Category Archives: leadership

…and I think that the wheels are turning

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OK, so I have my mental checklist gone through in my head, and I am trying to formulate something prophetic that I can tell the scouts to ensure them that they are getting the best that they can, and that their program isn’t dying.

I ask Aaron, “You made a comment about the Scoutmaster earlier. What’s the hangup? Harold was a Woodbadger with me, and I think has the potential to be a good Scoutmaster for you guys.”

Aaron replies, once again, not making this up…”Mr. K is cool, he needs to learn, but our last Scoutmaster was a douchebag. I hated him, and so did most of the scouts.”

I was shocked…for the accusation and for the language coming out of his mouth. It’s not that bad of a word, but he is a scout, and he is referring to someone who is a leader. He shouldn’t talk like that, but I let it go…it’s a teenager who is trying to show that he’s a “big boy”. I could have used this as a learning experience, but I chose to let him vent. He obviously had a lot of frustration with the old regime.

Then Aaron looked at me and says, “Why didn’t you ever come by us? You would have been a great Scoutmaster. I know that I would have loved for you to be there.”

“Well, Aaron…I really don’t like to talk about why I didn’t come to 1563…it’s a sore spot for me, but I think that you deserve to hear why I am not over there.” I paused for a second and continued. “You see, when my son was getting ready to cross, we weren’t really invited to come on a troop visit…actually, I wasn’t. Neither was the den leader at the time. So we felt a little snubbed. Also, I caught wind of Mr. C stepping down as SM, so I called your CC and offered my services to help in anyway. His reply to me was that there were no leadership positions available for me in their troop at this time, but my son was more than welcome to join their troop.”

Aaron and Joe just looked at me. They were a bit shocked, and I continued.

“I am sorry that I never got to see you guys go on with Scouting. But, at the time, I was hurt from the CC’s comments, and I was already having issues with another one of the families in the troop, both of whom are still in the troop, and you guys are not fans of their son. So I took my talents and founded a new troop, one to go head to head with you guys and show you that you weren’t the only game in town. I don’t do it for that reason anymore, but at the time, that was one of the reasons that I started 1363.”

“Well,” said Aaron “we could have used you when Mr. C stepped down and could have saved ourselves the troubles that we had with Mr. B.”

It was nice to hear that from them. We continued to talk about scouting and how things were. I think that they wanted me to have a cure-all for them, but I didn’t. It’s a chance for them to learn on their own.

Another friend came over and we discussed programming and how our troop runs. I told them that our troop is boy led, and that me and the ASMs sit in the corner not doing much, except signing books and doing SMCs when the Scouts ask.

“You do a Scoutmaster’s Conference when a scout asks?” questioned Aaron.

“Yea,” I said, “when are you supposed to do them?”

Joe chimed in and said, “We have to sign up for them, and our BoRs. It can take a couple months to get those completed before we can move onto the next rank.”

Tom,  Pat and I looked at each other…signups for SMC? We never heard of such a thing. I have done them at troop meetings, bowling alleys, and campouts. I am sure that I will do them in other places, too, but I had never heard of signing up for SMCs or BoRs.

to be continued….

…but it does get better…

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As I was saying, he doesn’t know where to turn. I asked him, “You should know where to turn…you have a Scoutmaster, you are TLT trained…you are also on staff for NYLT, so that means that you have been through it already. Why aren’t you using the tools that you were given? You must have found some value in the course, otherwise you wouldn’t have gotten on staff.”

“Well, I am just tired of the guys around me. Soinso does this all the time, and when he was the SPL, he did a bunch of stuff that I didn’t think was cool. He put stuff in place the I don’t like, but the committee likes it, so that’s what I have to do,” was Joe’s reply

“Yea, I don’t have any fun at the troop meetings. I don’t want to have to play board games anymore. That’s what we do…either board games or Merit Badges. And Mr. H is leaving the troop, so we won’t have anyone to teach us Citizenship in the Community, Citizenship in the Nation and Citizenship in the World. I don’t know how we are going get our Eagles, now.”

I really couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I was stunned. Was this troop, one that had been around for so long, really running their program like that? I knew that they had some issues, but not to this extent.

And yes, this is the truth…I couldn’t make this stuff up

“OK,” I said. “You work on Merit Badges in the troop meetings? Why aren’t you using the monthly themes to work through it all?”

“We have to work on advancement for the new scouts for the first 6-8 months, and you advance by working on Merit Badges.” was both of their replies.

I still couldn’t believe it, so I changed gears, and talked about the youth leaders. I wanted to find out why the leadership was working in this manner. With proper youth training, these things shouldn’t be happening.

“OK, so I see that Soinso is your ASPL…why did you pick him? You just got done telling me that Herp was a really smart kid…use his talents and make him your ASPL.” I stated.

“All positions are elected…everything,” said the SPL.

“Whoa…where does it say that?” I said

“Those are the rules…along with having to be First Class and 1 year in the troop. All positions are elected…” he said.

“No, it doesn’t…that’s not true. I don’t know where you heard that, but that’s not the truth.” I said.

He got rather adamant to say that I was wrong, when my ASM walked over. I looked at him and said, “Tom, what are the minimum age and rank requirements for ASPL?”

Tom looked at me perplexed and said, “There are none..”

“What about SPL?”

“None”

“PL?”

“None”

I looked over at Joe and said, “Do you see where I am going with this? I don’t have my SM handbook with me, but I will tell you that the BSA states a couple things. #1, there are no minimum age or rank requirements for any position. #2, the only positions that are elected are SPL and PL…APLs are chosen by the PL, and all other positions are chosen by the SPL, including ASPL. I have a new troop, so how did I have a PL and SPL to start my troop? You know that I wouldn’t break the rules…”

By this time, I could see that his head was spinning with a lot of different things. At that moment, Aaron’s older brother, Justin, came over.

“Hey, Mr. Cleary!”

“Hey Justin…you can call me Shawn…all my scouts do. You have earned that much. How are you doing?”

“Aw, pretty good…lot’s of swimming and working out. Between swimming and football, I don’t have a lot of time for Scouts, but I get there when I can.”

“Good to hear, what are your thoughts on what these guys are saying?” I asked.

“Well, things aren’t that good, from what I see…we had a bad Scoutmaster the last time, and Mr. K is new, so things still aren’t the best. I wish we could do more stuff that we want to do.” was Justin’s answer.

I was still reeling from what I was hearing…and trying to process everything. I made a mental checklist in my head and quickly ran through it.

1. There are numerous NYLT trained scouts in the troop

2. The troop leadership is trained, some of them Woodbadge trained

3. They have healthy recruitment

4. They are active in many events, both district and council

So, what am I missing?

To be continued…

It’s not good to hear that from a scout…

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This past weekend, I attended my ordeal for membership into the Order of the Arrow (more to come on that later). Once the silence portion was completed, all of the new Ordeal members started yakking it up and chatting with anyone, as if they had just come out of a coma.

A couple of scouts that were Cubs when I was Cubmaster were going through their ordeal that weekend. They had crossed over to the other troop in the area (our troop hadn’t been started yet). I congratulated them on their accomplishment and told them that although they were in a different troop, that they were still my boys and that I was proud of them.

A couple of them came over after the meal and I started to ask them “whatever happened to soinso?” We got to talking about the program and then one of them, Aaron, asked me about some of the new Webelos that they recently got. I filled him in on some of those boy’s idiosyncrasies, and how I dealt with them when they were in the pack, and some things that worked for me when they were Cubs. Aaron proceeded to tell me about the behaviors of one of the boys, and I said “yup, that’s soinso….you just have to deal with it.” Their Scoutmaster came over, and I explained a couple more things about their new recruits and how to handle them and their parents and made the comment that “I gave you the pack’s problem children, while I took the quality scouts”

*DISCLAIMER: It was a joke, folks…all scouts are good kids in their own way*

Their Scoutmaster walked away after a “thanks a lot” comment and a chuckle. I stayed there, talking to Aaron and Joe. We talked about when they were Cubs and how the pack has morphed since they started in Cubs. We talked about prepping the Webelos so they are better prepared. I said that comes from trained leaders, good program and getting outside. They agreed and said that they didn’t remember a lot of that when they were Cubs. Aaron said that all he really remembered was playing “Tag” at all the pack meetings. I asked him if he remembered when we were meeting at the Church, and he said “yea…that was when the meetings were cool! We didn’t play tag, we played those carnival-type games and got tiny prizes. We did some cool stuff….wait, that’s when you were the Cubmaster, right?”

“Yup” I said with a smirk. “Do you remember going camping for the first time at Camp Rokilio?”

“Aw, man, do I ever! That was fun…but we didn’t go until I was in like the 3rd grade. Wish we would have went sooner…”

“Well, outing is 2/3rds of Scouting…that’s what I knew the pack needed, so I put that plan together to get the scouts to camp. And it was funded with Cub Bucks. I spent the whole summer of my first year putting together a plan to not only get there, but on how to fund it. I came back the next fall, put it on the table, and nobody could say no. I also implemented Pack Training and uniforms for all leaders. We needed to set the example for the Scouts.”

“Wow, Mr. Cleary…I had no idea that you did all of that…you kind of cared about us, didn’t you?”

“Um, yea…that’s why I told you what I told you earlier…you were and still are my boys…ain’t nothing that I wouldn’t do to make sure you get the most out of scouting”

We talked a bit more about some other scouting stuff, and then Aaron just blurted out…

“I think our troop is dying! We don’t do anything outside, our meetings suck and I got scolded from the PL for not coming to a meeting with 2 ideas for things to do during the troop meeting. It really sucks and I don’t really want to come to meetings anymore.”

Then the SPL chimes in and says that he doesn’t like the format of the meetings, that he’s not happy with his ASPL and that they work on Merit Badges in troop meetings. He doesn’t know where to turn…

To be continued…

Have faith…

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Today was an odd day…I did my usual tour of the blogs and other sites.

I am not going to point out the exact links where I ran into my conundrum, but today just seemed to be filled with a few more scouters who don’t get it.

One blog was about a unit that was trying to be boy-led, but couldn’t get there. So they decided to make up positions and to have forms to figure out how to make campouts more organized. The post went on about what they did…I only saw one or two mentions of the ASPL or SPL. Isn’t that who is supposed to plan the campout? If not plan it, delegate it…

Over on another Scouting forum, one racked with a couple trolls, had a discussion about the foods that are sold in the Trading Posts at camps. The conversation went down the path that “scouts make bad choices”…

Blog after blog, post after post…all these scouters talking about how they are making their programs, but their programs are failing. It seems that they may be the ONLY one making the program, or not allowing the scouts or anyone else, a say in the planning.

I don’t blog as much as I would like to…I don’t have a lot of prophetic words and observations like SM Jerry. I don’t have a long, documented, visual history of being a scout leader like SM Steve. I don’t have a large troop to pull experiences from like SM Bryan.

But I do have something in common with these guys…

I have faith…

Faith that the boys will make the correct choices in the Trading Post. Faith that they can effectively plan a campout without the need for a long form or checklist. Faith that they will do the best, and that if their best is good for them, it’s good for me.