"Scoutmaster' Title Doomed?

[AltadenaCraig]

4 hours ago, Eagledad said:

In reading qwaze's mention of the uniform, I was reminded of a girl who joined the BSA and commented that she couldn't wait to wear the Boy Scout uniform. Well I guess one person knew about it. I wonder if the girls are going to be tagged as traditionalist. 

Barry

In 1980, Claremont Men's College graduated the first class of 4-year women.  Years later the name was changed to Claremont McKenna College, but not before many women objected to the change.  They liked the "rebel" image the name implied.

Edited July 1, 2020 by AltadenaCraig

[InquisitiveScouter]

10 hours ago, David CO said:

Lean your head back and howl at the moon.

AAAAAOOOOoooooooooooooooooooo

Man, that felt good 😜

[walk in the woods]

37 minutes ago, InquisitiveScouter said:

AAAAAOOOOoooooooooooooooooooo

Man, that felt good 😜

You forgot Werewolves of London.

[InquisitiveScouter]

6 minutes ago, walk in the woods said:

Werewolves of London

Oh no I didn't!!  I was drinking a pina colada at Trader Vic's!!

But sadly, the perfect hair is long gone 😥

[TAHAWK]

“The greatest teacher, failure is.”

 

[The Latin Scot]

But that quote is from Episode VIII while the image is from Episode V!

🤪

[Sentinel947]

52 minutes ago, The Latin Scot said:

But that quote is from Episode VIII while the image is from Episode V!

🤪

One of the only redeemable sequences from the entire 8th film.... Excellently written, well shot, well acted. 

Edited July 10, 2020 by Sentinel947

[StrykerJW]

I would like to wade into this discussion and throw in my two cents here:I

I spent the 90s in scouting as a youth and am now involved in scouting as an adult for my children.  

My personal experience was that the scoutmaster existed because we needed one on the paperwork.

We had a council of adults, scoutmaster included who facilitated for us, but the whole of their council was greater than the sum of the parts.  

I would personally advocate that we refer to adult scouters as guides.  The implication being that this is the youth's adventure, while the adults role is to provide guidance and experience when needed.  

I would refer to unit adult leadership as a council of guides, and treat them almost as a patrol of their own, albeit one with a mission of facilitating the needs of the rest of the troop.

The chief guide (scoutmaster) should be selected (or at least affirmed) by either a vote among all scouts, or a vote of patrol leaders.  If we expect youth to accept that they must submit to the democratic process for leadership, then we simply must submit to the same process ourselves.

From there, I would expect the council to self organize as a patrol would, with responsibilities and roles assigned within the council.

This advances the patrol method to the adult leadership as well, and provides an example for youth to model their patrols after.

These are simply my thoughts observations to facilitate the discussion.

 

Jason

[RememberSchiff]

@StrykerJW  on behalf of scouter.com moderators, welcome.

[David CO]

1 hour ago, StrykerJW said:

 

I would refer to unit adult leadership as a council of guides, and treat them almost as a patrol of their own, albeit one with a mission of facilitating the needs of the rest of the troop.

The chief guide (scoutmaster) should be selected (or at least affirmed) by either a vote among all scouts, or a vote of patrol leaders.  If we expect youth to accept that they must submit to the democratic process for leadership, then we simply must submit to the same process ourselves.

From there, I would expect the council to self organize as a patrol would, with responsibilities and roles assigned within the council.

 

You didn't mention the Chartered Organization.  The CO owns the unit.  Because the CO owns the unit, the CO calls the shots.  This includes the selection and appointment of scout leaders.  I expect both the youth and adult members to submit to the policies of the Chartered Organization.  If any of them don't wish to do so, they are free to find a different unit.

Of course, this may all become a moot point, since BSA is in bankruptcy.

 

Edited July 18, 2020 by David CO

[qwazse]

@StrykerJW, welcome to the forums. It sounds very egalitarian. But the analysis of your selection of terms omits one thing:

How much do you think changing brand will increase market share?

Also, you state that youth should elect their chief/chieftess/high/prime/grand guide/priest/prophet/poobah/anything-but-SM from available candidates, as if this doesn’t happen already. In the normal course of affairs, SM’s are brought up (pulled down?) from the ranks of a troop’s SMs. Kids don’t suffer fools for ASMs (they barely put up with me, but that’s because they are willing to overlook the ruination from years of being a crew advisor). Boards of review give committees very good ideas of who has helped youth the most. In my experience, youth also will talk loudly about inept adults.

The ground truth is that there is rarely one person at the helm of scoutmastering a troop. Last week, neither our SM nor two former SMS nor the SM from a neighboring troop were available. I was dying to take a week off and one dad of a crossover was available to join me. So the two of us were the bottom of the barrel for these boys.  Basically, the economy elected us. I have a hard time imagining that operating under your rubric would improve any of this. 

[Eagle94-A1]

6 minutes ago, qwazse said:

Boards of review give committees very good ideas of who has helped youth the most. In my experience, youth also will talk loudly about inept adults.

Yes, the youth will complain loudly about inept adults. When enough youth started complaining about the interfering adults in the old troop, the matter got fixed.

[David CO]

1 hour ago, qwazse said:

It sounds very egalitarian.

Eagle what?  I wish you would stop using such big words on me.  

[InquisitiveScouter]

1 minute ago, David CO said:

Eagle what?

 

1 minute ago, David CO said:

egalitarian.

It kind of sounds like something you'd make in a Dutch Oven, right?

 

With biscuits 😏

Edited July 18, 2020 by InquisitiveScouter

[David CO]

1 minute ago, InquisitiveScouter said:

 

It kind of sounds like something you'd make in a Dutch Oven, right?

 

Don't know.  I don't speak Dutch.