Scoutmaster Podcast 203

I'm Ray Britton and I'm the Scoutmaster with Troop 42 in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. This edition of Scoutmaster Podcast is sponsored by backers like me. Keep up the good work, Clark.

And now it's your Scoutmaster. We were out camping and it got so cold. It got this cold.

Our words froze in mid-air and we had to put them in a frying pan and thumb out just so we could hear what we were talking about. True story. Hey, this is podcast number 203..

Well, welcome back to the Scoutmaster Podcast. This is Clarke Green.

Let's take a look at the mailbag this week and what? Oh listen, It's crickets in the mailbag and no mail. Over the past couple of holiday weeks You've had better things to do.

I want to wish everybody happy New Year. Now I did hear from Greg Sepley, who sent his best wishes for the New Year. Thank you, Greg. I appreciate that.

So let's see. I have a couple of things to tell you. First of all, on this Sunday, January 12th, we'll have a live Scout Circle presentation at scoutcircleorg about winter camping with Kevin Callan. Kevin is a well-known outdoorsman and author in Canada and he should know something about winter camping. Shouldn't he Join us for a live presentation and a question and answer session on Sunday, January 12th, 9 to 10 pm Eastern Time, and you'll find us at scoutcircleorg.

So put that on your calendar and join us on Sunday, won't you? In the last couple of podcasts, I've been telling you about new things coming and I want to give you an update. The new version of ScoutmasterCGcom is in development. It's almost ready for prime time and we're going to throw the switch here within the next couple of weeks. There are a couple of major new features I'm excited to tell you about. First is an expanded way for you to participate.

It's kind of like a mini social media platform where you'll be able to set up a profile and connect with your fellow Scouters for discussions and join in on the presentations that we do. Also, we'll be creating a new resource for youth leaders. We're still working on that. If all goes according to plan, I'll be introducing this to you in more detail on next week's podcast. As of February, our monthly Scout Circle presentations are going to be incorporated right into ScoutmasterCGcom, and one of the big challenges we've had over the past year has been setting up a system for interaction with these presentations.

I think we've cobbled something together that's going to work out pretty well, And I want to let you know that those of you who've become backers are making all of this possible. If you read the blog and listen to the podcast and what we're offering has helped you, you can help us keep things up and running by becoming a ScoutmasterCG backer. Funds from backers go directly towards the expenses of producing and publishing the blog, and they're also supporting rolling out these new features that we're going to see in the next couple of weeks. And if you want to keep these valuable resources accessible, become a backer, And since our last podcast, we've welcomed one, two, three, four, five new backers. Thank you to Richard Leigh, Christopher Cooper, Dwight Wiest, Arlen Ward and Pat Lays. I certainly appreciate your participation.

Thank you so very much. In this podcast, in ScoutmasterCG in seven minutes or less, we're going to discuss merit badges and troop meetings, And then I have an email question to answer And that's going to take up the remainder of this week's podcast.

So let's get started. Shall we Scout MasterCG in seven minutes or less?

In one of the posts we put up recently, Alan commented. He said this: we're having a debate in my troop about merit badge classes and troop meetings. There's really no place where any of the literature from the Boy Scouts of America comes out and says: do not do merit badge classes in troop meetings.

We have some large troops in town that do this regularly And they seem to spit out Eagle Scouts all the time. So some of the adults who are involved with our troop. This is the recipe for success. But my understanding is that a merit badge is pretty much an individual activity between the scout and his counselor. It's not really a troop activity. I really wish the BSA was clearer on this.

Most of the literature I read assumes that everybody knows the merit badge program and understands its purposes and goals. Well, Alan, that debate does come up from time to time.

You know, as I recommend, you run to the resources and you see what you can find there. And the thing about it is is you won't find too many statements in scouting literature that says don't do this. What you find is instructions on what to do and not necessarily restrictions on every permutation of the things that you really shouldn't be doing. Scouting is designed to have enough flexibility to be applied in thousands of different local conditions.

I think what happens most of the time is that well-intentioned adults either adopt the past practices that their troop has used unquestioningly or they make uninformed assumptions about what our role is as scouters and what the point of scouting is. Now, while there may not be a definitive statement that says: don't have merit badge classes as troop meetings, I think it's pretty clear in the literature that this is not what you would call a recommended practice. One of the best things about scouting is it's not a set of instructions to be followed out point by point. It's a program that is applied and adapted right there at the local level. When we understand the broad underlying concepts of what we're trying to accomplish, we get the program right. And it's not that difficult to do.

It's challenging, but it can be done. And we need to apply ourselves as scouters to making sure we understand what the intention of the program is and that we're getting it right. And hopefully that comes through training. But training isn't enough. You have to learn these things for yourselves, You have to study them, You have to work at them.

So in the next few minutes let's talk about what is in the literature that deals with merit badge classes and troop meetings. Now let me begin by saying that scouting is an educational program. We definitely want scouts to learn things.

The problem is is that most of us apply academic methods that just don't belong in scouting. Our default way of sharing knowledge is to use these academic methods, And when I say academic methods, I mean a group of students sitting in desks listening to the teacher, And, as always, our focus is on the individual scout and not just a big herd of scouts. We miss the point that scouts determine what they want to do. To my way of thinking, there are three basic levels in a scout troop of the way they determine what they want to do. The broadest one is the patrol leaders council, which is this great representative democratic system deciding what they want to do.

Now, as I've often stated, there's a context to those decisions. The activities and subject matter have to be in the scouting context, right? A basketball team doesn't bring a football to the game. They use a basketball. That's what I'm talking about. There's a context to these activities, And that context is the scouting program.

At the next level of focus, a patrol decides what they're interested in doing. Maybe they want to pursue a merit badge together as a group.

Well, I couldn't argue with that. They may never decide to do that, And that's fine too, But a patrol can have its own patrol meetings and its own campouts. They can do as much as they want according to their own initiative. And third, on the individual level: a scout determines individually what they want to do. Some of this may be in the context of what the troop or the patrol is doing, But a lot of it is about their individual choices, And this is especially true of merit badges.

So there are two things that are in the guide to advancement 2013 that I want to share with you. One is about the process of counseling, and you'll find it in section 7.0.3.0. And it reads this: Earning merit badges should be scout initiated, scout researched and scout learned. It should be hands-on and interactive and should not be modeled after a typical school classroom setting.

Instead, it is meant to be an active program so enticing the young men that they will want to take responsibility for their own full participation. So let's unpack that a little bit. Merit badges should be scout initiated. They initiate the process, They find the counselor, They work with the counselor, They get the merit badge. It should be hands-on and interactive And it should not be modeled after a typical school classroom setting. Going on, look at section 7.0.3.2 and group instruction, And it reads there that it is acceptable and sometimes desirable for merit badges to be taught in group settings.

Because of the importance of individual attention and personal learning in the merit badge program, group instruction should be focused on those scenarios where the benefits are compelling. So is group instruction outlawed? No, it is acceptable and it's even desirable in some situations. Those situations should never overrule the importance of individual attention and personal learning.

Now, none of this says you can't do merit badge classes and call them troop meetings. Having a merit badge class and calling it a troop meeting could be beneficial for scouts.

But what are we aimed at? That's the important thing.

If you look at what the Scoutmasters Handbook has to say about troop meetings, the suggested time for the instructional component in a troop meeting is 15 or 20 minutes And there's no mention of merit badges at all. So the idea of dedicating troop meetings to merit badge instruction, that just doesn't seem to jive with what's in the Scoutmasters Handbook.

It's pretty self-explanatory, isn't it? Big giant merit badge classes?

Well, they'll work sometimes, but they shouldn't be the default way that we do merit badges. Troop meetings are supposed to have lots of different elements in them, not just an instructional element. If we just came out and we said: don't ever have merit badge classes as troop meetings and we made that a policy. We would soon find that there are 17 different, very legitimate exceptions to that policy.

If we get ourselves trained and then we supplement that training with our own reading and our own study, we should be able to pretty effectively turn around and test what we're doing. Does it make sense at a weekly troop meeting to turn that into a merit badge class? I don't think so.

It's not individual, it turns it into a classroom setting, like boys experience in school, and there should be more happening in a troop meeting than just this big giant instructional period. Any number of Scouters and Troops have developed very efficient approaches to advancing Scouts. It's actually one of the easiest things to do. I could set up a system that would get all of my Scouts to Eagle before their 14th birthday. I would control everything that they did. I would tell them what to do next.

I would make sure that they were following the program. I would involve lots of adults. I would involve their parents in it. I would say: we're going to get them to Eagle before their 14th birthday and I could have every boy that ever joined the troop become an Eagle Scout.

If that was the point of Scouting, I'd do it tomorrow, but it's not the point, is it? Education is one component of Scouting. Traditional academic methods- we don't use those. Education comes through working with your patrol and with your patrol being represented on the Patrol Leaders Council.

So it works together with what the troop does. Education comes through camping and experiencing the outdoors. Education comes through working and serving other people, not just earning badges. And, as I've often said, we tend to get the cart before the horse.

Sometimes We tend to think: let's do the requirements so we can earn the badge, instead of let's do what Scouts do, which is going to fulfill the requirements and earn the badge anyway. Point out doing what Scouts do and badges and requirements they get fulfilled naturally. Point at fulfilling requirements and you end up with merit badge classes that you call troop meetings. And I'll close by saying: remember that badges and ranks are only indicators. They're kind of like thermometers. A thermometer doesn't create the air temperature, It reads the air temperature.

Badges don't create skills or competency, They just indicate that it might be present. Write me a letter, send it by name.

Email. That is folks.

And here's an answer to one of your emails. I got this email question from Bob who says this: I'm a new Scoutmaster with a scout troop here in beautiful New Hampshire And I have a question about troop elections.

January is traditionally when we have a senior patrol leader election. My current plan is to have any Scouts interested in running for senior patrol leader to let me know in advance so that I can have a Scoutmaster conference with them so that they understand the role and responsibilities before the election. I've been talking to the Scouts and it doesn't seem that anyone wants to run for senior patrol leader. The current senior patrol leader made it clear that he does not want to run again.

So what happens if nobody contacts me ahead of time? Is it my job to get out there and get a candidate, or is the senior patrol leader supposed to be doing this?

If election day arrives and there are no candidates, what do we do then? I know things usually work out in the end and I might be concerned over nothing, but I would appreciate any wisdom you might have on the topic, Bob. I've had this happen occasionally, actually. Let me tell you first that I have very little to do with senior patrol leader elections. I get to collect the ballots and count the result. That's about it.

As far as who is running and what they understand about it, you know I may have a very brief conversation with them about that and the patrol leader's council usually wants to know who's going to be a candidate so that they're prepared to speak to the Scouts just before the election. But I have very little bit to do with that process.

But I have had times in the past where it seemed as though there were no candidates for senior patrol leader And I've sat down with the patrol leader's council and I said: well, it looks like you guys have a little bit of a problem to solve. As of right now, I don't know of anybody who's interested in being a candidate for senior patrol leader.

So you guys need to spend the next few minutes talking about that and come up with a solution to this and let me know what it is, and then we'll move on from there. And I would say something like that and get up and walk away from the table, let them discuss, come back and listen for their resolution.

Now, one time when this happened, most of the guys on the patrol leaders council were older. They were juniors and seniors in high school and they were just not interested in being the senior patrol leader. It was their tradition to have an older guy be the senior patrol leader.

But what they decided was they recruited a candidate who was about 14 years old, which was younger than we were used to. They talked to him and he agreed that he would be the senior patrol leader for the coming year. And the election- and the election came down to do you want this guy to be your senior patrol leader or not.

So the scouts just voted yes or no and he was elected to be senior patrol leader, and he was a very good one. But that was the solution that they came up with.

So what I would suggest to you? If there's still no candidates, go ahead and do the same thing. Talk to the patrol leaders council. Say you guys have a bit of a situation to resolve here. Let them come up with a resolution. Listen to the resolution.

It's not necessary that you absolutely approve the resolution. You may want to help direct it a little bit. Take it one step at a time and pretty soon you'll have a new senior patrol leader. Bob, I hope that helps. If you have a question for me, you can get in touch and you'll find