Sleeping in Cars

[Stosh]

I figured out the importance of respect about a year ago. Since then I've been trying to develop it. At tonight's ASM meeting I was training the adults on respect and part of it was defining the line between adult and scout responsibilities. Most of the ASMs like it but one of them is a problem. The boys flags aren't good enough so let's make them re do the flags. Their patrol names are no good. Their cheers aren't the right length so let's get the SPL to make them change it. I reminded him that the patrol he is most upset with just won all the team based competitions at the camporee last weekend (camp wide). They are a bunch of misfits but they were a team. One of their scouts ages out in a month and he's still a Tenderfoot. But he likes scouts. The PL asked for help on teamwork and I spent the entire month working with him and his patrol. (Yes' date=' eventually it will be the SPL doing this but I have to figure it out myself first) In the meantime, another PL saw the results and asked me if I could help him out with getting scouts to listen to him. We started talking about respect and servant leadership. The other thing I just learned is scouts are a lot more receptive to new ideas when they have a problem they want to solve.[/quote']

 

My adults find it very difficult to refer to their children with the title Mr. in front of it. I have no idea if there is any clear connection or not, but at home and among friends they go by their first name. At school it's first name. In sports it's last name, and in my troop it's titled last name. I find myself having very little problems with them when I do this.

 

Don't think for a moment that this doesn't go unnoticed. Last Monday we had a new boy show up to check out the new troop. The PL introduced himself as Mr. A----, and ask the new boy what his name was and he answered with his first name. The PL smiled and said, no, your last name. Once he had that, he introduced him as Mr. B---- around the patrol table of boys introducing each with their titled last name.

Each PL does things differently and what surprised me was the PL had the new visiting boy doing the flag ceremony calls to retire the colors. This little dynamic goes a long way to reassure the boys that they are being taken seriously and respected.

 

When my boys age out, I quietly let them know that when we're away from the boys/troop, they can refer to me by my first name. Every boy says the same thing, they can't bring themselves to do so.

 

Once one has these PL's trained in servant leadership, rather than management, the adults can get completely out of the picture and the patrols will basically run themselves quite nicely.

 

Any ASM that tries to interfere in the operations of the patrols and/or demand changes, or micro-manages them, are asked to step down in my troop.

 

"(Yes, eventually it will be the SPL doing this but I have to figure it out myself first)". But one must remember, ever SPL will be doing it his own way, according to his style of servant leadership. If one figures it out for themselves, of what value will that be to others than be expected to mimic the my-way ASM that was just described?

 

Sounds like you have a good handle on the situation.

 

"When are you going to start treating me like an adult?" - is a question I have never been asked in my 40+ years of working with youth.

 

Stosh