Scoutmaster Podcast 299

I'm John Strowmire and I'm a troop order of the Arrow Representative Advisor with Troop 55 in Houston, Texas. This edition of the Scoutmasters podcast is sponsored by backers like me.

Carl, thanks so much for all you do with the podcast. And now to you, Scoutmasters.

Don't know what the weather's been like where you are, but we had a really warm winter around here so far. So when we got out camping this past weekend, it was really good and cold- finally Real winter, you know. And we had a problem because our campfire froze.

But what you know, what you do if that happens, is you chip off the frozen flames, put them in your pockets. They'll warm up and keep

You nice and cozy. It works every time, Really. Hey, this is podcast number 299.. Welcome back to the Scoutmaster podcast. This is Clarke Green. Let's take a look at the mailbag, see what's going on.

Well, one message made into the mailbag this weekend is from Terry Dutton, who is the Scoutmaster of Troop 16 in Oak Park, Illinois, And Terry said: thank you. I couldn't agree more That STEM as a standalone concept really isn't going to work in scouting.

And Terry's referring to our last podcast, number 298, where I answered an email question from a venture crew advisor who said, you know, they were kind of putting STEM at the center of the program and trying to figure out how to work the patrol method into that. And I said: well, you know, there's some aspects that you can work into it, but you got to look at this. Scouting is designed to be an outdoor program of camping and adventure and things like that, And when you try and put these other things at the center of the program it really becomes kind of problematic.

So, Terry, at least Terry agrees with me. Let's see. We finally got back to having some live chats. This past week on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings Had a lively group with a lot of our frequent fliers showing up to share some time on the live chat with us, And we also welcomed Francis Gee, who's from Liverpool in the UK And he's just taken over as a scout leader after being an assistant for a couple of years.

So, Francis, so glad that you could come and join us. If you want to join in on one of our live chat sessions, keep an eye on the Facebook feed and our Twitter feed, where I'll announce that we're going to be live over at scoutmastercgcom, Usually Tuesday mornings and Wednesday mornings Eastern time.

So check in, join the chat. Next week is my heavily promoted 300th edition of the Scoutmaster podcast.

It'll be, I think. What is it? It's going to be five or six years since we started the podcast And I've got a few things to announce for you next week. But let me remind you this week that the reason that we're still here, the reason we're still recording podcast, is because of the generosity of our backers. Backers are folks who make a one time kind of voluntary subscription payment, And that covers the expense of producing and publishing. What you find on scoutmastercgcom.

That's all the blog posts, infographics, everything that we work with, the videos, And it also includes what you're listening to right now. So what I need you to do is to go to scoutmastercgcom, click the support link at the top of the page, and you'll find a number of options that will make you a scoutmastercgcom backer.

And this week I want to personally thank Joyce Swenson, James Peterson, Donald Chen and Ray Chung, who have become backers since our last podcast. Once again, it's pretty easy to do: Go to scoutmastercgcom, click the support link at the top of the page, become a backer this week and I'll make sure to thank you during our next podcast.

Well, in this week's podcast. I have some email questions to answer and a very short reminder for all of

Us in scoutmastership in seven minutes or less, And that's going to take up the remainder of the podcast. So let's get started, shall we Scouts master ship in seven minutes or less.

You know it was good old Ralph Waldo Amerson who said: patience and fortitude conquer all things. That's an especially important thought for us as scouts, because scouting can be- oh it can be- a little frustrating at times, can it Even irritating, And our scouts can be a little irritating And the situations that we find ourselves in can be a little frustrating. And going back over 30 plus years of being a scouter, I'm real happy to report that it seems to me. It seems to me that pretty much the days of the really kind of aggressive shouting scoutmaster are in the past.

That kind of drill sergeant, loud, overbearing, adult presence that used to be far more common than it is right now has diminished, And that's a good thing, Because if you're going to shout or yell at scouts, it not only is very upsetting for them, it's also portrays a certain weakness of character on your part too. Yelling is really an irrational, impulsive reaction, And I've had plenty of chance to study this kind of thing because I'm a bit of a hothead myself and I can find myself yelling and kind of losing my temper pretty easily. Maybe you share that particular character flaw with me, maybe you don't, but it's, it can be.

It can be a very difficult thing to come to terms with And you have to remind yourself that that kind of verbal explosion, that kind of letting your temper get the better of you, is no less appropriate than like lashing out at people physically, And it can do as much harm you know emotionally to people as it can to just lash out physically at them. So I still have a long way to go on this personally.

But bringing a bad temper under control means you first you kind of have to recognize what triggers a loss of temper and then disarm all those triggers by doing something simple like taking a few deep breaths or counting to ten and break the chain of impulse to reaction. I mean walk away from the situation, gain a little control and perspective, because trivial things are often the most upsetting. That's what I find anyways. And if you have a child in scouts they can do trivial things in the perspective of other people who may be observing that- that are very upsetting to you.

And what I have to say to you is, like I said, you know, control the impulse to react, step away, count to ten, take a few deep breaths. And it's doubly difficult to do if we're tired and stressed And if you're a volunteer scouter, there are going to be plenty of opportunities to be tired and stressed.

One of the more difficult times for me was always when we were packing up on a Sunday after a weekend camping trip. Now, simple things, really simple things, like the way to put away a tent or cleaning up a cook at very trivial stuff.

But after, after about 30 years of, you know, constantly reminding scouts of they got to do these things properly, I can lose my temper over those trivial things on a Sunday where maybe I got a good sleep last night, maybe I didn't, Maybe I'm feeling rested and calm and assured and ready, Maybe I'm not. I have to stop and remind myself of what good old Ralph Waldo said: Patience and fortitude conquer all things. Got to be patient. And being patient also includes the idea that as scouts- depending on the age group that we're working with- a lot of time our time is spent in observing and stepping back, And the impulse to step in and correct and instruct or react can be kind of overpowering, especially if our own children are involved again.

And the difference between a really great scouter and one who just does the job well is in replacing our initial impulse to react with a lot of advice and a lot of talking and stepping in and saying. Let me show you how to do it with a more rational and studied view of the situation, in which we let the scouts discover things for themselves.

So remember what Ralph said: patience and fortitude. Conquer all things. Apply those, gain some perspective, separate yourself from triggering situations where you could fly off the handle a little bit and understand that that kind of patience and fortitude also extends to resisting the impulse to react and to talk scouts to death about every single little thing.

I want to jump up and scream and shout it out. I can do it if I do it, if I want. Cause baby, I was born to be a scout. Cause baby, I was born to be a scout. Here comes the scout. Master, Driver, jump, the scout will be a little faster.

Stick on the gas. Are we there yet?

I want to build a bridge for my equal project. Find me a letter, send it by name Email. That is folks,

And here's an answer to one of your emails. So we had some email questions come in over the past week or so, Heard from Craig Snodgrass who's a Scoutmaster, troop one in Altadena, California, and he said this: I'm a relatively new Scoutmaster- This is the ninth month I've been doing this- but I did spend a few years as an assistant cub master and cub leader. My predecessor ruled the annual planning process and got some input from the patrol leaders council but didn't really invest them in the process.

He planned three major things beyond the meetings that we have every month. One was a day event and that was intended to be a alternative if a scout missed getting out on the overnight.

The other one was the overnight itself And the third thing was a monthly service project to kind of balance out the outdoor program. At present our patrol leaders council seems to struggle with focus on the monthly overnighters and they're also trying to juggle these two other things- a service project and a day event- and I'd like your opinion on whether planning for all those three sounds about right for a patrol leaders council or does it sound like too much for them to do.

Just so you know, in the past eight service projects, we averaged around 20%, or just under six, of our 28 scouts participating. If I look at attendance for overnight's day, hikes and troop meetings, about six of our scouts attend everything, another nine attend about 50% of everything and the remaining 13 get to about 20% of everything.

Well, Craig, if I read things right here, about half of your scouts are participating in any of these events about 20% of the time, Which would make me ask the question: why is there so little participation in these things? So let's zoom out. Instead of asking what planning expectations of the patrol leaders council ought to be, let's ask why you're planning things that scouts are apparently not very interested in doing or you're having real participation lags in.

What I think is going to be useful for you is not just me laying out procedural steps or giving you a bunch of advice. That's not going to be very useful.

What you need to do, I think, is to start thinking about the bigger ideas in the real heart of why you're doing what you're doing as a scouter, And once you have that kind of established in your mind, everything else is relatively light. Lifting The first place to begin thinking about this is that scouts need to do what scouts do. We don't want to start with a set of standards or measurements.

We don't want to start with the journey to excellence and look at those measurements and say, well, that's what we should be doing. We want to start with the idea that scouts are going to develop character by applying the patrol method And if we're doing that quickly, the resulting metrics are going to match the indicators in something like the journey to excellence program. But we don't start with the indicator and build from there. We start with doing what scouts do. That's the principle. If we get ourselves caught in this kind of thicket of policies, procedures and logistics, we're coming at the whole thing from the wrong direction.

All of these things make sense when we very simply do what scouts do. When scouts do the things that scouts do, they develop character as an after effect. If we try to develop character in object lessons and sermons, we miss the more powerful experiential opportunities. A campfire is worth a thousand words. The experience of going out and camping with your patrol is worth a hundred sermons. The other interesting thing that happens is when scouts do the things that scouts do, they advance as an after effect.

When scouts do the requirements, they can check things off in a book, but understanding the concepts and the skills are worth much more than checking them off in the book. Right, And if they're doing the things that scouts do, if they're going camping, if they're doing service projects, if they're getting together, if they're working within the patrol system, they do all the requirements as an after effect.

So the answer to your question isn't really about how many things you plan and who should be planning them. The real answer is another question: are you doing the things that scouts do? Because if you do that, I guarantee a few things: You'll meet the metric indicators of success, your scouts will advance, you'll see your participation numbers grow and your patrol leaders council will be very motivated about planning and making those things happen. I expand on the whole idea of doing things scouts do in a post at scoutmastercgcom that are interestingly titled Do What Scouts Do, and I'll have a link to that post in the podcast notes. Paul Teal is the scoutmaster for our troop 825 in Houston, Texas and he wrote in to say this: our patrol leaders council recently reviewed position descriptions. They have had a difficult time understanding the differences between the instructor and the troop guide.

Is there a difference between those two positions of responsibility and do we need both? Most of the guidance I've been able to find, say, the troop guide is focused on the new scout patrol and we don't really use the new scout patrol.

Once again, what's the difference between those positions of responsibility, and must we have them or do we really need them? Well, Paul, I would think of positions of responsibility and scouting, as you would the player positions on an athletic team. For example, basketball employs the traditional positions of a point guard, two wings and two post players, and the designations of those positions are helpful in developing a strategy to play the game, but if you check, they're not mandated by basketball rules and some coaches even ignore of identifying people by those positions. Altogether, It all depends on what kind of strategy they're using to play the game.

Once you start looking at things from that perspective, I think the whole idea of the way positions of responsibility work tend to become a little more clear. Now, do you need to have instructors or troop guides?

Must you have them? No, you don't have to have either if they're not perfect to your team strategy. As we all know, scouts have to occupy a position of responsibility to satisfy the tenure requirement from rank, but there's no absolute definition of exactly what those roles are or how they are fulfilled. Positions of responsibility are only defined to serve the needs of your scouts, not a limitation about how they ought to be doing things. Once again, look back at basketball, right, Your point guard, your wings, your post players.

Well, you know certain strategies. They're going to be doing different things, aren't they?

So I would be very reticent to tie anybody's hands by giving everyone a precise, universal job description for each one of those positions of responsibility, because, first of all, they're not jobs. Our scouts are not employees. We're not employers. Our scouts are not soldiers, we are not generals.

There is not a set of standing orders that scouts have to memorize and repeat to us, right? We're playing a lively game, And so the idea of positions of responsibility are going to shift around a little bit. There's no use to have them in some hidebound description that limits the ability of your patrol leaders council to get the job done and do the things that scouts do.

Well, that being said, let's also agree that there's some wisdom in the way that these positions of responsibility are defined and the traditional roles that we use in scouting. And again, if you hark back to basketball, well you know there's some wisdom in the idea of having a point guard and wings and things like that. Just because it's traditional doesn't mean that is bad, And just like a basketball coach is going to find those ideas useful, a scouter and their youth leaders are going to find the traditional roles useful.

I mean, a troop can't really operate very well without the key youth positions of patrol leaders, and if there are enough patrols of having a senior patrol leader and the other positions are there to help the scouts define a leadership team and a strategy for their troop. They're not as a requirement that each of those positions be filled. I'll tell you that we've never used the troop guide or instructor positions during my time as Scoutmaster, and we also never really had anything like a librarian historian, webmaster, chaplain, aide, OA representative or a leave no trace trainer. It's not that those roles wouldn't be valuable in some situations. We just never saw a need for them ourselves. We never really used the new scout patrol model either.

I think we had some pretty successful years, though, and we always approached the youth leadership aspect of things and positions of responsibility from less of a strict definition of exactly what all those roles had to be, to the idea that there was a leadership team whose strategy would shift depending on what they needed to accomplish. This email came in a little while back from James Longo, who's with troop 228 in Rockford Michigan. He said: I've taken over as the troop committee chair and we've had some people step down and others planning on stepping down, one of those being the treasurer.

I've asked a couple of people and emailed people and so far I have had zero luck replacing the treasurer. Are there any rules in place that say a chairman, a committee chairman, cannot be the treasurer as well? I was thinking if I offered to do both jobs, maybe somebody would finally speak up and take over the treasurer's work.

Well, James, there's nothing that I ever found that says you can't be the troop treasurer and the troop committee chair at the same time. But boy, what a rotten bad idea that would be. I would avoid doing it at all costs. Naturally, you're a nice guy and you'll do anything to help, and that made you into a committee chairman. That's the kind of person you are. What you have to ask yourself is when too much is going to be too much, because most of the people I know who volunteer in scouting, especially in the more important roles, are willing to give themselves to the point of burning themselves out, and that's a pretty common thing that happens.

So you have to identify some limitations for yourself. So if you take on the treasurer thing and the committee chair at the same time, there is no way you're going to get anybody else to step up to be the treasurer, because the job is already being done and it's very likely you're going to end up taking on other roles that other people should have. The idea that taking it on will inspire someone else to take the job is a reflection of your very hopeful outlook. But I've got to tell you it's probably mistaken. It's more likely. It's going to be a great relief to everybody that James decided to do it.

That means that lets us off the hook. It's really not going to inspire them. It's going to send a very clear message that James will do it if nobody else does. There's really no temporarily taking up a position like this. And I'll say again, if you take it on, it's going to be doubly difficult to find someone to take it over. If I was in your situation, I'd simply tell everybody on the committee that unless somebody steps up and takes on the role, there's not going to be any way to cut checks or receive payments or manage the accounts for the truth, and that part of things will grind to a halt and it will be very difficult to do much scouting without those things happening.

So unless somebody thinks this is important, things are going to simply be left undone. No camping this month. We don't have a treasurer to collect fees or sign checks. That sounds a little harsh, but that is the actual reality. If there's no treasurer, things are not going to happen.

So somebody needs to look at this as being important. If I was a committee chair, I would also have a one hat policy, No dual roles. If no one will take on a role, that means it's not important enough to anybody and everything grinds to a halt associated with that role.

And when that kind of thing happens, usually the response is is somebody says: oh, oh, now I understand this is really important and I'll take it on. I hope that helps. James, Listen, if you have a question for me, you can get in touch with me. It's very simple to do and we're going to find out how to do that in just a moment.