Last night, I needed/wanted to go to Roundtable. The only issue was that troop meeting nights are usually on Thursday nights, so I haven’t been attending. But this time, I felt that I needed to go to RT so that I could stop into the OA meeting and find out about the upcoming Spring Conference, confirm that I would be presenting at September’s RT and see my ticket counselor. 

But, that little bit of doubt creeped into my mind. 

“Will the SPL be able to do it without me?”

“Will he do the right week using the program?”

“Is he prepared?”

So, I called him…and got his dad, my ASM, on the phone. The SPL was at baseball practice. “Oh, I guess that he won’t be at the meeting and that I have to head over there to help with the meeting?” I asked

“Well, he’s not prepared, but he can wing it, I guess. We are just doing the first week of Camping program, right?” was Mark’s reply.

“Yes, does he have the papers or should I drop them off? Maybe I should just skip RT and come to the meeting” I said

“Whatever you want to do.” said Mark

“You know what, there is a copy of the papers in the troop library. He can use that. I am going to RT, and I will be there later to pick up the guys and give them rides home”

“Okey-dokey,” said the ASM

So I went to RT, had a good time. I left in a hurry, as I had to get back to the lodge to relieve Mark…he was the only adult leader there, and he had to leave for work at 8 PM. I got there, and he was already gone. The CC was sitting in the corner, reading a book, and the boys headed outside to do something. They came back in, set up their tables and were done about 20 minutes ahead of time…enough time to talk about the menu for next weekend’s campout. 

In the end, this Scoutmaster learned to trust his scouts, and they can do the things that they set out to do. 

When you feel that you have had enough of the day, or enough of the scouting program, do yourself a favor…

Read some of the posts on G+ or any other forum, about how some other unit has it worse than your unit. It’s not that I thrive on misery, but I thrive on opportunities that may come up from a scouter that needs some direction.

-OR-

Reply to a post from a scouter, who has a question about parental summer camp attendance. The question was

“With summercamp coming what is your guideline on requiring parents to attend due to high energy scouts that create issues. Usually start fights and cause injuries.”

My replies

“If you don’t come to camp, I can’t guarantee that your son won’t come home broken…”

“Any un-escorted children sent to camp will be fed a 1-liter bottle of Mountain Dew, M&Ms, Skittles and given a puppy before being dropped off”

“You don’t have to come to camp with your son…but don’t be mad at me when he nominates me for Father of the Year“

“Sure, I will take care of your son…is he allergic to dirt?”

“No, I completely understand that you can’t attend with your son…just sign this hold harmless document”

“Sorry to hear that you can’t attend camp with your son…this was the year that the Swedish Bikini Team was doing a demo of Winter Camping…but with out the parkas”

-OR-

Go to BING and find your troop’s campgrounds, complete with the firepit and all. Realize that the “eye in the sky” is always aware of what’s happening. While doing that, pull up pictures from Facebook and look at pics of your First Class scouts when they were in the 2nd grade and boast to your co-workers that these guys are still in the program, even though he is telling you that you shouldn’t be on Facebook during work hours.

That scouting spirit came rushing back to me after all of that, so much that I called the CC and told him that we need to hit this hard, and keep going with it. I don’t have the time to look back anymore…we have to stop driving the car by looking in the rearview mirror.

Have a good day, True Northerners….

The other day, I posted a rant on my G+ account. It had to do with some of my frustrations, so I took to the other social media waves and vented.

One thing that I found is that as much literature and training that we take, there is one thing that the BSA doesn’t account for…and that’s the Human Factor.

Why don’t they? It’s really one thing that is a constant. Heck, they should teach that at all courses!

But alas, they can’t. How can the HF (human factor) be taught? There are so many things that come into play, that there is no way to teach it. Think about every scenario that comes up in scouting. In the planning process for a pack camp-out, everything is done by the book. The week of the camp-out comes, and the only BALOO trained leader can’t attend. Now what? We use our human element to overcome and adapt. You have options as a unit. And those options are what we need to make our units run. Cancel the outing, find someone else to attend, or move the weekend on short notice.

A friend calls you and says that a scout from your troop came “out” on Facebook. Per the BSA, you must inform that scout and his parent that the scout can no longer be in the troop due to their homosexual policies. This is what the training tells you. But what the training doesn’t tell you is that someone hacked his Facebook account. The scout isn’t gay, but a spiteful former girlfriend compromised his account and started spreading the rumors. This is the HF…we aren’t trained for that, nor is it any literature that the BSA prints. How do we handle this? First, we have to deal with the scout and his feelings. Then we have to help him recover from the damage that this has caused.

I say this, and it may be a strong example, but I think that we get the point.

When it comes to outlining how the BSA wants the program to be run, and how the program is actually run, you will find they are two different things. We can’t always jump to the first thing that the BSA says to do, but we cannot dismiss the guidelines that are laid out to us in the literature and online. We have to find a common thread, one where we stay the course by using the BSA guidelines, but still are able to decipher right from wrong, and make sure that in the end, we are using the one thing that we all have….

The Human Factor and a caring for our scouts and our programs.

If you listen to the show or read the blog, you will know that I am not a deep thinker, I am more of an observationist. I see what is going on around me, but never have a whole lot of prophetic things to say. I shoot from the hip, off the cuff…not a lot of structure or scripting to my blog or my show. 

It’s a no-boundary thinking…I let my mind roam so that I may get to understand and maybe find what I am truly looking for. One thing that I have been thinking about lately is where my troop is going. 

I talked about it on True North, Show 43. Using the methods, as outlined by the BSA, has really done wonders for my troop. Now, don’t get me wrong…I have been using them from the first day of the inception of the troop. I just didn’t realize that using them would pay off the way they are. 

Stay the course…I know that I have said it in many blogs, many shows and many conversations…if you do things the way that it’s laid out, you will have success. No, everything is not a steadfast and hard rule…you can make the tweaks to what is going to work for your unit. 

Let’s take for example, Scouting Ideals. One definition that I found from just Googling “8 methods of Scouting” came up with this little tidbit:

The ideals are those outlined in the Scout Oath and Law, the Scout Motto and Slogan, and the concept of “Scout Spirit”. The ideals define what a Scout should strive to be: trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, reverent, mentally awake, morally straight, physically fit, always prepared. The Boy Scout measures himself against these ideals and continually tries to improve. The goals are high, and, as he reaches for them, he has some control over what and who he becomes.

This method permeates everything Scouts do, defining acceptable behavior, challenging the Scout to do his best, and even to do better than his best. Scout spirit describes the level of commitment a Scout has toward these ideals, and challenges him to do what needs to be done.

So, talking about Ideals…

We instilled the Oath and Law into the scouts as Cub Scouts…in the pack that they came from, it was evident that the leaders were using the tools and their knowledge to instill that in the boys in blue…once they became Boy Scouts, they saw that all the things that they were taught as Cubs, is still being used as a Boy Scout. The new Boy Scouts realized, now, that the Oath and Law were not just words, but words to live by. Now they live it, and it’s evident in their actions, words and mannerisms. 

I could go on and on about “how the scouts act”, but that would be moot…I know how they act. I have had many a parent-teacher conference where I have told the teacher that Ethan is a scout, and then the lightbulb comes on…”he’s well-mannered” or “he’s always willing to help”. I will then go further and tell them about the other boys that are in the troop. The teachers are surprised, but pleased at the same time, and they know that the Scouts are still a good thing.

I am back…

I hit “record” and finally got a show done…first time in a long time, and one of many more that I hope to get done in the upcoming weeks. Feedback is a gift, please send me gifts!

Thanks for listening

This show is brought to you by ALPS Mountaineering, makers of fine camping gear.