So what good is it?

[SSScout]

I feel moved to play devil's advocate here.

 

Of late I have seen/read alot (ALOT) of opinion, personal experience shared, policy and rules quoted, and suggestions made for solving problems and answering various conundrums.

 

What I'd like to ask of our ecampfire attendees is: Can you vouch any personal experience whereby you have actually applied or used SOMETHING gleaned from these epages? I don't necessarily mean where you asked a specific question and obtained a specific answer, but just from someone else's query, you gained thereby.

 

Ummmmm?

 

 

 

 

[Lisabob]

Oh sure, there are a lot of examples. I'll just give two though.

 

Until I started reading these boards, I had no idea that not everybody did webelos-scout transition in the same way. Reading the different approaches that people here have taken helped me to help local packs and troops recognize the options available to them. It also helped me provide better advice to a few individual families who had questions about what they should do for their sons.

 

I've also passed along a BUNCH of skill and cooking ideas to my son, so that he can share them with his patrol and troop. He has been PL and now SPL, but his experience is limited to what he knows from his own troop. Fresh ideas (or "new to them" ideas) that pop up here have helped him broaden his troop's experiences.

 

THANKS, everybody.

[shortridge]

Countless times, yes.

 

Just two examples: A ton of great Cub summer camp program ideas, and very good suggestions for patrol competitions.

 

This is a fantastic resource.

[Buffalo Skipper]

I value everyone's opinions here. I read nearly every post (except for "issues and politics") and I consider everyone's viewpoint and experience very carefully.

 

For me the forum is like an invisible district filled with warm-hearted (or sometimes cold blooded!) commissioners. Sitting and listening to many posts, I have gleaned a tremendous amount of knowledge. And reading the many posts has done quite a bit to mold my ideas and standards, or at least to solidify them.

 

It would be hard for me to put together a "list" of things which I learned and applied to my troop or den, because when it strikes particularly close to home, I may add a question which applies to my particular situation. Kudus ideas on the patrol method have had a profound effect on my where I am trying to lead our troop, and I have enjoyed (and miss) reading his and everyones debates on these issues. We dont always camp our patrols 100 yards apart, but seeking this ideal has changed where I recommend to the PLC that we camp. An offshoot on that is the idea of NSPs vs. MAPs (mixed age patrols). Talks about MB clinics or universities have affected my overall view on MBs. Webelos recruiting is another area where we have adopted many ideas, and seen many ideas which we are not yet in a position to take advantage of, but will be very soon. Equipment talk is something I also read closely, we often take these ideas and apply them. And sometimes I read something and decide that is NOT how we will do that. Moreover, I always enjoy the SM Minute. I wish we had more contributors there.

 

I feel our troop is definitely moving in the right direction (even if slowly), and I have the forum to thank for that, whether I participate in the discussion or not.

[Stosh]

I have gathered up a ton of information from a variety of different posts in the different areas. I don't presume that I have all the answers to all the issues, but by listening in on how everyone else is doing things I find it great to use their ideas and try them out for my troop/patrols. While there are some ideas I don't agree with, I have tried them out as well assuming that I might be on the wrong track. Even these have shown to be beneficial at times.

 

What works for me may not work for others, and what is working for others may not work for me, but this forum allows for a ton more options in my bag of tricks, many of which I hadn't considered and should.

 

To thank everyone that has offered up something that has helped my boys would take a whole lot more time than I can afford, so simply assume that if you've posted anything at any time on this forum, I probably have benefitted by it along the way and appreciate your input. Keep the posts coming!

 

Stosh

[nolesrule]

As a commissioner, reading about the issues that other units have, as well as what worked and/or didn't, has helped me guide the units I serve through similar issues that I hadn't previously come across in my scouting experiences.

 

This place is a little like the open discussion portion of our monthly commissioner meeting, where any unit-serving commissioner can bring up issues that units are having and we bounce around some ideas on how to help the commissioner guide those units to improve the situation.

[Eagledad]

This is an exciting question for me. I started using a scouter Forum back in the early 90s and I can honestly say that probably 40% of the program that I left when I retired as a SM was based from those Forums. Not so much this forum because I came here late, but from ScoutsL. My job requires me to constantly evaluate performance, so I naturally did that in my scouting experiences and I was always seeking advice to improve our program. I found that while each troop may look different locally, they are very much the same when you look at it from a national scale because of district guidance and influence. I needed more guidence than I coudl find locally.

 

Our Troop isnt an extreme boy run program when you compare it to troops all over the county, but we were considered a very out-there boy run program locally. We grew from 12 scouts to 90 in 6 years in a District of 22 rather large troops. Our annual new scout class average over 20 scouts. That didnt include the older scout transfer we got each year. But with success comes stress of growth, so we lost a lot of those new scouts because the program changes so much with size. We adults were not keeping up very well and I was desperate to find news solutions, which is why I got to be an expert on New Scout Programs. While I think we failed a lot of boys, I attribute any and all of our successes to those wise scouters on the forum.

 

Same with the older socut program. Our boy run program developed a reputation for a fun older scout program as well. By the time I left as a SM, our troop had the biggest group of scouts 14 and older than any unit in the state, including the Venture and Explorers. And again, the stresses of keeping that age group excited were very challenging, just the same as the questions we see asked here on Scouter.com over and over. As Ive said all along, we failed more than we succeeded, but we did also have some success.

 

Another great accomplishment for our troop that I can directly credit the forum was when our troop planned out and ran a mini- Night-camopree. We invited six other troops from three different states. I suggested those troops to the PLC because I knew them from the forum. Those troops had so much fun that a couple of them troops went back and ran their own mini-day-camporees in their own district.

 

Those are just a couple of things off the top of my head. But I also made a lot of friends. As I traveled around for my job, I would ask the forum lived in that area I was going and I would visit their troop if I could. I learned a lot from that, but its just fun to meet folks as well.

 

I gained an enormous amount of experience and knowledge through the years and now Im trying to give it back here on Scouter.com. I will say I havent been out of it all that long, but I am amazed how quickly the boys are changing due to our fast changing technology (cell phones and games). There is a lot of difference in how our youth communicate. I dont know how a scouter could keep up without the forum.

 

I love this scouting stuff.

 

Barry

 

[BadenP]

I too have gotten a lot of excellent information and resources in this forum. Specifically, for my Venturing crew resources and methods cited by emb021 and Eamonn have been very beneficial in helping make my crew continue to grow and prosper, and even when we disagree I still value their advice. For overall scouting wisdom Beavah and Kudu especially have been fantastic resources of sage advice, as have a few others on this forum, and I have used many of their ideas in working with troops and packs in my district. Aside from the I&P section that we all use to blow off some steam, lol, this is a fantastic resource.

[SSScout]

All very true, but I'm asking for >specific< things/activities/answers applied/skills learned/tricks tried that were obtained from these forums.

What "AHA" moments have happened here?

HOW have your Scout times been improved from these epages? No need to be personal, or embarrass anyone...

 

Frinstance, early on, I learned that one can start a camp fire with a "plunger" and Hand Cleaner, that Webelos can join Boy Scouts even earlier than I originally thought, and that old canvas tents can be rejuvenated (which I have done).

[cheffy]

And it's also a great place to bounce an idea off. Ther are days when you know what you should do but just want to see what other would do.

[packsaddle]

Ditto to all of the above. I've had numerous myths exposed by reading these threads, mostly regarding requirements, uniforming, and a few things about leadership positions. Yes, I had my suspicions after reading the actual official documents but I was confident about these things after reading the discussions here. I also value the experience of the people here and especially those extra sets of eyes reading documents I don't have.

[gwd-scouter]

I joined the forum about a year after becoming Scoutmaster for our at that time dysfunctional troop. I knew it wasn't working, but really had no idea how to turn things around. I had a goal, a vision, the various handbooks, and all the training, but didn't know how to take the small bites out of the big elephant.

 

Reading the posts on this forum helped me to prioritize those bites. I have always been especially interested in the patrol method posts. Ours was a small troop and was never sure how to go about the boy leadership. In the past, PORs were handed out like candy - everyone over 1st class had a patch - but, there were no clear responsibilities. Reading posts here I realized that not all PORs needed to be filled and we started out with a bare minimum. Since we essentially only had one patrol, we did away with the SPL position - something I learned here. The guys liked the title of SPL, but we really only had a PL.

 

Another thing I learned here was how important it is to talk to parents of incoming Scouts to help them understand how a Boy Scout Troop operates. This is especially true for Webelos Leaders that are transitioning to Boy Scout Leaders. It takes time for the new leaders and parents to understand that what looks like chaos to them, is boys learning to handle things on their own. Now, I have a meeting just with new parents to answer their questions, ease their concerns. That has really helped.

 

Now, with 22 scouts, two mixed-aged patrols, and the Awesomeness Patrol of our SPL, ASPL, JASM, and Quartermaster, we have become a functioning Boy Scout Troop and I'm told by many that we are a model of how a Troop should run. Very nice to hear that. Very proud of our guys.

 

Oh my yes, I've learned a lot over the past five years. I try now to pass on some of that experience. Hopefully, some here find it helpful.

[packsaddle]

Has it been FIVE YEARS?! Holy Toledo, Batman! I just looked at my own registration date. Time to think about this, for sure.

 

I'll name some names from whom I've gained direct clarification, understanding, and in some cases new perspective: OGE, evmori, Bob White, SR540'roadkill', JIKC, littlebillie, BrentAllen, Trevorum, NJCubScouter, Merlyn, Beavah...fact is, I can name every poster here who came with sincere intent, especially the ones who have disagreed with me about something (it's less likely for a person to learn from someone else who thinks the same way).

 

The only ones who haven't contributed, IMHO, are the ones who have not been honest and those are very few.

[Lisabob]

OK you want specific examples. While none of these are things I came to the forum specifically looking for/asking about, here are several specific ways in which I have benefited from other people's discussions on the forum.

 

I learned about box oven cooking from this forum. I shared what I read here with my son, who then introduced this method of cooking to his patrol mates. They used it in a troop cooking contest and did really well (I can't recall whether they won, but I remember he had a very big grin, and that there was no leftover pie.)

 

I learned about the national jambo from this forum. Since my son's troop has not sent people to the previous couple of jambos, and because communication in my council is sometimes spotty, I would probably never have given it much thought, if I hadn't read about other people's experiences here. I also wouldn't have known about it far enough in advance to budget for it (even with my son doing fundraising). Because of many of you, my son is going to jambo next summer.

 

I changed the way I think about merit badges as a result of the many conversations on this forum. While my son's troop, by and large, still focuses on having boys earn most badges individually, our first exposure to MBs was in a group setting. There are a couple of adults working with advancement in the troop who favor MB classes and MB universities, and I didn't know any better so I signed my son up for those. My son's early MB experiences in those settings weren't great. After reading a lot of comments here, he and I have talked about that and he agrees that it is better to avoid most of the big MB university programs now. (Also, I've backed way, way off on signing him up for stuff. )

 

We learned about NYLT from this forum. Again, my son's troop has not participated in this. When my son was elected SPL last year, we decided together that he ought to do NYLT, on the strength of your collective input over the last few years. It has been one of the very best boy scouting experiences he's had so far, and the SM keeps commenting on how good a job my son is doing as SPL (based on a lot of things he learned at NYLT!).

 

I've asked a lot of questions here, and received a lot of input and advice, for which I am grateful. Many of the questions I've asked have been a direct result of something someone else wrote, that I would never have thought about, or known about, otherwise. I've also learned just as much from simply browsing other people's posts, and a lot of the value in this forum (for me) is in discovering the broad range of possibilities that exist in scouting.

[OneHour]

A scouter can only learn so much from Scouting University or District-held training. What is lacking from those types of training are the real-life applications. Just as in school, Physics, Algebra, Calculus, etc., are only theories until one sees it in action. Scouter.com provides me with several things ... a place to bounce off ideas, a place to learn from past mistakes, a place to test theories, a place to pick up the how-to that are not often mentioned in classroom environment, a place to banter about scouting (my wife will only take so much), a place to be a virtual leader (before you take on the position), a place to laugh, a place to cry, a place to relate, a place to wow, a place to be aghasted, a place where you can make new friends, a place where one finds that he/she is actually speaking to a real astronaut/physicist/IT guru/professor/armed force hero/saling man/engineer/bridge maker/eagle scout/(http://www.scouter.com/forums/viewThread.asp?threadID=27838&p=20) ... and a place to call home when it comes to scouting!

 

Cheers!

1Hour