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| Scoutmaster Podcast 47 |  |
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| In This Podcast | |||
| Scoutmastership, Email Question, The Scouting Movement | |||
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Ok. One more time 🙂
Last Tuesday was our December Court of Honor. Things seemed more disorganized than usual, but the SPL was working on it so I just waited and thought about my Scoutmaster Minute. They set up the tables for dessert (we try to have food at all COHs, including dinner in August), and they had the flags ready and all of that.
I then noticed the SPL’s dad come in with a cardboard box full of soggy papers. The SPL started pulling out soggy, wet papers and handing them out to the COH Emcee and some of the other Scouts. Hmmmmm. Seems to be a problem here. I just continued to watch (and pray a little :0 ) We were having an OA callout prior to our Ordeal in January. The SPL then came over to me and asked whether I had a copy of the callout ceremony. The SPL had found the ceremony on the SE Region site and I had downloaded a copy to read. I gave him my copy and off they went.
The COH went fine, we had dessert and all went well. I found out from the SPL’s dad that after the last PLC meeting his son had left his notebook and Scout book on the roof of the suburban and it had fallen off on the shoulder of the road on the way home. The SPL couldn’t find it after school so his dad went off to look for it in the rain while his son went and got the Scouts started setting up. Dad found his soggy PLC notebook alongside the road and parts of his Scout book that had been chewed up by the mowers. Looks like he will get a new Scout book 🙂
Anyway, we are now talking about lessons learned. Hee hee. He’s a good kid and I think that he is getting the idea about the necessity of planning. Now I just hope that the soggy papers in that box included the PLC’s meeting plans for January and February! We’ll see.
Also, I wanted to say that your answer to the guy with the Star Scout SPL was a very good answer. Scouts aren’t in Scouting for the meetings. Meetings are necessary to keep things going, planning, and preparing, but Scouting happens OUT THERE! Not in their meeting room. Scouts understand this intuitively. If a Troop is camping, backpacking, canoeing, summer camping, etc regularly, then Scouting is happening.
I agree with you. Trying to make each week’s meeting into a prime time show won’t happen. As long as they are planning it, implementing it, and getting most of their business done, it’s working.
Great show Clarke. Except maybe for that one musical thing in the middle there. What was that all about? I fear that my ears are too old to interpret it.
I am going to get the book about the early days of Scouting but I haven’t yet read it. However, I suspect that some of the early conflict was in what you said about “movement” and “organization”. Scouting has always had a relatively low opinion of certain kinds of traditions.
In other words, old stuff is regularly discarded and the movement moves on. For instance, in our area the Council just reorganized districts, renamed districts, renamed OA Chapters, and shuffled both volunteer and professional staff. Announced in October, completed in January. The BSA regularly rewrites the Scout book and it’s requirements.
I think that this is a good thing. A very good thing. Some folks think it’s a bad thing. A VERY BAD THING. And those are often some of the folks that Scouting would like to have move on to something else. Tough thing for some folks to hear, but very true.
Scout units come and go, volunteer leaders come and go, and all Scouts quickly come and go. Yet Scouting keeps going. Cool, isn’t it. I think that this is built into the Scouting movement from above and they know what they are doing.