Scoutmaster Podcast 253

I'm Ed Gratrix and I'm Assistant Scoutmaster with Troop 63 in Monroe, Connecticut. This addition to the Scoutmaster podcast is sponsored by backers like me. Thanks everything you do, man.

And now for you: Scoutmaster. This memo I've received from the Scoutmaster CG Central Office today and it is addressed to all Scouters everywhere. And it says: the subject is the Camp Latrine terminology, notably the deprecation and adoption of terms. It's a real memo.

The term John is now in common usage for the Camp Latrine. I think we're all familiar with that, right. It says here: please note that, as of this writing, John will no longer be an officially approved term for Latrine.

Scouters are now instructed to use the name Jim Jim. And it goes on to say that with this change, Scouters will now be able to honestly and trustworthy say that the first thing they do every morning in camp is go to the gym.

Hmm, Well, I can see how that will work. I want to thank Tony LaClava, who is an Assistant Scoutmaster with Troop 581 in Bristow, Virginia, for bringing this to our attention. Thank you, Tony.

Oh, my, yes, Here we go again. It's podcast

Number two, 53.. Hey, Hey, welcome back to the Scoutmaster podcast. This is Clarke Green, Let's take a look in the mailbag. Oh, let's see. We heard from a couple of people this week. Jill Myle Blance was reading the story of our new Scoutmaster, which became the book.

So far, so good books available. I know I probably mentioned it once or twice, but you can go to scoutmastercgcom and figure out how to get a copy of the book. It's also on Amazon. But Jill said: I really am enjoying the story, Clark, I feel like I could be writing it, except that we're in the midst of our transition.

So I'm anxious to keep reading and see what happens. Thanks for all you do for scouting Well. Thanks, Jill. I'm glad you're enjoying the story. We published the first few chapters of the story back in November and it basically became the book that we published early on this year.

So once again, it's so far, so good. A new Scoutmaster story. Go to scoutmastercgcom and you'll find out how to get one. From last week's podcast, podcast 252,, I heard from Steven Saruti and he had this to say: as I listened to this podcast I was thinking I could have written that parent's letter two years ago. And if you'll remember, if you listened to last week's podcast, one of the email questions was about a Scout who was experiencing some anxiety and the way he was expressing that was noting that he disapproved of some of the language that his fellow Scouts were using, and Steve had this to say in response. He said my son also complained about the language being used in his troop.

It was more a symptom of a broader problem. He was looking for a way to express his discomfort and this was his first attempt. As things went on, the complaints changed.

The Scouts were too rough, They teased him about his hair, you know things like that. It was really a struggle through this whole experience. Because he loved scouting activities, He just became very anxious about attending scouting events. Changing troops seemed to help for a while but the problems returned. Although he continued to enjoy scouting activities, he continued to be very negative about attending events. Eventually I relented and he withdrew from Scouts because his anxiety was affecting other areas of his life.

The parent in question in podcast 252 is already seeking some professional help. We didn't do that until later. Where I defy myself in that situation as a Scouter, I would ask the parents, request that a counselor prepare a plan to help the leaders respond constructively to the Scouts' anxiety.

And I may not have been as direct as I needed to be in my answer last week about that, but you know sometimes these things demand some outside help. You need a little assistance every once in a while as a parent, and a counselor is a very, very good idea.

As a parent, we were willing to allow a break from scouting, to offer our scout time to get back on his feet and let them feel and control in their life again after we consulted with a counselor. So, Stephen, I really appreciate you sharing that story.

You know, when your child is in distress and you can't figure out what's going on and it goes from being something that you know you first think is minor and then it starts to build a little bit and you're wondering what to do, that's a very difficult position to be in as a parent And I really appreciate Steve sharing his perspective of a very similar thing. But you know, getting a little outside assistance can be a great help and you'll really be able to help your child out.

We as parents, we do what we can, but when your child's in distress, you know it's terrifically upsetting and it's very difficult to get any kind of perspective on the situation sometimes. So getting a little assistance is something that I recommend highly to you And Stephen.

Once again, thank you so very much for sharing that story, because it points out that none of us are alone in the scout thing that we're doing and in the parenting thing that we're doing. Sometimes you get into a situation and you feel like you're the only person who's ever experienced this, and it can be very, very challenging.

Well, that's almost, that's almost, never true. So reach out, get a little help. Over on the blog this week we had a post about 10 ways to develop youth leadership and Robert Owen commented. He said I love point number nine: guard the field. And if you haven't read the post, go check it out at scoutmastercgcom: 10 ways to develop youth leadership. And that point number nine was about guarding the scouts playing field.

You know when they're doing the stuff that scouts do from adults trying to be overly influential in that, let them, let them get out there, let them play the game. I'm glad you like that one, Robert. Let's see. We also had a post on positions of responsibility.

Now, this was kind of an infographic to show you how positions of responsibility are filled. You know which positions are to be elected, which are appointed and who appoints them. And one of the things that I found really interesting: I had this comment from Ed Bedford, who's the scoutmaster of Troop 820 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He said: this is a great article, but junior assistant scoutmasters are not supposed to be appointed by the senior patrol leader. As you have on your infographic, The rules and regulations of the Boy Scouts of America provide that a junior assistant scoutmaster is appointed by the scoutmaster. Ed went to the resources and he shared the reference that he referred to with me and he's absolutely right that it is outlined that way in a document called the rules and regulations of the Boy Scouts of America.

But I went back and I double and triple checked the scoutmaster's handbook that was published in 2010.. I think that's the latest date. Disagrees because it says that the senior patrol leader appoints them.

So there's a disagreement between two of these official sources and I haven't figured out which is which yet. I think you know, in the grand scheme of things, it's rather a minor disagreement because the scoutmaster is going to be consulting with the senior patrol leader anyway and I wouldn't say that this is like a huge point of contention. But, Ed, I really appreciate you bringing that to my attention. There was also some background discussion about the new scout leader handbooks that the BSA has promised they're publishing this spring and perhaps it'll be resolved in those.

Who knows? We'll see, But in the meantime it's kind of an open question until we have some kind of official resolution to it.

Hey, a couple of times a week I tried to have a live chat over at ScoutmasterCGcom and we did this past week and we talked with Kurt and John and Dennis and Mike and Dale, and then we talked with the other Dennis, Dennis Unger, or maybe the first Dennis who's a scoutmaster from Westchester. Maybe he's the other Dennis, I don't know. Have to get the Dennises together and fight it out. And Danny and Randy Farmer checked in And keep an eye on the Facebook feed and the Twitter feed and I'll announce when we'll be doing a live chat, usually on a weekday morning up until right around lunchtime.

So check in, like I said, on the Facebook and Twitter feeds and you'll see those announcements. Now, if you're a regular reader and a listener and what you get from ScoutmasterCGcom has helped you, you can return the favor by becoming a backer. Funds that we get from backers go to the expenses of producing and publishing the blog posts, the podcasts and all the other stuff that we do.

Go to ScoutmasterCGcom, click the support link at the top of the page and you can choose any level of support, And some of them would entitle you to get autographed copies of my books, So you want to check that out. I want to take a moment to personally thank- wow, this is a big list- Gerald DeBouie, Edward Graytricks, Alexandria Kenan Dale, Austin Chuck Maris and Wallace Bell, who all signed up to become backers since our last podcast. I can't tell you how much it means to me that you're willing to help us out and support the creation of these resources. Really, really do appreciate it. Go to ScoutmasterCGcom this week yourself and become a backer, and I'll be sure to thank you during our next podcast. Let me talk about High Adventure for a moment, because it's February right now.

It is February and it's time to talk about High Adventure. That's right. Summer's coming.

Many of you already have High Adventure plans, and here's my question: How are your plans for your next High Adventure trip coming along? Do you have one planned for this summer? If you don't, I know that you sense that a High Adventure experience is going to do more for your Scouts than you can imagine, and you're right. But we really have to face some facts. Most of us don't even get started thinking about this because High Adventure we think is too expensive, will doubt, will have the time to make it work, or we feel that we lack the skills and confidence to get the ball rolling. But the open secret of High Adventure is that many troops and crews make their own plans and offer High Adventure experiences to their Scouts on a regular basis.

If you're a longtime listener, you know that we've been doing this in our troop and crew for the past 10 years or so. We have trips that take us up to Algonquin Provincial Park in Ontario, Canada, for a week of canoeing and every third year we make a trip over to Kontersteg International Scout Center in Switzerland.

But I want to take a moment to encourage you to start looking into High Adventure for your Scouts that you can make happen, And it's only February if you don't have something planned for them this summer. Now's the time to start Now. Most of you, if you're in the BSA, you're aware of Fillmont, you're aware of the sea base, you're aware of the canoe base, you're aware of the summit- all of these very highly touted national High Adventure experiences And perhaps you've looked into them. You've been put off by the cost.

Well, you can do something right in your backyard that your Scouts can afford. That doesn't take a tremendous amount of time and planning that fits your schedule. Maybe it's a four day hike in a state park or national park nearby, Maybe it's a canoe trip on a river nearby. Those are very legitimate and wonderful High Adventure experiences And I've talked and talked and talked about it.

I've written about it a lot and I'm actually going to be down at the Area 6 Spring Workshop on Saturday, March 21st, talking about this Going to be at Cecil College in northeast Maryland and we'll have more details about that as we go. But the Area 6 Workshop is for District and Council Scouters And if you're interested in promoting troop crew- you know unit-based High Adventure in your District and Council- see if you can make it to that workshop. Now. Last summer our crew went to Condorsteg in Switzerland.

We did a little investigation to see if we could launch a kind of Scoutmaster CG trip to Condorsteg in 2015.. Had a lot of interest, but the general feeling was we didn't have enough lead time to make that happen.

So now we're looking at the summer of 2016, taking Scouts to Condorsteg International Scout Center in Switzerland. I've had some interest on this already and we've had a couple of serious discussions about it.

So if you want to get on the bandwagon, if this interests you, get in touch with me at clark at scoutmastercgcom and I'll share the particulars with you. I also have a link to a page that contains information about this on the post that contains this podcast. But, once again, if you're interested in Condorsteg 2016 for your troop or crew or just for yourself individually, you'd like to get over there and take a look at it. Let's start putting it together.

Come on, we need to go. It's a wonderful place to go, It's a great experience for Scouts and Scouters alike and I would love to take you there.

So get in touch with me once again, Clark at scoutmastercgcom, and we'll see if we can make it a reality for 2016.. Well, in the remainder of this podcast, I have a couple of email questions to answer, and that's going to do it, So let's get started. Shall we

Send it by name Email? That is, folks.

And here's an answer to one of your emails. Dave from Temecula, California, got in touch. He said: I have a pretty straightforward question. When a new boy decides to join Scouts, he'll be meeting the joining requirements And one of those requirements is having a Scoutmasters conference. However, a Scout who's been in Webelos prior to joining Scouts and just completed his Arrow of Light was required to have a conference with the Scoutmaster.

So my question is: if a Scout earns a Arrow of Light and has already had the Scoutmaster Conference for the Arrow of Light, is it required for him to have another Scoutmaster Conference for the joining requirements of Scout, or is it solely at the Scoutmasters discretion? Well, I see the Arrow of Light requires a conference with the Scoutmaster.

One of the troops that you visit and the joining requirements specify participate in a Scoutmaster Conference, And we know that every rank requires a Scoutmaster Conference, and all these are separate occurrences, So I tend to regard those required for Arrow of Light and joining to be separate too. Now let's say Webelos was visiting your troop and was definitely going to join your troop and he was completing his Arrow of Light and you had a conference with him and he was going to join the troop that night and you wanted to go through the Scout requirements and you wanted to count that conference at the same time.

I don't know that anybody would argue with you about that, But I would note that there are two separate occurrences, one for the Arrow of Light, one for the joining requirements, just like there are separate occurrences for, you know, Tenderfoot, Second Class, First Class, Star Life and Eagle- all separate occurrences of Scoutmaster Conferences. But the bigger question really is: why would any Scoutmaster not want to have as many conferences with Scouts as possible? Right, Conferences can be two minutes, they can be 20 minutes depending on the situation, but if they're conducted properly they're a golden opportunity for us to advance the aims of Scouting individually with a Scout And Dave, I really appreciate that email question. What it spurred me to do is to go back and look at the resources and watch for a post about Scoutmaster Conferences coming up this week at scoutmastercgcom.

So that was a pretty easy answer. Let's take a look. Here's another email and I'm going to keep this one anonymous.

It says this: here's the situation: I took over a Scoutmaster four months ago. One of my Scouts was appointed to a position of responsibility several months prior to my becoming a Scoutmaster and he has not performed very well. In other words, he's done next to nothing. But I recently sat him down and talked about this and since then I really haven't seen any improvement. At this point, I don't feel like I should sign off his leadership requirement if the situation continues as it is.

Well, let's take a look at this right. Let's zoom out for a moment and discuss positions of responsibility in general.

Okay, In the Guide to Advancement 2013,, the whole issue is laid out pretty clearly And you'll want to read section four on positions of responsibility. The whole issue turns on what the Guide defines as unit expectations, And precisely defining those expectations are an important part of the discussion that you'll have with any Scout taking on a position of responsibility.

Remember, you know it's all positions of responsibility. You refer to a leadership position and I'm being a little pedantic, but let me correct you: it's positions of responsibility. My advice is not to have a single standard covering all positions, but to work with Scouts individually to arrive at expectations that will work for them.

Each Scout has differing levels of ability, differing time that he can commit, so you'll find it's much better to individually define expectations and then to review those expectations on a ongoing basis. In the situation that you describe.

The first question I'd answer for myself is if the Scout had a clear understanding of the expectations when he took on the position. You weren't the Scoutmaster at the time and you didn't have this discussion with him. You really don't have any way of knowing that.

After you took on the Scoutmaster role and you've discussed this with him and you note that it was a short time ago now, he ought to have a clear set of expectations And hopefully that was the nature of the conversation you had with him. You sat him down and said: look, let's make sure, being the new Scoutmaster, that we have a shared understanding of what's expected of you to fulfill your tenure for this position of responsibility.

So what you're concerned about right now is his past performance, and much of that happened before he became Scoutmaster. So I'd suggest that, absent a clear set of shared expectations that you've discussed, it would be unfair not to approve his tenure Now.

You'll find this in the Guide to Advancement 2, quote: it's unfair and inappropriate, after six months, for example, to surprise a boy who thinks he's been doing fine with the news that his performance is now considered unsatisfactory. In this case, he must be giving credit for the time unquote.

So I think you're finding yourself in a water under the bridge situation. You can't go back and fix what happened before you became the Scoutmaster, and it's unfair and inappropriate to hold a Scout responsible for the failing of adults that he was working with at the time.

And that's pretty much, you know, a very good rule of thumb. It's never appropriate to hold a Scout responsible for the failure of the adults that he was working with.

So if I was in a situation like this, I think I would be a little upset and angry. And if you're upset and angry or disappointed in the Scout, I'd like to encourage you to step back and look at the situation to gain a little perspective.

What we think are clear, reasonable, unspoken expectations are not so clear or reasonable to a Scout. It just doesn't work that way. We're making grand assumptions sometimes, when a boy takes on a position of responsibility, that he has a basic understanding of what your expectations are. That is not true.

You have to sit with them and develop a set of shared expectations and make sure that he understands them, And this is why we have to have an open dialogue with Scouts in positions of responsibility. Any concerns we need to address immediately And we have to work with our Scouts to guide them towards success. We may have to reset the expectations from time to time.

We may have to look at them and say, well, you know, something changed and we need to take a look at this and agree on a good way forward. There's going to be any number of challenges with a given Scout or with Scouts in general, And our goal is always to serve their individual interest. Our overall aim is to give them a positive experience, And that takes a lot of work.

When it comes to positions of responsibility, This part of being a Scoutmaster is really, I think, pretty much never like people think it will be when they take on the role. I think it's very natural to enter into the role of Scoutmaster thinking of yourself as the CEO of a corporation or, you know, the boss of a crew or the sergeant in charge of a platoon or something like that, And that you're going to give directives and orders and that everybody's going to faithfully follow them.

Well, you're not the boss, You're not the sergeant. You know you're not the CEO. You're a coach in this game of scouting And you need to have a shared expectation with Scouts in positions of responsibility about exactly what's expected of them and what, what you're looking for them to do, And you need to have an open dialogue about that.

So, with the Scout that you've told me about, I'd be sitting down with him every week and asking him what he's done to meet the expectations that we agreed upon and what he'll be doing within the next week. I would do my best to encourage and support and coach him towards success, And success is a very individualized thing in this. Perhaps success for him is doing one rather insignificant thing next week.

Now he may not be much in comparison with his with the other Scouts, but that's not what's really important, because the aim of our work is to help coach him to success, Even if it may be in something very small. We are looking for progress and building on it. I've worked with dozens of cross-grained, indifferent, surly teenage boys who take on positions of responsibility. I've tried being the hard-nosed taskmaster, but it really got me nowhere. What I've discovered is that each of them needs a very individualized approach that builds on even the slightest evidence of initiative And, seriously, you need to get a magnifying glass sometimes because that evidence can be really, really small, But you can find something good if you look hard enough.

It's often a challenge but you'll find something good and you'll begin building on that very small thing And pretty soon, if you're doing your work well, you're going to see his confidence and his skill level in his position of responsibility start to increase. And in any case, in the case that you're giving me and in any case, when it comes time to sign the requirement, don't rely on your own judgment exclusively.

My general habit when I'm signing the requirement for a position of responsibility is to have a discussion with the scout and ask him if, on his honor, he considered that he fulfilled the requirement, And then I asked him to tell me why, or why not, he fulfilled that requirement. And you know this is usually a pretty brief conversation because, as I say, we have an open dialogue going on and we do our best to understand each other. We'll discuss his tenure and what we've and the different meetings that we've had along the way. We'll discuss the good and the bad and we'll arrive at an agreement to as to his fulfillment of his requirement in a position of responsibility.

So the most important things to get out of this, I think, are the expectations for any position of responsibility. They need to be individualized for the scout. You have to have a shared understanding with the scout that you discuss regularly and any concerns that arise about his performance need to be addressed right away. And your job as a Scoutmaster is making every road to success clear and closing off all the roads to failure.

Also, we differentiate between two things: There's a job description- In other words, this is how this position of responsibility functions- And there's expectations. There are two different things.

So I'm not talking about sitting down and trying to define a job description, which is part of what you're going to do. You know you're going to talk about what the function of the position of responsibility is, but make sure that you understand that the expectations are different from the job description And depending on the skill and the ability of the scout that you're dealing with. Sometimes the expectation is to meet the very basic, simple elements of the functions. Right, And, like I said before, sometimes you maybe get one thing in a week, but you build on whatever progress you can find and you'll find out that scouts respond to that and they begin understanding how to build on that progress themselves.

So I hope that helps Listen. If you have a question for me and you'd like to get in touch, I'm happy to try to help you out. Pretty easy to get in touch. You're going to find out how to do that in just a moment.