Scoutmaster Podcast 305

Hey everybody, this is Brent Dixon. I'm an assistant Scoutmaster with Troop 192 in St Cloud, Florida. This edition of the Scoutmaster Podcast is very happily sponsored by backers like me. Thanks, Clark.

And now it's the old Scoutmaster. Everybody is going to be relieved to hear this news. They finally found that scout over in the Austrian Alps who was lost. It was a very, very long search because it turns out that that scout was hiding.

Okay, think about it. Austrian Alps scout hiding, lost, long search. Classical music- That's a clue. The scout was hiding.

Oh man, Maybe we should just move on. There's nothing more to see here.

Hey, this is podcast number 305.. Hey, Welcome back to the Scoutmaster Podcast. This is Clarke Green. Let's take a look at the mailbag. A couple of podcasts back have played a story that scouter Mike Marty sent in about his senior patrol leader and a discussion he had with him, And I got this reply from Patrick Garrett this week.

He said finding ways to better integrate scouts with special needs is a passion of mine, So the story from Mike Marty was especially moving. I'm really impressed with his senior patrol leader and how he asked for help and Mike's thoughtful approach. The only thing I would say is, if your future stories are going to leave scouters all misty-eyed during their commute, you might want to warn them first. Patrick, I'm glad that story meant something to you and I'm going to take the opportunity to tell everybody again. You've got a story to tell Every scouter does, And the reason that they're important is not because they're these like incredibly unusual things that happen. It's because they're very common things that happen, Because we all share the same kinds of challenges and achievements.

We all run into the same problems, We all have the same victories, And sharing those is important, and sharing them in your voice, I think, is really important. So this is what you do. You can do this one of several ways. You can sit down on your computer and record a file and send it to me. You can record your voice over your cell phone and send me that recording. Or you can call a number and I'll have that number in the podcast notes And you can just talk to me via the phone and that'll record it and we'll put it on the podcast And it'll be interesting and inspiring for everybody else.

Like I said, you think, nah, it's just me. Nah, that's not what it is. It's about scouting and what we're all doing. You think, oh, I'm not going to sound very good. Look, I don't really care for the sound of my own voice. 305 podcasts later, Still don't like listening to my recorded voice.

And you think, oh, I have to do it just perfectly, and I have to go back and do it. No, you don't. If you knew, if you had any idea how much stuff I edited out of my podcast and how many times I repeated myself before it sounded good enough for me to put it on the air. Don't worry about it, I'm going to edit whatever you say to make you sound brilliant, All right, And if you want me to, I will send you a copy of the edited recording before I put it on the podcast.

So just you know. Do that this week for me, okay. Record a story from your experience as a scouter, Send it to me and I'll put it on the next podcast.

Another thing that happened this week is, as I've talked about in the past, several podcasts finally got the audiobook version of My Book- So Far, So Good- a new Scoutmaster story- published And it's available now at scoutmastercgcom. It will also shortly be available for direct purchase on audiblecom and iTunes.

It just takes a little while for them, to you know, do whatever it is they do before it gets put up there. And I heard from Kenneth Tillman about the book and he said if I had this book to read when I started my troops six years ago, we might have had more of the 50 or so Scouts who have cycled through still with us here in the troop Right now. We're waiting on the next round of Webelos, ready to cross over, with a few more activities planned that will show them what a great troop we're starting to be. Thanks, Clark, for the words of encouragement.

I've started to use your mantra: so far, so good. Thanks, Kenneth, So far, so good.

That's all we can hope for most of the time. Right. And Tom Tomlans also wrote in about the book, said we went from adult lead to mostly youth lead. They make decisions, The Scoutmasters advise and guide, but they do what young Scouts do and learn from it. Thank you for all your wisdom and thank you, Tom. I really do appreciate that.

Every week, if we can manage it- and we did this past week- we have a couple of live chat sessions at scoutmasterscgcom. Watch the Twitter feed and the Facebook feed for announcements of when we'll be live, usually Tuesday and Wednesday mornings, And a lot of our frequent fliers checked in on the chat this past week, In addition to Eric from Georgia, who's a training chair, and Dan Bennett from Redding California and is the membership chair for their pack. Both Eric and Dan were on the chat for their first time this week. Stop in and say hello Tuesday and Wednesday morning. Scoutmasterscgcom. Watch the Facebook feed and the Twitter feed.

Come and join in one of our live chats. If you're a regular listener to the Scoutmaster podcast and you read what we have at scoutmasterscgcom- and those things have helped you. You can return the favor in a couple of different ways. You can make a one-time payment and become a scoutmasterscgcom backer, or you can join the growing number of people who are choosing to make a subscription payment via Patreon by pledging $5 or more a month.

Now there are special premiums available to anyone who becomes a patron or a backer. So to become a backer, what you do is go to scoutmastercgcom, click the support link at the top of the page and you'll find a number of options there on how you can become a backer.

I want to take a moment to personally thank Jim Brockes, who has become a backer since our last podcast. To become a patron, what you do is click the link to my Patreon page in the podcast notes or go directly to wwwpatreoncom and you'll find out all the details of how all that works when you get there.

And I want to take a moment to personally thank Bill Blankowski and Mark Van Loon, who have become patrons since last week's podcast. In this week's podcast we're going to talk more about patrols and the patrol method, and I've got something special to share with you about that.

So let's get started, shall we?

I want to tell you about Richard Francis Thurman. He was always known as John John Thurman. He was born on the 4th of April 1911, and passed away in 1985, but he was the third camp chief at Gilwell Park in 1943. He was only 32 years old when he became the camp chief at Gilwell Park in 1943, and he remained in that position for 26 years. He was the author of 15 books on scouting and he made a considerable impact on world scouting, and his influence lives on through his books and through his work in wood badge training.

Now, one of my recurring themes here is that the more things change, the more they remain the same, or everything old is new again because you know, after a century there's not a whole lot we're going to run into in scouting that hasn't been run into before. Most of the difficulties and challenges that we encounter as scouters are old ground.

Okay, There's a lot of people who've already dealt with them and overcome them, and I like to look back and to see how they did that, because it's a way to form our own resolutions to some of these difficulties and a way to understand the really important basic ideas of scouting. And one of those basic ideas is the patrol method, and John Thurman wrote the Patrol Leaders Handbook in 1950.

So pay attention to that date for a moment. 1950, the good old days when everything was great, right And scouts were scouts and well you know, I'm going to tell you They were encountering the same kind of challenges then. None of this is new and that makes what Thurman had to write timeless advice that is meaningful for us. It's easy to get a copy of most of his books in PDF format and I'll link to resources about that in the podcast notes.

Okay, But I want to read from his introduction to this Patrol Leaders Handbook, because it is one of the better explanations of patrol method that you're likely to encounter and really get you into the spirit of what the patrol method is about. So Thurman wrote: the patrol system is made up of a lot of littles. This is why there are difficulties about it and why there are problems, why it's not too easy to understand and why I hope from this book you'll get a real picture and a vision of all that the patrol system can and should be mean and do. I've always been glad it isn't too easy. If all we had to do was write patrol system over the entrance to every true headquarters and sort of a miracle resulted, it would really be too simple to bother with. But fortunately- and I mean fortunately- it isn't as easy as that.

It does not get any easier as years go by, and perhaps in that lies its secret, its charm and its possibilities. It always needs, and always will need, two special qualities: the one common sense, the other effort. I hope you have the first, which is by no means as common as it should be, and will make the second, because upon these two things the rest will depend. I, and indeed many others, can explain a little, suggest a lot, advise perhaps and encourage always, but no one except you, the patrol leader can really do anything about the patrol system, because it really does all depend upon you. It is your show and it is always up to you. When scouting was started, the idea of the patrol system was really a very revolutionary thing.

In fact, a lot of people criticized it and told Baden Powell that it was dangerous, that it would not work and that he was asking for trouble and that the boys would let him down. Things have gone by. The method of the patrol system has carried far outside scouting. In the early days of scouting, boys from all over the country, and later from all over the world, bought the book Scouting for Boys and formed themselves into patrols.

I want to repeat: formed themselves. This means that someone, a leader not appointed by anyone in particular but chosen by other fellows because those same other fellows were willing to follow him, a crowd of chaps who wanted to be scouts. They formed a patrol and they started to train themselves using the book Scouting for Boys as the only guide.

But they found- as patrols have always found- that there were many things they did not know, many things they could not find out and many things they could not do without the help of some adult, And so the practice grew of a number of patrols getting together, forming a troop and usually finding their own Scoutmaster. Sometime in the year 1908 that a gang of boys saved up their pennies and managed to purchase two or three copies of Scouting for Boys, They met together in an old barn and tried many of the things that Baden Powell suggested they should do. They had a lot of fun and learned a great deal, and they got into quite a few scrapes. One day they came across the chapter on camping.

Now, as they had tried all the things suggested, they were not going to be defeated by one, which seemed a little more difficult. Of course, none of them had ever been to camp and they didn't know the first thing about it, but they had a real spirit of adventure. They were prepared to try anything, not only once but until they got it right.

And so they talked it all over and devised a manner of means to get things they thought would be suitable. Bill, Jack and Tom were to get the food, just how nobody told them. Martin, the leader, was going to get the tent, and Alec the Youngest said he thought he could get a cart. The leader also said he would look after the cooking pots, and each boy was made responsible for getting his own bedding.

So it happened that one Saturday afternoon, early in June, they duly assembled at the barn and started out on their travels. No questions were asked, although young Alec did indicate it had been very difficult to get the toy cart away from his baby brother, and Jack was not very complimentary about the very old tarpaulin that the patrol leader said was to be a tent. But they were all amazed and delighted at the quantity of food that had been produced, which by present day standards would have been enough for a month.

Well, they packed what they could into the cart, and after the food was in there there was not really much room for anything else, so the rest was carried. They did not know where they were going. They had no map and I doubt if they could have read one. In any case, They set off literally into the blue, out of the village and over the hill in the west country, because they were not the sort of fellows who walked on roads if they could avoid them. But all their preparations had taken a long time and it was quite late in the evening when they settled on a place to camp. Pleasant enough campsite between a by-road and a stream.

They decided the stream would do for washing water and for cooking. It was all very unhygienic, but they did remain alive for many years. To tell the tale, They lit a fire, as they had already learned to do, and used more than two matches, and it was a very large fire. They then set to and cook the food. They mixed some very queer concoctions and they burned quite a lot, but the food had never tasted better to those particular boys. Then, rather late, they tried to put up the tent.

The leader had a knife and cut down two saplings and somehow, with string and ingenuity, they rigged up the tarpaulin into some sort of tent and as it became very dark, very tired but very happy, they crept into the tent and got into bed. Fortunately, as they didn't know anything about ground sheets, it was very dry. They did not know that cold rises from the ground. In fact they did not know very much at all, but they were learning by doing. They talked in the tent feeling very much like pioneers and gradually, one by one, dropped off to sleep, all except the leader who felt a special responsibility and although he had not told the others, he was going to try to keep awake, Suddenly, in what seemed to him to be in the middle of the night- but was actually only 10 o'clock- he heard footsteps, which stopped outside the tent. The leader kept very quiet until the light of a torch shone and he looked out to see a very large pair of boots.

As his eye traveled upwards, he saw a pair of dark blue trousers and, from somewhere a very long way above, a very deep voice said: and what are you supposed to be doing? The others woke and there, to their dismay, was a policeman. The leader said: we are scouts and we're camping, but in 1908 not many policemen had heard about scouts, and certainly this one hadn't.

And his answer was: well, you are coming home now. Very sorrowfully, the patrol packed up their gear and went with the policemen. They were very surprised to find that they had not far to go owing to having no map and practically no sense of direction. They had almost traveled in a circle and were in fact camping quite near home. We will draw a veil over what happened when they got to their various homes, but they were not daunted, as they had arranged to meet at their barn the following night. The Sunday evening found them together again in the barn, and the leader had not been wasting his time.

He had reread scouting for boys and the first thing he said was: look here, chaps. I have been reading the book again and it talks about a Scoutmaster.

I think that is what we want. He would have kept the policemen away.

Well, that is one of the jobs of a Scoutmaster and it is one of the reasons why your patrol or troop needs one, somebody who will arrange for you to carry out scouting without fear of being erupted. I do want you to remember that this patrol started on its own. They were out together and they came to realize the kind of things that a Scoutmaster can do for the patrol, and they found a Scoutmaster for themselves. That troop is still running, perhaps because it started in the right spirit.

I suppose today it is usual for the Scoutmasters to form the patrol and then the scouts to get on with it. The important thing about the old method was that right from the start the patrol leader realized he was really the key man in the whole business and if he failed, then his patrol. He did not lean on the Scoutmaster, except for those things where he was quite naturally lacking in knowledge or ability and had to go to an adult for help.

What I am afraid happens so often now is that patrols are not really patrols at all, but only used as convenient divisions for a scout troop. A scout troop ought to be a meeting together of patrols. If a patrol is only a convenient division, it is not a patrol at all. A troop meeting ought to be a place where patrols meet together to compete against each other and to encourage each other and, having met and learned all they can, should go away as patrols to practice and get more experience. Unfortunately, what has happened in this country, in many parts of the world, is that the troop meets too often and the patrol not enough. I hope your patrol is going to be different, that it is really going to meet as a patrol, away from the troop, without the scouters going back to the scouters for advice and help.

The wise Scoutmaster knows that this is his job, but sometimes the patrol leader does not let the Scoutmaster do his proper job but will insist on leaning on him for everything. I want to remind you of one of the things that Baden Powell said about the patrol. He said: expect a great deal of your patrol leaders and 9 times out of 10 they will play up to your expectations.

But if you are always going to nurse them to trust them to do things well, you will never get them to do things on their own initiative. So that's just a part of the introduction to John Thurman's 1950 patrol leaders handbook, and a lot of that sounds like it could be said today and could have been said 10 years ago and 20 and 30 and 40 years ago. This is a recurring thing. The whole patrol system idea is not easy to get. Remember what he said.

It's pretty difficult and it should be so and he's thankful that it is. Patrols need to be not just convenient subdivisions of troops but actual vibrant living things.

They are really the basis of scouting and a lot of people get back to me when I talk like this and they say: well, man, this is really frustrating because boys just don't know how to do this anymore. Well, they do.

The problem is is we don't have the confidence to let them figure it out and remember this is supposed to be difficult, this is supposed to be hard, this is supposed to be a challenge and it's as challenging for scouts as it is for adults. This is as much of a foreign idea to them as it is to you, but I find a lot of encouragement in the idea that 66 years ago, when John Thurman wrote this, he could have been writing it into answers to emails that I receive all the time. I leave you by repeating one of the first things he said in this introduction, and that is: this patrol system takes two things: common sense and effort. It's not easy, although it can be daunting, and it can be a little confusing and difficult to see the initiative happening sometimes. Use your common sense and keep extending effort in that direction. You're going to be happy and you'll be rewarded by seeing the patrol system grow.

But of course that is secondary to the rewards your scouts will derive from a really active and vibrant application of the patrol system.