The Bloggers
Scoutmastership, troop leadership and the Scoutmaster Podcast, from a long-serving Scoutmaster.
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As we confront the fallout of coronavirus let’s remind ourselves Scouting is staying connected and bridging the gaps. Yep. we are in a pickle aren’t we? We have very little idea of what our lives will look like this time next year.
Hello and Welcome Back! Just when you think everything is going well, and you pat yourself on the back for being such an effective Scouter, you are confronted with a behavior problem. Oh for Pete’s sake! Not again! Yes, again… and again, and again.
Hello and Welcome Back! Scouting is camping with your patrol, and one of my favorite ways to go camping is backpacking. Reducing everything you will need to live for a couple of days to what you can comfortably carry on your back is a test of skill, and planning ; it challenges our moral, physical and…
Hello and Welcome Back! Scouter Training is closer to employee training than active Scouting. Sitting through scripted sessions punctuated by unrealistic, often dated, videos is one way to learn, but it’s not the best way to learn Scouting. I’ve never been a good classroom student, I learn more by doing, so I tend to value…
Hello and Welcome Back! If you are reading this you are a volunteer, and probably not just for Scouting. Volunteering for Scouting returns more satisfaction and joy than we really deserve, but there’s always a danger of getting spread too thin.
Hello and Welcome Back! Engaging youth leadership and helping them develop their skills is one of the most rewarding parts of our work. Scouting may have many things in common with other youth activities but it is unique. We apply what we know from our professions and our own experiences to training and mentoring youth…
Welcome to the ScoutmasterCG newsletter; selected posts and podcasts published every other Monday about a specific aspect of Scouting. We’ll get things rolling by asking an important question; why Scouting? During my first few years as a Scoutmaster I was just kind of sailing along without really thinking too much about why we were doing…
A reader recently told me they were feeling frustrated with evaluating advancement requirements and lamented “I sometimes wish the people who write these requirements would actually watch them in a troop environment.” Tell me about it! We get into difficulty when we look at advancement as our aim, or of central importance to Scouting.
Author and Scouter Mark Ray offers these thoughts on the the GSUSA lawsuit that’s been in the news lately; Did you roll your eyes when you heard the news that the Girl Scouts of the USA was suing the Boy Scouts of America for trademark infringement?
I get lots of email questions about… … troop conflicts. It may be volunteers arguing with each other, parents arguing with Scouters, volunteers arguing with Scouts, they all have a common thread, and most have a common answer. I also offer my simple advice for welcoming girls into troops, so simple you may not like it…
Create shared expectations and you’ll have a happy troop. In this week’s podcast I answer an email question about a behavior problem. A problem that would never happen if those involved shared expectations. Ask Scouts to analyze their behavior in light of the Scout oath and law.
When thinking about Eagle Scout advancement … .. we ought to ask “what is an Eagle Scout?” rather than “who deserves to be an Eagle Scout?” The answer to the question “who deserves to be an Eagle Scout?” is easy; any Scout who completes the requirements.
Webelos dens as patrols and more older Scout issues … Catching up on email questions this week I’ll talk about Webelos dens working the patrol method and discuss the causes of at least some older Scout problems. (If you listen very carefully you may detect a rant this week).
Working with older Scouts between the ages of 14-18 … … is both challenging and rewarding. What interests keep them involved? Simply turning up the ‘wow’ factor doesn’t do much to keep them engaged, because they are looking for much more than fun.
Email questions! I’ll answer email questions concerning patrols and planning in this week’s podcast. I think what most of us want is patrols with long storied histories, stable membership, and high functioning Scouts. It’s my suspicion these kinds of patrols only exist in the pages of handbook.
Scouting discipline is constructive… … because it builds character through applying the Scout oath and law. When we think of discipline we often think of systems of rules and punishments. These things are more familiar to our Scouts than open-ended situation where they follow principles.
Why is Scouting designed around youth leadership? Most Scouters think a youth led troop is the brass ring of Scouting. What exactly do we mean when we talk about youth leadership? There’s much confusion and misunderstanding of this than nearly any other aspect of Scouting.
How does Scout advancement achieve the main aim of Scouting? Todays talk about advancement continues our foundations series. I’ve written extensively in detail about many aspects of Scout advancement, but this is different. In this podcast I ask how Scout advancement fits into the overall game of Scouting.
What’s the difference between Patrol system and Patrol method? I have never found any actual difference between those terms in Scouting literature, but I will share acouple of thoughts to differentiate between patrol system and patrol method in a way you may find helpful.
Some aspects of the Scouting game look like flaws… … but they are features we must not alter. Games restrict or constrain play through rules, the laws of physics, or human limitations and Scouting is no exception. We Scouters often expend lot of effort trying to fix things that don’t need to be fixed, or smooth…
Thinking of Scouts as players … … fills out the analogy of Scouting as a game. Players volunteer to participate in the game. The most important volunteers in Scouting have more power and influence than the highest official. Without their participation, Scouting would come to a complete halt.
Thinking of Scouters as coaches … … can help us understand our role in the game. These are just analogies – we aren’t actually coaches, and Scouting isn’t actually a game. Analogies are not exact copies, they only resemble what they represent. What a Scouter does may be similar to coaching, but Scouters hold an unique role in…
We’ve heard this before, right? Baden-Powell employed the “Scouting is a game” analogy long before anyone else, and it is the best analogy I’ve found for explaining the wonderfully complex, intriguing, idea that is Scouting. We have to be careful because analogies break down at some point.
Thank you for being a Scouter! Today I have a short story to share (with apologies to Clement Clarke Moore) I first read on Podcast 248 to wish readers and listeners happy holidays. The story includes Scouters in neckerchiefs, silence imploring, settling ourselves for a long winter’s snoring.
No matter how we hard tried our Scout Troop planning seemed to be losing the battle for for space on crowded family calendars. Participation in our program was all over the map, some events would be well attended, only a handful of Scouts would how up for others.
Imagine two Scout troops, troop A and troop B. Both troops have “average” Scouts (whatever that means) who do what average Scouts do. Both have a well defined procedural approach to discipline and misbehavior. Troop A publishes a guide that defines the rules, how they are enforced, and penalties for breaking them.
Scout advancement is not adults judging Scouts… … it’s Scouts meeting requirements with the support of adult volunteers – in Scout advancement we are all on the same side. We did not write the requirements. We don’t personally embroider patches to present to them.
Kevin Callan is here, it’s time to go winter camping! Canada’s Happy Camper, our friend Kevin Callan, author of the new Complete Guide to Winter Camping joins us on this podcast with his welcoming way of sharing his knowledge of the woods in winter.
Here’s some advice from Wade Bastian on the Appalachian trail gear he carried on his hike. Wade set out on the 2200 mile trail with fellow Eagle Scout Bucky Kellorg in February. As planned, Wade interrupted his hike to spend the summer employed as a peak steward in New York’s Adirondack mountains (he’s stewarding a…
These Appalachian Trail Lessons come from Wade Bastian, one of two of my old Scouts hiking the 2200 mile trail. Wade and fellow Eagle Scout Bucky Kellorg started in February. As planned, Wade interrupted his hike to spend the summer employed as a peak steward in New York’s Adirondack mountains Bucky completed the trail in…
What do I do now? A Scout misbehaves, makes a mistake, or even consciously does something wrong, and things spin out of control, now what? If you hang around long enough your Scouts misbehave, and you’ll will be confronted by this sort of incident, so what is your plan?
I did not start out as a believer in co-ed Scouting. For most of the last 35 years I’ve been a volunteer with the Boy Scouts of America the status quo worked fine for me, co-ed Scouting was a big unknown, and being unknown it was something to resist.
Can you define Scout leadership without using the words “lead”, “leader”, or “leadership”? The Scout oath and law does a great job of defining leadership without any of those words. Look at the simple promise “to help other people at all times”.
Today the BSA announced Family Scouting starting next fall with girls in Cub Scouting, and “a program for older girls, which will be announced in 2018 and projected to be available in 2019, that will enable them to earn the Eagle Scout rank.”
Yes, girls in the BSA. I want the BSA to be a fully co-ed organization with no limitations on how girls participate. Before you lose it understand I don’t think girls in the BSA should be forced on anyone. More about that later.
I’ll be brief, well, kind of… … join me as I talk about two key ideas for Scouters I hope you find helpful . This podcast condenses into one talk the answers I wrote to several common email questions I had this summer.
A virtual question and answer session with Green Bar Bill about the patrol method from the December 1943 Edition of Scouting magazine. If you aren’t familiar with Bill “Green Bar Bill” Hillcourt check out these articles to learn more. Download this article as a PDF document below.
Some Scouting problems are just nettlesome… … they aren’t discipline problems, or particularly disruptive, just nettlesome, irritating, like stinging nettles. Everyone thinks it’s the Scoutmaster’s responsibility to fix nettlesome Scouting problems, truth is it isn’t, at least not directly. Most Scouters run into a situation like this, it bothers them, and then they create a rule…
I’ve struggled to understand the role of a junior assistant Scoutmaster. It’s right there on the organizational chart, it has a (kind of fuzzy) job description, but (like many of you) I never found a way to apply this role to my complete satisfaction.
This should be fun! This week there’s no deep dive into policies, no procedural advice or philosophizing, just a conversation with two of my old Eagle Scouts who headed out for a hike last week. Bucky Kellorg and Wade Bastian join me from their “zero day” about fifty miles into a 2000 mile quest to…
Take a little time to watch these two inspiring canoe videos, it’s worth it. “The Canoe” features footage of Algonquin Provincial Park where we go for our Venture Crew’s annual canoe trips. There’s a segment on building a birch bark canoe, so I just had to add the second film to this post.
We ended up drawing a kind of dividing line … … between adult and Scout responsibilities, and it has a lot to do with Scouts and money. In this podcast, in answer to a listener’s question, I’ll discuss how we decided who would be responsible for Scouts and money.
This Scouting Equipment Catalog from 1925 is a fantastic piece of Scouting history. I’ve scanned all 50 pages and created a PDF document that you can download at the end of this post. On the cover there’s a full color illustration by Benjamin Goodwin Seielstad of Scouts in their campsite with a cowboy in the…
How well do Parents understand Scouting? Should we expect them to? Most of us didn’t understand it either for our first two or three laps around the track. There’s an understanding that comes with having things explained, and an understanding that comes from experience – two entirely different things.
In 1925 the Columbian Rope Company published a brochure with images of impressive displays of Scouting knots to advertise their tape marked pure manilla rope. Two images feature a large knot board made by Troop 4 of Columbus Ohio. I wonder if that knot board is still around?
Do you have quarterly Scout parent meetings? I'll answer an email question about parent's meetings in this podcast. On our quarterly Scout parent meetings that include a court of honor. Everyone arrives at about 7PM, the Scouts go outside to play a game and the committee chair and whomever needs to (depending on what is…
It is our responsibility to assure there's a shared expectation… … and our Scouts understand them. Scout aged children are not going to interpret gentle reminders, they'd prefer to have to have things clearly spelled out. They are literalists, they don't take hints.
We aren't working to control the conduct of young people. We have a greater challenge; to form their character as defined in the Scout oath and law. Are the Scouting ideals in the Scout oath and law a code of conduct?
A Scoutmaster is not… … the boss of a company and youth leadership are not employees we discipline or hire and fire. A Scoutmaster is not a commanding officer and Scouts are not soldiers who can be disciplined for "conduct unbecoming" a Scout, so let's get that foolish idea out of our heads as well.
There's always more questions about merit badges… … then I have useful answers because the vast majority of problems with merit badges are structural rather than procedural. But I hate missing an opportunity for a good, old fashioned rant. Listen in while I climb on my soapbox and opine about what I think the problem is…
