Scoutmaster Podcast 328

I'm racer 187, Ryan Smith, and I am a we blows den leader with pack 88 and an assistant Scoutmaster with troupe 88 in hopat con, New Jersey. This edition of the Scoutmaster podcast is sponsored by backers like me.

And now to you, Scoutmaster, Face with a challenge. Our perspective determines whether we're looking at a mountain or a molehill, So we we shouldn't mistake one for the other or try to make one into the other. Get up real close to a molehill. It looks kind of mountainous and Vice versa.

Right?

Hey, this is podcast number. What number is it? It's 328.

Well, welcome back to the Scoutmaster podcast. This is Clarke Green, Back again to look in the mail bag. Let's see what we've got going. Darryl is the Scoutmaster, troop 132, and he wrote in after last week's podcast to say there's been a great big hole this past month while you haven't been Podcasting.

I so look forward to Monday afternoons when a new podcast arrives. It's great to hear your voice and counsel again.

Well, well, thank you, Darryl. I appreciate that.

Also heard from Verl Dasher, who said I just finished reading the scouting journey And I want you to know that I enjoyed it immensely. I'm gonna recommend your book to all my scouter friends, Thanks for writing the book. You put words to many of my feelings. Happy trails, Happy trails to you, Verl and my book. The scouting journey is what Verl is talking about and I kind of made it a discussion of the scouting program in the form of a map for Scouters who've been around for a while, or maybe new scouters to, and you can get it on Amazon And I'll make sure to have a link to it in the podcast notes. Kevin Lensch listened to podcast 327, our last podcast, And he had this comment: when I was a boy a scout in my troop Had a scrap with a scout from another troop at a camperee.

The next committee meeting was held at our house and My two brothers and myself heard it all through the ducts. Oh Yeah, I remember that when I was growing up.

You know The adults would be in the other part of the house And if you were real quiet and you got your ear next to that heating duct Sometimes you could hear right. But anyway, at the meeting the question of whether to retain or dismiss the scout who got into the scrap at the camperee was up for discussion and Frankly, most of the committee was ready to tell him that he could no longer be a member of the troop.

But one committee member asked the right questions: Why does scouting exist if not for boys like this? We show them a better path, Do we not? The scouting question was retained and shown the better path. After all, we're scouts, not Saints, and Saints many times had to be shown the better path.

I Couldn't agree, the more, Kevin, I think you know if, if the adults in my life had just meted out justice according to my actions when I was The age of our scouts, I Would. I it would have been pretty rough going. We needed understanding.

We need second chances and third chances and fourth chances. We need Some help when we're that age. Hey, once or twice a week We try and have a live chat session over at Scoutmaster CG comm. If you follow me on Twitter or you follow me on Facebook, I will announce when the live chat sessions are going to be and I'll clue you in.

Right now They're usually on Tuesday and or Wednesday mornings. If you keep an eye on the Twitter feed and the Facebook feed, You can come and join me at scoutmastercgcom with a lot of frequent fliers Who check in for a live chat and there we discuss matters of great moment and seriousness and the weather.

So it's usually a useful conversation. We have a lot of fun and, In addition to all of the folks that usually show up, Steven nigh cloud, who is a new Scoutmaster and her to Virginia, was there recently, as was Lynn, Who's a pack committee chair in the Pittsburgh area, and Don Kennedy, who's the Scoutmaster of treat treat of troop 345 in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Before I go any further, I want to pause here to thank Paul Geisler and Dave Boring. Paul and Dave Added their names to the list of Scoutmaster CG comm backers since our last podcast, And I also want to take the time to thank all the folks who subscribe Via patreon.

Now, if you'd like to become a backer or join our patreon subscribers, You can visit Scoutmaster CG comm and you'll find links to follow at the top right of any page And I'll make sure to have links on how to become a backer or a patron in this episode's podcast notes. Well, in this week's podcast We've got a couple more emails to answer and that's going to take up the remainder of the podcast.

So let's get started, shall we? 8-7, 6-5-4-3, 2-1,. Let's start the fun. Write me a letter, send it my name

Email. That is, folks, and here's an answer to one of your emails. This first email came in a while back after the author listened to podcast 326, Where I was talking about advice for a senior patrol leader, and he said: I'm a Scoutmaster Who's been pushing pretty hard for the patrol system as such.

I want to add a few more thoughts to what you had to say in podcast 326. Number one is: this is going to take some time, like years. We're making progress, but it takes some time for the scouts to realize what the patrol system is, and Adults and scouts also need time to adjust to the change. Your current senior patrol leader may be starting out or continuing a Scoutmaster's journey that will last long after the current senior patrol leader is aged out.

Yeah, so let's reply to this one point by point. First of all, I don't know. Scouts get this pretty much right away. They understand the patrol system. They operate under the patrol system in just about every other area of their life. It's a very natural thing for scout age children to do.

The other things that they're involved in are usually all heavily Adult influenced and led, and so that's what they expect out of scouts. And when they get to scouts and they find out, Hey, no, you're gonna be, you're gonna be pulling the cart and you're gonna be making things happen.

That can stop them in their tracks for a very short period of time, But as soon as they get the idea they will go, they will start making things happen in minutes at scale now, Because, let's remember, they're not adults. So I would stop pushing them and expecting that they will act like adults or Representing that the patrol system is something they're hard to understand. No, it's not. It's very natural. It's very simple for for scouts to understand.

Going back to the email, The second point this person wanted to make is: if the scouts want to lead, they need to lead, Emphasized in the email. Okay, is the Patrol Leaders Council discussing the program for next year and presenting it to the Scoutmaster?

Or is the Patrol Leaders Council barely able to plan three meetings in an hour and need to be told to stay to get a plan together For the next six months for a Scoutmaster? Youth led is excruciating if the scouts aren't doing their job for whatever reason, and it's a real joy when the youth leadership is trying. I Am constantly looking for ways to get scouts to lead. Most of them involve walking away and biting my tongue.

Okay, so to reply to that point, I don't know. I think scouts plan and work at speeds That are much faster and levels of competence much lower than adults.

Scouts Don't value planning so much as adults do, and adults put way too high a premium on plans and presentations. This is a bunch of boys going camping and having fun. They're not building a nuclear power plant, They, you know.

This is so much simpler than you want to make it. And yes, We ought to be working with our scouts to help them improve their skills in Making plans and communicating plans and carrying plans out. But that's not the goal.

That's not, you know, That's not. That's not the final prize. The final prize for us. The aim is developing people's character, not developing their Secretarial skills. Back to the third and final point in this email. Even if the Scoutmaster wants to encourage scout leadership, He faces real constraints from fellow adult scouters and parents.

They may not understand the purpose or why things are happening the way that they do. Some decisions need to be made quickly and that's tough when everything goes back to the patrol leaders council. I can and do walk away and let the scouts figure it out, But that doesn't mean that the other adults walk away or refrain from griping about it.

Well, again, I can't really agree with what you're telling me there, Because of course, there are things that only adults can decide. Sometimes And times when you make a decision without consulting scouts and you direct them to do things. Our youth are engaged in leadership in partnership with adults. It's not an on or off kind of binary condition. It's not about who makes plans or decisions. It's about who leads.

Decision making, planning and leadership are not the same thing. They are three totally different things. And, like I was saying before, our work is not focused on teaching boys how to plan or make decisions or to lead, But to give them opportunities to develop their character. Given the right focus and conditions, They're going to learn how to make decisions, plan and lead others Through those opportunities. And yes, youth led activities are Absolutely excruciating if you're observing them from the wrong end of the binoculars. I mean, most scout led activities are in the a verge of devolving into something that looks like utter chaos, if they are don't Already look like utter chaos.

Looks like is The key term here, though a beehive looks like chaos until you learn to look for what's really going on right. Scouts can and will get a lot done under their own leadership, Even though you may not like the way it looks or sounds. And if you are looking for detailed, nuanced planning and mature forethought, You're looking for the wrong things. That is not how boys operate. The one thing that I've said many, many times, and I will repeat here, is: scouts will let Scouters do everything. Scouts are smart.

They are advanced efficiency experts. They exercise perfect Logical system.

Right, why should I do something that an adult's going to do if I don't? Or why should I do something if, every time I do, an adult complains about the way I do it or has some comment to make about the way I do it?

Yeah, that's pretty frustrating way to be, isn't it? If I'm a scout, I'm here for two reasons. The first one is to hang out with my friends, and the second one is to go camping. The rest of it, I can take it or leave it. If the adults want to do that, That's fine. I'm here to hang out with my friends and go camping.

If the adults want to make all those plans, Hey, it's no skin off my nose, Why wouldn't I go along with it? Scout-aged children love to play games. They'll spend every waking hour playing a game They enjoy. Tell me the rules of the game, show me the field to play, and I'm ready to go until I drop from sheer Exhaust. If they show no initiative, They either don't like the game, They don't like the conditions under which the game is being played, They don't like the other players or the coach. Otherwise they're going to just jump in and go.

They are naturally motivated to be scouts. They are naturally motivated to want to go do these things, and we want them to hang out with their friends and go camping and have fun, Because we know that these are opportunities for them to develop their character. When we apply the program to these things, We know that these are ways to learn how to become better people, And that's all that matters. That's the trophy. All the other stuff is just window dressing. Put a bookmark there And let me move on to the second email, because it will end up expanding on this theme a little bit.

Naturally, I've withheld the names and the places on these emails because they're a little sensitive. The second email reads this way, my son's position of responsibility Was just taken away from him to advance a boy turning 18 in exactly six months Who hasn't been present at troop meetings or camp house for over a year. I would like your opinion on the matter. We've pretty much decided to switch troops to one we feel is better suited to our needs and my son's personal growth. We also need to know how to formally switch troops and we'd like to know if there are specific forms to fill out.

Well, changing troops is actually pretty simple. As to my understanding, You'll probably end out filling out an application again with the new troop and your son's BSA records and membership will follow them into the new troop, and I'm sure I'm broadly oversimplifying that process, But it is really a pretty simple process. The situation you describe in the old troop with the position of responsibility is odd.

Unfortunately, I think it's pretty common because there's a broad discussion to be had about that and there's usually plenty of Responsibility go around and these responsibilities are more about getting things done than fulfilling advancement requirements. That a scout needs a position of responsibility for advancement Should not have the slightest consideration, in my opinion, in filling positions of responsibility- and 99% of the positions are filled either by a vote of the scouts or by appointment of the senior patrol leader.

So I'm not exactly sure how or why an adult would be able to take these things away or assign them to one scout or another. Sounds like a bad habit to me.

So let's go back to the bookmark We left in the other email discussion. Let's expand on the idea of what is the purpose of having positions of responsibility and maybe Realign our understanding of how they work best. Starting out, Exact language is helpful. That's why I use the construction Positions of responsibility, not leadership positions, not jobs or anything like that. Positions of Responsibility is an excellent term. A baseball team, for instance, has positions, right, And each of those positions has a responsibility tied to it.

The first base player is responsible for first base, But he also has situational responsibilities. So, for example, let's say there's a Long fly ball that drops into deep center or deep right field and there's gonna be a play at the plate.

The first baseman has the situational responsibility of being the cutoff man for the throw to home plate, right? So that kind of construct of a position of responsibility being like any kind of a position in an athletic contest, That that really works for me, when we're talking about scouts.

So to further kind of drill down here, when we're talking about positions, We're not talking about offices or ranks- Okay or- or perks or anything like that. We're talking about positions and we're talking about responsibilities. We're not talking about Jobs to be done or tasks to be done, We're talking about the idea of being responsible.

I do you remember the old Cub Scout law? There was part of it that said the Cub Scout helps the pack go. I always like that turn of phrase. Our scouts make their troop go, they make their patrol go. They don't sit on their hands waiting for instructions, They just kind of get with it.

They, yeah, good luck trying to get them to sit on their hands and wait for instructions, right? No, they're always getting with it. They take the field and get things going. If we come at the idea of youth engagement in leadership in The game of scouting from the perspective of setting up a corporation or a military unit, We miss the kind of engaging fun go part I'm trying to describe. Talked about baseball earlier.

You know what happens during a baseball game in the sandlot, right? You just go out and everybody grabs a glove and You decide who's gonna be on the bases and maybe that'll switch around during the inning.

You know you decide who's gonna be in the field, but there's no written lineup, There's no job descriptions, It's just fun. I'm out there playing baseball. What a great time I'm doing it with my friends. What a great time. I mean, what a tiresome thought that our scouts are going to make a bunch of plans on pieces of paper and Conduct themselves like businessmen in a boardroom somewhere.

I mean we want to seize on the excitement and immediacy of the game. They're playing a game. Scouts is a game. It's not a science, It's not a corporation, It's not a military unit. It's a fantastic fun game. You get to do with your friends.

If we'll step out of the way, the scouts will take up their positions and play that game. You can't help it- and they will do it naturally and joyfully.

So let's talk about the relationship between the program advancement and positions of responsibility, because this is an important thing. In that second email where, You know, the author talked about his son's position of responsibility being taken away and given to somebody who needed it- quote-unquote- Because they wanted to advance.

Well, I can't. There are so many things that are wrong-headed about that. The only way I can explain it is this: Responsibility is the horse, the program is the cart and advancement is the tracks that the cart leaves behind. I'll repeat myself: If we're talking about a horse and a cart- situation, responsibilities of the horse- The scouting program is the cart and Advancement is the tracks that the cart leaves behind. You can't make advancement the horse, You can't make the program of the horse. Responsibility is the only thing in the equation that has any motive power to it.

Think about that. The program is there, It's a cart sitting there, It's ready to go, but it can't go on its own. It's all just a bunch of words and books. It doesn't have muscles or lungs or a heart or a brain, It's just sitting there. Responsibility has all the heart and the muscle. It's the way things happen, and advancement is not even a thing.

It can't go on its own. It's. It's something that happens as the result of Action being taken. It's not the action itself. You can't pull the cart with advancement, because advancement has no motive power to it. The only thing that gets the cart moving is taking responsibility for getting it moving.

So you demonstrate responsibility, the program moves forward and you get Recognized for that movement. The positions of responsibility are there to make things go, Not to parse out advancement opportunities.

When people get in touch with me and they say: well, you know, I have more scouts that need to have a position of responsibility than I have positions of responsibility to go around, We're considering creating a bunch of positions that have no effect so that the scouts can advance. Well, if there's not real Responsibility involved in it, why create an artificial thing that has no responsibility involved in it So that a scout can advance? That doesn't seem right. It doesn't seem right to the scout, It doesn't seem right to anybody.

But that's why, in the instance of star and life rank, We have the option of creating a leadership project. Is what it's called.

I wish it wasn't called a leadership project because I think it confuses things and people think it's like an eagle project or a Service project to some kind. I think it should be a broader kind of wide open way For a scout and a Scoutmaster to sit down and say: I'm gonna take on the following Responsibilities for the following period of time and that will credit me towards advancement because the responsibilities need to be filled anyway. That's kind of what I'm thinking and that's probably a subject for another post or a podcast sometime.

I want to reiterate the main points here. Scouting's a game that you get to play with your friends. There are positions of responsibility involved, but those positions are only there to move things forward.

They're not there so that you get credit and advance, and the only thing that drives things forward is responsibility. The program can't go on its own. It needs responsible individuals to get in front of it and to pull it along, and once you pull it along, then you have advancement as a Result. You can't put advancement in front of the cart. The cart can't move on its own. The only way to get it moving is to have youth engaged in leadership, and that is Responsibility.

That's what gets things going. Hey, if you have an email question, you'd like to get in touch with me? It's very easy to do and I'm gonna tell you how to do it in just a moment.