Hello Group, I'm A Recovering Scouter..... But I Can't Walk Away From The Campfire

[blw2]

with recent threads, such as 

"Path to Save BSA"

and

"This would be so much more fun without the adults"

 

and my personal frustrations recently....

 

get me to thinking 

 

while the volunteer base are the shoulders of the BSA's program

it's also its Achilles heel that lames

 

I don't know the answer

but I keep wanting to think that better consistency and less latitude in unit structure, program delivery, training, etc.... may very well be the one key in saving the BSA.

 

I keep finding myself so very frustrated at

the reinventing the wheel

gross inefficiencies

differing opinions of "how" or "why" or "when"

repeating mistakes

politics

posturing

perceived unit experts that think they know or act like they know, but really don't

the wide range of leaders, from those that train and care.... to those that are just well intended but are just free agents

etc...  

all when there really should be one way with almost no thinking required. Simple.

 

It all really does nothing but squash enthusiasm and push good people away.  

 

I'm a case in point.  Tons of positive energy and enthusiasm to want to do my level best in almost any small role to help the boys through the scouting program.  Willing to put in a lot of my time, money, and energy.  Willing to step into larger roles if there was a need.

...... but I keep finding myself thinking that it's just not worth all the other stuff.

 

I often feel that every time I jump back into it,I'm jumping into a swirling cesspool.... and it's all the adult stuff, not the youth program side.

So I get out, gain perspective, and then do it all over again......

One of these days it's gonna get through my thick skull to move on.... and when that happens the BSA will loose a valuable resource that it never figured out how to utilize.

 

I know that we humans doesn't like to be boxed in

But in some ways wouldn't a simple, clearly defined, "only one way to do it program" streamline everything and reduce the virtual head butting?

[Gone]

In our unit our adults are very like minded. We recruited them that way. We are honest and tell the parents that if they don't like stepping and rolling up their sleeves, theirs 3-4 baby-sitting units down the road. Every once in a while we get someone who slips through that discussion and just sits on the sidelines. Our SM or TC will contact them, ask them to take over something and discuss how they can help. If they pass, their asked to head up another thing. If they pass on that on that they ask "What can you do to help the unit?". If the reply is "I'm really busy and don't have time" and their spouses are not already helping, we suggest that they may want to find another unit.

 

In the 12 years I have been here that has only happened twice.

[walk in the woods]

I guess I'd have to understand what you mean by "one way." In general I don't think the same techniques that work in Chicago would ever work in my rural community. One size fits all gets us overly restrictive GTSS regulations that limit squirt guns to ranges where the participants wear eye protection. Maybe the answer is fewer restrictions and more trust for the leaders on the ground?

[blw2]

An example of one of the several facets that I'm getting at.....

 

In a separate current thread, 

 

We do two camp outs on different weekends. Older scouts attend both. Younger scouts just one.

Splitting on th same weekend will lead to an unwanted segmenting of scouts. The older scouts should be leading and teaching the younger ones.

We had to take four years to fix our troop a long while back when one of our SMs did just what you propose. Two years of doing that caused four years work to fix it back.

 

 

There you have a scout master doing it his way, that took four years to "fix"

 

....and @@walk in the woods, "One way".  Well that's tough.  

Certainly it would never really be a rigid tiny box.....

And I guess I was really just what-iffing in platitudes.... & venting a bit, not so literally....

 

I'll take a stab to further comment.....

In that other discussion I quoted, I think @ outlined what seems like a pretty good solution to that question...

so lets just say that if his troop's solution were painted on the walls of the BSA, then you would never have this question coming up about how best to cater to different ability and interest groups, which results in that other SM doing something that will take years to fix....

 

"Boy lead" is another example that comes to mind.

How often do we see discussions on that come up here, with differing approaches.

But come on, really how complicated is it really?!?  

It's a pretty simple concept!!!  But there's so much stress created by it  

Define, we all do the same thing... simple

ONE program, no headaches.....

[Hedgehog]

How often do we see discussions on that come up here, with differing approaches.

But come on, really how complicated is it really?!?  

It's a pretty simple concept!!!  But there's so much stress created by it  

Define, we all do the same thing... simple

ONE program, no headaches.....

 

I think there is generally one program.  The difference is in how it is implemented.  Boy-led is the program.  The adult-led troops are not delivering the program.  However, even in boy-led troops, there is a wide range of HOW the boys lead.   In practice, boy-led means something different in a troop of 8 boys than a troop of 50 boys.  Heck, in our troop, the boy-led means something different depending on which boy is leading and even means somthing different with the same boy at the beginning of the year and the end of the year.

[Stosh]

I think there is generally one program.  The difference is in how it is implemented.  Boy-led is the program.  The adult-led troops are not delivering the program.  However, even in boy-led troops, there is a wide range of HOW the boys lead.   In practice, boy-led means something different in a troop of 8 boys than a troop of 50 boys.  Heck, in our troop, the boy-led means something different depending on which boy is leading and even means somthing different with the same boy at the beginning of the year and the end of the year.

 

In a good boy-led program, the maturity development in the boys can easily be seen in the single year.  By the time the boys are 3-4 years into the program, there's really not much an adult can do except fill in the 2-deep BSA requirement... and learn how to drink coffee from 300' away.

[MattR]

As others have said, a single program for everyone won't work. The common theme of all troops should be the methods of scouting. Unfortunately those aren't described very well. It doesn't need to be 300' but patrols do need to get away from each other. @@Eagledad talks about growth, and that's really important to keep older scouts around. How each troop does these things can be different.

[Stosh]

I don't always adhere to the 300' rule (can't always pull it off) but I do make it far enough that it is really obvious that people aren't "accidentally" in the wrong area.  It should be far enough for it to be inconvenient.

[blw2]

As others have said, a single program for everyone won't work. .....

yeah I'm not yet convinced.....

of course a northern troop will have different core activities than a southern one

differences like that, but otherwise, I'm still wondering.....

[PA Scoutmaster]

In a good boy-led program, the maturity development in the boys can easily be seen in the single year.  By the time the boys are 3-4 years into the program, there's really not much an adult can do except fill in the 2-deep BSA requirement... and learn how to drink coffee from 300' away.

 

Well, we can experiment with different kinds of coffee. There are lots of options.

[Stosh]

Egg coffee on an open campfire.