Program Methods

This post introduces a new contributor to Scoutmastercg.com; Walter Underwood. You can learn more about Walter by reading his profile. I really like the idea of a regular, brief and focused discussion amongst the adult leadership to air any concerns or ideas; we’ll be having one of these discussions in our troop pretty soon! – Clarke A couple of times a year our adult leaders sit down to discuss the troop program....

Kandersteg is a picture postcard town in the Bernese Oberland region of Switzerland that is home to Kandersteg International Scout Center (KISC). Surrounded by some of the most breathtaking scenery in the world KISC hosts thousands of visiting Scouts each summer. After a year of planning, fundraising, meeting and researching our crew of fifteen experienced ten unforgettable days where we explored, made new friends and enjoyed the brotherhood (and sisterhood) of Scouting....

Most of our Scouts will leave the relative comfort of an air-conditioned house for a week in the out doors. Keeping cool can be a monumental challenge, or a physical impossibility. We perspire to dissipate heat through evaporation. Increased humidity (more moisture in the air) decreases the rate of evaporation and our ability to keep cool. R. G. Steadman’s 1979 paper titled “The Assessment of Sultriness,” factors 20 different variables to describe how heat feels....

Leading scouts in the out doors is an exciting challenge and a serious responsibility. It is difficult yet vitally important to read about incidents like the one below. If the account below is accurate the adults involved compromised the Sweet 16 of BSA Safety with tragic results. We are all vulenerable to making the same mistakes. I study incidents like this in an attempt to understand what happened and to inform my own actions....

I have mentioned before that I read outdoor accident reports and studies in the interest of continuing to appreciate the importance of managing risk. Bad things happen to good people in the outdoors. Sometimes because they find them selves in extreme conditions that they could not anticipate nor control and sometimes because they failed to apply sound risk management to the situation. The Sweet Sixteen of BSA Safety is an example of risk management practices that can and should be applied to all of our activities....

We are Scouts, we hike, camp, climb, build fires, swim, canoe, rappel, sail, ski and take on any one of a hundred challenging activities. There will be accidents, there will be injuries. I am not an alarmist, I am not worried about being sued, I am not obsessed with fear of accident or injury. But I am very, very careful to practice safe Scouting. This post at Scoutmaster Musings reminds us of the importance of actually applying the health and safety measures in the light of several recent incidents....

Mistakes are always made. Although our aspirations and expectations are high we rarely bring a project to completion without a misstep or difficulty. With the responsibility for planning and presenting Scouting is in the hands of the youth leadership the way we react to mistakes is important. If, in the midst of a football game, the ball is fumbled everyone on the team tries to recover the ball. Nobody stands by and tries to find fault with the player who fumbled, or waits for him to pick the ball up – everybody jumps....

Do we meet key indicators of program health? Generally accepted standards for assessing unit programs do give some indications of the program health but we should take a closer look. Metrics report adult leader training, youth recruitment and retention, parent participation, youth advancement, outdoor program participation, program planning. Meeting these indicators is somewhat like having a pulse – the unit is alive and kicking. Problem is a unit can meet these criterion with a program led and administered by adult leadership as well as one administered by youth leadership....

Fourth in a series of thoughts about looking ahead: How will we reach and or maintain financial stability? Great Scouting is not dependent on a lavish budget; just ask your Council Executive. Every Troop, Pack and Crew I know of raises money to support its program. I am not concerned here with the specifics of how money is raised and the rules of fund raising so much as the broad concepts involved....

Recruiting Scouts from those who have been Webelos is very different than recruiting form those who haven’t. Much has been written on Webelos transitions so I will not retrench the subject here. Here’s discussions of retaining the Webelos you recruit and some notes on transitioning Webelos leaders. By way of review – Find all the Webelos Dens in your community within reasonable driving distance of your Troop. Offer them support, camping opportunities and (perhaps most importantly) Den Chiefs....

Things that stand the test of time. like Scouting, begin with instinctive inspirations before they are explained scientifically. A growing field of psychotherapy recognizes the benefits derived from direct contact with the natural world. Traditional therapies look inward for answers while ecopsychotherapy allows answers to be derived from contact with the natural environment. Scoutmasters have seen the benefits of getting out in nature on their Scouts for many years. Nature calms and focuses, soothes and quiets....

Mark Bauerlein is a professor of English at Emory University. His latest book bears the unfortunate title The Dumbest Generation. I haven’t read the book but based on the professor’s recent opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal is seems to be another false diatribe similar to the grave predictions that comic books would foment the collapse of society. The piece (in part) asserts that texting is eroding the capacity of young people to read non-verbal communication....

This article is from North Carolina’s Winston-Salem Journal Keeping Guard: Summer camps following a strict regimen to prevent the spread of H1N1 virus Getting dirty is as much a part of the summer-camp experience as campfire songs and swimming. But this summer, cleanliness has made its way onto the agenda, as summer camps try to prevent outbreaks of H1N1 flu, or swine flu. In North Carolina, 47 people became ill with symptoms of the H1N1 virus after spending a week at a Boy Scout camp in Haywood County, and flu outbreaks have been reported at several other summer camps, including at Duke University and in Randolph County....

Below are several resources for Scout Leaders to educate themselves about how to properly and responsibly prepare to react to the H1N1 flu virus outbreak. In addition to monitoring these sources I will keep an eye on our school district’s webpage for announcements and check in at our local council for direction. Our scouts and families know if school is dismissed we generally don’t hold Scout meetings. We’ll take a few minutes to review the guidelines below with our Scouts at our next meeting....

What is age-appropriate has been a fertile subject for discussion, conjecture and urban legend in Scouting. Judging the suitability of an activity and which Scouts can appropriately participate is an important skill for Scoutmasters. This page on the BSA website explains how to determine what activities are appropriate for different ages of Scouts. Here are some tests that prove valuable for any activity: Matches the training and experience of participants. The group has the ability to successfully complete the activity....

At the end of a portage last summer I met a party of canoe trippers who were beating a hasty retreat. One of them wore a bloody bandage around his right ankle owing to an accident with an axe. This sent a shiver down my spine as I silently congratulated myself on the ‘no axe or hatchet’ policy for our crews. Our decision not to carry axes or hatchets was not based on fear but the calculated management of risk....

When Webelos and their parents visit one of our meetings we send the Webelos to our Senior Patrol leader who sees that they are welcomed and join in the activities. The parents meet with myself and a couple of Assistant Scoutmasters. I used to have a set program for visiting parents. I would sit with them and go through some standard information and answer questions. Then I would ask the ASM’s to do a pre-arranged talk about some aspect of the Troop program....

The Boot Campers of Cold Water Boot Camp USA dive in and experience the three effects of cold-water immersion – cold shock, cold incapacitation, and even hypothermia. The project provides valuable information of how to survive an accidental fall into cold water. The demonstration forces the Boot Campers to face the indisputable fact – that the difference between becoming a statistic and a survivor – is wearing a life jacket!...

I must admit that every once in a while I cannot resist this bit of fun (so long as it is not demeaning my Scouts). There’s no ‘butt’ to this joke and everyone ends up laughing. Bring a box or bag of chocolate covered raisins on your next camp out. Get up early and place a pile of them on the ground near where you will later take a nature hike....

Here’s a great idea from The Trainers Corner blog: A Scout games backpack is filled with games and various items for quick game ideas. As you can see from the picture, which has some of the contents of my backpack, there’s a lot of things that can be turned into games. Among the contents are balls, balloons, note cards, spoons, sticks, ropes, game tokens, dice, and a really old cell phone (which I love – and it always gets a laugh)....