Stosh

I've been gone a month, so I missed out on much of the conversation, but the skimming I've been doing doesn't really cover an important aspect of Scouting that has faded away into the past. Yeah, yeah, here he goes again. If one wishes to market scouting I would sum it up under just one mantra. "Whatcha gonna do when the electricity goes out?" Basements go black, cell phones run out of juice, the stove and microwave doesn't work, the refrigerator food starts to spoil, the freezer same thing, no TV, iTunes stop, it gets really, really dark after sunset, and the list goes on and on. It is at that point that one realizes what BP's motto "Be Prepared" is all about. Not only have we abandoned historical scouting, we have even abandoned the basic premise of the organization. How do I know all this? Just got back from 4 weeks in Houston and met a whole lot of people that knew first hand what that meant. They were without food, water and shelter, the basics of scouting and staying alive. Although I wasn't in Florida nor the Caribbean islands, I can safely bet they're asking themselves the same thing. So, along with "help other people at all times", how many scouts and/or scouters could even endure the rigors of going down and helping clean up the mess and provide food, water and shelter to people facing desperate times. Probably not many, after 24 hours, most cell phones are going to go dead, probably don't even have cell service, and no electricity. Just how long does one think the average First Class scout would last? Maybe BP's idea of getting out of the house into the woods wasn't just for fun, but to learn some useful skills when the house disappears. Be Prepared.

Claw trucks are out already. The Texans are cleaning up really fast. If the scouts don't hurry, they will end up with very little to do. Insurance companies are all over the place and contractors are on the job. Out lying areas where the waters receded slower, could probably need the help. Last I heard, the Beaumont area is still struggling.

Thanks for coming, any help is urgently needed. I am doing hot-shot runs out of the Red Cross headquarters and there is help needed in every direction. If your mucking area is big, contact Red Cross for cleaning supplies. Ask for the bulk distribution lead in the district you are in. Houston HQ will know the district you are in by your location. If scouts want to organize and come help, I will try to get on the forum more often and do what I can do to help from this end.

Crickets

Day off? What's with that? I haven't had time for myself since last Thursday. This is the first time in over a week I have been on the forum since I left. It's midnight, my Red Cross Emergency Relief Vehicle is loaded with food and water and I will be in the driver's seat at 7:00 tomorrow morning. It's a 150 mile round trip to deliver and back to headquarters for 3 more trips. No time for a day off. Thanks for being here. I always suspected you for a real scout. Now I know.

I am at ground zero for the Harvey Relief effort for the Red Cross Houston headquarters. Been here all week. Most organizations have a lot of the major issues covered for the moment. People have been rescued and taken to safe shelters. Food is being served. With that being said when the flood waters recede the biggest job is going to be cleaning up the mess. This is where the boys have an opportunity to do something really worthwhile. It isn't going to be fun but it will really going to help. Mucking out houses isn't fun, but furniture needs to be hauled out, carpets and flooring needs to be tore out and hauled to the curb. You can start in any neighborhood at dawn and work to sundown. Churches can house the boys and provide food. Red Cross has cleaning supplies. Help other people at all times. This kind of stuff needs real scouts. If you have boys that want to really help let me know. PM me. Don't waste my time uless tbis is going to be for real. I am ready working from 7:00 am until midnight. I don't have time for fun and games right now.

For identification purposes, in one of my former troops had the PL's wear the Expedition hat with a red cord. The SPL had a yellow cord. One could spot them a mile away. Today in my current troop we have blaze orange neckers. It makes my job easier and the boys made the decision to go with them so it's a win-win for all.

I found that the boys quickly identify who the real leaders are (natural leaders) and follow. I build off of that. One of the problems with leadership is that not everyone is capable of being a leader. Yes, they may be good managers and if they bully, persuade, threaten, and coerce effectively, they will be successful. However, they will soon realize that they have to up their game because they lose more and more "followers". I always tell my boys, if no one is around when you need help with something, chances are, you aren't a leader. Boys will follow leaders they know will help them advance and be successful. There has to be some kind of "heart of a teacher". If the boys are "in it for themselves," they will not be effective leaders, they need to place their followers first. A good leader never asks another to do something they wouldn't do themselves and have done themselves and is willing to do again to teach the newbie. A good leader will always be teaching others to replace himself. "C'mon I'll show you how it's done." That is the kind of bonding necessary to actually have people not just willing to follow, but wanting to follow. And as far as teamwork/team building goes, the best leaders make the best followers. How much prestige will a boy garner among his peers if the only question he always asks is, "What can I do to help." If the boy does that often enough he will build a good rapport with the group, they will rely on him, turn to him for assistance, and there will be a gaping hole in the operation of the group if he should ever leave. THAT is what leadership is all about, holding the team together by making oneself indispensable. We had a TG in a neighboring troop that always stuck out as strange at the camporees. Here was this older boy with all these new scouts hovering around him constantly. They looked to him for everything they needed. If this kid walked off a cliff, the boys would all follow. The others would often refer to him as the Mother Hen. It kinda fit. What made it work? He was constantly attending to everything and anything to help these boys get through the first year of scouting.. Was there teamwork? Not really, but what was happening was these boys all got a first hand lesson in what leadership is all about. It would have been interesting to see how this kid operated when he was not at a camporee with the boys. I'm thinking it wouldn't be a whole lot different. One does not acquire such loyalty overnight.

I have always taught that teamwork was always most successful when the membership is comprised of leaders. The patrol method is designed for that, but the principles to making it happen haven't been around since GBB's patrol method was in vogue. The PL is the glue that holds together the other leaders. The APL is the PL's right hand man and works to insure the PL's success. He can take over when the PL is not available because he is just as good a leader as the PL. The QM handles the equipment, the Scribe handles the paperwork and registrations. The Treasurer works with him to coordinate the finances of activities and with the QM with the purchase of equipment and the Grubmaster for feeding. The Bugler is the "communications officer" that lets the other patrol "leaders" know what's happening. A PL whistle can work in the short distances, but the bugle can reach out a lot further. The ActivityMaster coordinates the calendar and designs the tasks necessary for long term planning prior to the activities. The Chaplain's Aide deals with the religious welfare of the patrol as needed. Each one of these positions need qualified and functional people. NO! they do not all do the same thing! Each is focused on their part of the team and do what's necessary for the welfare of the others depending on when their functionality is needed. Obviously at meal times the GrubMaster runs the patrol after the Chaplains Aide has done his bit at the beginning of the meal. Of course none of this happens until the Bugler sounds Mess Call.... which is initiated by the clock or the PL. I always premise my leadership training with the concept of "taking care of your boys". This means the QM takes care of the equipment needs of the others, the GrubMaster takes care of their feeding, etc. The PL makes sure everything runs smoothly and steps in to HELP as needed to insure the success of the various team leaders who are operational at any given time. Too often the PL "leader" only managerially delegates tasks and expects the others to follow orders. This doesn't take into account any problems that might arise that the PL has to step in and help that leader be successful. Leaders are those that the "followers" look to for functionality in the task they have accepted, but the followers have a responsibility to insure the success of the leader as well. The QM brings over the Dutch Oven, stoves, and chuck box to have it available fo the GrubMaster. If he walks away having done his management job, he's a good manager, but a lousy leader. The GrubMaster may need help in dealing with the food prep and if the QM, having finished his task, then says, "What can I do to help." he now becomes a useful team member that the GrubMaster can count on for being successful with his task. Of course if the GrubMaster has asked for all kinds of redundant equipment from the QM, he's not working to make sure the QM is successful either. Once this process is in place, it's kinda neat to watch, expecially when those standing around with plate and cup in hand realize that if they are going to get fed quicker, they jump in and help. One can't be a leader unless others look to them for guidance, support and effort.

Welcome to the forum! For an open and progressive program, it would seem that the closed door policy you have experienced speaks differently. I offered up my services as an adult leader with many years of Scouting, community and faith-based youth programs and was told they only took female leaders. My oldest daughter quit at Silver and the other struggled through 1 year of Daisies before quitting. As far as disparaging remarks about GS/USA from BSA, there are plenty of them here in our council. I'm sure that no matter what happens, it's not going to be good for anyone in either program. Sure, BSA "thinks" this is a good idea, but then only time will tell the reality. There are plenty of those listed in the Darwin Awards hall of fame that thought it was a good idea at the time.

It's interesting in the letter, the BSA spokesman said no decisions have been made yet, but that's not the scuttlebutt I've been hearing among the council brass. So much for transparency and honesty.

Okay, let me get this straight a PAIR (2) of pants (plural) is how many pant? 2 or 4? Then again a pair (2) of shorts (plural)? How many does one need to pass the inspection. I do believe that one is going to need some sort of calculator for this one. It sounds like one of those math word problems that never made sense because if I had 40 watermelons and gave 25 away, how many do I still have. Well, who has 40 watermelons in the first place and if one ever grows zucchini, it's tough to give one away let alone 25 of them suckers. And now what do I do with the last 15 watermelon? I toss them, I don't like watermelon and unless I end up with zero, I ain't gonna be a happy camper.

Blew off the NSP? That's a great idea for the new boys orienting them to the "smokey backroom" of how things work in the troop. In my troop the PL's are in charge and when we had a PLC, no one blew off anyone. It was a time to let the other PL's know what's going on in each patrol and if there's any concerns they are passed to the SPL to take care of. Otherwise the patrols ran their own show. No PLC ever dared "dictate" anything to a PL or patrol. 4 Patrols all want to go to a different summer camp? Not a problem, the SPL either makes it work or the PL's get another SPL. Not a problem. A non-functional SPL would get rotated out in a heartbeat if he ever "blew off" a PL, especially the NSP PL.

I'm a certified instructor for the Red Cross, but in a different area (Disaster Mass Care). Unless the Council approves it, I cannot teach it. Instructors can generally charge whatever they want over cost of materials. Our council instructors charge $70 per person for the one year certification. This is why I don't get involved in the process. Sounds kinda fishy. I teach Red Cross volunteers in Disaster Mass Care and charge nothing, the training is free. I'm a volunteer after all.

I found this to be the case where the older boys went off to Venturing because they wanted to get away from having to be stuck with the younger boys and not have HA opportunities. Maybe one of the reasons the tiered patrol method works for me is I don't insist on mixing the patrols. If I started in Scouts it would be exciting at first but after 4 years of the same old, same old, and another three to go, I would seriously thinking about jumping to Venturing just to escape the younger boys and have an opportunity for activities more attuned to older scouts. Now if my troop provided Venture Patrols, then the temptation would not be there.

This is why I have always used the layered patrol method. The NSP focuses exclusively on getting the boys trained, oriented towards Boy Scouts (away from Webelos Scouts) and has limited contact with the older boys. This gives the boys a chance to bond and develop friendships, especially if they come from differing schools. The middle layer are the regular patrols. These boys are beginning their serious trail to Eagle, working on PORs and MB's and help out with the NSP as TG, possibly PL, Instructors, etc. The NSP does not operate as a totally separate program in the troop. This layer makes up the 12-15 year old scouts. Then there's the third level, the 15-18 year old scouts that do nothing but plan adventures unique to their interests. Instead of running off only to return to get their Eagle, they remain active, participate in leadership of the regular patrols if they wish, but generally are allowed to plan and run high adventure. These are the boys I really don't want to see at summer camp for the 5th, 6th or 7th time. Of course they would be bored. The only way I can think this to work is the Patrol Method. Drop the NSP, and Venture patrols (HA), and what one ends up with is new scouts in with the boys wanting to do something that's not boring and instead have to teach S->FC skills for the 5th, 6th and 7th time to each new one or two boys joining up. They can't do HA as a patrol, the younger boys can't handle it so all activities are taken down to the lowest common denominator. And besides that after 3 or 4 years the boys are all mixed and mismatched that one's friends are in 2-3 different patrols. Nope, not my cup of tea. Never liked the mixing part, just let the boys decide and it's surprising how layered their choices tend to be. Everyone's different on how they perceive this process, but for some reason it works really well for me, but then when it comes to the patrol method, I give the boys free reign. I get in a lot of nice HA trips too which is a nice perk.

When I was in Scouting as a youth, my whole patrol quit and we continued with "scouting" activities on our own. Eventually we joined Civil Air Patrol as a group. Often times it is the group, not the activity, that holds the key to successful maintenance of a group of boys at that age.

One of the problems I see on the horizon with Venturing and advancement is the lack of the patrol method in Venturing. It's not very well defined in troops and would be even less in Venturing. That in and of itself would be difficult to justify in the whole scheme of Scouting on the Boy Scout vs. Venturing levels.

Exploring went co-ed due to the change in programming. It was designed to be coed. Exploring was dying off and so BSA opened the door to hobby and career interest for both male and female. General Interest Posts basically were of no interest to the gals, very few signed on, but the career/hobby interest took hold. Now they have tried to divide it back into two programs Learning for Life (careers) and Venturing (Hobby and HA) Isn't really taking off as they would have like it to. By having Boy Scouts 11-13, they could bolster Venturing by having the gals earn the Eagle. It appears to me to be just another "shell and pea" game going on once more.

Boy Scouts will move to 11 to 13 and then to Venturing. All they have to do is open Scout advancement to Venturing. BSA as we know it will cease to be.

Summer Camp Venture Crews are just there so everyone can be in a uniform for flags. Of course they are not correct uniforms, but close enough. It would look a bit tacky for the camp cook to show up in blue jeans and a t-shirt. It's a Paper Venturerer kinda thingy.

I run the patrol method of a boy-led troop. I spend most of my time keeping adults out of the boys' way. With that being said, I have 2 ASM's right now. 1 deals with advancement records and paperwork. He hands me a report of what advancement needs to be done for all the scouts and I SMC with the PL to help him if he wants to know this information. 2 deals with Popcorn Sales, fundraisers and keeping the books, registrations for summer camp, etc. Both know their jobs and we all stay in our own lanes.

Local option is a farce. It is like having a smoke free section of a room or a pee free corner of a pool. All the traditional units will no longer have a traditional experience on any district or above activity. Maybe Lone Scout units for traditional Scouts. LDS units do it now, maybe that could be expanded for traditional Scouts. Unless BSA is planning on parallel programs this halfway approach is nothing more than lip service announcing they're not yet at the bottom of the slippery slope.

Adults with big egos love to add to the requirements when it comes to Eagle projects. I taught my boys how to avoid this by being confident and sticking to the job at hand. Anytime someone got off on a, 'When I was a boy...' tangent, he would interrupt with an Excuse me, but what does this have to do with my project? What was interesting was when one of my boys entered the room for his EBOR, he came in, saluted the panel. They didn't know what to do so after an awkward few moments they told him to sit down. He said he wasn't done yet, gave the Scout Sign and proceeded with the Oath and Laws. Then he sat down. Then one of the panel members said, it was not appropriate for scouts to be saluting other people, it was for the flag only. To which he quoted the page number out of the handbook that said else wise. They asked him only 4 questions during his one hour meeting because the scout when on and on about all the things in scouting he had done relative to the question. He's a fully trained SM today, including WB. Show no fear!

I left scouting after 4 years of adult planned outings and boring meetings. My buddies and I didn't stop camping, we just stopped camping with the scouts.