Guardian of the Vision

[gwd-scouter]

EagleDad posts a SM is the "Guardian with a Vision" which is the best definition I've seen. It certainly fits with my views and feelings about being SM of our Troop.

 

From many of my earlier posts, you probably are aware I am SM for a small, struggling Troop trying to turn around from adult-led to boy-led. Have met much resistance along the way from both scouts and adults, but am keeping to my vision, trying to get others to see it, and get this troop to boy-led. Each month brings ups and downs, but we're getting there.

 

My ultimate goal? Once this troop is running as it should, I will finally be able to sit in that comfy chair I hear so much about, sip my coffee, and watch the show.

[ASM59]

Yes, nice definition. We have also been involved in moving from a formerly adult lead Troop into a boy lead Troop; it can be a lot of work. We've made lots of progress, but it still seems to be a struggle sometimes. By the way, how big is your Troop. You say it is small, but that is a relative term. We started with 6-7 Scouts 3 years ago and have grown to 24 Scouts this year. Unfortunately the pool of adult volunteers has not grown.

 

I'm looking forward to not only having a comfy chair, but I'm hoping that my one hour per week can be knocked down to about 45 minutes.

 

ASM59

[gwd-scouter]

Small troop in our case is 11 boys. Last year we gained a couple, but then lost three that aged out at 18 (two of those made Eagle, one did not).

 

Hoping to get about two more new Scouts next month from a Webelos crossover (VERY small pack, but that's another topic). But, I also have two more scouts working on Eagle, about to turn 18 and will lose them this year.

 

So, we're not gaining, but we're not losing either.

 

I also have a problem with lack of adult leadership. My husband (ASM) and I shoulder the burden for everything at meetings and outings. I do have a few folks on Troop Committee, but they prefer to stay behind the scenes and do not attend (or rarely attend) meetings and outings.

 

At times despair sets in, but then I read someone's uplifting post and my mood is brightened and I'm ready to face another week!

 

Off to Scouts tonight. Going over backpacking food and lightweight stoves getting ready for next weekend's backpack trip.

[t158sm]

This past weekend at camporee was one of those that make you wonder if what you're doing is having any impact at all.

My problems are a little different. I had some difficult health problems around the turn of the century and the troop was pretty much inoperative.

After recovering I had to build the troop back up from scratch. The challenge now is trying to instill the patrol method into the Scouts without any older role models for it. Our oldest ones have just turned 14. This is proving to be a quite difficult task.

I keep telling myself - baby steps, just simple baby steps. We are blessed to now have 3 ASMs and a good committee. For the most part they understand what I see and are able to follow along pretty well. Sometimes parents are a different story.

[OneHour]

gwd-scouter ... it does take baby steps as it was pointed out. 3 years ago when my oldest and I joined our troop. They were 21 and losing steam. It was a fully adult run under the guise of boy lead. I and three other fathers took on the ASM job. We went to training and realized quickly what needed to be done. Of course, we did not do a massive turn about. We slowly influence what was taught to us. After that year, the SM stepped down and one of the three ASMs who shared the same vision for the troop took over. We are now 72 boys strong (that's with two other troops within a 5 miles radius). We are about 70% boys run. Boys run/lead take patience and perseverance. We are almost there ... you can, too! I and the scoutmasters are not quite to the point where we sit back and sip the coffee and watch the show; however, we are brewing the pot of coffee and looking for our recliner! The two hardest parts left are for them to actually follow what they planned and planned ahead! One thing we note is that the forward progress stops and goes backward a couple of steps after every troop election! But each time, it gets easier to train the new SPL!

 

Good luck ...,

 

1Hour

[beaver96]

You don't have to lose those scouts at 18, recruit them as leaders even if part time. I brought my son in and now he is our Webelos leader. On the Troop level they can serve as ASM. The younger boys look up to them and seeing that Eagle badge is inspiring.

[gwd-scouter]

I totally agree that a troop doesn't have to lose scouts when they turn 18. Oldest son, an Eagle now in first year of college, is an ASM and comes home to camp with us a few times a year. Another Eagle that turned 18 last fall has also rejoined as ASM and has helped on a few campouts.

 

Another fella, turning 18 end of this month has always been a great friend to the younger scouts and enjoys working with them very much. While he was never interested in advancement himself (only reached 1st class), he wants to help the troop any way he can and is signing an adult leader application.

 

Love to have him! He may not have advanced past first class, but he sure is a great Scout.

 

 

 

 

[Eagledad]

My gosh, you guys cant imagine how much my heart cheers for you and your programs. Since my phrase motivated this thread, I feel I need to tell yall the bad news and the good news. First the bad news is, all of you are in the Box Seat now sitting in your easy chair. The good news is all of you are now in the Box Seat sitting in your easy chair.

 

A few weeks ago, I cant remember the subject, but one poster said, Calm seas do not make good sailors. A guardian cant be someone who stands in the background guarding someone elses vision. You are there now, you are in your moment of glory because you are shaping the troop toward the vision. I cringed when I saw how you guys looked forward to the easier days, because while I can assure you easier days are surely ahead, your days as the guardian of the vision have the most impact now. The foundation you build now keeps everything that follows strong.

 

I know how hard you are working and how just when everyone seems excited to be in the troop, nobody shows up to a meeting. It is one step back for every two steps forward. While you struggle with the one step back, I have the luzury of my position of seeing that you are one glorious step farther forward.

 

You guys are in a place that its hard for many to imagine the nobility of what you are doing. It seems just when you thought the adults were starting to get the vision, they trip you up on some minor detail that is reverse to the philosophy of your vision. And then there are those times when the scouts seem to back off from the independence that you so desperately want them to rap their arms around. And to top it off, the parents just want the boys to get eagle.

 

But, there are rewards for visionaries and guardians of progress and they are great. Does it help to know that less than 5% of the world is visionaries? And even less who actually try to make their vision a reality. Everyone one of you are in a small noble club that the rest of the world waits for to lead change. Think about what you guys are saying: We were an adult run troop, but now. You one of the few who are leading change. Adult run is easy, but it is not really scouting. Those adults of the past were lazy, but their real crime was they just didnt understand the value of a boy growing into man by simply letting him do it on his own, a simple idea that most adults just simply fear. You do and that is a very couragous philosphy. I have said it many times, but I firmly believe it, A troop is real life scaled down to a boys size. If they experience it now, how much easier will it be for them when they experience it again as adults?

 

For 95% of adults, scouting is a now thing where the boys learn how to cook and camp. Some how, and it is a mystery to them, the scouts also become good leaders along the way. And that is cool even if that really isn't really what it is all about. But to you, scouting is future thing, it is about when each boy is a man. What we do now hopefully will help these guys when they are in a struggling job, holding two hungry crying kids because mom is sick in bed with the flu. What is the right thing to do? Scouting is about boys developing habits that help them become better men when they are fathers, husbands and community leaders. That is quite a vision you have there and is quite a responsibility to forward along. But it is your vision and 95% of the world is counting on you to come through. Its not for the meek and that is why there are so few of you. It's not easy and only a few will endure the heat required to harden the dream, the vision.

 

There was a time when I wish that you guys didnt have to go through the struggles with the parents and adults, or that you didnt have to repeat yourself over and over again until the scout got it. There was a time when my compassion watered down my reasoning for understanding how struggle is fertilizer for growth. But I have had time to look back on it and now I believe the integrity of visions are solidified by at least some struggle because by definition, a vision is something different from the norm. Oh I still have the same compassion as before and trust me that my heart, as well as other parts of me weeps as I read your words and as I type on my keyboard now. Ive been there and I know what it is like to loose sleep because your program took one step back the previous day. I understand the loneliness of other adults waiting for you to make the next move and sometimes tripping your progress. If there is anyone who desires for God to hold you in his arms, it is me because I know. But even the bible says that growth comes from strife and struggle. I how easy it is to focus on the pain of strife and struggle, but the key word for guardians of the vision is growth.

 

You and those like you are in a good place right now. You are shaping, forming and guiding the program through growing pains. Most dont see the small growths just as an uncle doesnt see the everyday growth of a nephew. They therefore dont understand the pain of even the small steps, but you guys do because you are looking down on the program at all angle everyday. But see those little successes, you see the light bulbs click on and courage where it wasnt just a few days before. Did any of the other adults notice the SPL running the whole meeting without any adult guidance or the scouting teaching First Class knots without adult observation? Now given the choice, would you rather look up into someone elses vision, or lack of it. As the program marches along and gets easier, you will reap the rewards. But really you guys are talking about it now, all those little advances that you see now and then. As your job gets easier because the boys takeover over more each day, I honestly cant say looking back, that it gets any better. Less stressful and less painful, but any better? I wonder if a builder enjoys building the roof anymore than the foundation. Each step forward of the vision requires guiding hands to hold it in the right direction. You are in control now, you are changing the world as we speak, even if it just in your little corner. Your scouts are part of something that very few other programs, if any offer. Your scouts are lucky to be in your troop and they will one day realize it, even if it is that one day when they are holding two crying kids. Your reward will be that moment.

 

So, trust that Eamonn, Eagleinky, Old Grey Eagle, Longhaul, Mascout, gwd-scouter, ASM59, t158sm, onehour, beaver96 and many others are here make your scouting experience easier and you can count it them. You certainly deserve it. But really, hopefully the next time the PLC decides to take one step back, maybe understanding that calm seas dont make good sailors will console you at least a little.

 

My prayers are that you go home after each day with your boys saying to yourself, I love this scouting stuff.

 

Barry

 

[ASM59]

Barry,

 

Thanks for your post. You've really nailed down the whole "Guardian with a vision" concept. Thank you for your words of encouragement, so much of what you said, I'd like to comment on, but suffice it to say, "I agree".

 

Some of what you said reminds me of an article posted in Scouting Magazine in October of 1950; text to follow...

 

-------------------------------------------

Within My Power

by Forest Witcraft

Scouting, October 1950

 

I am not a Very Important Man, as importance is commonly rated, I do not have great wealth, control a big business, or occupy a position of great honor or authority.

Yet I may someday mold destiny. For it is within my power to become the most important man in the world in the life of a boy. And every boy is a potential atom bomb in human history.

A humble citizen like myself might have been the Scoutmaster of a Troop in which an undersized unhappy Austrian lad by the name of Adolph might have found a joyous boyhood, full of the ideals of brotherhood, goodwill, and kindness. And the world would have been different.

A humble citizen like myself might have been the organizer of a Scout Troop in which a Russian boy called Joe might have learned the lessons of democratic cooperation.

These men would never have known that they had averted world tragedy, yet actually they would have been among the most important men who ever lived.

All about me are boys. They are the makers of history, the builders of tomorrow. If I can have some part in guiding them up the trails of Scouting, on to the high road of noble character and constructive citizenship, I may prove to be the most important man in their lives, the most important man in my community.

A hundred years from now it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove. But the world may be different, because I was important in the life of a boy.

-------------------------------------------

 

ASM59

 

[EagleInKY]

Barrys comments just hit me as so powerful, and I appreciate his thoughts more than he can possibly imagine. As does ASM reminding me of Forest Witcraft's letter. A couple of weeks ago I posted about a challenge I had with some adult leaders on a campout. Thankfully, that is water under the bridge and weve all grown because of it. At that time I alluded to another big issue looming that was really eating at me. I didnt have the heart to share it at the time, because it was so frustrating to me. Now I will. I apologize for its length, but it is a complicated web of deception and an example of what happens when adults think the program is for them instead of for the boys. It serves as a reminder about how this "vision thing" is critical and that we have to constantly sell it. Just when I thought I was going to get to sit back in my easy chair, someone yanked it out from under me.

 

A quick background our troop is 3 years old, built from a pack that I and a group of other adults rebuilt from the ground up over a period of 4 years. We took the momentum that started with the pack and carried it over into the troop. In three years weve only had three boys drop out of Scouting (out of over 25). Weve had three others go on to other troops (but that was at our request as much as theirs). We have a growing high adventure program, a maturing group of boy leaders and a phenomenal group of adult leaders to work with us. We currently have 21 scouts and 5 assistant Scoutmasters! Eleven more serve on our Troop Committee. Sixteen of twenty families have an active, registered adult leader.

 

But where there is sunshine there are often clouds that tend to get in the way. The man that took over for me as Cubmaster also has a son in the troop. He was actively involved in both programs. For a variety of reasons that I wont go into here, this turned out to be a disaster. It started turning ugly during the second year when we began in earnest to make the troop boy-led. When he realized that a troop committee member had very little say-so in a boy-led program, he began to complain about anything and everything. He soon became shut-out as no one (including Council) would listen to him. The CM position became a power trip for him. He began wanting to do things his way. He began to run off good leaders and their boys from the pack. I soon began to realize that he was trying to sabotage the program. I honestly believe he was trying to bring me down (yes, it has become personal to him) by taking the knees (i.e. the pack) out from under us.

 

Therefore, the pack committee decided he needed to step down. One of the only leaders that still had a decent relationship with him spoke with him last spring and convinced him to step down for health reasons. He agreed. Over the summer we selected a new Cubmaster. The man is a wonderful guy with scouting experience. He has a son in the troop and two in the pack. Hes great with kids. His only weakness is that he is more than a little disorganized. We agreed to give him the organizational help, if he would be the voice of the pack.

 

As this year started in September, we continued to wrestle with the former CM to get him to give us all the information we needed. He kept rosters, registration data and all kinds of information from the new CM. For example, we only found out at recharter time that he had deliberately withheld about ten names of Cub Scouts that registered at a round-up! These kids had signed up and never received a follow-up from us! It took until January to finally wrestle the info from him. In the meantime, the pack has probably lost over 25% of its membership because people are growing frustrated over the lack of communication and disorganized leadership.

 

But he still wasnt done... We found out that he moved his youngest son up from the Web 1 den to the Web 2 den because he wanted him to get his AOL in six months. We found this out after he had already been doing it for several months. It turns out that he was in cahoots with the Web 2 den leader to do this. He and his older son (who is still in our troop, believe it or not), have been helping with the den. (Side note - I had offered him a Den Chief and he declined.) All of this was going on while we were doing the typical recruiting during the Web-to-Scouts transition. Ive been talking to the Web 2 den leader, inviting them to things, visiting den meetings, etc., and this has never come up. The Web leader was telling me, everythings going great, almost all of the guys are planning on coming your way in the Spring. Well, I found out two weeks ago at the Blue & Gold that it was all a lie. Theyve been visiting another troop behind our back and almost all of them are going there instead. Our troop, which has received 25 of 26 Webelos in the past three years, is getting none of them.

 

Ive spoken to several of the Web parents since then. They all deny that the former CM had anything to do with it, but I cant get them to tell me anything that he said about the troop. I can tell they are holding something back. The frustrating part is the reasons they give for going to the other troop (the mega-troop in our area). One is that they liked the classroom style troop meetings where the scouts can pick MB classes to attend each week. And the second is that you dont have to go camping with that troop. We all know that both of these excuses while a fair characterization of that troop are not what scouting is supposed to be.

 

So, what are we going to do? We are taking the high road. These leaders are now gone and cannot work from inside any more. Weve tried to salvage a relationship with the boys from the group that we think would be good scouts. We hope that they will see the light in a few months after going to that troop. Maybe they will, maybe they wont. Time will tell. Until then, Im sticking to the vision. Im not going to allow a bump in the road, as big as this one is, to derail what is a great program. Were going to look at some other recruiting options school days, friends days, open houses, etc. Were also going to make sure that we never get hoodwinked by a dishonest leader again. I trusted that the den leader was communicating to the parents and Webelos for me. I now know that he wasnt. We are going to communicate directly with the scouts and their parents as much as possible.

 

But in the end it gets back to selling the vision. It's easy to look at something like this and think that we need to change and be more like that other troop. But the right answer is to come up with more effective ways of promoting the vision of scouting and how our troop fulfills the vision and mission of scouting, real scouting. We're going to have some real heart-to-heart conversations over the next few weeks about this, but I think, as it has been said, what we are going through will make us better in the end.

[SueM]

EagleinKY,

 

Wow...that's a miserable situation! How many Web I's are there left in the pack for next year? Are there enough that you can just sweat through this year with the boys that you have and concentrate on developing their skills more? Or perhaps do some other recruiting? It sounds like you have a good troop in the making...this is just another bump!! (It's funny but it must be "bump in the road" week for us all!!)

 

Sue M.

[EagleInKY]

There are eight Web 1s (there were 11 Web 2s). About six of the Web 1s are pretty strong. Two or three of them have older brothers in our troop. We also already have a very energetic, positive Den Chief lined up to work with them for the next year. I'm pretty confident that we'll get at least six, which is a nice size growth (in terms of percentage) for our troop.

 

We're looking at other recruiting opportunities. Frankly, I was amazed at how many of the kids in this group we lost did not want to do outdoor things. I think it was largely caused by the parents, but I could not get over how many kids said they absolutely did not want to camp, hike, go canoeing, etc. So, we may go to the 6th & 7th graders in the fall and see if we can find a few adventurous types.

 

The other thing we've never done is recruit from neighboring packs. We kind of took for granted that we'd always have some coming up from our ranks. We've never really recruited with other packs that are very close in proximity to us. Another lesson learned...

[ASM59]

Eagle,

 

Yes, stick to the high road. Remember our situation that I posted about several weeks ago:

http://www.scouter.com/forums/viewThread.asp?threadID=124180

Last year we received no Scouts from the Pack that we have always worked with. This year it looked like it would be almost as bad, but in the end all is well. Keep up the good work and stick to the program as it is to be delivered and they will come. And by all means look to other recruitment ideas, that sounds great.

 

ASM59

[gwd-scouter]

EagleDad made yet another wonderful post, brought a tear to my eye, set my heart soaring!

 

Two steps forward and one step back? It seems more like one step forward and two steps back at times.

 

I am holding to the vision. I am looking to the future. I am taking those baby steps. I am so excited when I see a Scout do something without an adult telling him to.

 

The best thing I've found in this forum is that as a SM I am not alone. I thought often that I must be doing something wrong to be having so many struggles with our Troop.

 

Then I think, if I wasn't such an ardent supporter of the Scouting Program, if I didn't feel that "teach them, trust them, let them lead" wasn't the single best way to grow boys into men, then the struggles wouldn't seem very important and I would take the easy road and let the adults run the show.

 

And, yes, I do Love This Scouting Thing.

[CA_Scouter]

Similar to GWD and ASM59, we are trying to install the 'scout run' method into our troop. Its also been a struggle, and 'baby steps' is an accurate characterization. We have 16 scouts, but we fortunately do not lack for adult participation, in fact, I regularly have 5-6 extra members of the Rocking Chair Patrol on every campout, backpack trips included! Most every parent, and sometimes both, are registered Committee members.

 

The Committee and parents back my vision for a scout-run troop ( though I sense a little resistance from one particular member ) and the scouts are starting to get with the program. They are starting to run skill bases, make decisions on planning, and best of all, they are starting to volunteer without being prodded by an ASM.

 

But again, patience is the key. An my patience has been tried many times through this process.

 

I like the 'Guardian of the Vision' title. Its a good phrase to keep me (us) motivated.