Adult Activities

[Stosh]

In general I do promote adult activities and/or learning opportunities for the them.  Last summer camp I made a rocket stove and did all my cooking for the week on it.  I was up and running with coffee long before the boys even got up and made a fire for breakfast cooking.  We (adults) played with it all week long and figured out how to make the best use of it as something we might do as a patrol learning opportunity for the older boys.

 

Every other year we as adults all re-do the YPT, Safety Swim, Safety Afloat, SM fundamentals, etc. training the camp provides.

 

I find that keeping the adults busy keeps them out of the boys' hair for the week.

[MattR]

If the parents are having fun then they are showing up, and bringing their sons with them. If the parents are showing up then it's easier to teach them how scouting works. If all the parents are having fun together then it's easier to pull them aside when they get too involved with the scouts.

 

Before I became SM I was going to make a Heckawee patrol patch. After I step down I'll go back to that. The patch was going to be a broken compass. For those of you that don't know, the Heckawee came from F Troop, as in Where the Heckawee. Turns out there really was a Heckawee tribe and they weren't to fond of the F Troop episode.

[Stosh]

That episode of F Troop was a classic. When asked who they were, they responded, "We're the Heckawee."  That's probably the only line from that show I remember.  I can see why it would rile a few indigenous people.

[SSScout]

If you want your "Adult"  members ( how are they registered?  Committee members?  ASMs?  Patrol Dads?   )  You can make sure:

** they attend IOLS in your District  (by design, it is supposed to lead the attender thru the Tenderfoot , Second Class, First Class requirements) (Totn' Chip too).

** Look up in your Council Training section.  Take the ones there (Wilderness First Aid?  Climbing Wall, if you have one?  Dare I say,,,, Wood Badge?)

**   If they truly want to help Scouting, URGE them to become active in the District activities.   Too many Dads on the Troop campout?   District could always use some more Commissioners  .  My Wood Badge folks told me "Commissioners can do anything" (!!)   Plan Camporees,  help with OA,  plan Merit Badge stuff.   Present at the Round Table ("oh, we never go to that, it never is interesting or applies to my needs")  Help fix that....

**  Service for your CO?   Adults can "provide the role model"  for that.   My dad took me to ALL his Lions Club activities.  Of course, I didn't have Minecraft back then....

 

**  Help plan MORE "High Adventure " stuff for the Troop.   The Scouts need that support (delivery of supplies on the AT,  meet and pick up the Canoe Expedition,  who has the cousin who owns the Horse Stable?  Who knows the manager at the airport?   )  

 

 An Adult Patrol may seem like a god idea, perhaps , but it should not be an excuse to NOT help the Scouts  do Scout things.  

[Hedgehog]

We've gotten the adults to camp anc cook separately from the scouts on both the Troop and Crew outings.  The adult leaders have bonded much like a patrol and we tend to work together seamlessly.  We also informally teach each other skills, show each other gear and generally learn from each other.  It takes the new parents a little getting used to camping away from the scouts, but they find that they enjoy themselves.  Honestly, I think the best part is just being able to relax with a bunch of friends.

[TAHAWK]

Go for it!

 

QM, Old Crow Patrol, T22.

[qwazse]

Usually my ASM role at camp is something like:

1. Provide SPL/PL maps and suggest gear for the weekend's activities ... just enough for them to improvise from there.

2. Figure out a suitable distraction for the adults ("Hey, would you like to peruse the camp facilities?", or "I brought my pizzelle iron, lets make some treats while the boys hike/fish/get the provisions we didn't buy for them/play capture the flag".)

3. If the crew is nearby, I might suggest something in-between. ("Hey, why don't you find the ranger and ask to see his motorcycle collection? You might help him tune an engine. If scouts find you and are bothersome, let them know that the adults are making pizzelles and preparing to eat them all.")

[Stosh]

Visit other troops at camp and find out what they do in scouting.  Great resource for learning about new ideas.  I visited a group of older boys once that "didn't do anything" but sit around the campfire all week long at summer camp and hang out.  I asked them about it.  They were all Eagle scouts that had come up from Tigers together.  They had just all graduated from high school and this was their last opportunity to hang out before all going their separate ways in life.

 

I spent the whole afternoon with those 8 boys...... It wasn't my memory lane, but it was a very interesting road to travel nonetheless.

[blw2]

Go for it!

 

QM, Old Crow Patrol, T22.

careful there.....

[TAHAWK]

 

While I have relatives in THAT part of KY, no double entendre intended.  We just had a 1960's Crow Patrol flag and it seemed to fit.

[krypton_son]

careful there.....

 

Now that's the kind of old crow that I can get behind.

[jwest09]

In my experience, when newer ASMs arrive on outings, they don't really know what their role should be.  They tend to gravitate towards interfering with, I mean supervising, the boys, because that's a reasonable thing to expect to do.  Even if they've had some training on how a boy-led troop should work, there's a bit of a mental leap involved to actually apply that philosophy when you're out in the field.

 

I've found that having a rough schedule of things for the adults to do is a useful way to distract them from wanting to hover over the boys' shoulders.  Even just forcing them to participate in a training or other activity for a couple hours can be enough to get them over the new and somewhat scary idea that the boys can take care of themselves using the patrol method and support from experienced adult scouts.  I've found that without some scheduled distraction, it ends up being difficult to corral them away from hovering too close over the boys' shoulders.

 

For me, details about whether you call it an "adult patrol" and have a patch or not are pretty irrelevant - but I do see value in organizing some actual concrete activities for the adults to focus on, if for no other reason that to give the youth some space.

[Eagle94-A1]

In my experience, when newer ASMs arrive on outings, they don't really know what their role should be.  They tend to gravitate towards interfering with, I mean supervising, the boys, because that's a reasonable thing to expect to do.  Even if they've had some training on how a boy-led troop should work, there's a bit of a mental leap involved to actually apply that philosophy when you're out in the field.

 

We currently have one of those. Older Scouts do not like him at all, and I and a few others have been asked by the Scouts to keep him away from them. The one time I wasn't able to do that, the Scouts acted properly, but didn't talk at all the entire hike and essentially ran through the trail with their gear. They did a 5 mile hike with gear in under 90 minutes. I don't know if they did that to finish the hike as soon as possible, or try to walk him into the ground. But he is a tri-athlete and kept up.

 

I can relate to them and their feelings as I always hated when we got new Scouts from a pack: their leaders and parents followed them and would interfere with us until the SM or CC took them away from us.

[Eagledad]

We didn't have an adult patrol per se, but we did have a fun group. To control the adults somewhat and keep them out of the patrols way, we had an older scout work kind of as their patrol leader. Since adults don't attend PLC meetings, the adult patrol older scout attended the meetings and then reported the information to the adults. The scout was also their trainer in whatever skills the SM felt the adults needed at that time. I don't think the present SM uses a scout for the adults now because his personality is a little more hands on, but it worked very well for me and really brought home the boy run aspect of the program to the adults.

 

Barry

[12PointLife]

I have found that there are plenty of opportunities for adults to stay occupied including adults whose son(s) have aged out of the program. Opportunities exist as merit badge counselors, committee functions, fund-raising etc. In my area, there are always positions to be filled at the District level. There are opportunities to help at council long-term camping facilities throughout the year as well.

 

Stay active and registered in your local unit. I have transferred to a different Scout unit on occasion where adult leadership has become a bit thin. I doing so I stay current with former adult Scouters and expand my reach to new adult friends who share the same enthusiasm for the Scouting program.

 

Hope this helps and Good Scouting!

 

12PointLife