Splitting A Troop For Campouts?

[mattman578 117]

When I was in high it was a boarding school they had and outdoor eduction program scouts with out the book and it would take any boy regardless of age 7th grade on up and we would hike mountains and miles not sure of the mile count but a lot and the younger ones held up just fine.  Of course the instructor ran our little butts off 5 days a week to prepare of the trip.

So you any of you guys work on physical education like that like have a 5 mile fun run or something to get the kids in shape before the event.  I am thinking of one of my Webelos now who had trouble with the the 3 mile hike we had to take

[Stosh 3452]

@@Stosh - We are in agreement.  What you call creating opportunity by discussing what you have done, I call coaching by making suggestions and asking questions.

 

Me:  "You guys want to do something involving a float trip... what could we do?"

ME: "Man, the Mrs. and I just got back from the Brule river trip, did the whole thing in 3 days. Weather was great and we had a blast."

Scouts: "Canoeing or sea kayaking"

Scouts: "How come we never get to do that?"

Me: "Caneing on a river or in a lake?"

Me: "You never got that from me."

Scouts:  "We like going on the Delaware."

Scouts: "That's whitewater canoeing and we don't know how to do that."

Me: "We did that last year, do you think that would affect turn out?"

Me: "Whose fault is that?"

Scouts: "No, we did it last year and want to do it again."

Scouts: "Who can teach us?"

Me: "OK, what about sea kayaking?"

Me: "I have 20 years of canoeing experience on that river and 5 kayaking.  The Mrs. has 15 years doing the river twice a summer."

Scouts:  "How about in the fall?"

Scout: "So you might know someone who can teach us?"

Me: "We can do that.  Do you want a one day trip or a campout?"

Me: "Yep, here's his phone number on this piece of paper."

Scouts: "It would be great if we could camp out - the weather is usually great for camping in the fall."

Scouts: "But Mr. B, this is your phone number."

 

As stupid as that conversation might sound, it is pretty much verbatim I had the first year I was in my second troop pushing the boy-led idea to an entrenched adult-led troop.  We finally got to go up there and the boys had a blast.  The nice thing about it was the river was really shallow and rocky so the rapids looked 10 times worse than they really were and when the boys did dump the water was pretty much just waist deep.  I never told them that, they thought they were doing the Colorado in a raft.  

 

It ended up an annual trip.

 

If you look at the conversation, you do a bit more "directive" than I would.  I try to use the conversation to draw out an initiative so the ownership of the actual trip passes to them and stays with them.  I try to keep myself as a semi-disinterested bystander.  The trick is to get the boys asking questions, not the adults.  

Edited August 9, 2015 by Stosh

[blw2 433]

I'm at the point with my son of getting ready to steer him to start looking at troops.

Our CO's troop, while trying to do the boy lead thing, I fear does very little of that.

I was the CC for a very short time, and since then have been on their email list since I was CubMaster (just for awareness in an effort to strengthen the pack/troop relationship)

I get the sense that the conversation is more like

Committee: Let's set up a camping trip next month.  OK, when.  

Scoutmaster: well I can't do it on the 12th, how bout the 19th?

Committee: sounds great.  Let's see if the boys want to go to X.

 

I get the idea the boys might have a little say in where, but it's steered by the adults.  The when certainly is.  I get the feeling the boys drive the menu, the plan, etc... a bit more though...

 

I hope I can get my son and his friends to realize they should be looking for your conversation when shopping for a troop!

[Stosh 3452]

I'm at the point with my son of getting ready to steer him to start looking at troops.

Our CO's troop, while trying to do the boy lead thing, I fear does very little of that.

I was the CC for a very short time, and since then have been on their email list since I was CubMaster (just for awareness in an effort to strengthen the pack/troop relationship)

I get the sense that the conversation is more like

Committee: Let's set up a camping trip next month.  OK, when.  

Scoutmaster: well I can't do it on the 12th, how bout the 19th?

Committee: sounds great.  Let's see if the boys want to go to X.

 

I get the idea the boys might have a little say in where, but it's steered by the adults.  The when certainly is.  I get the feeling the boys drive the menu, the plan, etc... a bit more though...

 

I hope I can get my son and his friends to realize they should be looking for your conversation when shopping for a troop!

 

When and if one does make contact with a potential new troop, remember the key is: Adults talk to adults, boys talk to boys.  And ne'er the twain shall meet!

 

As an adult one should be asking questions like participation % in activities.  Low numbers means the activities aren't want really interest the boys.  If boys pick activities on their time table, participation tends to be higher.

 

Also how much interaction is there between adults and boys.  Is the SM or his/her designee the only one interacting with the boys or do all the adults hover around the boys "helping" 95% of the time?

 

Who do the adults say are in charge? and who do the boys say are in charge of the program? 

 

Listen for pronouns in the conversation.  Do the adults use "we" all the time? or do they talk about the boys doing things.

 

Boy "led" okay, but what about the patrol-method?  Do the adults break up the patrols for convenience sake?  How disruptive to the troop would a major high adventure trek cause in the patrols?  Will they need to break up patrols to do that?  How are the patrols selected in the first place?

 

Don't be afraid to ask some serious questions, the worse case scenario is your boy going through all the hassle of changing troops only to find out he jumped out of the fry pan into the fire.  I have seen a lot of adults that do a fantastic job of schmoozing the new potential scouts only to have them quit after a year or so.

 

Good luck on your search.  And keep it in mind that if all the other troops out there are worse than yours, you and your son may need to roll up your sleeves and work on fixing the current troop.