A Modest Proposal ...

[Eamonn]

Given the choice I would much sooner see a twit commissioner than a twit unit leader.

Rarely if ever will a Commissioner be the reason that makes a Lad quit Scouting.

It is a lot easier to remove a commissioner than it is a unit leader.

In our District we are replacing our District Commissioner. He is a super nice guy, larger than life a real fun person, but a lousy District Commissioner. I really like him and I have the sad job of informing him that the Nominating Committee has replaced him.

The guy before him spent a long time trying to get the units to see that the Commissioner Staff were there to help and serve them and not look at Commissioners as some sort of Nasty District Spies. District Commissioner meetings spent as much time on training commissioners as it did on anything else. The poor commissioners were drilled in the fine art of being a friend of the unit and the term "Warm and Cuddly" became a catch phrase. Sad to say over the past couple of years all this went out the window. For a while we had a band of idiots who came across as being more like Storm Troopers than Friends. Friendly Service gave way to Egotistical intimidation.

In another thread someone brought up perspective. I don't ever fear that Scouting will become some kind of cut and paste or cookie cutter program, I never thought it was designed to be that way and I believe that we have a vast resource in the individuals that lead the programs and the people both adult and youth that are in the programs, each and everyone of them bring so much and offer so much that no two anythings are ever the same. Even highly planned and highly structured things and events don't end up as copies of the last one. There are troops that attend the same summer camp year after year, some go the same week and use the same site, the program at the camp in some camps doesn't change that much if at all!! But each camp is different. We have different Scouts who see things in different ways, they have different needs and do things differently. One year the group that sits around the dying embers of a camp fire will try and tell funny jokes, the next year even the same group will exchange deep and meaningful thoughts and express their feelings, their hopes and joys.

I for a long time have been involved in Wood Badge training, the course is skilfully scripted but I have yet to see any two courses be the same.

Playing this game by the rules doesn't institutionalize or take away from the creativity of the leaders or the youth, it does help direct their skills, creativity and enthusiasm toward the vision and mission of the BSA. If these leaders can't agree to tow that line, then they really are in the wrong organization and they do need to look at spending their time some place else.

Someone brought up, I think it was a question: If some Scouting is better than no Scouting? Or maybe it wasn't a question and said something about some Scouting for some boys?I'm too lazy to look it up!!

I have to admit that I'm struggling with that. I don't care how good a troop might be at doing something ( I think that I'm still a traditionalist and still like the idea that Lads join Scouting to discover Scoutcraft - A word I don't hear very often. Scoutcraft to me is a combination of observation, deduction, and handiness, or the ability to do things. Scoutcraft includes instruction in Safety First methods, First Aid, Life Saving, Tracking, Signaling, Cycling, Nature Study, Seamanship, Campcraft, Woodcraft, Chivalry, Patriotism, and other subjects. This is accomplished in games and team play, and is pleasure, not work for the Lad.)I think how the got to be good is more important than just having these skills.Good old Sister Mary Matthew, if she had the skills could have pounded away! and taught a classroom full of boys the skills but her methods would not make them Scouts. A herd of Lads who wear a Scout uniform and turn up for every meeting on time and play basketball every meeting because there is no other planned activity are not a troop (In Eamonn's Book) The Lads that arrive at the meeting hall and are put into the weekly Merit Badge Class are not Scouting.

I could go on.

We do of course have troops that seem to specialize in certain areas and in a lot of cases that are is the same area that the SM or one of the other leaders has an interest in. In our District we have a troop that spends a lot of time water skiing. The leader has a power boat and land by a lake. The troop that has won the District First Aid meet for the past 3 years has a doctor for a Scoutmaster. They are using their resources, they still use the patrol method and employ the other Scouting methods.

I can and do see that we can get a little carried away if and when we put all of our energy into one area. I'm all for the Patrol Method and allowing our Scouts to lead. There are times when we can over do it. We have a troop in the District that every winter goes to a near by camp site they book a big cabin. They call it a "Free Weekend" The leaders do the cooking buy the food and spend almost the entire weekend hanging out shooting the breeze. The Scouts bring all sorts of snow type stuff, sleds, saucers, snow boards. They have a great time building snowmen, having snowball fights and just having fun. A couple of years back one leader thought that a trip to a near by Flood Museum would add something to the weekend. The Scouts didn't ask to go, didn't want to go and as if to prove their point when the museum put on the 45 minute movie about the Flood they all fell asleep!!

I think the idea of certified troops is a good one, I wonder if the Scouts who have taken the JLTC or the new course that is out could be involved?

Eamonn.