Scoutmaster Podcast 46

And now, for you, Scoutmaster.

Here's a little rule of thumb for you as a Scoutmaster. If you think it goes without saying, it almost certainly does not. If you think it goes without saying, it almost certainly does not. Yeah, like, here's what I mean. Bring your rain gear. That doesn't go without saying. If you put that in the fire, it will explode. Do not put it in the fire. That does not go without saying. Needs to be said. If you do that, you will hurt yourself. Do not do that. Sometimes, really needs to be said, right? Okay. So if you think it goes without saying, it probably doesn't. This is podcast number 46. Hey! Well, welcome back to the Scoutmaster Podcast. This is Clark Green. Hey, I really appreciate those of you who've been in touch over the past week. Will, who is an Assistant Scoutmaster in Sharples, Florida, wrote this. He says, Great show, Clark. I'm a big fan of your jokes, but two accountant jokes in the last podcast might be pushing it. Yeah. Well, I got to tell you, Will, they weren't actually accountant jokes because that would be that would just be beyond the pale. Well, they were economist jokes, you know, not to put too fine a point on it, but yeah. Keep up the great work. I continue to enjoy and learn from you and your email contributors. Also, I am listening to all the archive shows. Thanks for making those available. If you want to see the podcast archive, it's available through scoutmaster.typepad.com. That's the home of the blog and the podcast. And if you look in the upper left-hand corner, you will see a link to the archive of Scoutmaster Podcast. Last time we talked about boards of review, and one of my thoughts was that these should not be a retest of scout skills. Larry Geiger sent in this comment. Larry keeps me honest. Thanks, Larry. It's an absolutely essential thing that scouts be tested on specific scout skills in their scoutmaster conferences and boards of review. The adult leaders in the troop cannot know whether the scout leaders are performing their leadership duties and preparing their scouts if they don't ask specific questions. Can you tie a bow in? What's the difference between hypo and hypothermia? That, you know, that type of thing. How are the scout leaders doing teaching skills? I mean, are the scouts learning? And there's really only one way to know. And I agree with you, Larry. Specific questions, those are good. But they can be done in the context of asking questions without being a retest of things. Larry goes on to say, if we're going to take scouts backpacking and canoeing and climbing, we had better be working to prepare them for those experiences. We and the boy leaders are responsible to ensure that they have the requisite skills. In a lot of ways, this is a simple issue of quality control. The scoutmaster conference and board of review are learning situations. In my experience, most scouts have great answers to almost every skill question that gets asked. I realize this is somewhat of a fine line for some people because some adults feel called to be the ones that administer the scouting SAT at boards of review. And I realize we need to prevent that. Well, Larry, those are excellent thoughts. And what we really need to do, I think, is define the difference between review and retest. And we also need to consider exactly what would constitute reasons for a scout failing a board of review. And Larry went on to say, we do get hung up on the review and test words sometimes. The only scoutmaster conferences I can remember where I have had to ask a scout to wait a week or two is when they don't know the oath and law. In every case, I remember they have come back and have memorized it exactly. I fully agree that not passing a board of review should be very rare. Well, I think there's still some talking to do about this and some things to define. And I'd be interested in knowing what you have to say on the subject and maybe questions or concerns or comments. And we'll have the email address that you can send those to at the end of the podcast here. Bob from Murfreesboro, Tennessee got in touch. He says, I've been actively following your podcast over the last several months. And let me tell you, I've thoroughly enjoyed it. I've been a scoutmaster for 13 years. And your podcast has been both inspirational and entertaining. I greatly appreciate you taking the time to put together your podcast and look forward to each new chapter. Well, thank you, Bob. I really appreciate your listening. Jeff from Georgia chimed in and he said, I'm entering my second year as a scoutmaster. We're planning a court of honor. I have read your blog and listened to your podcasts on this. I was just wondering if you have an outline of how your scouts approach this. I really have nothing specific to go by other than just some general statements. I know that there is no one set way, but I would like to see just some kind of way. And Jeff, I went ahead and sent you a copy of our court of honor script that we've used for ages and ages. And if you're interested in looking at that, drop me an email and we'll make sure that you get a copy. This week on the blog, it's holiday season and there are a couple of posts about gifts for your favorite scoutmaster. What I did is I put a post up about books and most of the books I've referred to on the podcast. And if you haven't taken the opportunity to get those yet, there's some links on the blog of the book reviews and the podcasts they're associated with and the way that how you can get them. And I also put up a link with five or six pieces of essential scoutmaster gear. So if you're doing shopping or somebody's shopping for you, you know, go to the blog and take a look and maybe that'll help you with your holiday shopping. You can find that at scoutmaster.typepad.com. If you listen to the podcast using iTunes, iTunes has a deal where you can leave a review or rate the quality of the podcast. And some of you have been doing that in the past couple of weeks and I really do appreciate it. And I wanted to make sure to say thank you to Phil Trost and to Tony and to Adam for leaving some very nice compliments. I really do appreciate it. In this podcast and Scout Mastership in seven minutes or less, we're going to talk about the scouting process. And then I've got a little Scout Masters minute for a piece that I found that describes scouting to people who may not be familiar with the program. It's a unique way of doing it and it might be helpful to you. So that's plenty to do. So let's get started. Scout Mastership in seven minutes or less.

Well, we know what the mission is, right? The mission of the Boy Scouts of America, as they stated, is to prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices over their lifetimes by instilling in them the values of the Scout Oath and law. That's right out of the BSA mission statement. Now, if our goal were to produce a product, you know, a universal model citizen of some sort, a universal leader, it would make sense to have production efficiencies and kind of extensive quality control programs. But that's not our mission, is it? We don't produce a product. Prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices over their lifetimes by instilling in them the values of the Scout Oath and law. You know, what we do is we play a game. And the gist of the game is to offer a set of circumstances that challenge Scouts to think for themselves, to make decisions for themselves, and to develop some skills. This process prepares them for a lifetime of challenges. When they leave us prepared, we've really completed the mission. And there's really no way to test and measure those results. Now, I go back to this subject often because I think it's one of the tougher things to get about Scouting. Most of us are involved in a business of production or the science of management, and we're used to having some kind of demonstrable, you know, benchmarks and results that we can look at and say that we've done our jobs. When we become Scout Masters, we are eager to make good and often apply the principles of our professional work to our Scouting job. And that might mean that, you know, well, we try and do it as efficiently as possible. We try and look at the question of quality control and optimum production practices. And I think it can be frustrating because Scouts don't behave like a product on a production line. What we need to do is, I think, liberate ourselves from the idea of producing anything to being the ones who maintain a process. We need to learn and maintain this game really well. We need to protect the integrity of the game. We need to keep it open and vibrant so that any boy that comes to us has a set of challenges that will take him through a process that will achieve the final mission. We don't look for measurable results. Oh, there's all kinds of numbers to look at. There's all kinds of things that we can crunch and see if we're staying on track. But those aren't as important as making sure that the process works. And that is where this wonderful intangible growth results. And we achieve the mission of Scouting. We'll be right back. That's right. It's time for a Scoutmaster's Minute.

Here's something I ran across. I had the occasion where I needed to explain Scouting to people who it was not a Scouting audience. And I was kind of casting around a little bit. I found this online. This isn't my own work. It was a piece that is in a national publication. And I thought it would be interesting to share it with you because I found it a particularly effective and interesting way of sharing Scouting with people. And what it begins with is the Scout shirt. If we look at a Scout shirt, we know a few things. First, it's your traditional Boy Scout item. I mean, Boy Scouts have been wearing a Scout uniform for 100 years. Second, each Scout shirt is a little bit different. Now, there's a standard starting place. There's this blank shirt that you can buy at a Scout shop. But then each Boy's shirt starts to look different. There are different sizes and different patches. All Scout shirts have the same basic shape. But beyond that, there is a broad variety. Scout shirts are generally decorated on just one side, the outside. And that's the part that you show off. And the Boy Scouting program itself is a lot like a Scout shirt. First, it's a traditional program. Scouts today enjoy many of the same activities that they did when Baden-Powell first created the program a century ago. And there's a lot of other things that haven't changed either much over time. Like the Scout Oath and the Scout Law. The Scouting program has three aims or purposes that shape it. And those are character development, citizenship training, and physical and mental fitness. Boy Scouts and Scouting adults also each have unique experiences. Everybody's time in Scouting is different. And just like patches, Boy Scouts and Scouting adults have a variety of colors and shapes and personalities and skills and even political persuasions. We're not all red. We're not all blue. There's lots of different colors out there. But we're all Boy Scouts because we strive towards the same goals. And we agree the Scout Oath and Law is a good basis for character development and citizenship training and developing physical and mental fitness. Boy Scouting is a lot like a Scout shirt because it has a showy side and a plain side. The showy side of the program is what attracts boys. The fun, the outdoor adventure, the things that they do. That's the colorful stuff. The stuff you look at and point to and say, that's cool and I want to do that. But as parents and adults, we more tend to think of the inside rather than the showy stuff on the outside. We look at what the Scout shirt or the Scout program is made of. We want to know what kind of fabric it is. We want to know how it fits and how it wears. We're glad that our boys are drawn to the colorful stuff on the outside. But what really matters to us is on the inside. Well, thanks for listening. Really do appreciate it. You can read the Scoutmaster blog at scoutmaster.typepad.com. You can follow us at Scoutmaster blog on Facebook and ScoutmasterCG on Twitter. You can subscribe to the Scoutmaster podcast on iTunes. And when you do, feel free to leave a comment or review or rating. And you can always email me, Clark Green, with your comments and questions at ClarkGreen at gmail.com. That's C-L-A-R-K-E-G-R-E-E-N at gmail.com. The Scoutmaster blog and the Scoutmaster podcast are not official publications of the Boy Scouts of America. Nor are they endorsed or sponsored by the Boy Scouts of America. No, it's just me talking into a microphone, trying to lend a hand to Scout leaders and have a bit of fun along the way. Now, I know that goes without saying, but, you know, we say it anyway. Well, if you listen this long, you get a bonus, bonus joke. There's a duck and he walks into the pharmacy and he looks at the pharmacist and says, Hey, give me a tube of chapstick and put it on my bill. Well, before we go, let's hear from our founder, Sir Robert Baden-Powell. Sir Robert? Good luck to you and good camping. Why, thank you, Sir Robert. Until next time.

Die act.

Thank you. Thank you.