The Bloggers
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Once your Patrol starts taking on a life of it's own your Scouts will want to do more ambitious activities. A field trek is hiking adventure with a purpose, and it's a great thing to do with your Patrol. Make sure field treks are part of your Patrol operations plan.
Every Patrol Operations Plan includes special times to get together outside of the Troop meetings. Whatever you call this time, it's not going to be a dusty "meeting". I don't like the word "meeting". "Meeting" makes me think of businessmen in suits sitting around a table discussing business for an hour.
During my first meeting as Senior Patrol Leader I realized something that stopped me dead in my tracks: being a Patrol Leader was a more important job than being Senior Patrol Leader! Leaving the position made me realize the huge chance the Patrol Leader has to make Scouting into a real-life adventure, not just a…
Author F. Darnall Daley, Jr. has a long record of service to Scouting at the District, Council, and Regional levels. He has plenty of Unit-level experience too – notably as an Assistant Scoutmaster and Assistant Cubmaster for two different grandsons. "The Commissioner's Corner", a collection of essays, thoughts, and poems, reflect his love for, and appreciation…
Sponsored By ScoutmasterCG.com Backers In this podcast we talk about meeting the negative attitudes and behaviors we see in Scouts with the positives of Scouting and field a question about youth leader training events.This and your messages in the mailbag.
Texas isn't known for cold weather like I described in the last post! It's known for the heat! I remember vividly the hottest camping trip I've ever been on! It was a summer camp a few years ago; the humidity was high and the temperature was over 100 degrees all week long!
I clearly remember one early camping trip I went on in the middle of winter. We got into camp after dark and everyone hurried to set up their gear as the cold chilled our fingers to the bone. I was ill-prepared for the cold weather in both clothes and sleeping gear.
I never thought I could enjoy a view as much as I did that day! My Patrol and I had just hiked to the top of the tallest mountain in Oklahoma. It wasn't super tall compared to Colorado standards, but coming from North Texas, it was the tallest I had ever seen!
Sponsored By ScoutmasterCG.com Backers In this podcast I catch up on a number of email questions that have accumulated over the past few weeks. Do Scouts need contracts? What's the ideal Troop Size? How do we resolve problems between brothers?
Look at your hands right now! Even if you haven't earned Fingerprinting Merit Badge you know everyone on the face of the earth, even identical twins, have a unique fingerprint unlike anyone else's. Now think about your Patrol. Every Patrol has its own unique "fingerprint".
In"The Hobbit" the company of Dwarves decides that they need a ‘burglar'. The burglar would be the company's eyes and ears: scouting out locations along the way. A t the recommendation of the wizard Gandalf the Hobbit Bilbo Baggins was chosen to be the burglar.
I wish my Patrol had kept good records when I was a Patrol Leader. I didn't think it was all that important at the time, but I know better now. I did buy a little notebook and tried to keep it up to date, but I was so busy that I forgot to write stuff…
Scouts can join scientific collaborations in nearly any field of study through an amazing number of citizen science opportunities. Citizen science projects can make for engaging patrol or troop activities, and may even tie into merit badges Scouts are working on individually (they should make their counsellor aware of these opportunities).
Michael Smith shared this coywolf infographic with me on Google plus. The coywolf is a remarkable new hybrid mix of western coyote and eastern wolf. The coywolf's range is growing and they are thriving in urban and suburban areas. It's thought this new hybrid species first appeared early in the last century in Ontario, Canada's…
Sponsored By ScoutmasterCG.com Backers This podcast features our next installment of The Colorado Experiment, an interview with Arlen Ward; a new Scoutmaster with a new troop on the verge of celebrating their first anniversary. All this and your messages in the mailbag. Listen to Scoutmaster Podcast 211 Podcast Archive
My first leadership position was Troop Quartermaster. Cleaning our Troop trailer and organizing all our gear was no easy task; things were a real mess and it took hours! It paid off, though; it was amazing how much easier we could find what we needed.
A Patrol was off on a camping trip, and everything was going smoothly until the Patrol Leader twisted his ankle. Thankfully it wasn't anything serious, but it made it difficult to walk. The Patrol Leader couldn't go on the hike they had planned, or do much of anything else for the last day of the…
In the last series of articles ( What is a Patrol? ) we saw that a good patrol is an active, inspired, team of leaders. How can your patrol become a team of leaders? If a game like ‘Dungeons and Dragons' or ‘World of Warcraft' had only one character it would be a pretty dull game.
The results of the Boy Scouts of America Fall 2013 Voice of the Scout survey have been published in this executive summary and infographic . You can also access the published results of all VoS surveys . How it Works A Voice of the Scout (VoS) survey is conducted every six months.
Two troops, same Scout summer camp, same week; one troop has a wonderful time and goes home smiling, one has a difficult time and leaves unhappy. Some of my fondest Scouting memories come from the years I spent working on our Scout summer camp staff and serving as a camp director.
Sponsored By ScoutmasterCG.com Backers This podcast features a an interview with Bess Elwell-Cook, leader of the Cambridge Garden Guides in Sydney Australia . All this and your messages in the mailbag. Listen to Scoutmaster Podcast 210 Podcast Archive
One of my favorite parts of the Lord of the Rings trilogy is the last half of the first movie after the Fellowship is formed. This is the part where the whole team is traveling together on the first stage of the quest.
I was Patrol leader when my Patrol competed with dozens of others at our District Camporee. One competition was building a fire with flint and steel under a string tied horizontally about two feet off the ground, the object was to be the first to burn through the string.
When the evil Sauron was terrorizing the fictional world of Middle-Earth only the Fellowship of the Ring could stop him. When a comic-book demigod threatened to invade the earth with an evil army, only the Avengers could save the planet!
These seven rapid Scout recipe videos from Scouts UK are great fun! What true Scout (or Scouter for that matter) wouldn't be tempted to try something called "Armpit Fudge? When my Scouts cook high cuisine is a rarity. When it comes to food they prefer speed to subtlety; so any rapid Scout recipe should be…
Sponsored By ScoutmasterCG.com Backers This podcast features a discussion of the parallels between citizenship and leadership; you can't be a Scout without being a leader. We answer an email question aobut what to do about an attitude problem with a District Advancement Chair (Elagle drama chapter 236!)
Enoch Heise, Arlen Ward and myself discuss youth leadership in Scouting. Enoch is the author of the GreenBar life articles found at ScoutmasterCG.com. He's a 19 year-old assistant Scoutmaster with a great perspective on helping youth leaders get going and keep going.
Sunday February 16 join Enoch Heise, Arlen Ward and myself for a wide-ranging discussion about youth leadership in Scouting. Enoch is the author of the GreenBar life articles found at ScoutmasterCG.com. He's a 19 year-old assistant Scoutmaster with a great perspective on helping youth leaders get going and keep going.
In the first part of this two-part series, we learned the Patrol Briefing is a cool tool for communicating with your Patrol as a group. A good patrol leader also takes the time to talk with Scouts individually. Talking to a group is a monologue, talking to an individual is a dialogue.
You have a vision for your Patrol; you know what you want it to be. But how do you get started? Communication is 90% of being a good Patrol Leader! But where do you start? When I was a Patrol Leader, I found one of the best tools to have in my ‘Communication Toolbox' was…
Click the image for the full-sized version Is it possible to have a snowball battle without hitting anyone with a snowball? We tried this game out a short time ago; it was loads of fun and nobody was hit with a snowball.
Sponsored By ScoutmasterCG.com Backers Listen to Scoutmaster Podcast 208 This podcast features the second and final installment of the two-part series started in podcast 207 discussing difficult behavior in Scouts. There's also email questions about youth leaders roles and who decided how the program will be presented.
Once I learned the Scouting Program should be active I changed my strategy as a Patrol Leader. Instead of bottling up the energy of Scout chaos until it exploded, I decided I was going to beat the Scouts to it and lead the chaos .
I know from experience that bored Scouts cause chaos. About a month into my term as Patrol Leader I still hadn't figured out how to run a meeting with my Patrol. Some other Patrol Leaders in my Troop would give up, let chaos reign, and the whole meeting would go by without accomplishing anything productive.
I was a new Patrol Leader at the very first Scout meeting I ever had with my Patrol…. I was nervous and excited. How would the Patrol react to my leadership? How could I make this work? The Senior Patrol Leader gave orders for the Patrols to split up and work on rank advancement.
Is there really a difference between outdoor leadership and leadership in other situations? To my mind just about everything we do in Scouting hinges on how you answer that question. We are familiar with business or management-style leadership in our professional and business lives.
Click the image to see full-sized This is probably my all-time favorite Scouting game! The heaving bar is a race to throw rope over the bar, secure it to a peg driven into the ground with a clove hitch, tie a log to the other end of the rope with a timber hitch and then…
Sponsored By ScoutmasterCG.com Backers Listen to Scoutmaster Podcast 207 What causes Scouts to behave poorly? Are they just being willful and disobedient or is there something else going on? In this podcast the first part of a two-part series looking into the reasons behind difficult behavior and how we can respond to it effectively.
On one of the first camping trips I went to, my Troop had the unpleasant duty of cleaning the latrine. No one wanted to do it! I certainly didn't want to, but on an impulse I volunteered to help. Have you ever seen a movie where one guy volunteers for a hard job and everybody…
When I was elected as a Patrol Leader, I wanted to be the best possible leader for my Patrol! I decided that I was going to try to learn how to be a good communicator, planner, and organizer. Problem is I didn't have any leadership skills.
A few years ago I was the "new guy"; all I knew about Boy Scouts was what I had seen in movies and had never held any kind of leadership position in my life. Fast-forward to now: I've been a Patrol Leader and a Senior Patrol Leader.
The B.S.A. has published a helpful guide - Navigating the Eagle Scout Service Project Information for Project Beneficiaries - that defines the way an Eagle Project works from the perspective of the benefiting organization. Key elements of the process are explained : The Eagle Scout Rank and the Service Project Typical Projects Project Restrictions and Limitations Approving the…
Blogger Sheryl Canter offers this Recipe for Seasoning Cast Iron based on what looks like a very well-thought out scientific analysis. After researching the subject she concluded: The seasoning on cast iron is formed by fat polymerization, fat polymerization is maximized with a drying oil, and flaxseed oil is the only drying oil that's edible.
Sponsored By ScoutmasterCG.com Backers Scoutmaster Podcast 206 Listening is, perhaps, the single most important yet neglected skill any Scouter can use to better serve their Scouts. I talk about why and how we ought to listen to our Scouts. A listener asks if I support Scouting organizations other than my own.
Action-Packed Meetings! In part 1, I said your Patrol should have a life of its own! In Part 2, I explained how you were the only one that can make this happen. One of the most important things you can do is have your own Patrol Meetings!
In part 1, I said that your Patrol shouldn't be just a ‘paper-patrol'. Your Patrol will only become a great Patrol if you care enough to make it so. You've got to really care about your Patrol! I mean really care!
Get a life! I mean for your Patrol! Many Patrols are lifeless. These are called "paper patrols". They have a name on paper, but it doesn't mean much in real life. Your Patrol can be different. An active Patrol is a real team: a real group of friends!
Sponsored By ScoutmasterCG.com Backers Scoutmaster Podcast 205 Announcing the new Scoutmastercg.com site, new features roll out this week! What standards do we apply for evaluating leadership? Should we create a set of standards that define when a Scout has achieved the fulfillment of their ‘leadership' requirements?
Scouting is a game, not a science. - Baden-Powell Games suffer from a bad reputation. Why have Scouts play games? What about some serious learning? Aren't games just fillers? Are they a waste of time? Fun has a bad reputation too; many adults think that learning is a rigorous, difficult, serious endeavor.
In his second appearance on ScoutCircle author and outdoorsman Kevin Callan joined us from his home in Peterborough, Ontario to discuss winter camping. In a broad ranging discussion Kevin and host Arlen Ward donned their winter camping hats and talked about hot tents, quinzees, mukluks, snowshoes, and other interesting topics that should get you well…
