Scoutmaster Podcast 201

Hi, I'm Stephen Jarvis and I'm Co-Master with Pac-46 and Fayetteville Arts & Saw. This edition of the Scout-Master podcast is sponsored by backers like me. Thanks, Clark.

And now to you, Scout-Master. Did I ever tell you that I was once an archery merit badge instructor? I was. Yeah, I had to give it up, though. There were just too many drawbacks.

Okay, then, This is podcast number 201.. Hey, Hey,

Welcome back to the Scout-Master podcast. This is Clarke Green. Let's take a look at the mailbag. We heard from Alan, who had this to say: in podcast number 189,, Cameron Smith, who is a Scout-Master in Modesto, California, asked why Scout-Masters tend to grow beards.

I had my answer right away: Scouting is an outdoor program, Okay, And when we go hiking for several days, our beards grow. So the beard tends to show you're an outdoors kind of person, In other words, you're a scouter. I'm a commissioner on the High Adventure Team and I grew my beard out near the beginning of 2013..

I agree, Alan, I think you got it. Maybe that's right. Maybe that's the way it works.

Scouters go out on a week-long backpacking trip or something like that and grow a beard, and you know, I've seen that happen before. But usually the beard goes away once they come home and their wife sees it.

So If I had a nickel for every. You know, I've been out on those trips before, on those long High Adventure trips, and my fellow Scouters they've let the beard go and I've said, are you going to keep the beard once you go home? Yeah, I certainly am.

I think it's time to grow a beard. I'm going to let it grow out. Then at the next meeting they're clean-shaven because they went home and the family got to look at it.

So anyway, thanks for being in touch. Alan Merrill von Especk is a Scoutmaster with Troop 581 in Utah and he wrote in to say thank you for putting together this plethora of scouting information. It's been invaluable. I was a committee member for many years in my current unit because they needed somebody to fill an empty spot in the recharter. That's how a lot of people get started, Merrick. That's the way it works.

I became the Scoutmaster in April of this year. Now I'm an Eagle Scout and my father was a Scoutmaster for nine years but evidently I didn't take very good mental notes because I can't remember much of what he did And it's been a little bit of a struggle to get the program going At our October roundtable. The topic was running a boy-led troop And shortly after that I discovered your podcast and started listening as I drove to and from work. The podcast back up and build on the information I learned at roundtable. I'm not a stranger to the concept of a boy-led troop. I've been involved with the NYLT program here in our council and I was a course leader this last summer.

But I guess I really didn't realize what we were teaching. The light bulb was installed and I knew how it worked, but it just never got turned on until that October roundtable and discovering scoutmastercgcom.

Thank you so much for the time you put into the site and the information you pour into the blog and the podcast. I've downloaded them all and have started re-going through the podcast in chronological order. I have a lot of catching up to do, but I know it'll be a great adventure.

Well, thanks so much, Merrick. Thanks for getting in touch with us