Scoutmaster Podcast 85

And now the old Scoutmaster. In 1997, I worked at the jamboree, It was something called a hospitality officer for the Northeast region. One o'clock in the afternoon here comes this little tag walking up this trail.

He looked pretty sad And he walked in, looked at my name tag, said: Mr Butler, could you help me? And I said: well, sure, try what's up. He says I lost my wallet.

I said how much money did you have? He said $150..

So I said, well, okay, tell me what troop you're in and all that business. We'll see what we can do about finding it and getting it back to you.

And he left and I thought: you know what? There's probably very little chance that we're going to find that boy's wallet. At three o'clock here comes another kid into this tent.

So my name tag says: Mr Butler, have gone to wallet. And you know what, When I tell their store, show them, can I do it and remain dry eyed, Because that boy handed me this black wallet that had $150.

And you know, when people wonder why we do this, they wonder if it's got any pay off, They wonder if it works. It will work. Hey, this is podcast number 85..

Hey, this is Clarke Green. Welcome back to the Scalemaster podcast. Let's take a look at the mailbag here. First of all, let me apologize If I haven't gotten back to you very quickly with emails the past week.

It's been a week, Do I have to say anymore? It's September. Things are heating up and programs are running and meetings are happening. Oh my gosh, how many meetings.

Well, so, anyways, I did hear from Brit Helms. Brit is an assistant Scoutmaster in troop 108 in Fort Mill, South Carolina, And he had this to say: first of all, thanks for your podcast. I've been listening since about episode four and loving each and every one of them. I highly recommend them to the other leaders of my troop. I know the insights, experience And, yes, even the jokes keep me wanting to help my scouts. I'm glad the jokes are having that effect on somebody.

That's all I can say. Keep me wanting to help my scouts achieve more in our troops specifically and in scouting in general. I'll turn 48 next month And I have been a registered scout or scouter for 40 of those years. Earlier this year I had the distinct pleasure of having my own Eagle Scout Award from 1979 presented to my son during his Eagle Court of Honor.

Well, that's wonderful, Brit. That's got to be quite a moment And congratulations. By the way, He's the first second generation Eagle in troop 108.. That being an Eagle Scout whose father also received his Eagle in the same troop, I couldn't be more proud. Oh, that's wonderful. By day I'm an IT man And but after my normal work day, when I'm not scouting, I also work as a voiceover artist from my home studio.

I have heard Baden Powell's comments on each of your podcasts And I wondered if I could put some of my voiceover skills to work for you as an appreciation for what you've done for me through your podcast. Well, that's a very kind thing to have done. One of the techniques used in voiceover is called voice matching And it's one of those things I enjoy doing most but get to do the least. I've attached a little thank you that I hope you will see fit to use in your podcast And I will play that for you now. I will play that for you now.

Here we go Ready. This is what Brit sent me. I highly recommend the Scoutmaster Podcast.

I mean, what more could you ask for? That's great. The recordings of Baden Powell that I play on the podcast that you hear are little snippets edited out of some longer recordings that you can find online. And we hear from Baden Powell in the beginning of the program.

He's the one who says: and now to use Scoutmasters? And then we hear from him at the end where he wishes us good luck and good camping.

So now he's also going to recommend the Scoutmaster Podcast. That is just great. He goes on to say: at first I contemplated whether or not to do this, and some might think it's sacrilege to voice match Baden Powell, But I feel in my heart of hearts that if he were here, he would indeed highly recommend the Scoutmaster Podcast. I feel that in my heart of hearts too, Brit, I'm not too humble to say that, But wow, what a very nice email.

I really appreciate the message, I appreciate the gift and everybody gets to hear that now It'll be towards the end of the podcast. You know where we say it's time to hear from our founder.

Yeah, I think I'm bold enough to put that in there. And once again, congratulations on your son having reached Eagle Scout And keep listening. Thank you for all the kind words.

Well, in this edition of the Scoutmaster Podcast, I have an interview with somebody who I think you're going to be very interested to hear from. His name is Hab Butler, And Hab is a long time Scouter and a very active volunteer here in our council And over time he has become one of the fellows who has the time and the expertise to lend on a regional and national level. And Hab has been involved with the New Journey to Excellence program. Saying involved that's kind of putting it lightly. Hab chaired the committee that put together this New Journey to Excellence program. When I saw that he was involved with that- I saw that in Scouting Magazine- I got in touch with him and I asked him if he would speak to me about it, because it's caused a lot of interest And it's a program that I'm solidly behind and I'm looking forward to applying in our troop.

I thought that we could all benefit from hearing Hab talk a little bit about the process of putting it together and I was able to ask him a couple of questions about it. So that interview fills the remainder of the podcast and it's a great interview.

So let's get started, shall we?

Hab Butler is joining me today on the Scoutmaster podcast. He's presently the commissioner for the northeast region of the Boy Scouts of America and a 2005 recipient of the Silver Buffalo Award for Distinguished Service to Youth. If you're not familiar with the Silver Buffalo Award, that is a national award that it recognizes noteworthy and extraordinary service to youth. That is national in scope.

Now I've known Hab for a number of years as probably one of the most dedicated volunteers here in Chester County Council. I don't think there's too many volunteer positions he hasn't held and I'm pleased to welcome him to the Scoutmaster podcast today.

How are you doing, Hab? I'm doing great. I was a regional commissioner for three years.

I'm now something called the Regional Executive Vice President, which means if I let something unusual happen, it'll likely the next May I'll be elected a regional president. Oh, okay, Well, because it's three years and that's the three-year rule for you, right? Three-year rule is that for area and regional commissioners you're appointed for a one-year term and can be reappointed, but not to see three years of service, And the reason that is to allow other people to have those jobs and bring their new energy and their new thinking and to keep the program fresh.

How did you get involved in Scouts? Well, I lived in Christiana, Pennsylvania. My mother learned about scouting and decided it might be a pretty good thing, and she couldn't get anybody to start a club.

So she did. When it came time to go to Boy Scout, She couldn't find anybody to run a troupe And in those days men were the only people permitted to be scoutmasters.

So she said: look, there's a scout troupe in Aglan and if you want to be a Boy Scout you'll figure out how to get there. So it was three or four miles away so I rode my bike or a walker and in those days you could enter.

So that was a very good experience in 1953.. The scoutmaster said there's something called a jamboree going to be held in Southern California at the Irvine Range and the council has two scholarships And if anybody's interested in applying for them there's a forum.

So I said I'll take a forum. And my friend said you're never going to get that. Nobody knows where Akron Pennsylvania is and certainly there are bigger troops and more deserving than you.

I said, well, I won't get it if I don't apply. I went to 1953 jamboree and we went out two weeks by train, one week at the jamboree. That was the beginning. You, somewhere along the way, started volunteering as an adult. Yeah, what happened was we had two girls and two boys.

The girls were older So they got involved in Girl Scouts and then the two boys got involved in Cubs and I became the PAC committee chair. One moved to the troop 135 in Parksburg. I went there and worked with the PAC and the troop until the other son came along and I was the troop committee chair there.

So they got involved in training and they got involved in commercial work and they must have been absolutely desperate. I became a chancellor, commissioner and a special president. I guess I'd been on the board for maybe 25 or 30 years at this point, After that the area director. Actually, if I'd become the area president, that was a terrific job And as a result of that I then was later appointed to be on the Northeast Region Board And I've been involved in Wood Badge for quite a while and I've been in the course director's place and while I was in that role somebody in the national office decided they were going to rewrite the Wood Badge course.

So I ended up being one of five members of the design team And that was for the first pilot course that was offered and that wasn't as far as she based in 2000.. So later again for the final pilot course that was run at Rocky Mountain and so on later that fall, while we got feedback and rewrote the program again over the next two years and as a result of that I'm an exposure nationally and I still serve on the Finance and Investment Committee and serve on the National Supply Group Committee with deals with everything you see in the boy catalog. I'm on the Human Resources Committee.

I chaired the National Court of Honor, so anybody who learns a hero award that would come through that committee and anybody to use a silver beaver beaver, silver antelope or silver buffalo award that's managed by that committee in the Court of Honor. So I did that for 40 years And most recently I'm the chairman of the Journey to Excellence team that designed this program. Tell me what you think of the new Journey to Excellence program.

I think it started off on the right foot. We had a team made up of professionals, scouting executives and a couple area directors, and the volunteers were been in scouting for quite some period of time, very knowledgeable about the program and also had knowledge of how counsel and the district operate, and we also had a couple professionals from the National Office. We only worked by phone and by email. I wanted the page to be fairly quick and I wanted to have this, not the expense of travel or lodging.

Well, what we did was determine that there are five primary areas that will be leading or lagging indicators of success. Those areas are finance, membership, program service and governance.

So we had lots of good data from the National Office database that gave us a good sense that we could find the things that would differentiate, would cancel the districts and units from those that are struggling. My view is that there's really a bell-shaped curve. Always have startup units where you have brand-new leaders that they want to excel, They need training, They need a lot of support early in the game. At the other end, those that excel and have been there for years and years- what we ought to do is copy what they're doing and see that other units are far aware of it.

In fact, we now have a best practices portal on the national website. In the middle of that bell-shaped curve are the bulk of the units that need help from unit commissioners. They need help from their charter partners, They need to have a good committee structure and they need that financing to make it work for them.

This may have been the most exciting thing I want- Well, I'm very excited about it: Habin, As a leader with a bit of tenure behind me, it takes a little bit to get me excited. What I like about it- and I think you alluded to it earlier- is that it's based on numbers and metrics and things like that. What it does is recognize that you're doing the things that an effective unit does. You can't push these numbers just by pushing numbers. You have to actually have a good program.

Well, I'm glad you got into that, because that's really at the core of what Scouting's all about. That this is all about the kids having a terrific experience. It's really what it is that we're trying to do.

You know, sometimes folks will lose sight of that and they'll say: we know what. We were blinded last year. We're going to do everything we possibly can to get to be silver and sometimes we'll get to be gold. I hope they do have a focus on improvement, But I hope they do They do not do it at the expense of diminishing the delivery of the program to the kids. My committee chair and I sat down and looked at the journey to excellence. We looked at the standards and everything.

There's a spreadsheet available and you can kind of plug numbers into it and see where you're at, And we just did it kind of off the cuff and it all made perfect sense, Because what it actually did is, I think, it kind of revealed okay. Well, we're following a little short on a couple of things And this makes sense.

This is not, you know, it wasn't some kind of extraordinary thing that was just going to push a number somewhere. It made sense that it made our program better, And it really did make it better for the youth members of our program, And that is what's really got me excited about it.

Well, I was delighted to hear that What we'll do is periodically- not every year, but periodically- we'll look at what the leading and lagging indicators are to say, are we measuring the right stuff? And part of the way we're going to do that is to see what the scores are, how they vary from year to year. But tomorrow I will be on a phone call for probably about two hours where we will be discussing something that will be added to the journey to excellence program around the beginning of the year. It's called The Voice of the Customer.

What we need to do is we're from parents that will get surveyed to provide commentary on. You know, what do we need to know if we're measuring the wrong things.

We need to be aware of what our customer base is and thinking of us and figure out how we move from there. There's a really deep overall commitment from all of our national leadership to this journey to excellence concept And I think that's reflected in the most recent issue of Scouting Magazine where they talk about it. This is going to be a real driver for the entire BSA in the foreseeable future.

Well, I'll tell you, I had in the back of my mind that at some time we would find that this model could be used in other parts of Scouting. I would say in January of this year, one of the top scatters, who was on the National OA Executive Committee, called and said: I need to talk with you about this journey to excellence And I have a funny feeling that we could use the journey to excellence model and principles for a journey of excellence recognition for What do you think about that? Because of the amount of respect I have for a person called, I'm not sure if it thinks it's okay.

If Clarke Green thinks it's okay, we must. Well, I've heard lots of positive feedback about it. I wanted to look at some of the 13 different criteria in here. One that immediately drew my attention was leadership training, And I don't mean this in a negative way, but that's a pretty stiff requirement When you think about it from the standpoint of the kids. We're talking about doing our best. We're talking about doing it in a safe environment.

We have lots of people who say we're the premier youth leadership organization in the world. Well, in order to do that, leaders don't become leaders by having low standards, And it's easier now than it has been any time since I became involved with Scouting to become a trained leader because of all the online resources and everything.

Now, I think that should be a pretty tough standard because it drives so much of the other things that indicate a quality experience for Scouts. The other thing that drew my attention was the patrol method.

Boy, I can't tell you how pleased I was to see that, because I think it's something that doesn't get enough emphasis in other places in our program. But the way that you've built the implementation of the patrol method in here and the senior patrol leader, I'm really appreciative of that.

Well, thank you. One of the ways you get paid in Scouting when you spend an awful lot of time is you get to meet a lot of people all across the country. Lots of them are programmed rather than administrative types. You listen carefully as to what the key element of success in a Scouting unit is. It is absolutely the patrol method. Nothing is as important as the patrol method and maintaining the integrity of the position of SPL.

Especially When you see a boy named to be SPL and you just talk with him for a few minutes you say to yourself: wow, what a good decision. This was The tiered ratings, the gold, silver and bronze ratings.

Is that going to cause a whole lot of friction or competition amongst units? Do you think, Especially when it comes to Webullos, parents looking at units, are they only going to go shopping now for the gold units?

Is this fair to a smaller troop that might not be able to hit that? That's certainly a concern because we want everybody to win. But winning comes in different forms.

While parents shop more in areas where we can shop for the units for their boy to go to, that's not changed as a result of the journey that's been around, where people will choose a troop for their son or a son will choose for all kinds of reasons. You have a great troop and you have one that's not so great. The best troop is always looking for ways to improve And a startup unit, or the one that may have floundered, had to change the leadership.

And seeing that your scores aren't as good as some of the other units, I think that would drive people to say that's what you said. We have a spot or two here where we can improve. Not everybody is going to be at the top of the pack every year. We'll all go through a picture and balance. You mentioned this a little bit.

But a smaller troop of 20 or less scouts and a big troop of 50 or more- are they going to get scored basically the same way with us, or is it slanted so that it's easier for a large troop? They are going to be scored on the same criteria. What we will do is take a look at this and see if there are differences. We don't anticipate We're going to see a significant difference. There's one thing I didn't say in the early part of this conversation: This troop I was in in Akland Pennsylvania, which was a new troop 20. When I was there, we never had more than 12 kids.

When I tell people I only claim the thing was I was a senior patrol leader in Akland, Pennsylvania, I had the best scouting experience that anybody could deliver. I didn't feel that I missed much. The program, the Journey to Excellence, doesn't give any advantage to a smaller troop or a bigger troop. Basically, you're doing percentages and incremental improvements to up your score as you go on, As a boy goes through the ranks and learns more and does more and gets recognized and grows. That's what we hope will happen with yours. I certainly appreciate all the work that went into it and all the thinking that went into it.

I think it's being overwhelmingly well-received. You guys are going to keep working on this. We are. I talked with you about term limits on the area and the regional commissioners. At some point in time I should be replaced. Somebody with French thinking should come in and share this.

The members of the task force- we should all be giving a thank you for your service letter and let it go for a year or two and start a new group and go in and look at all the data and figure out where it's working and where it needs to be improved. This program needs to be subjected to continuous improvement. I wanted to ask you a couple other questions, since you're involved at a regional and national level on a lot of things. I don't know if you ever noticed this- and I say this kind of tongue in cheek, but every once in a while the rank and file- the Scoutmasters and assistant Scoutmasters and cub masters and things like that- seem to get a little frustrated with what goes on up at these national levels and things. They feel sometimes they're just a little disconnected from them. I don't know if you ever encountered that or not.

I sure have. I was one of those people. I am one I plan to train.

They say what needs to be said and frankly, that's a great segue again to this voice of the customer, because voices are scattered, rather because there'll be opportunities for people to say: you know what? I think you're absolutely nuts.

Why would anybody do this? Or why are you not doing this?

So I'll at the risk of becoming even busier. Anytime anybody has something on their mind, they can't get anybody to listen. Give them my phone number or my e-mail address. If I'm not the person, I'll find somebody to put them in touch with People at national and regional levels of scouting, the volunteers there. They have any interest at all in what a little guy has to say a unit leader or committee person has to say, Absolutely, The only reason you have areas and the region involved is to help councils do a better job of supporting units. We're not left with an overabundance of volunteers anywhere in the organization, but I've never been part of a volunteer organization where there have been too many good people.

It doesn't work that way, unfortunately. If you think about what Baden Powell thought scouting could do for the world- and I think he's right that if we play this game right we can get to world peace and then we will have plenty of people to help us- We need to do the best we can with our scouting jobs, but not at the expense of our families and our jobs and what else we do in the community.

We need to let other people in the community know how important this program is for the benefit of the kids and their communities and our country and, frankly, the world in total, and invite them to become part of it. A few of us, like I said, the frontline volunteers, actually get to meet anybody in a regional or national position.

I think a lot of times people don't think that they're heard or listened to or thought of very much. You've gone from being that cubmaster and doing all that to being involved in these regional and national decisions now.

So you're telling us that people do actually hear and they do and it is important to them. I just looked at a video tape done by a guy named Rex Tillerson, who's the national president. Tillerson is also the CEO of the world's largest company called the Exxon Meble, and Rex Tillerson's father was a scout camp ranger. Tillerson's son is a district executive and when he talks about scouting, he talks about the main thing, with the passion, and the main thing is to deliver this program to more kids and system. He goes all over the country while he's still working for Exxon Meble and I've had a couple conversations with him.

I think to myself I can't believe I'm talking with this guy who runs a world's largest company and he's listening to me. He said: what do I need to know? That nobody's telling me.

Well, there's lots of Rex Tillerson who wants to know and all they need to recognize Rome wasn't built in the day and that we can't change everything. We want to change as quickly as we like because of resource limitation, whether it be money or time or talent or facilities or what have you. Everybody should feel and should know that there's lots of people who want to hear what needs to be said.

What do we need to do so we get more kids in the program? You or anybody else who ever has something that needs to be said and there's no one to listen for him to say something to work? Send an email.

So is that permission to put your email address, a link to your email address, on my website where this podcast will be? Then You can put my cell phone number in there too. I don't think I'll put your cell phone number there. I don't know if that's a great idea, but I will put your email address You're certainly welcome to. I'll give you some more good news. Like most organizations that I've worked in, their information technology and delivery departments are always we've got more requests for stuff to be done than the capabilities of doing So.

In the next two years, you're going to see the BSA develop an entirely new platform which should significantly improve the way information is shared. But we're getting there.

But we have a long, long way to go and that's very good news to know that that's happening and it's being looked at, and it will take a lot of time, but I'm willing to wait a couple years, but no more than a couple years. So you need to get on that, Thank you.

I'll be in Dallas- October 10th through the 12th I think it is, and I'll be talking with the person who runs the IT department and I will absolutely pass on not only my thoughts, but the guy I've known in the distance and I opened up the opportunity to say: tell me what we need to hear. I need to, and one of the things you know: get moving here so great.

Well, we're always going to be a little bit impatient, but I think any of us who have tried to run a camperee or any kind of a district event we understand, at least in some respects. As soon as you start adding numbers to it, it slows down a little bit and it gets just a tiny bit more difficult to manage.

So I can only imagine what's happening to our poor IT guy down in Dallas. There we've got a new leader and there's nothing like a new leader.

Well, I really appreciate you spending time with me today. Maybe we can do it again sometime. Anytime you'd like, I'd be glad to.

Your email is going to go on the blog, so watch your inbox there. Good deal, Clark. Thanks very much. Bye.

At Scoutmaster blog on Facebook and ScoutmasterCG on Twitter, and I do like you to keep in touch. So email me, Clarke Green, with your comments and questions at ScoutmasterCG at Verizonnet. That's ScoutmasterCG at Verizonnet. As always, I need to remind everybody that 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. Hey, it's just me talking into a microphone, trying to lend a hand, maybe having a little bit of fun along the way.

Now, before we go, let's hear from our founder, Sir Robert Baden-Pell. Sir Robert, Anything else this time around? Sir Robert, please recommend the Scoutmaster podcast.

Why? Thank you, sir, Until next time. Thanks for watching. See you next time. Bye.