The Adults Who Cross-over

[Lisabob]

Here's a thought, though maybe I'm pipe dreaming.

 

If we want to improve the outdoor skills of our adult leaders at the troop level, then we need to do more to provide serious outdoor training to adult leaders at the CUB level.

 

Yes, I know we currently have BALOO and WLOE (or whatever it is called now in your area - outdoor webelos leader training). BALOO doesn't really get into hands-on material though and WLOE is only one night, plus a day and a half or so. It is a good start but that's all it is.

 

Around here our RTs for cub leaders have been pretty well run lately and the attendance figures reflect that. We have University of Scouting once a year as well. But these, too, are not generally hands-on in terms of outdoor skills. And they mostly focus on cub crafts and games - which is important, but seems to come at the expense of a focus on outdoor skills.

 

Here are four things I'd like to see us all incorporate into how we train cub leaders, so that they can do a better job of delivering the Outdoor program to their packs now AND be in a better position to serve as ASMs and SMs with troops, down the road.

 

1. Fire building and fire safety, and NOT IN THE ABSTRACT. I've been "told" and "shown" how to build fires plenty of times. Doesn't really stick. Help me actually do it, more than once. Provide me with multiple opportunities to do this at training, at RT, etc., because where I live, maybe I can't do it in my backyard or city park, etc., and even if I can, I probably am not going to try it on my own if I don't have any experience and don't know what the heck I'm doing.

 

2. Knife and axe usage and safety. This is over-looked in the cub program a lot of times because adult leaders don't feel confident in teaching this material. People who aren't personally skilled in these are probably going to just skim over knife safety with the boys, if not skip it all together.

 

3. Outdoor cooking. Look, our Univ. of Scouting runs all kinds of cooking classes for cub leaders. They tend to consist of things most of us would never actually cook (expensive packets of dehydrated food and/or nasty things like hot-dogs in crescent rolls) and they're seldom hands-on. Branch out past foil dinners and eggs in plastic baggies. Teach cub leaders to use a coleman stove, a backpack stove, and do some dutch oven cooking.

 

The problem I've seen here is that we spend more time focusing on WHAT to cook (and apparently assuming that these adults don't know how to cook anything where the directions are more complicated than "just add water"), and not enough time focused on HOW TO USE the equipment, in order to cook something people might actually eat.

 

Yeah, I know, someone will say: Cub leaders want to learn simple things so they can teach their (young) cub scouts to cook those things. But you know what? If it tastes nasty or looks awful (gloppy one-pot casseroles come to mind) then the cub scouts themselves aren't going to like it or want to do it twice. If we're going to teach the boys to cook, we might as well teach them to make something good, not only something simple.

 

4. Rope skills. We can go back and forth about the utility of learning to tie a bunch of different knots as required through the 1st Cl. rank but the requirements are what they are. So let's teach cub leaders to tie and use those knots, to lash things, to splice and fuse and whip ropes, etc.

 

OK and actually five things...

5. LNT training that actually takes place OUTSIDE and as more than an after-thought. (Actually I noticed recently that some councils in my area are now offering beginner and advanced level LNT training for boy scout leaders - which I think is great. Anybody know how this dove tails with what's offered in WLOE, OLS, and Woodbadge? Is it hands on or classroom format? Can Cub Leaders sign up for this?)

 

Yes, I know, a lot of these things are covered in various scout handbooks and sure, leaders of all levels ought to READ those. As a cub leader myself, I did a lot of that to try and develop skills I didn't already have. But that's certainly not the same as DOING these things, with the help of someone nearby who is actually skilled already.

[John-in-KC]

Lisa,

 

Much good writing in your posts here.

 

I will say this on cooking: Seems to me cooking is a pro forma requirement, and it needs strengthening at all levels, youth and adult

 

I led Cub day camp cooking area for two years. One thing I did both years was show folks how easy it is to do a dutch oven dump cake.

 

BTW, I do believe foil dinners can get fairly complex in their recipes and spicing ... witness what Cracker Barrel offers every autumn in a restaurant!!!

[Eamonn]

It's hard enough to get people to attend the Training's that they need.

I think training people who are Cub Scouters in things that Cub Scouts are not allowed to do, would be seen by many as a waste of their time.

Of course we would like to see Bear Den Leaders take Webelos Scout Outdoor Training and it would be great to see Webelos Scout Den Leaders take Scoutmaster and Assistant Scoutmaster Training's, but I've met far too many Den Leaders who can't wait till their Den Leader days are done, they take the training's that they need and that's it.

Many are Moms with other little people at home, they have full time jobs and seem to end up as the Family Activity Transporter.

We have all met the "Training Junkies", who at the whisper of a training no matter about what are there in full uniform, bright eyed and bushy tailed -Strange how many of these types make really bad leaders!!

Of course there are Cub Scouters who have the skills, but they need to follow the age-appropriate guidelines, and I kinda think us training them in activities that they are not supposed to be doing with Cub Scouts sends the wrong message.

Eamonn.

[Lisabob]

Ma Scout, I like your idea. I'm not sure it would be all that much more work to do at an event that was already well planned and established (like a camporee) since a lot of the logistics would already be in place. But it would certainly require some buy in and a commonly held vision of what should occur and why it is important. Kind of like an applied version of university of scouting.

 

Eamonn, I agree that training cub leaders in skills they don't need or can't use with their cubs wouldn't work. I guess what I was trying to say is, let's do a better job of training cub leaders in things they CAN use for the cub outdoor program (all of the things I listed are easily applicable if a pack has a good outdoor program - and if they don't, well maybe the training would help them develop one). The thought I had was that we would do a better job of developing troop leadership that is "comfortable in the outdoors" if we spent more time and effort developing cub leadership that is also comfortable in the outdoors.

 

But, you're right that it can be a challenge to get people to training and that more training might not work. I must say, having sat through a lousy training session recently, that it would have to be done really well to draw a crowd and it might take some time to develop a reputation as a worthy endeavor. In that regard, maybe Ma Scout's idea of doing this at camporees, etc., makes a lot of sense - as the leaders will likely be going to those events anyway so at least you "have the body". Then "all" you need to do is provide worthwhile content.

 

Lisa'bob

[evmori]

Outdoor skills should be taught at the Boy Scout level. There isn't much of a need at the Cub level.

 

Why not combine all the specific training into a two weekend course? The way we did our Basic Leader Training was a Saturday indoor session with breakouts by job (SM, ASM, CC, etc.). Everyone was placed into a patrol & they elected a PL. Each patrol was given materials to make a patrol flag & they needed a patrol cheer. A couple week later the outdoor session took place. It was an overnighter starting Friday evening. Each patrol was required to function the same way a patrol in a troop was to function. There were skills competition & various outdoor skill demonstrations during the day. It was a great time & an excellent learning tool. And it covered a lot!

 

Ed Mori

Troop 1

1 Peter 4:10

A blessed Easter to all!