Scoutmaster Podcast 21

And now, for you, Scoutmaster.

I go back to the campsite, I'm starving. And they hide food from bears, did you know this? They put the food up in a tree because bears can't climb trees? Well, come to find out, neither can I. So that tree had to come down. I paid the fine and I apologized. So now I'm eating a sandwich next to the fallen tree. And a raccoon comes into the campsite. Raccoon, it was big, I saw it. I went, look at the pony. It's a pony. Bad pony. And the raccoon wanted my sandwich. This, of course, is unacceptable. I chopped down a tree for this sandwich. And raccoons, they're brave, they don't scare you. You can't, like, throw a stick at it or anything. You know what I did to scare it away? I did an Ewok from Return of the Jedi. The little furry things, that scared it. It would hiss and I would go, Everybody wakes up, sees me. In front of the campfire. And they're looking for the empty tequila bottle. So that is comedian John Panette. Ewoks. I never thought of that. And I'm going to try it the next time I run into a bear. How about you? Hey, this is Scoutmaster Podcast number 21. on.

Welcome back to the Scoutmaster Podcast. This is Clark Green. I wanted to start off by thanking a couple of people who sent me very encouraging emails this past week. Jeff Helms in Georgia sent me a wonderful email, and I thank you, Jeff, for that. Jeff is starting off as a new Scoutmaster, and I just want to recognize that he's a That's a great thing, and I really envy your position, Jeff. To be able to start again like that would be a marvelous thing. So you're going to have a great time with it. Also, I got a very nice email from John Heinlein, who is also, was considering becoming a Scoutmaster, and somehow he blames me for talking him into it a little bit, maybe. So, John, again, it's a great thing to do, and I sure do thank you for having gotten in touch and letting me know that this yabbering into a microphone is maybe actually helping somebody somewhere. You can email me at clarkgreen at gmail.com. C-L-A-R-K-E-G-R-E-E-E-N at gmail.com. Hey, in this edition of the Scoutmaster podcast, first off in Scout Mastership in seven minutes or less, we're going to do a little discussion about recruiting, and this, I think, is a great time of the year to recruit because summer camp is not too far away for most of us. And I think that might be a great trip for a guy to go on as his first Scout experience. You might disagree, but I don't know. I think it might be a great idea. Then we're going to return to the past for another look into the life of Scoutmaster Brick Mason. And then we'll be answering an email from a listener who was a little disturbed by some of the things happening in her son's troop and was wondering if it was something that she could fix. And it's a pretty common question that I get, so we've put it in an email answer. And that'll about do it. It's a full slate, and let's get started, shall we? Scout Mastership in seven minutes or less.

About recruiting scouts, there was basically two ways that this happens. The first way is a boy is a Weeblos, and he transitions into a Boy Scout troop. In my experience, about eight out of ten boys were Weeblos and transitioned from a Weeblos den into our troop. The second group of people is everybody else. So there are Weeblos, and there is everybody else. Now, I'm not going to go into a long, in-depth talk about transitioning Weeblos into your Scout troop. I'll give you a very quick three-step plan. First, find all the Weeblos dens. Try and maintain contact with them and offer them camping opportunities. Offer them a den chief. Offer them anything that they would need in the way of resources that a Scout troop would have. Stay in touch with them throughout the year, and we don't ever give up. So that is my little three-step plan for recruiting Weeblos. Very oversimplified, but recruiting everybody else is a totally different ball of wax. Totally different story. Now, through the force of gravity, we get a couple of Newtonian Scouts every year. And what I mean by that is we have a Scout troop, and we have a decent program. Somebody hears about that and decides that they want to come visit, and bada bing, they end up being a Boy Scout. That happens pretty rarely, to tell you the truth. The next way we're going to approach everybody else are the kind of cold call methods, like school visits and open houses and things like that. Just recruiting Scouts from the general population. Frankly, I can't recall recruiting more than one or two Scouts this way in many, many years. Tremendously little return for the amount of effort that goes into it. And I don't know as I can recommend them to you, this kind of cold calling. I can recommend some more promising ways. Here is a little quick and dirty math. My best guess, about 10,000 boys need to see a TV commercial for one of them to be interested enough to hunt down a Scout troop and actually become a Scout. For every 500 boys who hear a direct mass appeal, like school visits or something like that, I think you get one guy. That's my experience. For every 10 or 15 boys who are approached by a friend who is already a Scout, you get one Scout. So you see the ratios are starting to get a little more promising. 10,000 to 1 for broadcast type appeal. 500 to 1 for a direct mass appeal, like a school presentation or something like that. 10 or 15 to 1 for a one-on-one appeal from a peer. And then I would say you might even have a slightly better ratio, maybe 5 or 10 to 1, if a boy's parents are approached by other parents who they know and trust, whose son is a part of Scouting. Where do we want to concentrate our efforts? To my mind, we want to concentrate on the two most promising approaches. That 10 to 15 for one for every boy who is approached by a peer who is in Scouting. And that 5 or 10 to 1 for a parent-to-parent type contact. One way that we're going to celebrate the centennial this year is to do a little bit of recruiting on a very personal basis, one-to-one, peer-to-peer, boy-to-boy. I am very proud to tell you that we came to the attention of our Chief Scout Executive, Bob Mazzucca. He has mentioned us specifically a couple of times, and I was able to get a recording of it. Scout units are even getting... I don't know where Kenneth Square, Pennsylvania is. Anybody know where Kenneth Square, Pennsylvania is? Near Philly. Troop 24. Take notes, Steve, because this is cool. Troop 24, Kenneth Square, Pennsylvania. These kids have gotten together and they've made a pledge. They've pledged they're going to earn 100 merit badges and rank advancements. They're going to do 100 extra hours of community service over and above what they normally do. And they're going to invite 100 boys who aren't in Scouting to get in Scouting. Now think about that. Think what would happen if every pack and troop and crew in the country did that. Think what would happen if every person in this room told just 10 people, not 100 people, about the magic of Scouting. What would happen as we rekindled that fire and got people fired up so you're all deputized into the army of evangelists go out there and talk about Scouting. So that's our chief executive talking about this recruiting plan. What my realistic expectation is, is that it would be absolutely astoundingly wonderful if we got 10 Scouts out of that effort. I would be very curious to know about other recruiting efforts. A lot of them are very localized and are very effective on a local basis. I'd be interested to know what you do and how you manage recruiting where you are. These are the days that we're camping out here. We're camping inside the outdoors. Who knows the way to our camp? It's out here and we're camping out on the shore. Cause these are the days that we're camping out here. We're camping inside the outdoors. Do you know the way to our camp? It's out here and we're camping out on the shore. We don't want to work no more. I'm marked by a lack of truth. The world turns to Mason, Scoutmaster. As a Scoutmaster, I am familiar with the privations required to lead my Scouts to ever-increasing heights of achievement. I will precede them in this perambulation as an example of what can be earned through honest exertion. Yeah, well Mr. Mason, that's really some mountain there. I think we're going to have a great hike, don't you? No, I'm ready. I got my backpack and boots and all that stuff. Although the trail is steep and narrow, we shall rise to the summit and gloriously declare our victory. Well, we all got our backpacks and our boots and everything. Come on, fellas, let's go. I got a hiking stick and all that. Oh, this is going to be great fun. Are you prepared, Scouts? So, let us commence.

Gee, Mr. M, where you been? We thought maybe you got lost. We've been waiting here for ages. I, uh, I underestimated the stamina required to reach this altitude. Want to have some lunch? And, uh, find my respiration temporarily incapacitated. At this point in time, I believe... Hey, look all the way back. Ah, ha, ha. An extended respite will restore my ability to continue apace. Well, maybe, maybe you should sit down for a while. You know, rest up. Yes, excellent advice. Join us again for another exciting episode in the career of... Richard Mason Scoutmaster. I thank you for joining us.

We'll be right back. We'll be right back. Write me a letter Send it by mail Email that is, folks. And here's an answer to one of your emails.

So here's an email I received from somebody who is asking me some questions about the way that their son's troop is run. I'm not going to get into all the little details about this because the overarching thing that we want to talk about is the way parents and boys experience scouting. There's a little bit of a difference between the way a parent experiences scouting and a boy experiences scouting. And what are your options when you discover that the troop that your son has joined is not really running on all eight cylinders, that they don't actually get it and they're kind of bending the scout program around. The way that this came to me was this mom was talking with her son about the way that cooking merit badge was going. And it was her opinion that the scout master was adding requirements to the badge. And from what she explained to me, I would have to agree. And so her question really boiled down to this. Do I leave this alone or can I bring this up in a positive manner so it can be dealt with? I mean, these are trained leaders, but I don't see the boys being trained in how to run the troop. There really isn't much scout advancement or activities taking place or the meetings. And if there are, it's pretty rare. And female opinions seem to be seen as meddling. They lost about six boys this year due to what I believe was just a lack of interest. So what's your take? Well, I replied this way. You basically have three options in this situation. The situation that she describes isn't all that unusual. You know, we want parents to be involved and we want them to look in and see what's going on. And if they have questions, we want to be able to answer their questions. And, you know, she didn't get a very satisfactory answer from this scout master. And unfortunately, in the way that things go, a lot of us guys tend to kind of blow off the questions that we get from moms because we see them as being meddling. So that's just a bad attitude to begin with. And here are the three choices that I outlined. One is that you can fix the troop. Two is that you can live with things the way that they are. And three is that you can find another troop. So let's talk about fixing the troop. You know that it rarely works. If six scouts have left the troop and the adult leaders can't figure out why, then they're unlikely to listen to a mom. They're unlikely to listen to anyone. They're unlikely to listen to me. They're unlikely to listen to a commissioner or a group of parents or anything. The only real power brokers in a scout troop are the head of the chartering organization and the chartered organization representative. And for them to make changes, they have to understand there's a problem. And then they have to take appropriate action, which unfortunately usually leads to a big upset and several of the adult leaders leaving and a lot of hard feelings. And it can really be a killer. My advice, don't try number one. Don't try to fix the troop. It's not going to work. It almost never does. If it does, it's a giant upset. Now, if there were some kind of youth protection issues going on, if there were these flagrantly inappropriate things happening, that's another question. But this is kind of a fine question of, you know, one advancement requirement. Number two, leaving things as they are. What you really have to do if you're a parent is you need to honestly determine who's having a problem with the situation. Now, if the son is happy and enjoys scouting with his friends and his present troop, you might just want to leave things alone. Given that there are a lot of scout troops, just as described here, you know, who really sometimes don't get it, there are many scouts who are perfectly satisfied with their experience in scouting. Number three is to find another troop. If the son, not the parent, but if the son is truly dissatisfied and unhappy with his troop, if he's given it his best shot, if he's found the experience wanting, it's probably time to start shopping around and look for another troop. You know, scouts are free to join any troop they want. And don't let anybody tell you any different. I would go visit a few local troops with your son and see how he reacts to them and then ask plenty of questions of the adult leaders and assure yourself that they get it. Now, here are some key indicators that they get it, at least in my mind. Youth leaders would be elected by scouts, not appointed by leaders. The patrol leaders council would meet at least once a month. The youth leaders are running the meeting, really actually running the meeting, not just doing what the scoutmaster tells them to do. The scoutmaster himself has plenty of time to talk to you because they don't really have anything to do during a troop meeting. Camping trips and activities are planned by the patrol leaders council. Scouts are advancing at their own speed. I mean, there's no advancement schedule or merit badges being taught at troop meetings or anything like that. A troop that's operated as outlined is going to have happy, engaged scouts who advance regularly, not because they're compelled to by a plan, but because they're out scouting. Troops like this may look a little chaotic at first, but under the surface, they have a lot of heart. So if you take my advice, you're going to either leave things as they are or you're going to find another troop. Now, at the age of, you know, between 10 and a half and 11 or 12, that's a young guy. And he's in the troop for his first couple of years and the most important things to him are first and foremost his friends. And that's a pretty important part of scouting because if he's in there with his buddies and he's having a decent time, there you go. That, to me, answers most of the question right there. He may be concerned with advancements and he may really like to go camping and, you know, those are both important aspects of the program. And he's also going to be concerned about how he's treated by the adult leaders. But, you know, those are the three main things that are in his mind and that affect how he is experiencing the scout program. You'll know pretty quickly if you're in the right kind of troop or the wrong kind of troop. And, boy, I'm being very, very general in my descriptions. But what it really comes down to is supporting your son. Is his experience meeting his expectations? Is he doing the things that he wants to do? Is he happy? Is he there with his buddies? You might want to just leave things as they are. If not, hey, go troop shopping. Find another troop. So after I sent this advice, I did get a reply back. And she said that, yeah, you know, she admitted that number one really doesn't work. And she's tried that with her older son's troop. And number two is what he wants. And it bothers me, she writes, the most, I guess, because I think it's a pretty simple formula to follow the program and people have to add their ego to it and I think it needs to be changed. Well, yeah, that's the way it is a lot of places. So she has decided that she is going to let things be as they are and let her son experience scouting. And she's going to do her best to work on that along with him. And I hope it all worked out successfully. Thank you.

Well, I'd like to thank you for listening to this edition of the Scoutmaster podcast. You can read the Scoutmaster blog at scoutmaster.typepad.com And you can follow us at Scoutmaster blog on Facebook and ScoutmasterCG on Twitter. ScoutmasterCG. You can subscribe to the Scoutmaster podcast on iTunes and feel free to leave a comment or a review or a rating. Speaking of which, let me take a moment and acknowledge that several of you have been kind enough to leave a review on iTunes. And they were all positive. How about that? But Steve Jarvis, thanks. And Jerry Bob, thanks. And Scouter John, thank you so much. And hey, isn't this kind of like Miss Jane on Romper Room? Are you old enough to remember that? She held up the magic mirror at the end and she said, you're not old enough to remember that. If you are, well. And then there was also this great comment left by NASA Steve. N-A-S-A. Which I'm going to guess is the National Air and Space Administration or Association or... Yeah. So that means that the Scoutmaster podcast has something to do with rocket science, perhaps? Well, yeah. I can always wish, right? And you can email me, Clark Green, with your comments and questions at clarkgreen at gmail dot com that's spelled C-L-A-R-K-E G-R-E-E-N at gmail dot com The Scoutmaster blog and the Scoutmaster podcast are not official publications of the Boy Scouts of America, nor are they endorsed or sponsored by the Boy Scouts of America. Nope. They are just me talking into microphones and trying to have a good time and perhaps lend a hand to scout leaders and have a bit of fun along the way. Thanks very much. And we'll look for... Oh, wait a minute. Wait a minute. We can't go yet. Nope. We need to hear from the founder. Sir Robert, would you please... Good luck to you and good camping. Well, thank you very much, sir. We'll see you all next time. Thank you. Thank you.