Scoutmaster Podcast 294

I'm Bill Chapman and I'm a Scoutmaster with Troop 736 in Rancho Santa Margarita, California. This edition of the Scoutmaster podcast is sponsored by Backers Like Us.

And now the old Scoutmaster, One of my Scouts, walked up to me the other day and said: hey, my pocket knife is missing and I'm pretty sure John took it. And I said: why do you think John took it?

And he said: well, he looks pretty guilty to me. And I said: oh, my goodness, we don't want to judge by appearances. And the Scout said: I'm not judging by appearances, I'm judging by disappearances.

Hey, this is podcast number 294.. Welcome back to the Scoutmaster podcast. This is Clarke Green.

So what's been going on the past week? Well, let's see. Last week we published a post on being mentally awake over at scoutmastercgcom And I reminded everybody about the infographic that I created a while back about top 10 fire starters, And if you go to scoutmastercgcom you can get actually an infographic. You can get a package of- it's probably around 60 now- infographics and illustrations and other useful PDF documents in our PDF package.

So make sure you check that out when you get the chance. The other thing I published this past week is a camping tools wish list. I had this idea of setting up a way you can create a gear wish list, send a copy to yourself and you can email it to someone who might be looking for a gift for you.

It is that time of year, isn't it? So check that out.

Right now I have the camping tools wish list posted And I'm going to set up a couple more within the next few days. We have a live chat at scoutmastercgcom, usually on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. Keep an eye on our Facebook feed and our Twitter feed for an announcement that will be at scoutmastercgcom for a live chat. Lots of people check in And we discuss really important stuff and the weather sometimes.

So it just depends on the day and who wants to talk about what. But in addition to the many frequent fliers who we see when we have a live chat, Christie, near Detroit, Michigan, who just signed on as a committee member for her son's troop, checked in this past week.

So once again, keep an eye on the Facebook feed and the Twitter feed for an announcement of when we will be holding a live chat. You know I published the first edition of the Scoutmaster podcast in 1910. No, not that long ago I published the first edition of the Scoutmaster podcast in 2010.. And we are headed for our 300th podcast just after the first of the coming year in 2016..

And I haven't mentioned this before, But just to give you an idea of where our listeners are, I did a little research and over the past couple of weeks, 288 of the now 294 episodes have been listened to in all 50 states and the District of Columbia as well. And if you're wondering Ohio, you win. You've got the largest number of listeners over the past two weeks. Don't worry, California just slightly behind that number. But what I found real interesting was I was able to track where else in the world outside of the United States, The podcast was being listened to. You ready: Brazil, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Germany, South Africa, China, China- Really Yes, China- Japan, Sweden, India, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Ireland, Belgium, Italy, the Isle of Man, Colombia, Cyprus, Singapore, Venezuela, Chile, Morocco and Mexico.

If you were keeping count, including the United States, it's 27 different countries, And I say all this not to pat myself on the back, but just to say that none of this would be possible without the support I received from ScoutmasterCGcom backers. I want to take a moment to personally thank Justin Brucher, who became a backer since our last podcast.

Here's how to join the list of several hundred other Scouters who have become a ScoutmasterCGcom backer. Go to ScoutmasterCGcom, click the support link at the top of the page and that'll take you to a number of options where you can lend some financial support to making the podcast freely available to people all over the United States, certainly, but all over the world. Become a backer this week and I'll make sure to thank you personally during our next podcast This week.

I want to talk about something that arose out of one of our live chat sessions. I'm going to do that in Scout MasterChip in seven minutes or less, and that's going to take up the remainder of the podcast.

So let's get started, shall we?

Scout MasterChip in seven minutes or less? This past Wednesday on the chat had a really useful discussion about being a Scouter who is not in a key position within a troop- or any unit really- but feel that those who are in key positions might be misapplying scouting or may not understand scouting the same way that they do Now.

I think it's reasonable to agree that there are people in key positions in scouting who don't have a handle on some of the basics and most of the time the basics they're missing have to do with engaging youth members in leadership and the patrol system. A number of people who contact me do so because they're kind of dissatisfied and they want to do something about the way these things are handled in their unit, but they're not in a key role to do so and they ask my advice on how to influence change. And at the same time, I also hear from Scouters who feel kind of underutilized that there's not much for them to do because there are a lot of other Scouters involved. They're just trying to find a way to help out. They have lots of energy- very positive- and they feel like they've really got a Tiger by the tail. They understand what they're up to and they really really want to help, but they don't see a whole lot for them to do.

Let's start with the idea that may solve some of these problems okay, and that is that scouting was not really designed to have a high ratio of adults involved. Now, I know when I say something like that it's going to raise hackles, but honestly, if we have scouting in the way that it was designed and the way that it really works well, in my opinion there's not a whole lot of adult involvement because Scouts are doing what Scouts do and adults have a pretty minor role in that.

Now we do talk a lot about the ratio of adults to Scouts when we're dealing with situations that are safety-oriented, and that's very wise. Sometimes you need a higher ratio of adults to Scouts in those situations.

But I think what we miss a lot of times is the way that that ratio affects the delivery of the program and the experience of our Scouts. The idea as long as I've been around is the more the better. But obviously there's got to be a point where the ratio of adults to Scouts kind of starts to break things down a bit.

And the other idea I think we have to accept is that everybody who wants to be in a key position, who wants to be the Scoutmaster or Committee Chair, is not going to be offered either position, and that could be frustrating. And furthermore, we're going to have to accept the fact that people in the key positions don't always share your understanding of Scouting. They don't always share my understanding of Scouting. They could be, on analysis, objectively wrong in the way that they do some things, but it's rare that I hear a case where people are volunteering for Scouting and they actually do harm.

So we really need to understand that there's no one authentic way of doing things, that or even that you or I have everything right. Right, I mean, troops are like families.

They have different ways of functioning, They have their own quirks and traditions And I think as long as Scouts do no harm, our Scouts can get a lot out of the experience. You know, I'll trot out my tired old basketball analogy again.

Right, You know everybody plays the same game. They play according to the same rules, but everybody plays the game a little bit differently, have different strategies, different ways they're going to go about doing it.

And as long as it's not harming the children who are playing the game, you know who's really going to argue with exactly how things are being done or what's authentic or not authentic. So, accepting those things: first of all, there's a ratio of Scouts to adults that works, and going too far above that or below that, it's going to be detrimental to the program and to the experience that our Scouts have. We accept the idea that not everybody who wants to have a key role is going to have a key role. We accept the idea that people who are in key roles may not share your particular understanding or mine, of how to do things, But we understand that, if they're not doing harm to Scouts, that Scouts can still get a lot out of the experience.

What do you do if you want to be an active Scouter? You're not in a key role and there doesn't really seem to be a whole lot for you to do.

Well, my best advice is going to be this: First, you start out by observing, with the idea that you want to look for the positives in the program that you're observing. You want to see what Scouts are getting out of it that's positive.

Now, at the same time, you'll be observing things that you really wish you could change, and maybe you'll get the opportunity to be an agent for those changes. But you're not really going to do that until you have a relationship of mutual trust and respect for the people who are in the key positions. These thoughts would apply, too, if you are a Senior Patrol Leader and you really want to change a lot of things and make things happen.

Well, you're going to meet some challenges and you're going to meet some resistance, because those people in key decision-making positions within your unit need to trust you. They need to form a relationship of trust and mutual respect with you, And the way that you do that- of course, if it's going to be mutual- is you show a lot of trust and respect. The wrong way to go about this is probably easier to explain than the right way to go about it.

So let's say you're sitting at home one evening and I come to the door and knock on the door and I say, hey, I'm here to repaint your living room. And that sounds a little crazy. You didn't really expect anybody to want to repaint your living room and you really don't know who I am. And I say, look, look, I'm a very experienced painter. I have an excellent sense for colors. I've looked at your living room here and I'm going to repaint it to the best color it possibly could be.

You're going to look at me and you're going to say, well, you know, we're pretty happy with the way things are. We really like this color. It took us a long time to figure it out. We'd really rather that you didn't do that. And I could feel very put out at that point because, hey, I went to the paint. I did a lot of work here.

I went and I analyzed your color scheme and I went to the paint store and I bought paint and I got the tools together and I am standing there at your door ready to give you this wonderful gift that you never asked for and you really wouldn't care to have. And I could get very angry about that, I could be very frustrated, couldn't I?

Well, I think it's pretty easy to see what I'm talking about. If you go into a unit and you say, hey, I've got lots of great ideas and I really understand scouting really well, and I listen to this guy on the internet and I read a bunch of his stuff and I'm just really pumped and excited and energized about coming in and changing everything around to really make things hum and buzz and get going.

Well, you can imagine the kind of reception that you're going to get right. And this happens if you're an adult or you're a scout, you know, with a position of responsibility. If you come in gangbusters like that, you're trying to skip over a very important part of the process, which is a formation of mutual trust and respect.

If I came over to your house and we were having a dinner party and I looked around your living room and I said so this is a really nice color that you've chosen here and it really works well. If ever you wanted, by the way, to repaint, I want to tell you I'm a pretty experienced painter and I'd love to do a color analysis and just show you what I could do And you know. Then you may think, hey, maybe that's a great idea.

Or you could equally say: you know what we really kind of like the way that it is now. Do you think this is wrong?

And I'd say, well, I think it'd be interesting to see what my analysis came up with. But if you're happy with what you have, you know I don't want to be pushy, I don't want to push this off on you.

I mean, I think that analogy holds up right. You can't go in like gangbusters and just demand that you're going to change everything or that you know the right and authentic way of doing things.

How about observing for a while, Showing your value and demonstrating how valuable you are by creating that mutual trust and respect? You know it's pretty easy, right? And when it all comes down to it, we're looking at the Scout Oath and Law, looking at being friendly and courteous and kind.

We're looking at being obedient and loyal and building a relationship where somebody will probably turn to you and say: look, what do you think? How do you think we're doing?

What would you suggest that we do differently? That's entirely possible. It might not be really likely all the time, but that's entirely possible. But if you go into a situation like this and you only see the negative side of things and you focus on the things that are not being done properly in your opinion, that's a really frustrating way to be, And that kind of frustration usually turns into aggression and nobody wants to deal with you.

Then, okay, I guess what I'm saying is that you want to follow the Scout Oath and Law. It's not readily apparent in these sorts of situations sometimes, but it really works.

So I think the first thing to do is to look at your own attitude. What do you really want out of this situation?

What do you want for your child? What do you want for the other children who are involved?

And what's going to be the best way of getting to that point? Is it going to be barging in and making a whole bunch of pronouncements and judgments and looking at all the negative things that you perceive? Obviously not. It's going to be the Scout Oath and Law- courteous, kind, friendly, obedient, cheerful, loyal- All of those things- are going to be the kind of person who becomes valuable to the unit and becomes a trusted advisor of those people who are in key positions. I know what it's like to have a lot of energy for innovation and change and to kind of get turned back. I know what it's like to look at situations and to think, wow, I could make them better.

I could really help make this better in my own mind. But what you have to do, I think, is take that energy and make sure that you guard it and keep it positive. As I've said a number of times, that's going to be by building a relationship of mutual respect and trust, And you're going to do that, just like anybody would, by exercising those principles that are enshrined in the Scout Oath and Law.