Scoutmaster Podcast 274

Hi, this is Rob Blasian. I'm the Scouts Master for Troop 18 in Muskego, Wisconsin. This edition of the Scouts Master podcast is sponsored by backers just like me.

And now to you, Scouts Master. So I had the chance to visit our camp this past weekend. Summer camp is in full swing. They're about two weeks in. I stopped in through one of the campsites. I was talking to one of my fellow Scouts And one of his Scouts came barreling down the trail all out of breath, ran over to his tent and told his tent maids that I just saw a six-foot snake in the woods.

And his tent maid looked at him and said: yeah, sure you did. Sure, Yeah, Everybody knows snakes

Don't have feet. Hey, this is podcast number 270 rule.

Hey Well, welcome back to the Scouts Master podcast. This is Clarke Green. Let's take a look at the mailbag here. Let's see.

Rich Cubiak was kind enough to leave this review of my book- So Far, So Good, which is the story of a new Scouts Master, if you haven't heard about it. And Rich left this review over on Amazon. He said I came across Clarke Green's website and skimmed over it. I was able to join in a chat session he was running And multiple people mentioned this book.

With me being a new Scouts Master and with a brand new troop, I said, hey, why not? And so once I got the book, I couldn't put it down. I read it in one sitting. I then passed the book on to my assistant Scouts Master. He read it.

Now we're on the same page And I highly recommend the book. Well, thanks so much, Rich. I'm glad the book is helping you out And I really do appreciate you leaving that review on Amazon. Let's see. Also heard from Mark Levesque, who is the Scouts Master, troop 149 in Windsor, Connecticut, And Mark touch base to say this: I am long overdue to become a backer. I've enjoyed your podcast and your literature, have shared much of it with my troop And I really do enjoy the podcast and the content you share.

I hope you know that your work is cherished by me and I am sure by countless others as well. Thank you so much for that, Mark. I really do appreciate it and thank you for becoming a backer.

Now, a moment ago, Rich mentioned that he was part of one of our live chats. These happen on weekday mornings most of the time, And if you want to join in, keep an eye on our Facebook feed and our Twitter feed, because I'll announce when I'm going to be on live. And over this past week, in addition to the many folks who have become what we call frequent flyers and who visit the live chat, we also were joined by Scouter Justin from Australia. He's in Victoria, Australia, where he's a cub leader, And it was nice to have Justin join in the chat this week.

So thank you, Justin. And before we go any further, Mark mentioned that he became a backer, So I need to ask you to do something for me.

If you're a regular reader and listener and if the resources that we have created have helped you, I'm asking you to return the favor by becoming a scoutmastercgcom backer. The funds we get from backers cover the expenses of producing and publishing everything at scoutmastercgcom, including this very podcast you're listening to right now.

So go to scoutmastercgcom, click the support link in the menu at the top of the page And there you can choose a number of different options and help support this work. So I want to take a moment and personally thank Michael Jackman, Henry Modelian and Mark Levesque, who became backers since our last podcast. Go to scoutmastercgcom, become a backer this week, And I'll be sure to thank you right here on the podcast. Hey, it's summertime And that means a lot of things. That means summer camp, high adventure trips, And that means the podcast, too, is going on a vacation.

So for the next few weeks I'll be playing features from our favorite past episodes while I'm off to summer camp and then off to our annual canoe trip, And this is going to allow me some time to collect new material for future podcasts when we return to all new podcasts in late August. But, as always, I'll be answering your email questions, posting to the blog, try and get a live chat session in now and again, So make sure to check in at scoutmastercgcom and to stay in touch Now.

This past week I was able to sit down with two Irish scouts or visiting our local scout camp, And I had a great discussion with them and they were gracious enough to let me record it so that you can listen in. Before I play the interview for you, I should mention one of the things we discussed was Scouts, Ireland's recently new approach to advancement, called one program, And I'll have some links in the post that contains this podcast so you can check into it yourself, And that's going to take up the remainder of this podcast.

So let's get started, shall we? Scout movement is forming a personal tie between the different foreign countries in living force, a great brotherhood of service, a joyous work.

So I'm here with Joe Briggs, group leader, And Alan McConnell, Joe Briggs and Alan McConnell, And where are you from? We're from Dublin, Ireland, 91st Dublin, 91st Dublin, a scout group in Dublin, Scouting Ireland.

Yeah, And what's your position in that group? I'm the group leader And I'm the venture section leader, The venture section leader, And you're here at camp.

Where and how many scouts did you bring with? We've 60 youth members or scouts, Wow, Yeah, And we have a staff of a leadership team of 25, is it So?

You've got a regular army going? Yeah, You haven't keep count. It won't matter until you get on the plane to go home. That's right, You're allowed to lose a few.

Yeah, You've been here now almost a week, Almost a week, Yeah, Almost a week. Do you find anything very different here?

Or is scouting pretty much scouting? Anywhere you go? Basically it is, It's scouting and scouting. The patrol system is the patrol system. Various countries do it differently, slightly differently, but the aim and the goal is basically the same. Yeah, It's about young people working in small groups, looking after themselves and cooking for themselves, building their own campsites and surviving on camp, Yeah, And learning by doing following the code of scouting, promise and law.

The cooking here is meals provided- isn't something we're used to Normally. We have heat control, cooking around food. That's a little bit different to what we normally do And the campfires are a little bit different as well.

How so? Well, you've had a lot more skits or sketches.

You know we had seven or eight different sketches we saw which are really good and really funny, whereas at home we might only have one or two sketches and the rest will be campfire songs for the night. Is this the first time you've traveled to the States with scouts? Yes, Yes, Yeah, for the both of you, Yeah, Yeah. And in Dublin, tell me a little bit about, are you in the city or, Yeah, we're in the city. Yeah, We're in Dublin city.

Yeah, So you're in a bit of a more rural situation than you used to. No, Well, our national campsite is just outside of Dublin city. Yeah, It's called Large Hill And we would use that all the time, Just like local troops here. Our local scout troops here would use campfire during the program And it's basically the same as this: the trees and fields and grass and camping sites We'd use a bit once a week and it's about a half hour away.

We can just throw them on the bus and go up and whether it's a weekend or we're having a base hike which is where we light a fire and we send them off to do activities for the day: Our practice campfires, our pioneer and whatever you want to do. Yeah, in Dublin, then we're in a scout group, our scout county called Dublinian, with other groups as well.

So in that then we'd kind of we'd have competitions. County Shields- Yeah, we have perpetual shields, which runs we have to give back every year, but then we just win it again.

Yeah, Are you the guy? You're the bullies, you're the bully boys of Dublin scouting Nine years in a row, eight years in a row?

Okay, All right. So now I know who I'm talking to.

I've been following Scouts Ireland recently with the ONE program, Yeah, So tell me about that. What do you think of it?

Well, yeah, it was a big change to us, but we're you know, I feel as scouts you should be willing to give change a chance. Yeah, And the beautiful thing about it is we can always review it. It's been in operation.

Now it's five years- five years. So it's time now for a review.

And what will happen is they will call a national conference of all scouts at all levels- beavers, scouts, Scoutmasters and venture leaders like Alan- And then we get us all together and we will discuss the problems we're having in the administration of the program. Or maybe we're not having problems, But our program has never been cast in stone.

You're a little tweaked here and there If you feel you're going to improve it at a local level by tweaking page three or, you know, page 16.. It's not cast in stone, you know. Yeah, I admire the a lot about the ONE program.

Is it the adventure skills? Is that what it is? Yes, It goes from beavers to ventures, Right, And you follow the same plan all the way through.

The problem is, is that to run to run a? You know we would have did badge work on it on a week night in the hall, And it's very difficult to do that now with the adventure skills because you might have one guy who's joined and he's only two. Another guy is level seven, who his next thing is he needs to fly a plane to get to level eight.

So, you know, it's a little. It's very hard to implement, you know, on a Tuesday night, Yeah, I think.

For the scouts, though, I think it's brilliant. Yeah, I think you get to focus on something that you really would like to do and then you keep moving ahead.

How long have you been involved with scouts? 50 years, 50 years. Yeah, That's why we're here. Strip of the lab like you, Strip of the lab like me- 50 years serve as man and boy. We're here this. We're celebrating our 50th year of the 91st album scout group and that's why we've come to America.

Now, did you start there in that group? I did, Yeah, And I've stayed in it.

So you will remember the name of somebody who is a powerful influence on you when you were a boy. Sure, I remember my very first Scoutmaster, as we call them now.

Now we call them scout leaders. You still use the title Scoutmaster, club master- Yeah, We changed that many years ago to club leader. Scout leader, venture leader- Yeah, Lots of guys all the way along, and I still- I still have friends and I would still meet up with guys that I met 50 years ago.

Yeah, That, to me, is why I think scouting is worthwhile, because you will build friendships there and that will be with you forever. You know what I mean. Yeah, You build friendships when you're in a scout patrol that will be there for you forever, for as long as you want.

And how long have you been involved? 15 years, 15 years.

So eight years as a scout and then seven years as a leader. And when I started, the man beside me, Joe, was my scout leader and group leader And you hung around despite it.

I hung around despite that problem, So he'd be my biggest influence then. So when I'm doing badge work or when I'm giving them a spiel or something about forest aid or cooking or whatever it is, and I'm giving them, you know, telling them what's what I kind of have to say. These are the exact words that I was listening to.

You know, holy God, I've turned into this man, like you know. And then I normally backtrack and try something else. There is an age where we all remember, we all figure out that we're turning into our fathers. That's right. Yeah, Yeah, Yeah. And it just keeps getting faster after that.

That's right. Well, my son got married there recently and we all had to get dressed up in these three piece suits, you know, and when I looked at myself in the mirror before I left the house, I saw my father looking back at me and I thought: how could this have happened?

So enjoy it while you can. Yeah, absolutely Yeah. And Scouts Ireland is coed as well. It's coed, That's very interesting. We never went coed. It's a choice for the group.

So what we decided to do was we felt we really needed to provide a scouting for girls in our area. So what we decided to do, rather than mix our scout patrols and have boys and girls- because I believe that, I still believe- that single sex patrols you can get more out of, the young people themselves can gain more in that, I find that emotionally, boys and girls together in the womb patrol- basically what you've got emotionally is too separate, too smaller units within one, Whereas what we tried, that we said in our group: well, what we will do is we will run a scout group for girls- Exact program, exact challenge. We don't have to dump it down. We will give them the same opportunity, same equipment, same conditions that we run for the boys, And we reckon we might get maybe 16 girls to take up the challenge. That would be two patrols.

We have four patrols and they take into it like ducks to water. They can challenge and compete. In fact, at the county shields that we mentioned earlier, which was held in May of this year, the girls beat the boys in the county shield And that was the first time that they had been beaten in eight years. Same group, though We still hold on to that one Fellows. It's not that bad, It's the same group, We'll be fine.

So we're the first group in Ireland, I think, to do that, And other groups are starting to look now, saying hold on a second. This is working for us and it can work for anyone you know.

So it would have been what 10, 20 years ago, Scouts Ireland went co-ed. Is it that long? It would be more than that.

It would actually be 25 years ago, Close to what the Scouts Association in the UK did, Yeah, Yeah, And so you've had some experience with it. Now We've had some experience. Yeah, From your experience, it's better to have two equal groups, but it helps keep them divided. It's about development of young people, Right, I feel that they develop at age 11.. And remember, scouting was developed as a game. If you observe children playing, boys congregate together and the girls do the same.

That's what we've always found and that's the way we've run it, And our girls' group here is two and a half years old and it's been very successful. And so the girls have come over with you.

Yeah, Well, they have come over. We've brought the girls with us. The same equal. They have camps every day. Yeah, Generally speaking, they have their own camp, every girl animal camp. The girls go and do their thing, the boys go and do their thing.

We do have weekends together, but at the end of the day, we must operate the patrol system as is, and it's single sex patrols for us. We find it more beneficial.

We have different them attributes as well. So, for example, we see girls organizing themselves a lot better than the boys. They're very neat, They're very neat and they're a little smarter. Sometimes, Yeah, Especially at that age, they just mature a little older, you know.

And then you see the lads who are wanting to play football and they've lost their socks and their runners and they've lost everything. So Well, it's good to know that Irish scouts and American scouts are pretty much the same though.

Yeah, but from what we can gather, what we can say with people, we've met other leaders here and we seem to have the same understanding of what the patrol system offers. Right, you know, I'm curious too. We don't operate as groups here.

Is your group only scouts and venturers or do you do the whole thing? Yeah, we do the whole thing.

So, starting from the youngest being beavers, We've just beavers, all boys beavers, all club scouts. Yeah, we've got girls scouts and boys scouts and then mixed ventures.

Okay, So we're in the progress of opening up a girls club section. And is there rovers in Ireland?

Well, there are rovers in Ireland. We don't have them. We don't have them. We believe it's that.

Well, we kind of, as a venture leader, discuss them with younger leaders At 18, it's kind of time to start kind of paying back rather than, you know, Yeah, rather than taking, Still taking. So we do organize activities for young leaders, but they're just kind of once off, sir, you know a hoik, maybe then. Or rather than meetings every. But you have, you have that age group involved, Oh, yeah, If not organized as rovers, Yeah, no, Oh, they are not.

We don't have rovers in our group, Right? Well, scouting Ireland have rovers, Right.

So, yeah, at 18, then we'll talk to them And if they want to become leaders or join the leadership team. They can, Yeah, And they socialize as well, you know, And the group is under one committee. Yes, It's what we call a group council.

Okay, The group council comprises of the group leader, treasurer, secretary, chairman and each section leader, beaver leader, club leader, scout leader, venture leader, any assistant leaders who wish to attend can attend and can vote. Generally, we don't take votes.

We get a consensus Right, We discuss things and agree And then we go. Yeah, Sounds very familiar to what we do.

Yeah, And we have a lot, as we said, we, the section leaders, are kind of I'd be the youngest, and then they're the, they're older, and then the younger leadership team around us as well, then, and we, you know, help us out. The other thing that I'm very curious about is how you train and qualify adult leaders. You use the Woodbatch system.

The Woodbatch system basically guarantees you a standard of training, And now these fellows are too polite to say it, but they're both wearing Woodbatch beads. Yeah, So I'll mention that so everybody knows, I got these Woodbatch beads in 1974, you know, and the rest of it. You learn by doing, Yeah, And you learn by making mistakes And you learn by getting it wrong. Oh, yeah, And the Woodbatch can teach you that. The only thing that can teach you that is under canvas and out actually doing the job Right. That's it.

Woodbatch would give you a certain standard of training. Back in my day I found the training excellent. The leaders today who have come up through our patrol system are coming back to me saying: didn't really learn an awful lot on that course. I hope the next course is going to be better.

I knew most of what we'd all you know we've already done this. If you've been in Scouting, it's too familiar to train them. You know.

You know exactly like they're teaching you how to do one. Not that you've been teaching other kids for the past five years to do you know. Yeah, It's okay.

The training is okay for them. Maybe a parent coming into Scouts who's never experienced any of it. Most of our leaders have come up through the Scouts system To become a leader. It's a little bit more than filling out a form. Absolutely You can't go away unless you've had trial protection, Of course. If you do trial protection, of course you have to be vetted by the police.

They have to look into your background. Yeah, You've got to supply them with a form And then you can be approved, proposed to the group council And if the group council approve of your application, you're taken on then And you will be on a probationary period until you complete your training.

So it's expected and required of our adults. They all have to go through the training.

You know, in some groups you see people putting the long finger and saying they've did this course or that course, They'll get around with it. Yeah, Now you guys aren't at all proud of the group that you're in. I can tell.

Okay, I can tell, And you know that you need a lot of work. Yeah, You're just getting started.

So I understand. What have you guys been doing since you've been down?

What have the Scouts been up to? They've been following the program right here. They've been following the program on camp, Yeah, And they found it very, very good. We call the patrol leaders meeting there yesterday evening just to get feedback from the ground what they were thinking, which is more important than what we're thinking- And they were very happy with the program supplied here, Very excited about it. They were very happy with the breakfast.

They were very happy with the lunch, Not so happy with their dinner, but there was something seem to be missing on the dinner? French fries or something. There was no potatoes.

Well, there was a few potatoes, but it wasn't. It wasn't proper Irish potato.

Yeah, Is that what you thought? Well, French fries. I'd say, if you produce French fries to them, they'd be happy.

But we can do that when we go to Washington DC next week. This program ends tonight or tomorrow, Saturday, Saturday, It ends on Saturday, And then you're off to DC for a few days. Then we're off to Washington for two days, Yeah, And we're also going to a water park as well. We're coming back here for one night. Next morning we're heading to New York for three days And we're basically the education aspect of the program. We've done the scouting end of it this week.

Next week we will be about going to Washington, to the museums, to White House, to Capitol Hill, And when we get to New York then we do the same tours for the people who are interested in the history of it. They see it all the time on TV, So it'd be nice to be there. I told you we're celebrating 50 years. That's why we actually came here, because this would be a major trip down. We're doing this every year, Every year. Yeah, it's quite a bit.

It's quite a bit. Here's the planning of us now.

Yeah, Well, the planning and the money and the time- Yeah, It's a long time to take away. Yeah, It's worth it though. Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, But we organized the committee two years ago and we appointed the camp chief, And he's not right here at the moment. He's away down in Walmart.

So that tells you how well everything is going. Yeah, The camp chief can disappear for a couple of hours down in Walmart.

Well, any camp where you don't have to hit the Walmart at least once. Yeah, You know that's pretty well planned.

Yeah, So that's it. I mean, it's been so far now. It's been marvelous.

The staff here are really friendly and really welcoming And there's nothing- and I mean nothing- that they will not do for you. Yeah, You know really really good, you know. Yeah, I was going to ask you how you found camp.

Where was it? Just finding something geographically?

Yeah, Well, no, it came recommended to us from another Irish group that were here a couple of years ago. Yeah, We're here back in around 2000.. 2000..

Yeah, Yeah, And then from Cork, We know those guys, We know the leaders, Okay, And we said we wanted to go to the state. So you want to go to the state. That's a big place.

So where do you want to go? Well, we wanted to go somewhere in New England so that we would be close enough to the airport. Right, Yeah, Yeah.

So this guy, his friend of ours, Paul Dave Barry, recommended this campsite to us. Yeah, Came down. That's brilliant. Like this is exactly what we wanted and expected when we came here, Exactly what we got And, as I said, the staff have been amazing. I mean, above and beyond the call away to expect from the leaders here.

You know excellent. Thanks for talking to me today, fellas. Right,