Sop, Think. Act, Reflect.

[Eamonn]

It's Summer.

Wednesday Night.

Parents Night at camp.

This week I took all of the District FOS Captains up to camp for supper.

My thinking being that they work hard and they ought to see where the money is going.

I ended up with 30.

They seemed to enjoy the camp food, along with the tour of the camp. The new building and all the things that were going on.

To some this was all new. A few had not been to camp for many years, in some cases not since they were in the program.

The final thing was the OA tap out /call out.

All real neato stuff.

Then it happened two little guys dressed in really smart full uniforms got tapped. Even from where I was standing you could see the look of sheer joy on their faces.

However they were both wearing OA sashes.

We are a small council, so most of the adult leaders know who I am.

Within minutes there was a handful of leaders around me telling me that these boys were wearing sashes, and making a big fuss about it.

I have my FOS party in tow.

These Leaders want to know what I'm going to do about it !!

I am a lodge member, but not an officer.

I tell them that they are right, someone has not played by the rules and they ought not be wearing the sashes until they complete their Ordeal.

Still it is not the boys fault. They had there own troop leaders there and maybe someone from the Lodge might want to at the right time have a word.

After all this is not / was not a hanging offense.

The boys were not from our district.

As it so happened one of the boys mothers was within earshot.

She thanked me for whatI had done which was not very much. But she was not happy to see Adult Scoutmasters acting in such a way.

This kind of put me on the spot.

While there is a lot to be said for being right. There is also a right way of going about it.

Here we have two fine looking young Lads, both as proud as peacocks. Yes they were given the the wrong advise.

But they are not to blame.

I do hope that when we see something that may be wrong. We do as I tell OJ, my son;

"STAR"

Stop

Think

Act

Reflect.

[eagle90]

Eamonn -

 

What a great post. I think if we all took your advice, many of the problems and disputes we get into would be eliminated. As I get ready to leave for camp Saturday, i will remember STAR all week!

 

Dale

[acco40]

Did the boys know in advance that they were going to be tapped out? My guess is yes, or why would they be wearing an OA sash? A faux pas? Yes. A grievous offense, no.

 

At our summer camp, I a father (an ASM) buy an OA hat for his boys who had been called out the night before. He asked me if they could wear it and I danced around the question a little bit but suggested that they wear it after they complete their ordeal. After a quick explanation of "candidates" and "members" he agreed with no complaints to keep the hats in storage for awhile.

[scoutldr]

Most of the time, I don't get past the "Think" part. Have I missed some opportunities? For sure. But I've never been to jail, either. And I can't count the number of posts in the past few weeks that, after thinking about it, I just hit "Clear Fields" and go to bed.

[Fat Old Guy]

What? You didn't have them flogged on the spot? They diluted the entire program by "sash-aying" when they weren't sashable. Horrible. Just plain horrible.

 

Just kidding.