

So there's this guy. he goes out, he buys this new electronic gizmo and he brings it home and he tries to get it to work and it just won't work And he spent a fair amount of money on it and he's getting a little chuffed. So he finds the 800 number of the company, he gets a representative on the phone and he gives them a hard time because this gizmo just won't work And they say, well, let's go through the troubleshooting list here and he says, oh, it just doesn't work and I need to figure out how to make it work. And so the first step in the troubleshooting list is: did you put the batteries in it? And then there's a little silence on the other end of the phone and the guy says: well, I think I know why it doesn't work. now We've all had one of those experiences where we got something and we were pretty sure we absolutely knew how it would work. so we just took it right out of the package and started pressing buttons, but found out that we actually didn't know. So what did we do? We read the manual. right, We went and looked at the manual, figured it out- usually something very simple, just something we misunderstood. and so we read the manual and we figured out exactly how to make it work. And I say that because sometimes, when we're dealing with requirements for merit badges or for ranks, the way that we think that those requirements are fulfilled does not really job with what's actually written in the Boy Scout handbook. Now let me preface this by saying I don't sign off many requirements. Requirements for ranks up to first class are almost exclusively signed off by our older scouts. I do sign the requirements if I'm functioning as a merit badge counselor, but not so much in my role as a Scoutmaster. I need to train our older scouts how to sign off requirements, and when I do this, I tell them to look for the verbs and modifiers written in the requirements and pay attention to them. I tell them to read the requirement carefully, no matter how many times they think they've signed it off, and make sure that they're actually doing what it says, rather than just glossing it over or just going on what they think they understand and getting the wrong idea. If you're signing off requirements for ranks or merit badges, this is a pretty crucial thing. It's so simple that we miss it. I've been counseling camping merit badge now for, oh gosh, 20 years or so, and I have learned to make myself go back and read the requirements, because to get them right means understanding exactly what they say. So here's some examples of what I mean by actually reading these requirements: The requirement for the scout badge, the joining badge, requirement number seven says: understand and agree to live by the scout oath or promise the scout law, the motto and the slogan and the outdoor code. Understand and agree- two very important words here. That does not mean repeat from memory. In some ways, this is a higher standard than just memorizing it. I mean, what does it mean to be thrifty? What does it mean to be reverent? What does the outdoor code mean? How are you going to live by it? So this is not just memorizing these things, but understanding them and agreeing to live by them. Now I will bet that some of you, listening when you get to this requirement, expect scouts to have these things memorized. But that's not the important part of the requirement. If you're joining scouts, you need to understand these things and you need to agree to live by them. You don't have to have them memorized at that point, because that will come later on. I think it's in the tenderfoot requirements where it says: repeat from memory. Here's another typical word that you find in requirements. Let's look at tenderfoot number 12B. It says: show first aid for the following, and then it lists a number of first aid scenarios. Now, show does not mean talk about. it does not mean write down, It means show. So, to complete this requirement, a scout's going to use his hands and a first aid kit and he's going to show what needs to happen in the cases listed in that requirement. Another good word to look for is demonstrate. In second class 1A. it asks a scout to demonstrate how a compass works and how to orient a map and then to explain what map symbols mean. Demonstrate doesn't mean tell. It means actively showing the skill, Showing how it's accomplished, using the actual tools required to accomplishment. Explain indicates that a scout should not only know the information but is also needs to know what it means. Those are other important verbs and modifiers to look for. First class number 6 says identify or show evidence of at least 10 kinds of native plants found in your community. Identify means being able to recognize or distinguish something, and that's modified by show evidence of indicating to me that the actual object being identified may or may not be present. It may not be the plant itself, It may be a picture of it. The modifier native is important too. What does that mean And how does it modify the type of plant used to fulfill the requirement? Requirement 3 begins with: make a written plan for an overnight track and show how to get to your camping spot using a topographical map or compass etc. Make a written plan is not telling or demonstrating, It's writing. You don't see all that many requirements that require book work or writing. I mean thank goodness right. But some of them are very specific about producing a written plan. When we read scout requirements and take them at face value, we'll better serve the intention embedded in the scout requirement and we'll be less likely to water them down or to add to them. Now we posted about this on the blog a week or two ago and it's had some great comments on it. One came from Walter Underwood. He said one other thing: if you read carefully, the requirements are written to allow for disabilities. It doesn't say: write a plan, Just make a written plan. Maybe you need to dictate that plan to somebody, And that's an excellent point. Yes, there are alternative requirements for scouts who are differently able, but if you look at the requirements, they will be able to do a lot of them if you just read them carefully. Now I did have one comment that I disagreed with, and that was well. when you're checking scouts off on requirements or when scouts are being checked off on requirements, other scouts shouldn't be able to listen in on that, because then they'll just pair it what they heard And you know what. I don't agree with that because I really don't care how a scout learns, so long as he gets it, And I'll bet he learned it pretty well if he sees or hears the right skill or information repeated a bunch of times, watching other scouts repeat that same skill or giving the same answer. Years ago I was a counselor for rifle-shooting merit badge at our summer camp and counseled 20 to 30 scouts every week And we had what I called a test on Friday to certify some of the requirements for the badge. When you're dealing with 30 guys every week, you have to be creative in some of the evaluations. The last thing I wanted to do was give them a worksheet or something like that and have them fill it out and then have me grade it and then hand it back to them and then have them hand it back to me. And you know that's schoolwork. We don't do schoolwork in scouts. So this is the way that I used to handle these groups. When Friday rolled around, they would come down to the rifle range. Each of them would have a piece of paper and something to write with and I would start asking them questions or showing them something that they had to name and write their answer on a piece of paper, And I guess there was maybe 20 questions or 20 things that I would show them and they would write them down on the paper and when we were finished doing that, they would exchange that paper with another scout. Let's say, number one was the three rules for safe firearms handling, And we would go over that point by point and make sure that everybody had it right. if they didn't have it right, Well, you know, circle the number there and we'll move on. Now, once we went through all the questions, the papers were given back to the original owners and anyone who had answered them all correctly was done. I asked for their paper. I recorded the fact that they knew what they were talking about and they had finished that part of the merit page. Scouts who had a wrong answer stayed right there and I talked to each one individually, within the earshot of everybody else, and I would ask them to give me the right answers Now. they had just heard the right answer. They had just heard the right answer because we had just gone over them with the whole group. If they couldn't remember the right answer, I pointed them to a copy of the merit page book and asked them to look up the right answer and then I moved on to the next scout. Pretty soon the whole group had figured out, they could talk to each other and help each other get all the answers right. Needless to say, the scouts who hadn't bothered to know anything, who hadn't- quote unquote- studied for the test, had heard the correct answers and repeated several times by now and they had to sit down with me individually and they had to give me the correct answer and I'm confident that when they all left the rifle range they knew their stuff and we had actually a pretty good time getting there. It doesn't matter to me how they learn things. if they hear it repeated all the time, it's fine. I understand that school wants to build study habits and things like that and you know that's all good. but we're not school. We don't use school methods of instructing or testing. We use scouting methods. How do scouts learn? Any way they can, and I can't think of any wrong way to learn the right things.

I. had an email this week from Brad in New Hampshire. He says our troop is getting ready to realign patrols. I've read the patrol method in practice on your website. If boys choose their own patrols, what happens to several scouts in our troop who are not necessarily liked by all the scouts? Do they wind up without a patrol? If they choose a patrol, can the patrol of scouts refuse them? Well, Brad, thanks for getting in touch and thanks for this question. Just to catch everybody up, we talk about scouts choosing their own patrols, The patrol leaders council sitting down, figuring things out, letting them sort it out. There is always the kind of danger of that scenario that we've seen again and again of like picking teams or something and the athletic guy is kind of the last guy picked and nobody wants to create anything like that. If your troop doesn't already have a kind of accepting, friendly culture, you need to work on creating that a little bit. You may ask for a few minutes of time before the scouts are going to do all this and talk to the whole troop and ask a scout to read from the handbook the definition of what it says in the scout law when we pledge ourselves to be friendly. It says: a scout is friendly, a scout's a friend to all, he's a brother to all scouts. he offers his friendship to people of all races, religions and nations and respects them, even if their beliefs and customs are different from his own. And then start asking the boys some questions about this. What does being friendly mean? How do you treat people that you don't really like? What things do people do that makes you dislike them? What does it feel like when other people aren't friendly to you? Why do you suppose being friendly is a point of the scout law? In what way does our troop best demonstrate being friendly? In what ways could we do a better job of being friendly? And then, you know, maybe tell a story about a time you felt left out personally, when nobody chose you for their team, or something like that, and encourage your scouts to think about the choices they're about to make. Tell them that scouts is about working with every other scout and finding a way to be their friend, even if you don't like them all that much. What if everybody worked very hard to do this? What if everybody tried to find a way to be a friend to everyone they came in contact with? What would our world look like then? Maybe use this thought: Imagine we're out camping and a fellow scout is injured. Well, what would you do? That's right. You'd come to his aid and help him. What if he's someone you don't particularly like, or someone who doesn't particularly like you? You know what I mean. We all work hard to get along, but sometimes we fall short. If you were hurt, you'd be looking for help and you'd accept help from just about anyone, wouldn't you? If you saw somebody who was hurt, you'd offer them help, right. You wouldn't walk away from them just because they acted or differently or dressed differently or looked differently than you did. right. In the same way, you'd freely offer your help to anyone injured physically. like that, it's just as important to freely offer your friendship. Sometimes it's hard to do because other people can be difficult to like. You can be difficult to like, I can be difficult to like. It's true of everybody sometimes. One of the things that marks a good scout is being friendly, kind, helpful and loyal to others. We ought to make sure that it starts here. whenever we're together with our fellow scouts, Look around this room. Every single scout in this room is your friend. They'll be there for you and you'll be there for them. You don't have to like everything about them and they don't have to like everything about you, because you're scouts and that's really all that matters. Now I've been around long enough to understand that you can talk all this stuff and you can share this with scouts and it may get through and it may not. You may have to talk and counsel with individual scouts. You may need to work with your older scouts thinking about these things. This sort of thing is really kind of heavy lifting for a Scoutmaster. It can take a while to create an atmosphere of acceptance, but once you do it, it tends to stay around for a long time. So, Brad, I hope that helps and I appreciate you sending in your question. You can certainly send in a question and get in touch with us. We really appreciate it when you do, and you'll learn how to do that in just a moment.

Thank you