Scoutmaster Podcast 325

I'm Paul Pfefferli and I'm a scoutmaster with troop number 23 in Bluefield, New Jersey. This edition of the Scoutmaster podcast is sponsored by backers like me. Thanks, Paul.

And now to you, scoutmaster. I hope you had as fine a summer as I did. You got to get out and do a lot of good camping. This is an observation that came to me this summer after being out camping for a while, And that is that a nylon tent, or even a canvas tent, is not a soundproof booth And scouts don't understand that.

Maybe we should let them know, I don't know.

Hey, this is podcast number 325.. Welcome back to the Scoutmaster podcast. This is Clarke Green. It's good to be back.

We had a nice long break this summer And I'm going to go straight to the mailbag, because we heard from a lot of folks while we were away And we'll be picking away at emails here for the next couple of three podcasts. The first message comes from Vincent Cardin And he's an assistant scoutmaster with Troop 900 in Prince George's, Virginia, And he writes in to say: just finished our first summer camp at T Brady Saunders, right here in the heart of Virginia Council. My son is a tenderfoot- had an extraordinary time. We've been working on his swimming prowess for over a year and a half to get him ready for swimming merit badge requirements and he did great.

He completed all the requirements and we were ecstatic. Seeing a wonderful and different part of my son during an after camp really gives me pause to thank God for our great organization. Thanks for what you do and keep up the great work. Every scouter knows that feeling, The accomplishment that you see in your scouts. Here's hoping that's the first of many, many more.

Here's a review of my book So far, so good on Amazon, a five star review by Jim Green. No relation there. Jim says it's a nice, quick story that along the way gives lessons on the how and why of the patrol method and a youth led troop.

These are so timeless in construct that the book could have been written in any era. But that's the point. Scouts are learning to become adults and the tried and true methods work if we let them. Even if you think your troop is perfectly youth led, let this book test your assumption and clarify your motivations.

Well, thanks so much, Jim. I'm glad you enjoyed the book.

Once again, I'll take the opportunity to make a shameless self-promoting plug, but the name of the book is So Far, So Good- A New Scoutmaster Story. If you haven't heard of it, you can get a copy at Amazon. I'll have a link in the podcast notes. You can also get a audiobook version And, if you're interested, you can become a backer and get a special autographed version. I'll talk more about that in a minute. Heard from Bob Hughes, who's the scoutmaster of Troop Five at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois, And Bob and I exchanged a number of emails about High Adventure last year and I heard for this from him recently.

We made it back from the Boundary Waters Canoe Area a few weeks ago. The troops' first High Adventure trip in 15 plus years is behind us, but the memories are forever. It's amazing how easy it was to actually plan. We covered over 40 miles and I wanted to drop a line before too much time passed, and thank you for your encouragement.

Keep on encouraging other adults to change the world by encouraging our youth Well, thanks so much, Bob. We had a great High Adventure trip up in Algonquin Park in Ontario, Canada, this year. 20 people in three crews went up for a week of canoeing. High Adventure belongs on your scout calendar. Every scout should have the opportunity to participate in a High Adventure trip like this. We'll be back to having live chats here soon.

What you do is keep an eye on the Facebook feed and the Twitter feed, okay, And I will put an announcement up when we're live at scoutmastercgcom. You stop in, sign in to the chat, say hello, And we have deep discussions about important things and sometimes we just talk about the weather.

So But in our last live chat, which was quite a while back, a lot of our frequent fliers checked in, as did Susan Benedict, who's an assistant Scoutmaster in Missouri. Watch our Facebook feed and our Twitter feed. Come and join us in a live chat. It's great fun. Let me take a moment before I go any further, just to remind you if you're a regular reader and listener and the resources we've created have helped you.

I want to take a moment and ask you to return the favor by supporting our work financially. There's two ways to do this.

You can make a one-time payment and become a scoutmastercgcom backer, or you can make a monthly subscription payment of $5 or more via Patreon, And there are special premiums available to anyone becomes a patron or a backer. What you do is go to scoutmastercgcom, look up at the top of the page, You'll see a link to become a patron. You'll see a link to become a backer. I'll also have those links in the podcast notes. Check them out this week, See what'll work for you. And I would like to take a moment to personally thank Dean Roberts, Paul Fefferly, Trisha Hackney, Mike Johnstone, Michael Laughlin and John Swetowski, who've become backers since our last podcast, And I also want to thank Mark Eshin, who's become a patron since our last podcast.

Take a little time this week, figure out what option works for you and I'll be sure to thank you personally on next week's podcast. Well, the rest of this week's podcast is going to be taking up answering email questions. A lot of them came in over the break and we'll get a good start on. I've got three lined up and that's going to take up the remainder of the podcast.

So let's get started, shall we? You were always on the beat boy, beat boy. You were always on the beat boy, beat boy. I'll hang it in the street boy, street boy. We re-dancing to the beat boy, beat boy. Write me a letter, send it by name Email.

That is folks.

And here's an answer to one of your emails. Often, because of the nature of the questions asked to me in email, I withhold the names of the people who asked them, in their locations and things, And that's going to be true of this first question. It came from a new Scoutmaster who's been a Scoutmaster for about a year, Had a behavior problem at summer camp recently, something pretty serious And I'm not going to go into details about exactly what it was, but had a similar problem with the same scout at a previous camp and had a conference with the scout And the parent thought it worked out. After the most recent incident They took the position that the scout should probably be removed from the troop. The parent defended the actions of the scout and claims that the troop didn't do enough to prevent the incident.

So they had to feel through this situation here- not a very good one, very difficult situation. Ultimately they got the chartered organization involved and the chartered organization's decision was to remove the scout from a troop. And this scouter wrote in to ask me if I agreed with the decision or if I've heard of anything similar. And indeed I have, and I'm sorry to hear about that kind of trouble- And I haven't had to deal with the particular behavior described in this email, But I've dealt with bad behavior that results in removing a scout from the troop. It's a pretty traumatic thing to do And it's a pretty traumatic thing to go through as a scouter, and anybody who has to do that has my sympathies.

Now, this is not something that happens all the time. It's not a regular occurrence. In my 30 plus years as a scouter I can only recall one incident that was serious enough to merit having to do this.

And you know, no matter how ardently we believe in our scouts and how hard we try and help them, sometimes it's just not going to work And thankfully that is a rare situation, But it can really knock the wind out of you as a scouter. Now I won't second guess the decision that was made or the way it was made.

It sounds like everything was handled well in this situation And this kind of decision is ultimately the charter organization's decision in consultation with the troop committee, who's also talking with the Scoutmaster and assistant Scoutmasters. Then you also involve the scout executive in this particular thing, And that's sometimes an important part of arriving at a workable resolution. My guess is, if you're like me, there's at least a shadow of doubt in your mind whether you did the right thing or not.

I think that would be true of most of the people listening, because the point of our volunteering is because we really believe in young people, And when we have to take a step like this, it's very discouraging And I think there's a lot of second guessing involved, if you're like me, especially if a parent accuses you of not having done enough to prevent what happened. Whenever I bring up a behavior problem with a parent, usually they react by defending their child.

I kind of expect it, because I think that's the same way I would react if I was confronted with a problem that my child caused. But what's really most important is that scouting happens in an atmosphere of mutual trust and brotherhood rather than a matrix of rules and regulations. The rational measures we take to protect our scouts from harm can't prevent every possible problem.

I've been through a lot of difficult situations, and some still cause me some discomfort when I think about them and I wonder if I could have handled them better, But I've come to understand that that discomfort is evidence of the sensitivity required of anybody who's going to spend their time working with young people. After I sent that reply, the writer got back to me and said: thanks for your words of encouragement and advice. Your reply helps me tremendously to deal with the second thoughts in my head after going through this. The most difficult part was some people in the troop wanted to offer a provisional membership to the scout if their parent attended or something like that, and I disagreed and we're still working that out.

Well, I've heard the idea of allowing a scout to continue on who's been a behavior problem if their parent is going to be present all the time, But it's not going to work because scouting doesn't work that way. There's no way to have authentic scouting, with a parent who is going to be there, closely involved in the oversight of a scout's behavior. That sort of arrangement would fundamentally change the experience for all the scouts involved and not just this particular scout. And while we're on the subject, there are very few times when you're going to be faced with the prospect of having to remove somebody from a unit. A pattern of serious misbehavior is something that you have to deal with. Take the scout, sit down with their parents and say: you have to correct this behavior, otherwise he can't be a part of our troop.

Sometimes that will fix the problem, but sometimes the behavior goes on and then you have to take the action that you took. This next message- oh, we'll keep this one anonymous too.

What do you think of a required mock board of review for Eagle Scout or for any advancement? A mock board of reviews, so kind of a court exercise or something?

A practice board of review? Well, I don't have to go very far to answer that question, because if you look in the guide to advancement, here's what you'll find. Quote: the BSA discourages mock or practice boards of review. Practice reviews may imply that board members will ask predetermined questions or the board of review is anticipated to be other than a positive experience. Instead, the advancement committee should aim for unrehearsed, spontaneous answers revealing character, citizenship and personal fitness at boards of review. You'll find that under the heading Conducting Boards of Review and if you want the numbers on that here they are 8.0.1.0.

I'll have a link in the podcast notes so you can find it real easy. Note the verbiage there. The BSA discourages these things. And if a troop should, in my opinion, decide to hold practice or mock boards of review against the advice of the BSA, then these cannot be required because that would constitute adding to the requirements for the rank. And under the heading of policy on unauthorized changes to the advancement program, which is found right in the front of the guide to advancement, you'll find this statement, quote: no council, committee, district, unit or individual has the authority to add to or subtract from advancement requirements unquote.

So those are some pretty clear statements and this is not my opinion. Okay, It's all very clearly worded policy and when you sign up to be a volunteer in the BSA, you agree to follow all that to the letter. If I found that my son was member of a troop who did not follow the advice of the BSA or required scouts to complete unauthorized requirements, I would get out of there and find another troop that gets things right.

And the third and final email message I'm going to answer on this podcast comes from James, who asks: what tips do you have for a Scoutmaster who is new to the idea of having an active 18 to 20 year old in an assistant Scoutmaster role? Well, James, I was a very young Scoutmaster at age 24- and that was a long time ago, over 30 years ago.

The proximity to the scouts ages and the kind of energy I had for the work as a young adult was different than I have now as an older adult or I had as a parent. So when we're shaping a strategy for working with a young adult assistant Scoutmaster, we want to make sure we're considering that energy and that they will have the ability to communicate with scouts probably a lot better than we will.

I've had the great pleasure of having any number of guys who were 18,, 19,, 20 sign on as assistant Scoutmasters and remain fairly active for a time, and what we did in that case was kind of build a third layer of leadership. There's the youth, the young adults and the older adults.

When I have a young adult assistant Scoutmaster or junior assistant Scoutmasters, I will train and mentor them to do what I have done with the youth leaders and take one more step into the background as they become more capable of doing it, The goal being to let them take on as much of my Scoutmaster responsibilities as they would accept, because there's a lot of fun and satisfaction in that work and I want to share that with them. It's not so much that I don't want responsibility or I don't want to do the work.

Do you understand what I'm saying? Kind of creating a third level.

And when you're working with young adults, the things they're up to at this time in life, they're going to be around for a year or so if you're lucky, if they're in school and they're local enough to still participate with the troop. Well, you know, you're going to have to have some very realistic expectations of exactly how much time they're going to be able to devote to all of this.

And that's a real good discussion to have with them up front, just so everybody's clear about exactly what your expectations are, what their expectations are, and then expect it to change. Because, hey, when you're in your early 20's, lots of things change, don't they?

But you never know, James, you may be working with a future Scoutmaster there, so keep your eyes open, Listen. If you have a comment or a question, you want to get in touch with me. It's pretty easy to do and I'm going to tell you how to make that happen in just a moment.