Scoutmaster Podcast 18

And now, to you, Scoutmaster. Here's a little conundrum for you. I don't know why this is, but it seems to be true of all the scouts that I've ever had as a member of the troop over the many, many years. They all seem to think that a nylon tent is a soundproof booth.

Do you know what I'm saying? If you don't, next time you're camping and the scouts go off to their tents for the night, just walk around a little bit. Yeah. They all think that it's a soundproof booth. Hmm. Hey, listen.

This is podcast number 18. Hey! Hi, this is Clarke Green. Welcome back to the Scoutmasters Podcast. Glad to have you.

Now listen, last time around, I promised that we would have an interview with the author of a great new book of scouting history called The Scouting Party. And I did get on Skype with the author and we talked for a while and then I found out that somehow I had screwed up recording the conversation.

So unfortunately, we're going to have to wait a little while for that. Hopefully, maybe the next podcast because it's a great book and I really want you to hear about it.

So, but that's all right. Guess what? I can still talk. Yes, sir.

So we put together a couple other things for the podcast today. The first thing you'll hear is the 10 best moments in scouting from my perspective.

And then we're going to have another email answer, an email that came in recently. And that'll be about it for today. Oh, we might sneak in another episode of Brick Mason, that historic Scoutmaster show I told you about. Yeah.

So, but that should be planning for a podcast, don't you think? Well, of course.

So let's get started. You know, as the podcast goes and the blog goes, sometimes we're dealing with problems and it seems like we're dealing with problems all the time.

You know, people email me about problems and difficulties they're having and, you know, you just run into situations where you're trying to make all the puzzle pieces of scouting fit together and make things work. And there's challenges and difficulties, but there's also great times. There's also wonderful, great moments in scouting.

So in no particular order, my 10 best, the 10 best moments I've had as a Scoutmaster. Number one, there was one early spring night, we were out camping and we were staying in a cabin at our Scout camp. And one of the meteor showers was going to happen that Saturday night.

So we all got up at three in the morning on Saturday morning and we hiked our sleeping bags and our sleeping pads down into a field at camp and we watched this meteor shower. We just laid there on our backs and watched the meteor shower. It was damp and it was cold. I mean, it was seriously cold. But the stars were showing through the skies as if they were close enough to touch. You could just about reach up and grab one.

And within an hour, we had counted over 100 shooting stars. And I think when we hit 100, we thought, well, that's probably enough for anybody. And we escaped back to the warmth of our cabin. Number two, had a Scout who crossed over as a weebleos and joined the troop very shortly after his father had passed away suddenly. And his father was an Eagle Scout and he was his son's cub master. And it was a very sad time for his family.

It was horrible. But the boy came over to the troop and we worked through things over years. And he went on to become an Eagle Scout. And one of my favorite Scouts. Don't tell anybody. But one of my favorite Scouts.

And at his Eagle Court of Honor, as he was saying a few words, as all the Eagle Scouts do, he presented me with his Eagle Mentor pin. And that's, that was a great moment. Then number three, also an Eagle moment. And these are in no particular order. Was watching my wife pin an Eagle medal on my stepson's uniform. That was quite a moment.

Number four, canoeing around the corner of a lake shoreline in Canada. Now, here it is. It's one early morning. And it had rained the night before. And it looked like it was going to rain pretty much of that day. But we had this one clear time early in the morning where we could get out.

There wasn't going to be a lot of wind. We could kind of shoot across this big lake before the waves came up. And we could get to a portage that would continue our trip.

And so we were up and packed and in the canoes. And there's a bit of a mist over the water. And we're canoeing along. And we come across the shoreline and go past just a little tiny inlet in the shoreline.

And there's a moose in all his glory standing there watching us go past. I'll always have that picture in my mind. That was a great moment.

Number five, we have an annual father and son weekend every year. And we get a big turnout for it.

And we plan it well in advance. I mean, it's planned a year in advance. And somewhere within the course of that year, I found out that I was supposed to attend our council dinner to be recognized with the Silver Beaver Award. And it was cross-scheduled with our father and son weekend.

And I think I knew where my duties lay. And it was with the troop at the father and son weekend.

And so I had to politely decline attending the council dinner. So the next night, which was a Saturday night at the father and son weekend, some of my scouting buddies came down. And they presented my Silver Beaver Award at the father and son weekend with my scouts. And that was an incredible moment. That was just great. And to have all my scouts there as that happened was very memorable.

Number six, whenever I see one of my old scouts, when they take the time to stop in and say hello when they're in town, that is a great moment. Whether they've been away for 10 months or 10 years, it's always good to see them come back and to remember the time that they had in scouting. Number seven, anytime I get to shake hands with a new scout as he steps off the end of a ceremonial bridge at a Weevilow's bridge crossing ceremony, and the knowledge that we'll likely shake hands over an eagle badge someday, that's a great moment.

Number eight, as a member of the Order of the Arrow, keeping my vigil throughout a really wonderfully serene spring moonlit night on a hillside in one of my favorite places in the world, our scout camp, and hearing the voices of so many good friends supporting me through my vigil. I will always remember that night. Number nine is the real pleasure I get whenever I am able to introduce an evil candidate to the members of his border review. That's always a good moment. And number 10, and this happens a lot, and it's one of the most satisfying things about being a scoutmaster, and that is listening to the excited voices and laughter of a group of scouts as they head off somewhere to do something. Whether we're on a camp out and they're going on a hike, whether they're headed off to make their dinner or something like that, just listening to them.

Listening to them being excited and interested and having a great time in scouts. That's all that you really ever need.

So there's my 10 best. I'd like to hear about your best moments in scouting. Send them to me here at the Scoutmasters podcast. The Scoutmasters podcast. Send it by mail. Email that is, folks.

And here's an answer to one of your emails. Scoutmaster Chuck wrote me by email, and he says this, I've recently taken over as Scoutmaster, and our troop needs to reorganize its patrols.

We have 38 scouts and 3 patrols. Good for you. 38 scouts is a good, healthy troop. One has 11 or 12 scouts, all young, and most of them go camping. The second has about 6 active scouts, 2 of which camp regularly. Patrol 3 is led by a life scout that is great with younger scouts, but is kind of too cool even to wear his uniform.

The senior patrol leader and assistant senior patrol leader are national youth leader training trained, and they're very motivated. I think we're moving towards maybe 5 patrols, one new scout patrol, one venture patrol, three regular patrols. The Patrol Leaders Council is going to define the requirements to get into the new venture patrol. I'm guessing it might be the boys who are 15 and older. And the new scout patrol, by definition, is easy. My concern is creating the three regular patrols.

How'd you go about having the scouts do this? Any help is much appreciated.

Well, Chuck, first of all, thanks for getting in touch, and congratulations on your new post as a scoutmaster. I've got a troop that's a similar size. We're a little more than that right now.

We're running around 45, and we have four active patrols and a venture patrol. I've used this new scout patrol with a couple of modifications. I'm going to get on a little bit of a rant here.

The new scout patrol thing where you bring the boys into the troop and they are in this kind of practice patrol that's going to dissolve in a while, that smacks to me of being, you know, the third year of Webelos in a lot of ways. When the scouts come in, they might stay with the same boys that they were in Webelos with, and they might be the same age group and everything, but they're in a real patrol. They're not in an artificially formed one that is going to disappear once they become first class or something like that.

So I use the new scout patrol thing with that modification. We usually end up resetting our patrols or reorganizing our patrols.

It seems like maybe about every 18 months, maybe as often as once a year, but, you know, it doesn't seem to be, it's not necessarily an annual exercise. The senior patrol leader and the patrol leader's council, what they will do is they will sit down and they'll figure out how to do this.

Now, one way that they've done it in the past is to get the scouts to write the names of five or six other scouts they'd like to have in their patrol, and then they sit down and kind of chart it out and figure out which guys want to be in a patrol with which guys, and that usually works out. And I leave that totally up to the senior patrol leader and his patrol leader's council because they are usually a better judge than I of who gets on with who and the hundred other considerations that go into making a decision like that.

I remember having any reason, I can't remember, really having any reason to second guess them on those decisions. It's pretty remarkable that they usually get it better and more right than I would.

Our venture crew is the senior patrol leader, the quartermaster to the scribe, the assistant senior patrol leaders, and any junior assistant Scoutmasters that we have at the time. Other than that, the SPL, well, other than the senior patrol leader and his fellow senior leaders, the scouts stay in their patrols.

Now, we used to kind of move them up and out of patrols when they had reached 14 or 15 with the idea that they should get out of the way and let the younger scouts take over the patrol leader position. But over the past several years, we've stopped doing that so the patrols have a better mix of experience and ages.

And so far, it's so good. I mean, you'd think that the older guys would complain about having to associate with the younger guys, but they don't because there's always at least one other older scout in the patrol with them. The other important aspect of this is that the older scouts are responsible for planning and presenting everything that goes on, whether they're in a patrol or whether they have a senior patrol or a senior leadership position. And this keeps them very busy and engaged and most of the time very happy. My experience tells me that a patrol functions best, just like Baden-Powell said all those years ago, with a minimum of about six scouts and a maximum of maybe eight or nine. Any fewer, and you're skating because at any given outing or patrol meeting or troop meeting, there's only liable to be two or three guys if you have a patrol of six.

If you have a patrol of eight or nine, you'll get four or five. Any more than eight or nine and things seem to be kind of unmanageable and chaotic.

So I would point at that number. You know, he said, Chuck said that his senior patrol leader and assistant senior patrol leader are really pumped up. And if I were in your shoes, I would just go and I would ask them to handle the situation.

Just say, hey, you know, we probably should think about dividing the troop into new patrols and how do you think you would like to handle that? If they don't have any big ideas about handling that, we'll give them the advice I'm giving you and see what happens.

Get them thinking about what their experience was like as a younger scout, you know, what they liked, what they didn't like, how they enjoyed their patrol or maybe didn't enjoy their patrol. And what are they going to do to make sure that everybody is happy with their new patrol? Then go find something else to do for a while, Chuck. Leave them alone. And I'll bet you'll be pleased with the results. I know that the scouts will because they've invested the time into it and they've made the decision.

You mentioned you're too cool, guy. I've got those guys.

I think every troop does. I have some really talented scouts who are talented leaders and they know their stuff and sometimes they're just too cool for all the trappings of a uniform and being prepared and all that business. I've always had them. I've always had them around in one form or another for the last 25 or 26 years. My advice is to ignore their coolness. Ignore the affectations of coolness and just try and work with their talents.

Don't try and fix them. They'll generally get the idea and they'll fix themselves.

So, Chuck, I hope that helps and best luck to you in sorting out your troop into new patrols.

Time marked by a lack of troop. The world turns to Mason and Scoutmaster.

Ah, and how is the bison patrol this fine evening? Ah, it's Buffalo, isn't it?

Where? No, no, Mr. Mason. That's the name of our patrol.

The Buffaloes? Oh. Naturally. Yes. Hey, hey, don't forget you're having supper with us tonight, right, Mr.

M? Ah, the vaporous essences emanating from the melange of meat and vegetables you are preparing has sharply piqued my assorience. Yeah, okay.

Hey, Johnny, how you doing? Hey. Wow, Mr. M.

Hey, doesn't that stew smell great? Precisely. Jeez, I could eat a horse.

Now, do I understand you to exercise a figure of speech? Yeah.

Or to express the intention to consume an actual equine? Hey, fellas, we better build the fire up a little bit, huh?

What? Scouts, I fear I must tell you you have fundamentally underestimated the volume of fuel required to raise the temperature of your comestibles and thus achieve a state of optimum edibility.

What? Get some more sticks. Hey, you guys. The stew's ready. Here you go, Mr. M.

Ah, thank you. Ouch. Yes. It seems the aluminum alloy of my mess kit was chosen for its ability to transfer heat to its exterior surface. Yeah, yeah, you gotta watch out. The stew was really hot.

It was on the fire. Join us again for another exciting episode in the career of Rick Mason, Scoutmaster.