Scoutmaster Podcast 25

And now for you, Scoutmaster.

I just spent a few moments looking at a trip report, which is basically like a crew log from our canoe trip in 2004. We had a day of pretty good rain, and we decided that we were going to head out a little bit early because we were pretty wet, and it didn't look like the weather was going to get much better. And so we headed down a huge lake, 8 or 10 miles of paddling down this big lake with the wind at our backs, and it all went pretty well. The waves were a little high, and we were very anxious to have things over with. And we got in sight of the dock there, probably just about 75 yards from the dock, and I was in the stern of our canoe, and one of my assistant Scoutmasters, he was in the front seat of the canoe up in the bow. And we had turned the corner, and we saw the dock, and we're ending this big trip for six or seven days out in the wilderness, and we were really happy to see the Outfitters store there and everything, and we were paddling along quite nicely, and then my partner's canoe paddle broke, like right in the middle. It just broke. It broke in half. He couldn't do anything. And so I paddled us in. Seven days with that paddle. It broke in the last 75 yards, and we didn't have a spare along with us. You know what we've done since? We carried a spare paddle. Hey, that's one useful way that these little patrol logs and trip logs work. So we'll be talking about it a little bit more. This is podcast number 25. This is podcast number 25. Welcome back to the Scoutmasters podcast. This is Clark Green, and this is podcast number 25, a day of celebration. Okay, celebration's over. Let's get down to business. In Scoutmastership, in seven minutes or less, we're going to be talking about patrol logs and their usefulness. And then I have a Scoutmasters minute for Scoutmasters. Not really for Scouts, but for Scoutmasters. And it's not a minute. It's a lot of minutes. But you're used to that, aren't you? And then we'll end up with our third installment in our discussion of building a troop-based high adventure program. All righty, then. I think we should get with it, don't you? Scoutmastership in seven minutes or less. Somewhere along the way recently, I mentioned patrol logs, and I've gotten a couple of questions about the importance of them and how they work and et cetera. So I want to spend a couple of minutes just talking about how a patrol log is a useful tool to a patrol leader and a senior patrol leader. What is a patrol log? Well, basically, it's just a diary of what the patrol does, and it contains some facts about who was participating and what they did and things like that. But most importantly, it should have a place for each member of the patrol to put in their personal reflections on exactly what worked for them and what they enjoyed and perhaps what they didn't enjoy and what didn't work for them. This way, the patrol leader can review it and the senior patrol leader can review it and they can look at improving the way that they present their program. Practically, a patrol log is, you know, one of those little composition books and the patrol leader has that with them whenever his patrol meets and the patrol scribe is the one who is charged with keeping up with the log and making sure that things get written in it. One of the ways that we emphasize the usefulness of the patrol log is anytime we're camping, whether it's a weekend camp out, whether it's a high adventure trip, or whether it's our week at summer camp, the patrol log gets opened every evening just for a few minutes. The patrol sits around and they make a record of what's in their log. And then when we're on a weekend camping trip, it'll be on a Saturday night. We usually arrive on Fridays. And then on a Saturday night, after dinner is cleaned up, the patrol will sit down and make a record in their log. And then they will all get together, the entire troop will get together for what we call Vespers, which is just a little evening observance of a scout's reverence and duty to God. And we use the patrol logs as a way of starting the conversation about what went on today and what worked well and what didn't work. And this lasts for, you know, 15 or 20 minutes, but it gives us a way to sit down and to concentrate on what we're doing and why we're doing it. At summer camp, the patrol leader's council will assemble every evening for a few moments after the patrols have made the entries in their logs. And the patrol leaders will each share what's in the log. And the patrol, the senior patrol leader will work with them to help correct things that are wrong or maybe encourage them to do something that they've missed or congratulate them on a job well done. And it's also a way for me to sit back kind of quietly and listen and get a good idea of exactly what's happening during the day at summer camp. And maybe it will bring some things to mind that we need to deal with and maybe it will give me an opportunity to give the patrols and the patrol leaders a good pat on the back for a job well done. It's a pretty simple system. And it's not something that we require of the scouts. It's not something that we force upon them and we double check and we read all the patrol logs and we make a big deal out of it. But it's more or less a tool that they can use and we encourage them to use it. And we don't get all upset and angry when they don't. But we encourage them to use it and to make a good habit out of it. Does it work all the time? No, absolutely not. It doesn't work all the time. But it does help. Our high adventure logs probably have been the most useful to us over time because they helped us capture a lot of little details that have helped us improve those trips over time. And the scouts really like going back and reading them because we make a tradition out of, you know, what was your favorite thing today or what was the most interesting thing that you saw or what was the most difficult part of your day. And it really helps you remember after the trip is over exactly what happened. And it has gone a long way to helping us improve the program around our high adventure trips. So I encourage you to give it some thought. Get the patrol leaders and the senior patrol leader to buy into the idea and see if a patrol log will help you in building your troop program and building your patrols. That's right. It's time for a Scoutmaster's Minute. If I say these two words to you, what do you think? I've got some Borglund. No, it's not Cub Scout code. No, I'm not cursing at you in a foreign language. Listen again. Got some Borglund. Yeah? Doesn't ring a bell? Well, maybe somewhere back in the deep recesses of your memory that name is stored back there somewhere. Heck of a name, isn't it? Got some? Yeah. G-U-T-Z-O-N. Got some Borglund. Well, you might not remember the name, but you know this guy. You certainly do. Now, Got some probably not a good person to use as an example of a hero in some ways. He had some troublesome politics in his time. He was irascible. He was a perfectionist. He was difficult to get along with. But you know some of his work. You absolutely know some of his work. Who is he? Well, look. This is why he came to mind. The other night, we were at a scout meeting, and we were having our little patrol leader's council afterwards, and I was working away with the guys. I was encouraging them and trying to coach them and work with them a little bit. And it was, you know, it was like emptying a bathtub with a teaspoon. You know exactly what I mean, right? You think, well, are we going to have to talk about this again? Do we have to go over this ground one more time? Well, you do. And that's what Got some did. Yeah. You got to keep chipping away at things. It's one little chip here, one little chip there, and finally you have something in the end that you've chipped away out of the solid rock. And this is what came to mind after, you know, we sat through five or ten minutes of listening, and then I talked to the guys for a little bit and asked them lots of questions about what they were doing and why they were doing it, trying to get to the point of a resolution and moving ahead. And as, you know, as we left, one of my assistant scoutmasters kind of looked at me and he kind of sighed and shook his head and I said, yeah, I know, I know, this is like trying to, this is like trying to build Mount Rushmore. You just keep chipping away. You get the air hammers out every morning and you get on a rope and you put yourself down and you start chipping away. And, you know, maybe every once in a while you can get out the dynamite, but probably not because that'll blow the whole thing to pieces. So it's just constant effort, consistent. Mount Rushmore took about, I think, you know, closing in on 25 years. That's who Gutzum Borglund is, right? He's the sculptor who created Mount Rushmore. But he kept chipping away, didn't he? And that's what we've got today up in the Black Hills that every single person who's hearing me has seen at least a picture of. Our work sometimes in scouting is kind of like building Mount Rushmore. Yeah, just a chip at a time. You get rid of all the stuff that you don't need. You refine the stuff that you do. And the final result is really kind of a work of art and a wonder to behold. I can imagine somewhere, like in the 12th year, Gutzum Borglund getting up in one morning and saying, what in the world have I gotten myself into? But you know, he kept a vision. He knew in his mind what he wanted to create. He knew how to do it. He kept at it. We're creating something as scout leaders. We're creating an environment for boys to grow and to learn some things about the world to develop character and to become decent human beings. And it works. Sometimes it takes longer than we think it ought to. And it's a little bit more difficult and you gotta keep at it all the time. But in the end, when you step back, you'll have something that you'll be happy you spent the time creating. Yeah, just like in Mount Rushmore. So keep at it. Keep chipping away.

This is the third installment in our discussion of how to establish a troop-based high adventure program. And we're going to talk about the skill development and training that is going to be necessary to having a successful and safe troop-based high adventure trip. Now, fortunately, the BSA offers a number of excellent online courses that will prepare you to conduct a safe high adventure trip. Weather hazards training, trek safely, climb on safely, safe swim defense, and safety afloat are all excellent online courses that I recommend highly to you. And I would take all of the ones that are available online because they all have common elements and it will help build a consciousness of safety and of risk management that will assist you in making sure that your scouts come back from their high adventure trip a little worn out and maybe a little tired but ready to go back and challenge things again and that you have a good, safe experience when you're out in the wilderness. High adventure means, to a certain extent, higher risk than we are undertaking when we are in, you know, our general troop campouts. Because we're going to put ourselves in a wilderness situation, there's a likelihood that we're going to be several hours away from any kind of emergency response system. Within the past several years, the BSA has begun requiring that people who go to Philmont and people who go to the other national high adventure bases have someone in the crew who is certified in wilderness first responder. The wilderness first responder training, when I took it a year ago, it was a 16-hour course done over the course of two days. It emphasized how we could assess injuries and illnesses and how we could keep people stable until the professional responders were able to get to us. It is absolutely invaluable and it should be a required component of your training if you're going to conduct a high adventure trip. There are a lot of unfortunate stories out there of people who go into the wilderness woefully unprepared, unfamiliar with their surroundings, unfamiliar with the situation that they're going to encounter and they end up in injury or being lost for several days or some kind of just terrible, awful story that you do not want to repeat as the leader of a group of scouts on a high adventure trip. Now, this shouldn't scare you away from it, but it should give you an appreciation of how important it is to have a good risk management mindset and to have the skills to manage problems when they arise. Now, by the time they're old enough to participate in a high adventure trip, most scouts should have some pretty solid general camping skills. They should be familiar with how to put up their tents and how to cook and things like that, but I would make sure that any preparation for a high adventure trip emphasizes those particular skills that will be needed once they are out there in the wilderness and they're on their high adventure track. By experience, I've learned that you do not want to train people to hang bear bags at night in the woods in the wilderness. You'll want to train them to do that at your troop meeting place without a whole lot of stress and difficulty. So making sure that everybody in the crew has a good grasp of the skills that are going to be particular to the trip, whether it's hanging bear bags or purifying water or cooking is going to be an important aspect of preparation for the trip. So a high adventure program need not be expensive, it need not be elaborate, it need not be difficult, it is something that any troop can participate in. Whether you are headed off to one of the national high adventure bases, whether you're doing a council-based trip or, as we have been discussing, building your own kind of high adventure trip, it is definitely worth the effort. It need not be expensive, it need not be elaborate, but it will be something that your scouts will remember for years to come. Now the three installments that we've had on the podcast about high adventure are really just an outline. There's so much to consider, there's so much to think about, and there's so much to do that I would really appreciate any questions. You can send them to me by email and I would be more than happy to help you get a high adventure based program off the ground for your trip. Well, thanks for listening to this edition of the Scoutmaster podcast. You can read the Scoutmaster blog at scoutmaster.typepad.com You can follow us at Scoutmaster blog on Facebook and Scoutmaster CG on Twitter. Feel free to leave a comment when you subscribe to the Scoutmaster podcast on iTunes. You can leave a review or a rating. You can email me Clark Green with your comments and questions at clarkgreen at gmail.com C-L-A-R-K-E-G-R-E-E-N all one word at gmail.com Well, 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. It's just me here talking into a microphone trying to lend a hand to Scout leaders and perhaps have a bit of fun along the way. Hey, have a good time at the Jamboree. It's coming up soon, isn't it? A week or two? Yeah? I think it'll probably be a fantastic experience for folks. And with that in mind, let's turn to the founder and see if he has any good wishes to offer you today. Sir Robert? Good luck to you and good camping. Why, thank you, Sir Robert. Until next time. ils um dipping along open together

and kissed last winter inеб guitar solo guitar solo