Reflections on being a Scoutmaster

[gwd-scouter]

December will mark the end of my fourth year as SM for our Troop. I've shared the ups and downs of our Troop restructuring on the forum and received thoughtful advice from its members. I've written most about our efforts to become a boy-led Troop and troubles we've encountered along the way.

 

We are still a small troop with nine boys. We just signed up two new Scouts and will be crossing over six from Webelos in March. I've always had a vision of our Troop having about 24 Scouts and we will be close. As a self-indulgent "atta girl" I will say I've devoted a great deal of my time in building relationships with a couple of Packs in an effort to recruit new Scouts and it's finally paying off.

 

Back to the boys. Two weeks ago our guys held their monthly PLC. They always have it on the Monday following a campout. While it's true we really only have enough Scouts to have one patrol, our guys split into two patrols last Spring and have shown remarkable patrol spirit. The PLC has come a long way and now is very good at planning for meetings and outing. Their meeting two weeks ago was what any SM could hope for. They did a marvelous job! The only input I had was to remind them of the COH and Holiday Pot Luck in December before we take a couple of weeks off for Christmas. At the end of their meeting, they had come up with plans for the following four weeks leading up to our annual campout at Camp Old Indian and then the COH. They even decided to have a Troop Christmas Party with games and secret Santa gifts. I was impressed.

 

Last Monday's activity was to be on orienteering. Our annual December Camp Old Indian trip always includes a couple of the older Scouts setting up an orienteering course and the others buddying up to complete it. A lot of fun and great learning experience for the guys. This past Monday it was raining so the guys decided to switch weeks in their plan, do orienteering next week and work on patrols this week - they decided that it was a good time to restructure the patrols in anticipation of the new scouts coming.

 

The PLC arrived early and talked about patrol restructuring. What impressed me was how thoughtful they were about the future, when the Webelos cross over. They had much discussion on whether to have a new scout patrol and assigning older scouts to be PL and Troop Guide. Then, after about six months, disbanding the new scout patrol and having two mixed aged patrols. I asked them a few questions to get them thinking about the pros and cons of the idea. What they came up with was two patrols for now - the PLC as one patrol (four boys) and a patrol of the other five. When the Webelos cross over, they will be a new Scout patrol for a few months with two members of the PLC guiding them during that time.

 

It was amusing to hear our new SPL mention some concern over the patrol of five picking a PL who would be young, immature, and maybe not leadership material yet. Amusing because a year ago SPL was the same age and rank when he ran for SPL as two of the scouts in the patrol of five he is now concerned about. He didn't win SPL last year, but was selected to be Troop Guide - a position he had trouble with, mostly because of immaturity and a hard-headed approach to leadership. When I mentioned that, he smiled. He took some hard knocks and a few fairly harsh words from me, but has matured so much this past year. Yeah, the guys have to step into leadership at some point. Don't you just love it when you finally see the light bulb go on in their heads, when they finally get it?

 

So, this past Monday, SPL announced the new patrol plan after opening the meeting and the guys got to work coming up with patrol names, yells, and designing their flags. Everyone seemed excited about it. All the while, I just wandered around watching them in action. Never had to do a thing. I was, quite frankly, very bored. At last, they are truly running the show. When did THAT happen?

 

Almost always, the nine boys we have show up for everything - every meeting, week after week, and every outing. They are energetic and enthusiastic about their program. They are proud of their Troop. Boy Scouts are, in their words, AWESOME! After opening the meeting, SPL asks if any of the adults have something to say. The adults always ask permission to speak. I just love it when I raise my hand to make an announcement and I hear "give it up for Mrs. Buchanan" and they applaud. We have so much fun. They are a great bunch of guys and lift my spirits whenever I'm around them.

 

Reflections on being the SM of this Troop. I started out thinking I would just serve as SM to hold the troop together long enough to find another SM. Now, I think I'll stick around for a while longer. We've had a roller-coaster ride these past four years and I wouldn't trade those memories for anything.

 

To borrow Barry's phrase - I just love this Scouting stuff!

 

[SctDad]

Sounds like you have a great group of boys.

[diogenes]

Sounds like you've hit the target I'm aiming for. Thanks for showing that it can be done. Good luck helping the boys keep it that way.

[troop2dad]

It seems we have been into this for about the same time. I came over from cub scouts as cubmaster a year after my son crossed over. This was to allow him the ability to gain his own identity before I came over. We had transitional adult leadership for a year while I worked with our oldest scouts trying to get high adventure happening. After that year I took over as scoutmaster and had a friend from cubs come over to fill my role. The troop in the beginning was very adult led. After 3 years, and 3 SPL, we are working great as a boy led troop. Since we prefer to do camping on our own we don't mix with many troops. Sad to say we find too many troops are still very adult led with too many rules and not enough trust relationships between scouts and adults. My guys now teach the younger scouts the skills needed to make scouting enjoyable. Honestly it is more fun to watch the older scouts working with the younger scouts.

 

Two things that helped us in our past. (1) building trust relationships and (2) we also have the geezer patrol and this creates an environment of challenging cooking skills among our patrols. This has been a great time and had parents wondering were their boys get their great cooking skills from.

 

We have now started a venture crew as a result of the girls wanting the experiences the boys are having.