When did you first take Scout leader training.

[Bob White]

GKlose,

I hope you have a good time, but when you get back get your hands on all three syllabi and read through them because your are being denied a lot of the training information.

 

There is no way that all three courses can be be covered in a singlle weekend without severely editing the materials. I would estimate that about 4 or 5 hours of material will be left out.

 

I am sorry to here that after waiting so long that this is the program decision your district ore council has made.

[GKlose]

Thanks, BW...I hear you on the time aspect. I've already bought a couple of documents and have read them (for example, not only did I buy a scoutmasters handbook, I bought an old one too, to see how things have changed -- the old ones are surprisingly well-written and informative). I've also been reading this forum and AskAndy since April.

 

There is one place where I will probably get myself in trouble. Say a trainer makes some comment that I know is not true. I have trouble handling those situations (and certainly other trainees don't want a P.I.T.A. fellow trainee). What I'll probably do is make some notes and make sure the other guys from my troop hear an alternate side of the story.

 

Guy

[GKlose]

An addendum -- this is out of district for me. My district only does Cub leader training. It's a long story, but the district is rebuilding.

 

The council handles Woodbadge every other year, and just started University of Scouting this year. I'm not sure if they do any of the other standard courses. I'm having a difficult enough time trying to figure out the district.

[Bob White]

Reading old SM Handbooks and Ask Andy columns will not train you to be a Scoutmaster in today's program.

 

A better course of action would be to borrow the training syllabi (this should be easy since your district doesn't appear to be using them for anything)and read through them instead of old books or unoffical sources.

 

As far as how to handle things, if you believe that the information contadicts the scouting program information then I would talk to that specific trainer afterwards and just say that you are confused. Repeat back your understanding of what they said and confirm that you understood them correctly, then explain what your understanding of the BSA information is and ask them why they differ. It could be the trainer simply made a mistake and he or she will hopefully make time in the course to correct the error.

 

Of course I would not resort to this approach more than a few times. If it is a frequent problem I would resign myself to the fact that you are not getting a good training experience and I would look for other ways to get accurate and complete training.

 

 

(This message has been edited by Bob White)

[GKlose]

If you're interested, I'll give a full report, maybe Monday AM.

[Bob White]

I would be interested in knowing what they chose to delete, but you will not know what that was until after you read through the course syllabi.

[Gold Winger]

"Reading old SM Handbooks and Ask Andy columns will not train you to be a Scoutmaster in today's program."

 

Maybe not but you'll have a better idea of what Scouting is all about.

[GKlose]

GW, I understand where both you and BW are coming from (I take all these sources, just like this forum, with a grain of salt). Honestly, I read a lot. I've read current manuals (and will be re-reading them), I've read a few old manuals, I've read the BSA website, and done online training, council training, and I read online forums. All with a fairly open mind, I hope.

 

The training this last weekend went well. I'm not sure if giving specific details would be all that important -- I would guess that some of my comments could kick off digressions similar to what happens all the time on this forum. No need to revisit old territory.

 

BW's instinct were correct. Lots of material was glossed over, and many times our course segments would digress into all sorts of side discussion not unlike what happens here. Yes, I will be getting the training materials I don't have yet, and reading those.

 

I did hear a couple things that my understanding differed with, and in one case I spoke to the trainer between sessions, not to correct him, but to clear up what I thought the group was misunderstanding (due to the questions and comments going back and forth). The trainer then said that he would clarify the topic as soon as our next session started (and he did).

 

The incident related to Venturing. The trainer had mentioned venture patrols, and it somehow blended into Venturing. After a moment, it became very clear that some of those asking questions didn't understand the distinction, and the trainer didn't catch that some questions were for venture patrols and some were for Venturing (questions about registering with Boy Scouts until 1st Class, and then continuing towards Eagle while part of a crew). So I thought there were quite a few confused participants. We then took a break, and I talked to the trainer (who appreciated me saying something to him).

 

When we resumed, he did take a minute to talk about the idea that venture patrols and Venturing were completely separate things, and that the Venturing program was distinct from the Boy Scout program (while a venture patrol exists within a Boy Scout troop). All was well and good at that point, except that another Scouter walked up behind him at that very moment and put in his two cents worth about "venturing patrols" and "venture crews" (and I did a virtual smack of my forehead -- things were going so well up to that point!).

 

So, I'm kind of in the middle with this weekend training. I did get something out of it, and I understand BW's point that I may have possibly missed quite a bit. The course organizer agrees too...they are going to be offering an expanded Outdoor Leader Skills course sometime later this year, and they have invited us to drop in on it to make up for some of what we missed this weekend.

 

Guy