NYLT Syllabus Question

[jc2008]

Reading through everything, everytime you read a syllabus, different stuff pops out at you! 

On day 3 - In the Schedule for Dinner it says : Conducted with explanation. Ties into Leading Yourself.

It has this same note for Day 2 Scouts' Own on the schedule.

 

Now, I understand that in Scouts' Own there is an instructional that can cover this, but on Day 3 dinner, after the youth staff have already been to day 1 and day 2 dinners with the youth, what exactly are they looking for here? Just to making concious comments on how the patrol is taking care of itself etc? 

Nothing is mentioned in the syllabus about conducting that dinner with explanation or how to handle that.

What am I missing here?

(PS, how many youth staff do you send to each patrol at mealtime? In the past our course has not followed that part of the syllabus and just fed youth staff with the adults at the dining hall for most meals and sending some staff to check in on patrols at their campsites. SPL wants to go BY THE SYLLABUS this year, and I totally get why having staff join patrols at meal times can be super important. I am also assuming its youth staff that go out and have meals with patrols, do some courses also send the adult staff?)

Edited April 2, 2019 by jc2008

[jjlash]

I dont have the syllabus handy - but since they have already done a couple of dinners I would think it is referring to the meal time discussion rather than the preparation/service itself.  May be it is just reinforcing the expectation that there be useful discussion about the patrol and individual progress (rather than random video game discussions).  Maybe not so much how they are taking care of themselves but about what insights and learning they are having about leadership and servant-leadership.

We send all of the staff, youth and adult, to eat with patrols.  We have a spreadsheet that generates the rotations so that we have 1 youth and 1 adult per patrol per meal.  The Troop Guide is with their own patrol on D1 and D2 then they join the rotation so they can meet some of the other patrols.

 

 

[jc2008]

Thanks so much. Can I ask a question about how many Participants/Youth staff/Adult staff your course usually carries?

 

[jjlash]

Our program is fairly new so still growing.  Last year was our 6th time holding the course and we filled it (48 participants) for the first time.  We are hoping for a waiting list this year so that we can consider running two courses next year.  Not sure we'll make it - we may be reaching our equilibrium for the number of youth in our council.

Our youth staffing is usually about 12-13 - our goal is 1 per patrol (8) + 1 SPL but we usually over-staff a bit to allow for a) in case one has to back out and b) to find the best possible presenters for the large-group sessions.  This does present a challenge of what to do with the extra kids...the ones that are not strong enough to give a large group presentation may also not be strong enough to be youth QM or Admin.

We try to keep adult staffing to the minimum - too many adults with not enough to do is a recipe for them interfering with the youth-run method.  We usually have Course Director and Backup, QM, Admin, Program, Facilities, Medic and Cook.

 

 

[Sentinel947]

For whatever reason my post didn't take. 

My council typically has 48 participants/ 14/16 youth staff and 4 adult staff. Our youth and adult staff eat with the participants. 

I'm not sure what that reference is to on Day 3. My youth staff might know. 

[jjlash]

1 hour ago, jjlash said:

We try to keep adult staffing to the minimum - too many adults with not enough to do is a recipe for them interfering with the youth-run method.  We usually have Course Director and Backup, QM, Admin, Program, Facilities, Medic and Cook.

 

11 minutes ago, Sentinel947 said:

My council typically has 48 participants/ 14/16 youth staff and 4 adult staff. Our youth and adult staff eat with the participants. 

 

Good job on only 4 adults.  That is where I would like us to be but so far, as I said...Our adult staff is kind of carried over from our Wood Badge structure where roles like QM/Admin/Program/Facilities are defined by the syllabus.  On a 4-adult staff, do you have well defined roles or is it more everyone does everything?  

[Sentinel947]

5 minutes ago, jjlash said:

 

 

Good job on only 4 adults.  That is where I would like us to be but so far, as I said...Our adult staff is kind of carried over from our Wood Badge structure where roles like QM/Admin/Program/Facilities are defined by the syllabus.  On a 4-adult staff, do you have well defined roles or is it more everyone does everything?  

Scoutmaster(Course Director) Assistant Scoutmaster(back up Course Director), Quartermaster/logistics, and Admin/First Aid. 

We have 5 courses a summer, so our "extra" adults are involved in projects to support the courses, but not strictly involved in one course. We have a "lead Course Director" over all 5 courses. We also have a lead admin/registrar, and a lead for quartermaster/food. We have another adult that does all of our nylt uniform/swag purchasing. They focus on big picture and help keep our courses fairly uniform. 

[jjlash]

Wow - 5 courses a year.  That makes sense to pull a lot of those functions up to serve multiple courses.   Is there any overlap of the youth staff from one course to the next?  Is there any interaction or joint meetings of the staffs during development?

 

 

[Sentinel947]

1 hour ago, jjlash said:

Wow - 5 courses a year.  That makes sense to pull a lot of those functions up to serve multiple courses.   Is there any overlap of the youth staff from one course to the next?  Is there any interaction or joint meetings of the staffs during development?

 

 

We do all of our development weekends together. We'll do joint meals and flag ceremonies, a few trainings like Trainers Edge as a whole group, then split up by course for most of the on course practice/training. 

More than last year I've noticed our SPLs doing some practice activities jointly. Realistic First Aid and Problem Solving round robin. 

I'm ASM for Program(backup course director.) 

Edited April 3, 2019 by Sentinel947
Typo

[Chris1]

All adults and youth staff have meals with Patrols rotating through.

My Council does five per year. Typically we have had around 20 youth staff and 11 or 12 adult staff for each week. Yes it is a bit staff heavy, found some attempts are being made this year to reduce somewhat.

 

 

 

 

[Sentinel947]

On 4/2/2019 at 11:03 AM, jc2008 said:

 

Nothing is mentioned in the syllabus about conducting that dinner with explanation or how to handle that.

What am I missing here?

 

I threw out that question to my staff in a shared group chat. Nobody knows. My best guess is that it might be a copy and paste error. I don't see it elsewhere on any of the other days other than the Interfaith worship service on day 2. It's possible they copied the chart over from day 2 to day three and accidentally left that note. I know that's a deeply unsatisfying cop out answer, but that's the best I have. 

Edited April 4, 2019 by Sentinel947

[jc2008]

Thanks guys! Our course seems to always be youth lacking for staff (we only have one course a year and they are not quite full 35-ish) and we literally ask basically anyone who is eligible and we can work with for staff (work with, ie they don't have to be the best, but they have the willingness to work for it). We seem to end up being a bit adult top heavy, as the adults end up handling the Quartermaster/Scribe type duties since our youth are busy being TGs and ASPL/SPL. Lucky we have a good bunch of adults (a few husband/wife teams) who know how to fade into the background.

Im putting together our staff notebook (with daily schedules/cliff notes) so in re-reading the syllabus, I always discover things I want to be able to explain in my cliff notes so the youth as quick access to refreshers during the course or while walking from one place to another lol.

[Eagledad]

1 hour ago, jc2008 said:

Thanks guys! Our course seems to always be youth lacking for staff (we only have one course a year and they are not quite full 35-ish) and we literally ask basically anyone who is eligible and we can work with for staff (work with, ie they don't have to be the best, but they have the willingness to work for it). We seem to end up being a bit adult top heavy, as the adults end up handling the Quartermaster/Scribe type duties since our youth are busy being TGs and ASPL/SPL. Lucky we have a good bunch of adults (a few husband/wife teams) who know how to fade into the background.

Do to adult mismanagement of the course, we struggled finding youth staff in our council. A youth support staff was very important for me because I wanted scouts to see that there was always another challenging level of scouting for their career,. You know, for those Sentinel947 types.

You need to go out and personally recruit your staff. You have a whole council of troops, so you know there are some very fine confident young adults who can meet your high expectations. But you have to personally dig in the weeds find them. I approached it as an honor for the candidates to apply for. I wanted scouts with the right attitude. Kind of like OA candidates in the old days. I searched for NAYLE Philmont graduates. The few we got were very good and had a great work ethic. Then I queried scoutmasters for scouts that met my qualifications. Scoutmasters like to brag about their best scouts. And, I was open to past scouts older than 18. 

The thing is that maybe the course doesn't have the appearance of an effort worth giving. But, if you personally present the course as honor scouts presenting the best ideas of scouting to units for raising the quality of their program, you color a vision of a noble effort for the sake of bettering the community of scouting in the council. The skills they will learn and practice will stay with them forever their to be used in college and their careers. NYLT isn't just another program for council professionals bragging rights, this an advanced training program that takes the best units have to offer and makes them better with the goal to make their units better. 

You really want the cream of the crop because their example during the course will motivate some of the course participants to take that next challenge of being a future staff member. Eventually, you will have more than enough recruits for your honor course.

If you get the word out that you are interviewing for qualified scouts and ask for just a very basic resume, I think you will get a highly motivated youth staff. And, don't kick out that husband/wife team, we can always use a great support staff/mentors. 

Barry

Edited April 4, 2019 by Eagledad