Whats the job of your Troops ASMs

[Albert_H]

In the thread this one is spun from, the question was asked why we had a somewhat inactive ASM. The answer is simple. Our Troop will sign-up any willing adult to be an ASM, even if they can only attend a couple of outings per year. We even have ASM's who are away at college and we're lucky to see them on one outing per year and just a handfull of meetings in the summer. It was stated that by the same person in the other thread, that their SM hand picks each ASM and each patrol has an ASM assigned. I'm assuming that this means that there is basically the same number of ASM's as Patrols. While this sounds great and I'm sure it is best if the SM hand picks his ASM's, I'm wondering if this is reality for most Troops out there.

 

So...

 

Are all of your Troops ASM's hand picked by your SM?

 

Does each ASM have a specific job?

 

Thanks,

Al

[eagle90]

We have a number of ASM's, all picked by the SM. We will register anyone as Committee members, but ASM's are "promoted" by the SM.

 

Most do have specific jobs: One handles advancement, one is in charge of training, one is our Life to Eagle Coach, one handles our liaison with Cub Scouts.

 

As far as the college agers, ASM is the only place you can register them until they are 21.

 

Dale

[Eagle92]

Every unit does it a little differently. Some will assign an ASM to them, one troop I was with was like that, but most I've been with don't. One problem I saw was it was too easy for someone to go straight to the ASM instead of the PL. Also some ASMs had a hard time letting the youth run the program.

 

As for college age Scouters, nothing wrong with that. Usually they have been part of the program, are extremely knowledgable, are respected by the scouts, can relate better with the scouts, and is someone they want to be like. Been there, done that. Problem I encountered was that other adults wouldn't take me seriously. Best example of that was being an OA Chapter Adviser at 21, and having a SM scream at me b/c I was following OA procedures for a unit election, and the election didn't turn out the way he wanted it to.

[moosetracker]

I guess since I was the poster that started this spin-off, I will elaborate a bit.

 

Yes we have 1 ASM per patrol... Or rather 1 over 21 ASM per patrol, and those ASM's are had picked..

 

If someone is under 21 they can not be on the committee and must be ASM.. We have currently 4 of those my son being one of those, and prefers being committee so he is "unofficially" on the commitee doing the outdoor coordinators job and has the right to vote "our committee ruled to give him that priviledge since he was performing this job". 2 boys who are great ASM's and 1 that just IS... because...

 

(This might be why you have college boys as ASM's although they are not around much)..

 

Because there are limits on these young ASM (at least one person over 21 must be on an outing).. We do not eliminate the number of over 21 ASM's due to the number of under 21 ASM's..

 

That said our committee (if trained the same as an ASM) can go on outings just as any SM or ASM can, and the SM will expect them to provide the same amount of guidence as an ASM would.

 

The ASM's report to the SM.. Our SM wants A) trained ASM B) wants newly crossed-over parents not to be in the ASM position until they loose the cub scout mentality, and understand the goals of boy scouting. C) Does not want an ASM that is going to act like the SM and upstage his authority.. This policy weeds out potential headaches for our SM..

 

Currently we just had a crossover and some parents who are assuming they can just elect themselves into the ASM role, they will be told they are welcome on the committee but not into ASM unless trained & chosen by the SM.. We have one mother who just crossed over who was the Pack Master, and is upstaging the SM currently.. She is being nicely "dealt" with..

[Oak Tree]

We do have a specific job - or two or three - for each ASM. The ASMs are indeed hand-picked by the SM, just as our committee members are hand-picked by the CC. We did not used to have ASMs assigned to each patrol, but as the troop grew bigger, we needed to have ways to apply adult safety, crowd control, and individual attention to each Scout, so we do assign ASMs to patrols now. Not all the ASMs are patrol advisors, as we have more ASMs than that, but there are lots of other jobs for them to do.

 

I would have no problem with keeping a mostly inactive college student on the rolls as an ASM, although we don't have any such ASM now.

[moosetracker]

Eagle92..

 

Our the count of the ASM's are in sink with the Patrol, but except for special occasions, they are not assigned to a patrol.. It is just a guide to have ASM's per count of boys, and gives the SM a way to not choose someone for ASM due to "having his quota" rather then having to say "because I don't like you" or whatever reason that would be not so nice.

 

Also you would have liked our group.. Like I said my son is more Committee then ASM, and respected.. We have a boy who is 21, the boys of our troop want to make him SM.. Not all, but some of us are backing these boys up, suggesting we give him a strong adult guide.. So it would almost be like the Ventures run their crew. So, the adults of our troop think highly of our young adults. We know how the boys will follow them.

 

The young adult we would like to see as SM was elected time and again as SPL due to the respect the boys would give to him, he just has an energetic and "born leadership" personality. When he was young, he was the reason we chose this troop to enroll in. The way he worked with my son at the age or 14 or 15 was just amazing.

[dg98adams]

The Troop I serve is a mix of stated above.

 

SM approves/chooses/endorses adults (make/female) for ASM, as any parent/guardian can serve on the Comm (with the note that they are expected to get trained for the position at the next opportunity or not be rechartered).

 

There is a dedicated ASM doing advancement records & Blue Cards via Troop Master.

 

One ASM for co-ordinating outdoor activities with what ever Scout is SPL/ASPL & PLC.

 

An ASM for aquatic (swim tests, swim/lifesaving MB, Troop swim lessons/Safe Swim training, Safety Afloat training).

[John-in-KC]

dg98adams:

 

SSD/SA are landbound discussions. Why not give the responsibility for them to a youth member, who is a BSA Lifeguard, as an Instructor's billet???

 

In fact, why not give the BSA Swim test to that same youth?

[moosetracker]

dg98adams,

 

Our committee went through some turmoil over the Advancement Coordinator. The position per BSA is committee, but they really have the same amount of contact, and must know as much as any ASM in order to do the job. My husband does that job. They came up with this "He is a committee member with a vote, who works under the SM when doing the Advancement job." (He also does Troop master although the two jobs are tied together)

 

He is also the trained one that can do the swimming & BSA lifeguard, for the troop and others in the district.

 

The outdoor coordinator also straddles the line. Those 2 jobs get all the priviledges of both camps.

 

I did summer camp organization (not attending, just organizing) I did not see it as that much involvement with the scouts.. Some, but most was public announcements. Then chasing the parents for the med-forms.

[Eagle92]

Agree with John, I'd give SOME resposnibility to a yout for aqautics who is a certified LG. And I only say SOME b/c it should be for things his certification covered, i.e. no boating responsibilities to a LG whith no boating certs,i.e. YMCA, ARC, and the 2009 release of BSA Lifeguard.

 

However is lifeguard also take the new boating cert classes via BSA or another program, "LET HIM HAVE IT" ( caps for emphais)

[resqman]

Troop "guidelines" state an adult must serve in the troop committee for a year prior to becoming an ASM. This is to give them a chance to learn the troop culture, get trained, loose the Cub mentality, etc.

 

There are some who are much better suited for direct contact with the lads and being in the outdoors. There are those adults who are better suited for committee work. The SM will waive the 1 year committee work if it is obvious a better fit for the adult to be in the field. Mostly these are adults who earned Eagle as lads, have military experience, or have specific field oriented skills.

 

We currently have a lead ASM assigned to each patrol and at least one backup ASM for each patrol. The lead ASMs have at least a full year or more in the role. Backup ASMs are learning the ropes. All ASM's with at least a year with the troop are fully trained. Any with less than a year, are signed up for training. We also have a few ASMs with other dedicated jobs of advancement, quartermaster, Life2Eagle, etc.

 

[dg98adams]

Just to clarify a bit.

 

The Troop I serve is still fairly new, less than 7 years old. Once I had Scouts with lifesaving MB & BSA Lifeguard, they took on the Safe Swim/Safety Afloat duties for Scouts. I still cover SS/Safety Afloat for Troop & District for the Adults when needed. The Life Saving/BSA Life Guard Scouts are actively managing the swim skills req. for rank and Troop swim tests and water outings. I sign the troop swim tests for camp, as yet no Scout has gotten Nat. Camp School, Red Cross or YMCA certified. I work less every year and concentrate on swim lessons.

 

We're only talking 3 certified Scouts out of 40, and I worked with all 3 for Swim/Life Saving & BSA LG so I know they know their stuff. None have taken the new Boating Rescue courses.

 

The Advancement ASM was doing the job before I came in, so that's direction the SM wants.

[BDPT00]

It appears to me that many of the trrops mentioned have far too many ASMs. Advancement, Life to Eagle, Quartermaster, Outdoor Activities, etc. are committee functions.

Here's another question ... If you were a Scoutmaster of a troop of 30 boys (4 patrols), what do you suppose might be a good number of ASMs? (ignore the under 21 crowd for this) How many do you need? Should you have more than that? Why?

Pick a number. OK ... what is the job of each one? Perhaps think of it as being the president of a company. How many VPs do you need? Would you have a job for each one? Would you have more than you need? Why?

The initial subject question was "What's the job of your ASMs?"

BDPT00

[True Believer]

Our Troop used to suggest that every family have one adult sign up as an ASM; I could never understand this and ended it. Most didn't sign up, anyway.

 

If someone wants to be an ASM in our troop, we ask them to come camping with us a few times, and complete Scoutmaster training. We had too many guys who refused to do the training, and this ended that problem. We also had a number of helicopter moms wanting to be ASMs, so they could go caping with their boys (!). This ended those aspirations.

 

ASMs are given assignments: one for each patrol, one to work with the quartermaster, one to work on high adventure with the older scouts. Others who want to help as needed. Seems to work well.

[Eagle92]

maybe it's me, but I'd rather see the older scouts working patrols, i.e QM workign the PL on equipment, Scribe working with the PL on attendance, etc than an adult. rather see the adult work with the older scout.