Scoutmaster Podcast 227

I'm Brian Bluen and I am a cup master with PAC 3285 out of Rockford, Michigan. This edition of the Scoutmaster podcast is sponsored by backers like me.

And now for you, Scoutmaster, After all of the preparation and all of the things that you have to do to get yourself to summer camp, there we were. The parents had dropped off the scouts, and here we are and I look around and I see one of my scouts. His six-year-old brother is there carrying a pair of crutches under his arm and he's struggling to carry a big box loaded with bandages and adhesive tape and gauze.

And I look at him and I say: well, what in the world is your little brother doing here? And the scout said: you told me to bring a first aid kid. Kid, Get it, Not kid. Oh my, If you must make a comment on that one. Thank Frank Maynard for that. Thank you, Frank.

Hey, this is podcast number 227.. Hey, Hey, Welcome back to the Scoutmaster podcast. This is Clarke Green. Let's take a look at the mailbag, see who got in touch.

Now, if you've been following things closely, you remember last week I got a message from somebody who their unit number happened to be the same number as the podcast and I thought, wow, well, we'll just dedicate each number to podcasts, to the units that share that number. It'd be easy, right?

Well, Dave Klein got in touch and he said we're Troop 918.. I don't know if we can wait for you to mention us until the 918th podcast. I hope you're still in production for that by then. I wonder how old that will make you. Too old, Dave, way too old. Thanks for being in touch, though.

Heard from Lindsay O'Rourke with PAC 316 in Santa Ana, California. She said: I found your site at the beginning of our scouting year in fall of 2013 on Pinterest.

I believe it was your how to sleep warm while camping infographic. Thank you for all the time you put into scouting and share with us. It's invaluable. Love the podcast too. We just finished our first year in Cub Scouting. What a blast it was.

Well, thanks so much for getting in touch, Lindsay. I'm glad that you're finding what we're doing useful. I did get a chance to chat with a few people this past week online. If you go to scoutmastercgcom, keep an eye at the top of the page, because if I'm working on things and I can manage it, I will turn on the chat feature and that way, if you're there and I'm there.

At the same time we can chat. Well, I did get a chance to chat with some people this week, Somehow or another. I just didn't save any of the information.

So, thank you, folks, Those of you who know that you were there and we had a chat- I really appreciate you spending the time with me. If the chat feature isn't on, you can leave a message, like Rob Kerrigan did from Maine. Hello, Rob, Thanks for checking in On the blog this past week. One of the posts was about a book that I've always had a copy of. It's called Mountaineering and the Freedom of the Hills and it's published by a group out west called the Mountaineers. It's kind of the definitive textbook on Mountaineering, which is admittedly not going to be applicable for a lot of us in scouting because it's mostly about technical climbing, camping and things above the tree line at elevation.

But there's also a lot of good general information in it too. As I said in the review, I think the books are worthy read for scouts because it gives you this philosophy of traveling and being in the outdoors. If you have even the slightest interest in the technical aspects of climbing and everything, it's the, like I said, the definitive textbook And if you familiarize yourself with some of that, it may help you judge that.

Hey, you know what guys? We're going to stay off that cliff. We're not going to climb there. You need better equipment than that.

We had our weekly video picks and there was a skit and skills and a song to share with you there, So make sure to check that out. And then our infographic this week was about what causes wilderness emergencies, And if you haven't seen that yet, I'll give you the short answer: It's people that cause wilderness emergencies a lot more often than a sudden change in conditions, So make sure to check that out.

And then on Green Bar Life, Enoch Highsy did a great post about how youth leaders can handle mistakes, not just in scouting, but just in general. Good thinking from Enoch, So make sure to check out that post. Oh, and just before we get going here, a couple of thousand of you have the Scoutmaster CG app And it's a great way to keep the resources we create at your fingertips on a mobile device.

So you can get your app at iTunes or at Google Play, depending on which tribe you're in, right, If you're in the Apple tribe or the Android tribe, we're equal opportunity. You can get the app for any mobile device. I'm going to also remind you about the backer program. If you're finding the podcast and the other resources that we create are useful for you, you can return the favor by becoming a backer.

The funds that we get from backers go towards the expenses of producing and publishing all of the different resources we create And we want to keep freely available for Scouters all over the world. Let me take this opportunity to thank Tripp Wycoff, Robert Causer and Danny van Pelt for becoming backers this past week. It means a great deal And we really do appreciate the support.

This week in Scoutmaster Ship in seven minutes or less, we're going to talk a little bit about outdoor leadership And then we have some email questions to answer and that's going to take up the remainder of the podcast.

So let's get started, shall we Scoutmaster Ship in seven minutes or less? So let me ask you this: Is there a really a difference between outdoor leadership and leadership in other situations? To my mind, everything we do in scouting kind of hinges on how you answer that question.

I think I shared this a while back, but during a Webelos visit several months ago, I had one question that kind of threw me for a loop and that was: you know, my boy doesn't really like to go camping or the outdoors very much. Is there anything else in scouting you know that he can do?

Do you have a program for that? And I was a little taken aback and I had to explain that no, not really, because it's scouting.

You know, It's kind of like if you showed up at a football meeting to join a baseball team or something. This is what we do, We're outside, We go outside, We go camping, We do the things that scouts do. And it gets me to thinking about this question.

So our scouts go and they exercise leadership in the out of doors And what's. Is there any major difference between that and that kind of business management style leadership that we're probably more familiar with in our professional and business lives?

I think there's a big difference. Outdoor or scouting leadership is different, and understanding this difference is one key to being a very effective scouter.

Now why do you think corporations invest time and resources in things like ropes courses and leadership retreats? Because the immediacy required by outdoor leadership is an excellent way to study and learn leadership skills. Outdoor leadership affords direct, immediate feedback, Results of the decisions you make and the actions you take are almost instantly apparent. On a ropes course or on a camping trip, Results of actions and decisions in the workplace.

Well, we all know they may take days or weeks or months or even years to resolve themselves, But you know when you're actually taking action and you're outdoors on a camping trip or a hike or on a ropes course or any one of those types of activities. The feedback's pretty instant, isn't it? The other comparison I would make is the immediacy of the goals that are involved In most of the situations in our professional lives, in business or management, the goals are going to be relatively long-term and they're going to require long analysis and implementation. In outdoor leadership situations, the goals are short-term and they're very pressing and they need to be addressed right away. When it's time to set up camp or prepare a meal or take measures against an impending storm, there's not a whole lot of time for careful analysis of the situation. Immediate action is required.

I think also, when we're outdoors and when we're doing the things that scouts do, there are fewer distractions and outside influences. Outdoor leadership situations are a lot less prone to getting distracted by, you know, the other parts of life And outside influence.

Because of their immediacy, outdoor leadership situations are a lot less prone to being getting distracted or being influenced by issues outside of what's happening right then and there. So outdoor leadership has to be immediate and definitive to respond to changing conditions. Changes in our professional lives or the business world can be a lot slower and in the outdoors there are going to be fewer options and we're going to have less time to study or implement them.

So there's obviously a lot of value in taking management people into a situation that eliminates outside influences, requires fast analysis and goal setting- kind of telescopes. The amount of time it takes to get results- Belaying a fellow employee on a ropes course- is a direct allegory of the actual day-to-day leadership that happens in a business environment.

But it's much more immediate Now because we're so familiar with the way that it works. In our professional lives, in business, in industry, we take that management science and we impose it on scouting sometimes And I think when we do that we miss unique opportunities that outdoor leadership offers our scouts.

You know, in any context met with unfamiliar situations we're going to apply what we know. But scouting outdoors differs significantly from running a business. The challenge is studying that difference and instead of adopting business management kind of skills to scouting, devote the time to learning and developing the skills of outdoor leadership. And the distinction between the two is nothing new. Baden Powell talked about this. It's been talked about broadly in scouting for the last century.

That kind of business-ified scouting is all too common Business, like agendas and minutes and parliamentary procedure and schedules and written plans. They can be useful. But let's remember there are means to an end rather than an end in themselves. If we're not careful, business-ifying scouting can kind of sap the energy and immediacy out of things. Advancement loses a connection to the outdoors if we kind of business-ify its simple aims and camping can become kind of a drudgery if we stray too far from the moment at hand. Immediate results and immediate goals, fewer distractions, fewer outside influences and immediate responsiveness to really ever-changing situations make outdoor leadership exciting and active and fun.

Scouts who learn leadership in the outdoors really develop lifelong skills that they can apply in any context. Business management and outdoor leadership share parallels and common skills, but the differences are more important than similarities And it's something to think about, isn't it?

So if you find yourself kind of business-ifying scouting, think about what the differences are and get back to where we're really aimed, And that's getting outdoors, And the leadership that happens outdoors is what really benefits our scouts.

E-mail, that is folks, And here's an answer to one of your e-mails.