Scoutmaster Podcast 312

Hi, I'm Jeffrey Brown and I'm a Scoutmaster with Chook 273 in Union City, California. This edition of the Scoutmaster Podcast is sponsored by Backers Like Me.

And now it's the old Scoutmaster. Shane Adams woke up at summer camp one foggy morning and he wanted to catch some fog to show to his scouts, but he missed Missed Fog.

Yoo-hoo-hoo, Listen, nobody should be hazing their scouts anyway, right?

Hey, this is podcast number 312.. Hey, Welcome back to the Scoutmaster Podcast. This is Clarke Green In the mailbag this week. Oh, over on Amazon, a review from my book.

So Far, So Good, A 5 Star Review, If I do say so myself- and I do- From Eric Herning and Imperial Beach, California. And Eric said honestly, I was hoping for more of an instruction manual for a new Scoutmaster.

I was pleasantly surprised at how well the narrative flowed from scout meeting to scout meeting, touching on the author's experience, And I reflected on my own troop while reading the book And, while not yet a Scoutmaster, felt it prepared me to be a Scoutmaster, Learning that being the Scoutmaster is more than just knowing how to lead, but how to teach the scouts to lead. I'd recommend this book to anyone.

Well, thanks so much, Eric, I appreciate that And, yes, So Far, So Good is definitely not a training manual. It's not a step-by-step how to do things, And here's the deal right. This is why I wrote it the way that I did, Because how do you learn the kind of soft skills- I guess you would call them soft skills- that a Scoutmaster needs are things that you really can't reduce to like step 1,, 2,, 3.. And you can't do in a training course or anything like that. It's something that you have to work at, an experience, And I had 30 years experience with it. I felt like I got reasonably good at it And after trying to get all this in writing to show somebody what I'm talking about, the best form ended up being a story.

Who knew? But no, Eric, I really appreciate the review. Every week I try and have a couple of live chat sessions, usually Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. They're held at scoutmasterscgcom. I'll announce when I'm going to be online on my Facebook feed and my Twitter feed. Come on over say hello, Join in with the rest of the many, many scouts who sign in each week.

Some of them we call frequent fliers because they come back again and again, And this past week, Rob checked in with us from North Plainfield, New Jersey. He's an assistant Scoutmaster of Troop 235 and the committee chair of PAC 135.. And Rob visited with us for his first time, as did Matt Thompson, who is with Troop 216 in Eureka, Kansas, where he's the committee chairman, and Hugh Biscoe, who is in Sycamore, Illinois, with Troop 18, where he's the Scoutmaster in PAC 141 and he's active at the district level and all kinds of things like. A lot of scouts are. Thanks for stopping in and saying hello for the first time. You can join them this coming week.

This coming week, look Tuesday and Wednesday mornings, Watch the Facebook feed and the Twitter feed. Come join us at scoutmastercgcom for a live chat.

Now, if you stop by and you check out scoutmastercgcom and you listen to the podcast and you're getting something out of it, well, you can help me keep them all up and running by becoming a backer or by becoming a patron, Two very simple ways to lend us a little support. If you want to check them out, go to scoutmastercgcom. Look up at the top of the page, the very top menu, You'll see a support link That'll take you to different ways that you can become a backer, which is making kind of a one-time subscription payment, And also right there you'll see a link to Patreon, P-A-T-R-E-O-N, where you can become a patron, which is an ongoing commitment to make a monthly subscription payment of $5 or more.

So do that for me this week. Just at least check it out, No pressure.

Okay, If you're getting something out of this and you'd like to help out, I'd really appreciate it. And I want to take a moment this week to personally thank Bob Tribucci, Steven Siruti and Edward Guzman for becoming backers since last week, since our last podcast Once again, scoutmastercgcom. Right there at the top of the page There's a support link, There's a Patreon link. Check it out. This week's podcast is all about summer camp.

Yes, it is only April, but we might as well start thinking about what summer camp is going to do for us this year and how to prepare ourselves. So I've got a message for scouters and I've got a message for scout parents And that's going to take up the remainder of the podcast.

So let's get started, shall we?

In this summer camp special podcast, I want to play for you something I recorded about three years ago: 10 things that scouts can do to make summer camp really successful and comfortable and a lot of fun. Won't be too long before we're all packed up and ready to take our big crowd of scouts to summer camp. I am looking forward to it, as I do every summer. This will be summer number 29, or summer maybe 29..

Yeah, I think summer number 29.. A lot of those summers my role at summer camp was being on staff instead of being the Scoutmaster for our troop. I did that for about a dozen years in different senior positions and a couple of those were as the camp director. That many years of working at camp and the couple of years being a camp director and keeping up with our current staff- and I can tell you something: things haven't changed a great deal. The program, though, that changes a lot. The program, though, that changes a little bit.

And you know, different people come, but the same issues are the perennial issues, that kind of make or break your week at summer camp. We've attended the same summer camp since the troop was first chartered in the 1940s.

Some of you like to go to different camps every year, try out different things, you know, and that's all good. I don't think there's a right or a wrong way to do it. The right thing is getting out for a week at summer camp.

After all those years on staff and having spent a long time as a Scoutmaster at camp and watching you know literally thousands of scout leaders and tens of thousands of scouts go through a summer camp week- I can tell you- I believe, authoritatively- that these are the most important things for you to be thinking about. As an adult who's going to spend a week at camp. The number one thing is: don't overdo it and kind of make yourself into a time bomb.

Okay, If you get hungry or hot and tired and thirsty, you need to pay attention to that and you need to get cool and rested and fed and hydrated. I know I get pretty cranky if I don't look after myself, and years of observation prove that many of my fellow scouters share the same problem. When you're going to spend a week at camp with a group of scouts, the temptation is going to be to try to keep up with them.

Now, more power to you if you can do that and not feel any effects. But most of us aren't 16 anymore, right?

So we have to look after ourselves and looking after yourself. Most importantly, that you get hydrated and rested is really, really important because if you turn yourself into this kind of ticking time bomb so that by the end of the week you have no patience left and you're getting a little touchy and you're getting kind of cranky, it's going to make everybody's life miserable.

So that's probably that's the number one thing and that's why it's at the top of the list. Number two: I can tell you that the camp staff is totally dedicated to making your stay at camp worthwhile.

I can tell you that I know that I've been to natural camp school- I think I went to five different years of that- and I know people from camps all over the country and I know that they put their heart into it. None of them are in it for the money- The money is not good- but they're there because they want to make this a great experience for the scouts and, in turn, for the adults that are accompanying the scouts there. One of the great experiences at a summer camp are the younger people who are on the staff of the camp. They're learning and growing just like your scouts are, and you need to be considerate and supportive of them. That is a really important way to make life better while you're at camp: to be considerate and supportive of the staff, because that's what they're trying to do for you. Number three: no matter how much you think they deserve it, never berate or criticize or argue with or yell at a staff member, a youth leader or a fellow adult leader in the presence of your scouts.

If it really needs to happen, a quiet talk at an appropriate distance, out of earshot from scouts, will usually solve the problem and a lot of times, if you're like me, you're going to find out- the problem might be yours. Number four is not to pull rank. You should understand what that means. Let's say you're a Scoutmaster and you go down to camp with your troop.

Well, you're a Scoutmaster, You're not a general or an admiral or the president, so there really isn't any rank for you to pull, is there? Most people instantly respect the position that adults occupy at camp. The staff respects it and the scouts respect it. Don't make a big giant deal out of it. Don't ask for special privileges or try to impress staff members with your self-importance or your encyclopedic knowledge of the things that they are doing. They're very proud of what they are doing, They're working hard to do it and you going in there and telling them.

Everything you know about it is not necessarily going to be very welcome. I'm in a situation where I used to be the camp director at the camp and I used to be on staff. I've been going there longer than any staff member has right at this point. But I don't expect to be treated much differently than any other scout leader and it's important that I keep that attitude and that I play the game and I go by the rules and I don't expect any special favors. Number five is: join in the program and encourage your scouts to join in too. If you travel around, if you go to a different camp every year, you're going to hit a program that you don't like.

It's almost inevitable. You're going to hit a program that maybe, in your humble opinion, isn't all that great and a staff that's not all that great. I got to tell you from the staff side of things. A lively, appreciative, supportive audience does more than anything to enliven and energize a camp staff. Just being nice, Even when things are going wrong, Even when you think things are not great and maybe even that you're being mistreated, it doesn't cost much to be nice. There is a nominal kind of customer relationship, right, You plunk down money and your scouts plunk down money to go to camp and you expect a certain level of service and accommodation and things like that.

Well, you know, let's remember, a scout camp is not club med and a scout camp is not necessarily going to be a highly polished professional atmosphere of, you know, absolute excellence. Camp staffs go through cycles, They have down years and they have up years and camps go through cycles like that.

You know, the whole idea in all of this- and I am saying is being a little humble and being cooperative and not complaining and grousing and being kind of that disgruntled customer- If you have a very bad experience, you'll want to talk to somebody. But I got to tell you the 15-year-old staff member, the guys that are working at camp, they're not the ones that are going to be able to change things. You want to get in touch with somebody at the council office. You want to talk to the camp director. Maybe, like I said, your attitude is going to have a great deal to do with the quality of your experience. Number six is to participate in ceremonies and traditions and practices of the camp, even if they're not very familiar to you.

And you know, I'll say again, even if you really don't care for them all that much. A camp staff is very proud of its traditions. Imposing your way of doing things on a camp staff, imposing your traditions on them, is really kind of rude. It's like going into somebody else's house and rearranging the furniture.

Play along, There's going to be a specific way that a camp take, you know, has a retreat ceremony and that's going to be a tradition that they've had and developed over a number of years and it's what people are used to and you know it. May there may be little details of it that rub you the wrong way, but listen, play along, Have a good time.

You know the way that they do a campfire, the way things are done in the dining hall, the way that merit badge sessions are set up. Go along with it and do your best to encourage your scouts to do the same. Number seven: you want to keep an eye on any kind of inner-true rivalries that may develop.

You know, for the most part your scouts are going to be out and about pretty much independently during the day and they're going to be running into other scouts and you have absolutely no control over what other scouts are going to do and you have, you know, only a little bit of control over what your scouts are going to do or say. And boys are boys and they get real competitive and sometimes that can lead to things that aren't very productive.

So you want to watch out. I'm not saying that any of this is necessarily negative, but often with scout age boys, the idea of sportsmanship is not necessarily always foremost in their mind.

So you want to talk about that and you want to check in on that and make sure that your scouts, at least that, are very sports-like and fair-minded and courteous. Number eight is something that we say all the time: give your youth leaders all the responsibility for success.

See that they understand what needs to be done at camp, how and why it needs to be done, and then let them at it and observe from a distance. Check in with them every evening, check in with them every afternoon, check in with them every morning, ask lots of questions, make sure that they are familiar with the program and they're looking for somebody in charge. I send them to the senior patrol leader and the senior patrol leader works with the patrol leaders and they have a great time at it, because summer camp is a great patrol building time. You can really make something out of that opportunity if you give the youth leaders the full responsibility for making their week a success. Number nine is: be proud of your scouts and encourage them and congratulate them and admire them, but don't try to be one of them. Remember you're the coach, you're not a player.

Get on the field. Don't try and join in the youth activities. Let the scouts enjoy them. Every once in a while the opportunity to jump in at the scout level may present itself, but don't interfere. And I have seen that type of thing happen a great deal at camp.

You know it's exciting and it's fun and the scouts are having a great time and then the adults decide that they want to do the same type of thing. It doesn't work really well. Keep an eye on that. Number ten is: be patient with yourself. Be patient with your scouts, be patient with the camp staff. Don't sacrifice the perfectly good for the perfect.

Here's this kind of thing that happens when a scouter goes to camp and he's very closely identified with his scouts and the troop and everything like that, and every little thing seems to matter: the way the boys walk around camp, what they do at a retreat ceremony, the way that they act in the dining hall is some kind of personal reflection back on the scouter, and scouts can get a little testy about that and they get defensive about it. It really tends to color the whole way that they're approaching the camp experience. The camp is there for the scouts. They'll take care of you, they'll help you. They'll probably even have some activities especially for scouts to do. In the end, you've got to be patient, you've got to roll with the punches and don't take yourself all that seriously.

So those are 10 things that, from my experience as a Scoutmaster and as a camp director, I hope will help you have a great week at summer camp. So I hope you found that helpful. Summer camp is a great place. I hope those 10 things will help you think it through a little bit.

Now I want to share with you something I recorded a couple years ago back in. Well, it's 2014. This was originally aired on podcast 228.

Now we're pretty good at getting ourselves ready to go to camp and getting our scouts ready to go to camp and all the administrativa and all the logistics of preparing right. But one of the things we may miss is preparing the parents who are not going, who are sending their children with us to summer camp.

What are they going to be dealing with that week and how can they help their scouts better prepare? So here's something I recorded a couple years ago, in 2014, that talks about just that.

You know, I have seen that worried. Look, so many times it happens just after parents have brought their scout down to camp and they have gone in, they see the tent that he's going to be staying in and they kind of look around a little bit and they look at me and the other adults are going to be staying there during the week and they kind of reluctantly start dragging their feet up the trail and they look a little uncertain that they're ready to do this themselves. Most of the time the scouts- they're not even thinking right because they're at camp, they're happy, they're there with their buddies and they're looking forward to a great week. But parents sometimes, hey, this can catch them by surprise because they concentrate a lot on preparing their scout to go to camp but they may be unaware of the fact that, hey, this is going to hit them a little bit.

They are leaving their child at a camp in the care of people who they may know really well and maybe not know really well, and they may feel a little uncomfortable turning over full-time care of their child to somebody who they've just gotten to know and they're going to worry about what kind of food the scout will be eating and who will be looking after daily concerns like clean clothes and taking showers and making sure they eat and making sure they don't get hurt, and they kind of wonder if the older scouts are going to be nice or if they're going to tease them. Hey, you know, if you've had this experience, I really don't have to explain it to you.

I mean, what happens if you take your child to camp and they just don't like camp? Can they call home or can you check in on them? Oh, it can be really, really anxious, and I have seen this anxiety in parents of scouts headed to camp for the first time for many, many years. Many of those parents find the experience more difficult than their children do, and if they wait for the first contact from camp, the first letter home, they don't find a lot of solace in that either, because it may sound pretty miserable, even though a scout's having the time of his life.

So the question then becomes: how can we scouters help parents prepare for how they're going to feel once they've dropped their scouts off at camp and returned home for a very, very quiet and sometimes anxious week? Being separated from your child for this length of time is a new challenge for every parent, even though many others have gone through it before and try to be as supportive as possible. It really comes down to the way that you end up feeling and acknowledging that this causes most parents at least a little bit of anxiety and distress, that it's a normal part of your child growing up, that it's temporary and you're going to feel better about it is going to help. As somebody who's gone to summer camp for decades, I understand that most scouts, especially younger ones, will experience some level of homesickness and they're going to experience some ups and downs because camp is challenging- and it ought to be. It's a great challenge for them, but what you need to understand as a parent is that his fellow scouts and the scouters that are with him and the camp staff are all working hard to make this challenge a positive experience, and scouts get a lot out of it year after year after year. While you're concentrating on getting your scout ready to go to camp.

Prepare yourself too. Here's some ways that you can do just that. The first one sounds pretty easy to understand, but it bears a little explanation, and that is, first of all, as a parent, think positively. The overwhelming percentage of scouts have a typically great time at summer camp. They absolutely thrive on it and they come home happy. Your positive attitude about that is important, because if you're going to be anxious about it and you're going to worry about it, you're going to communicate that to them during the preparations.

Whether you like it or not, they're going to kind of get that message. So instead of discussing your worries or how much you're going to miss them or you don't know how you're going to deal with this week, talk about the new experiences that your scout will have at camp and all the positive potential involved.

Now, anxiety usually comes from something that we don't know about or understand. So make sure to ask the scouters who are going to camp with your scout all the questions you like- and there are no silly questions, really, there are none. If you have a concern or an anxiety or worry about exactly what's going to happen at camp, all the scouters who's going and sit down and ask them all of those questions. Get them to explain things to you and it's going to make you feel better. It's always better to ask than to worry, and I have talked with a lot of parents sending their scout down to camp for the first time who are concerned that I'm going to think they're silly or they're overreacting or that they're asking questions that I haven't heard before. It goes a long, long way if you can sit down, be patient with a parent and do your best to answer all of the questions that they may have.

Now, as a parent, you need to understand and respect the way that your scout will be communicating with you while they're at camp. Now, in the age of cell phones and things you know, it's going to depend a lot upon the way that the scouters who are taking your scout to camp are going to work within that technology.

Will they be writing letters home? Will the letters get home in time?

Will you be able to check in with the camp or with the scouter? Look, if you're really anxious about this and you're anxious about being out of touch with your scout for a long period of time like this, talk to the scouter about it and see what you can do to set up a communication plan so that you can check in with the scouter or the scout and realize that that's important both to your state of mind at home and to your scout's state of mind at camp. And finally, my suggestion to you as a parent: if you are sending your scout off to camp, plant something wonderful to do while they're away. You may have siblings at home that you need to look after. You have your regular daily routine that you're going to follow and everything. Take advantage of the little bit of freedom that this is going to afford you and make some plans.

It'll be great. So I understand that. Look, I know when parents are anxious about these types of things and I don't laugh it off. I don't think you're being silly, I don't think you're being childish, because this is a big challenge, not only for your scout, but it can be a very big challenge for parents too. Once again, think positively and, as you're preparing your scout to go to camp, talk about all the wonderful things that are going to happen and the wonderful potential and possibilities of the week at camp. Try and stay away from telling them how much you're going to miss them or how worried you're going to be.

Ask the scouters who are going to camp with your scout all the questions that you like, because it's always better to know than to worry about something that you're not quite too sure about understand. And plan the way that you're going to be able to communicate with your scout. And once again, ask the folks who are going to camp with them. And finally, take advantage of the fact that you're going to have a little bit of freedom that week too, and plan something great. My experience over the past couple, three decades means anything. What's going to happen is, at the end of that week of scout camp, your scout's going to come home feeling confident, having had a great experience, and you're going to see that in them and see the value of this experience both for them and for you as a parent.

So all that advice is aimed at helping parents get prepared for summer camp. Plus, I shared earlier the ten things that you can do as a scouter to kind of help prepare yourself and make that week a great week, and I hope that helps as you start the countdown to the best week of the year, right, the week that you have to go and spend at summer camp. Hey, if you have a question about it or comment. Get in touch with me and I'm going to tell you how to do that in just a moment.