Scoutmaster Podcast 363

And now it's the old Scoutmaster. Here's a question to ponder: If a scouter is alone in the forest with no scouts around and they speak, will they still be ignored?

Hmm, I think they probably. I think they probably will.

Oh well,

Hey, this is podcast number 363.. Hey, Welcome back to the Scoutmaster Podcast. This is Clarke Green.

We are in the third part of our series of fundamental or foundational things about scouting And I have asked for your thoughts, your reactions, And I want to take a moment to share some of the things that you've been telling me. Heath Richardson is the Scoutmaster of Troop 414 in Norwich, Virginia, And he said: I'm really enjoying your series related to the game of scouting. I've just become a Scoutmaster for our troop and the conversation about mentoring and aiding scouts is very helpful as I work with our patrol leaders council. Keep it up. Thanks, Heath. I'm going to do my best.

I also heard from Tim Standard, who's with Troop 99 in McDonough, Georgia, And he wrote saying I'm lying in my head enjoying my first camping trip as a new Scoutmaster. Well, congratulations, Tim.

Or is it commiserations? I'm not too sure.

It all depends on the kind of day you're having, I guess I want to thank you for your many years of work, publishing blogs and recording podcasts. They've been a great help to me preparing for my new position. It was very inspiring tonight to watch my senior patrol leader and the patrol leaders council planning activities for our camping trip. He is as dedicated as I to making this a youth led troop.

So far, so good. Keep at it, Tim. There are more hammocks and more nights of camping waiting than you can possibly imagine.

I heard from an anonymous scouter who also became a backer and okay, quick commercial, You can become a backer or a patron of the podcast. It's easy to do: Go to scoutmastercgcom, Look at the links at the top of the page to follow the links at the top of the page to do either of those things. I sure do appreciate it. This backer asked not to be identified by name and said: I started listening to a careful selection of your podcast archives.

I've gotten a few good tips so far, since I think I'm already getting value out of your podcast. I became a backer yesterday. It wasn't a hard decision.

The value so far has been understanding our troop is not unique to the challenges we have, that I and my assistant Scoutmasters need to keep reinforcing the patrol method, that scouts run the program, that scouts don't need a bunch of dry presentations or a list telling scouts how to become leaders. I look forward to listening to the rest of your podcast to catch up to real time.

Thank you so much. It's always great to hear from folks and it's always appreciated, and it's not that hard to get in touch with me and I'll tell you how at the end of the podcast.

So on with the series. This week we're talking about the players of the game, our scouts.

So let's get started, shall we?

We began this series by talking about scouting as a game. We talked about our role as the role that's kind of like being a coach, and this week we're going to talk about who plays the game, And that's our scouts.

Last week, when we were talking about our role in the game, I was talking a lot about perspective, and perspective is crucially important, And I'll venture to guess that I introduce perspectives that are kind of uncommon. I know that's a little difficult. Sometimes It may seem like I'm being negative about alternative perspectives, but I'm basing what I'm saying about all this on my understanding of the scouting program, just from study and from looking at the way that it was originally built.

Not because I have like a whole lot of nostalgia, for we need to go back to the old days, but that scouting is built on a very strong framework. It's just that that framework gets obscured in the past century of habits and practices and adult initiatives and organizational initiatives, when it's really a very clear and simple kind of thing. And it's important to mention that because that affects your perspective of what's going on.

In keeping with the analogy that we've been using in this series about scouting being a game and we being coaches and the scouts being players, Let's take up the perspective of an observer and go look at games being played, And this will be true whether we're on a soccer field, a football field, a basketball court, you know wherever we end up. Let's take a look at what's going on. There's a set of rules that define this game that's being played.

There's a goal to playing the game, There are obviously players and there are obviously coaches. There's a field of play, There's sidelines, There's bleachers, and we need to ask ourselves the roles of the different people involved.

So we look at the spectators and the bleachers and we say, OK, well, they're just watching and enjoying this, and they're participating to some extent because, you know, they have a role in the way that the game unfolds. Coaches are participating in a way because they have a role in the way that the game is played, But the real participants are the players on the field of play.

And this fits in with what we were talking about a little bit last week as far as what scouts are and what scouts aren't, what players are and what they aren't. First of all, the players are not clients of the coaches, They're not clients of the spectators and they're not employees of the coaches or the spectators. And I point that out because a lot of times our perspective as scouts- as we look at scouts as clients or employees or soldiers or students or something like that back to back to- are looking at the game just from the outside end, being an observer.

What's essential to the game? What has to be present for us to be able to call this the game? We don't need spectators, We don't need coaches, We don't need an officially marked off field of play, We don't need fancy uniforms and equipment.

We need two things: We need the concepts that shape the game. That is what we've been calling rules in our analogy, and we need the players, And that's it. That's all that's needed to play the game.

So the most important volunteers in scouting- They have more power and influence than the highest scouting official, because without their participation this whole game just comes to a complete halt. These most important volunteers are scouts- bring endless energy and resources and real transformational power to scouting. They're the only volunteers in scouting we simply can't afford to lose And when we look at the whole game from that perspective, when we look at scouting from that perspective, we understand everything about the game is designed to facilitate them being able to reach the ultimate goal of the game, which is the development of character. And everything else about the game is not all that important, And the essential things, the foundational things, the basic things, are really the most important, And that's what this series is designed to highlight.

Let's talk about our scouts for a moment. Why are they volunteering to play the game?

Are they doing it because they're conscious of the goal, that it's the development of character? I think that they are aware that that is happening, but they would be challenged to put it into words or say that that's what's important to them.

So if we were to ask the average scout why they are in scouting, they would probably say because it's fun. And then if we ask them what's fun about it?

Well, they could give us any number of answers, but most of those answers would kind of boil down to the idea that I like to be with my friends, I like to go camping, I like being part of an organized effort group, a tribe if you will. Young people are in scouts because they like to be with their friends and go camping. I don't think that young people articulate why they're doing what they're doing particularly well. They just know. They just know that they get satisfaction out of participating in it.

Now we want to have a slightly more nuanced and advanced idea of exactly what makes them participate, But it doesn't get a whole lot more complicated than that. I am a scout because I like to hang out with my pals and go camping. There you go.

Their motivation is honest and it's simple, And that's why they bring so much energy, And that energy is the transformational power of the program. Our scouts volunteer to be scouts because they like to hang out with their pals and go camping.

So how do we take that tremendous energy and make it possible for them to realize what they want to do. Well, it's kind of simple, right? We create a safe environment for them to hang out with their friends and go camping.

OK, so you got that right. We've talked about scouting as being a game. We talked about our role as coaches. We've talked a little bit about the players. Hey, we're done. There you go, Have fun.

But you're telling me: oh my gosh, it is so much more complicated than that. Yes, I understand that. OK, but most of the complications are unnecessary. They're just things that we don't need. There are things that don't advance us towards the goal.

So if you're a newer listener to the podcast, you're not going to be familiar with what I'm about to do. But I'm going to pull out the old soapbox and stand up on it And I'm going to rant for a short period of time. I started blogging at ScoutmasterCTcom in 2005.. And this is the three hundred and sixty third episode of the Scoutmaster podcast.

So I've talked with literally hundreds of Scouters, And before that, for thirty, thirty five years, I worked with thousands of Scouts and Scouters. And I'm not looking for a pat on the back, I'm just pointing out I've been around for a little bit. I've seen a lot of things. I've heard from a lot of people. I've had a lot of discussions with people. The largest number of problems that people ask for assistance with are caused by things that do not matter.

There I said it. You know, there's one thing that matters in this game and that is reaching the goal.

And the only way we reach the goal is if we have Scouts to work with. So the Scouts are the most important part of this and their advancement towards the goal is our most important initiative. Everything else is window dressing, And I mean everything else. The difficulty is is that Scouts are usually kind of sucked into this world where we're encouraged to spend an awful lot of energy on the things that just don't matter. Remember that the only things necessary for the game to happen is the organizational concept of the game, the rules of the game and players participating in it.

If that's all that matters, that's where we should be applying most of our energy. If you go and you look on the sidelines of the of an organized game, you'll see a table. At that table is the game clock and the scorekeepers and the officials and everything. They're not necessary to the game. They provide a higher organizational concept to the simplicity of the game, but they're not absolutely necessary to the game. Take that analogy and apply it to Scouting.

Things like advancement and the earning of maripages and ranks- They're all nice to have, but they're not absolutely necessary to the playing of the game. It's just a way of keeping score. We just use things like the advancement program as a way to lend some structure and meaning to the game. But it's OK, You don't have to have it. You could play the game without it. You can develop character without ever completing a rank requirement, Although the completion of rank requirements is a handy way of keeping score.

And while I'm on the soapbox, I could point out any number of other things that serve as distractions from the goal that we apply a lot of energy to. That just don't matter.

What matters is the scout that you're working with right now and how they are progressing towards the goal of character development. That's all that matters. OK, soapbox session is done for today.

So what's important is we need to understand the place of the players in this game, that they are volunteering to play the game. They have a very simple motive that they may or may not be able to explain, real while, but it corresponds with ours. They're going to bring the energy of why they want to be in scouts And we're going to take that energy and we're going to use it in a transformational manner to help them develop character.

Up to this point, we've talked about perspective and motivation, So now let's talk about the players themselves. Our scouts will have different developmental needs. Our scouts will have different sets of skills. Our scouts will be individuals, And part of the fascination of playing this game with them is beginning to appreciate two things: how we are all the same and how we are all individuals and different. That's putting it as simply as I possibly can.

Now, I don't think this is the best place to go into long descriptions about the developmental characteristics of young people or particular skill sets or challenges that they may have. I think it suffices to say that you deal with the individual scout in front of you and then you do your best to understand them and to help them advance towards the goal. That's all that matters. I know this all sounds really simple and maybe it sounds like an oversimplification, but I really don't think it is.

I think this is the heart of what we do. Who are scouts are our role and the way that this game is played