New scoutmaster advice

[andrewcanoe]

I am being handed the reins to the troop I serve starting in January and am wondering what advice the sages of these pages could give me on be a great scoutmaster.

 

 

I've been ASM, advancement chair , and Cubmaster in the past.I have been to wood badge and am currently working my ticket.

[Scoutmaster Ron]

Congradulations...Have you read the S.M. handbook? I have found it very helpful. How is your program ran?

[acco40]

If possible, use the "retiring" SM as a resource (don't fall into the trap of having to "do it like he/she did, but if you can use pointers on what did or didn't work your ahead of the game), get a great SPL and SAs, have fun, be organized, remember what your job description is (see SM handbook), and remember that your never to old to learn.

[dsteele]

IF the retiring Scoutmaster hasn't already thought of this, and perhaps he/she has, I would advise you to ask them to be available to you as a resource, but to take a hiatus from the troop for at least several months. The boys need to have time to adjust to having a new Scoutmaster and perhaps new ways of doing things.

 

I'd keep the old Scoutmaster around for the committee meetings, invite him/her to courts of honor or special things, but ask them to stay away for the first few campouts and the first few months of troop meetings. They would be welcome to return after the adjustment period.

 

If asked in the right way, the old SM will probably cheer at having been let off the hook for the weekly stuff.

 

DS

[andrewcanoe]

Thanks for all the advice.

 

The retiring SM is stepping down to assume a more active part on his church commitee, and will no doubt welcome the "vacation".

 

I have the SM handbook and have read it but am still working on the memorization.

 

The Troop was two former SMs, a husband and wife, who have had much more training than I (Phimont,national camp school, wood badge staff)and are at most of the meetings.

 

I've got my eye on a couple of the dads, both Eagle scouts as possible ASMs. The troop also has some Eagle scouts that are appoaching their 18th birthday that would make excellant ASMs.

[NeilLup]

Hello Andrew,

 

Congratulations and thank you for taking this important job. You'll have a great time.

 

You have received some great advice from others. I'm going to suggest an idea now which I haven't seen done formally but I believe would make a big difference.

 

You have been to 21st Century Wood Badge. So you know about values, vision and mission. I would suggest that you think a bit about what your personal values are and then about what your vision for the Troop is. You have the vision of being a great Scoutmaster and having a great Troop. What does that mean? Not just nice words but reasonably specifically. Does it mean great advancement, lots of campouts, special trips, youth doing everything, winning camporees? You likely can't do all of those, particularly not at once.

 

They identify the mission to achieve this vision and the tasks involved. Will you run a Troop JLT and maybe get some boys to council JLT of even NJLIC? Do you need some ASMs or more committee members? Do you need more Troop equipment? Do you need more members? There are ways to get those.

 

Next, share the vision, the mission and the tasks. First with the PLC if you have one, ASMs, the old SM (if possible and appropriate) and the committee. Then with the parents and Scouts. Get them fired up and build their enthusiasm for the vision, the mission and the tasks.

 

Finally, work the plan. Every three months or so, review it with the committee and the PLC. At least once a year with the parents and Scouts and present an updated mission and tasks. The vision should remain pretty much the same.

 

If you remember the session on Values, Mission, Vision, you remember the statements of JFK, Martin Luther King and Margaret Thatcher. That's your job now. Set the vision. Set the mission. OUtline the tasks.

 

Do it quickly and what you do at the beginning is a unique opportunity.

[River2K]

AC,

I too will become Scoutmaster for a troop in January. I asked for some advice on the following thread and found it to be very helpful. If you haven't read it already:

 

http://www.scouter.com/forums/viewThread.asp?threadID=36073&p=1

 

This forum has been my greatest source of new ideas, inspiration, and confidence. The other source has been the Scouts in our troop.

 

Congratulations and Good luck in your new position.

 

Ken

P.S. I was born Sept 1963

[KoreaScouter]

1. Read the book and follow it.

 

2. All the methods are equally important; no one is more important than the other 7.

 

3. Go to Costco or Sam's Club and get the BIG bottle of St. John's Wort from the vitamin/supplement section.

 

4. Don't let little things like a bad meeting or outing ruin your outlook. This is a marathon, not a sprint. Your measure of success is how they turn out as grownups, not whether every APL brought a pencil to the PLC with him.

 

5. Do you remember your Scoutmaster from when you were a boy? They'll remember you, too. What memory do you want them to have? Conduct yourself accordingly.

 

6. Don't do committee work if it's in someone else's lane. Read the Troop Committee Guidebook so you know who's supposed to do what, if you haven't already.

 

7. The Scouts won't drive you nuts, the adults (primarily parents) will. Mostly, they do what they do out of ignorance, not malice -- don't take it personally. You can invite them to get enlightened, but can't force them. When I run into someone who's really cranky, I assume they just had a death in the family -- helps me temper my approach/response to them.

 

Good luck...

 

KS

[andrewcanoe]

I really appreciate all the advice but I haven't seen any "Don't do this,I did and it went terrible wrong" stories. Now I know some of you are perfect and never make mistakes but how about the rest of you? Do you have a favorite mis-adventure that is famous in your troop or district? I think it would be great to hear about Mr. Steele soaping the inside of a pot Or FOG scaring the troop with his snoring(Both just examples, I have no Knowledge of either thing happening).

[Bob White]

KS gave some excellent advice, I can only add to use positve landmarks not negative ones to determine if you are on track. Do not worry about what not to do. Focus on what you should do, and how to do it the scouting way.

 

Bob white

[Fat Old Guy]

As much as I like to pick things apart, I can't tell you what not to do. Let your SPL run things. Okay, here's a don't: don't let the adults act like den leaders.

 

Here's an example, last campout my son's patrol had great hot breakfasts of pancakes, sausage and eggs. The other patrols' "advisors" didn't want to fuss with cooking (for some reason the adults think that they have to cook) so they had cold cereal and Pop Tarts. There were 10 happy scouts with full bellies and a bunch of grumpy Scouts who didn't understand why they couldn't have a good breakfast.

 

 

[andrewcanoe]

Bob: Just looking to avoid some pitfalls and maybe share a few funny stories around the campfire. I'm not looking for negative things just thought I could get some practical advice from some respected peers other than follow the BSA rules and regulations ,that goes without saying. I'm looking for the stuff they don't teach you in training.

 

I'm wondering If some of you have favorite activities or ledgend in your troop. We had a leader put on the wrong pair of shoes at an event and he hasn't been able to live it down and this occured in'99 (hide your shoes ,Here comes ******,you know he's always looking for a good pair of broke in boots.)

[NeilLup]

Ok, Andrew,

 

If you want an I did it and it went wrong story, here goes.

 

As a new Scoutmaster, one of the first things I wanted to do was have the annual planning conference to lay out our activities for the upcoming year. I thought that we would get the PLC together and develop the plan.

 

So I got a flip chart, set it up, sat the PLC down and said "OK, we have the year ahead of us, what would you guys like to do next year?"

 

Silence

 

"Surely you have some ideas?"

 

Silence

 

After a period of what seemed like root canal dentistry, there was a plan but I said most of the words and had most of the ideas.

 

The lesson for me was that boy leadership needed to come in stages. We needed to have a JLT and I had one after a bit. But we probably should have started out with a "pencil" plan with the PLC changing it as they wished. It would have involved quite a bit of training and working to get them able to respond productively to the question I asked.

[dan]

IF you are going to have a boy lead troop.

Start with it, if you decide that you are going to let them watch the adults do it first, and wait for the scouts to have JLT first, it will never become a completely boy run troop.

 

NeiLlUp, I am going to throw some stones at you, please take a deep breath, before you respond, I only do this to help andrewcaone.

The SPL should have been standing in front of the flipchart, running the meeting, not an adult. The SM should have meet with the SPL before the meeting, to set the expectations for the meeting.

 

Just because an adult is an Eagle scout, it does not mean they understand boy lead.

 

Look at the reporting structure in the SM handbook, have the PLs report to the SPL, have the correct POR report to the ASPL.

Give the scouts the job descriptions from the JLT book for there POR, so that they know what the job is. Be prepared to help these scouts out using the reporting structure, have the ASPL help and guide the Historian.

Be prepared to sit down with these scouts and tell them where they need to improve. If they are not doing anything tell them so. If they do not do anything with the POR, do not count the POR for advancement, we do the scouts no favors by letting them slide by with a POR.

 

Never train a scout when another scout could train him.

Have the PLC create agendas for meetings and campo

 

[KA6BSA]

If you haven't already done it, get in touch with your Unit Commissioner and ask him/her about their history with the troop and what they can do to help you get started. UCs are often seasoned Scouters who just need to be asked to be a valuable resource for BSA methods. Also the Chartered Organization head can help you deal with any disciplinary issues that might come up (the boys may decide to "test the new SM" a little bit!) or old issues that have been left unresolved by the previous SM.(This message has been edited by KA6BSA)