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Scouting is a process of developing character.
In this second part of a three part series I’ll talk about the Scouting process and the changes we need to make to allow the process to work. It’s likely we’ll all find changes challenging especially when those changes are aimed at empowering our you leadership. I’ll suggest some structural changes you can make to enable the process of youth leadership development to take hold.
Have you read “The Left Handshake?”
In This Podcast
The Left Handshake [1:07]
Moving from adult to youth leadership PART 2 [6:50]
Scoutmaster’s Minute – A Scout is Brave [19:22]
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Podcast Notes
The Left Handshake PDF Courtesy of The Dump
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Enjoyed the podcast as always, and the jokes as well! My family doesn’t enjoy them as much as I do, perhaps it is my delivery?
I am in the my second year as ASM, our Troop leadership is heading in the right direction now that we have who I think is a great SPL. The best part is the boys think he is as well and the program comes alive as you describe in your podcasts, very pleased to see it for myself!
Being new to Boys Scouts (my son(s) went all the way through Cubs, youngest is now a WEBELOS) I was getting concerned about the Troop’s path after being trained and really digging into what it is we are supposed to be doing(the program). Our leadership was leaning towards the adults and away from the boys mostly due to week SPLs I suppose, but the boys are truly buying into the program and our SPL is feeling his responsibility and enjoying it as well.
Thanks Clarke for opening my eyes to the fact that we really need to constantly see things from the boys’ perspective and that the chaos is all part of it.
@ Larry: I feel your pain, I too am from Florida the space coast specifically. September campouts can be rough!
We had a similar camp out last weekend in cooler weather but managed to include nap time (for me at least).
As you describe we accomplished very little that was overtly useful. The SPL decided that a key feature of the weekend would be the inspection of each patrol’s dishes after they were washed. It was both fun and (hopefully) instructive.
Marathon games of capture the flag (I’d say eight to ten hours total) made for some very happy and tired Scouts.
Very fortunate to have yet another competent and skilled SPL. Conclusion: let them lead, have a sense of perspective and proportion, allow them to benefit from experience and set their own course = building great Scouts, patrols and troops.
BTW – “shallow and pedantic” had me chuckling.
“While riding in the car to a campout…” Ok, I think that I’ve found the timing for these podcasts. You record one after you find a humorous story to tell 🙂
The Program. How can you not!
This past weekend they set up the axe yard. The highlight, as usual, is when they get to the part about the Blood Circle! I love it. The leaders love to talk about this stuff to the little guys. Without fire and knives I think that Scouting would just disappear. They will be issuing about 6 new Tot’N Chips this Tuesday.
After lunch we entered the salubrious period. With the temperature hovering just below 90degrees, a light breeze and the humidity around 100% it got real quiet for about an hour and a half. Here in Florida, without A/C, The Scouts tend to revert to the old time way of doing things (or not doing things). This is sometimes called nap time. For about an hour and a half we accomplished absolutely nothing.
Or maybe it was the sound of airboats roaring by at all hours of the night interrupting sleep. Maybe they were just tired. At reflection time on Sunday morning, the most popular thing about the weekend was an impromptu game of golf with homemade clubs and chunks of wood for balls. The Scouts all disappeared down the road to camp making up holes and playing them as they went. The other theme was something about “shallow and pedantic” (always spoken with an odd accent), but I’m not sure what that was all about.
One patrol ended up having sliced hot dogs in their scrambled eggs for breakfast, hot dogs for lunch and roasted hot dogs on buns for dinner. Creative! It seems that they forgot to bring something but had way more hot dogs than they needed. A mistake or an on-purpose? I’ll probably never know.