What if you aren’t running the show? Not every Scouter is in a key position to effect change, not every scouter shares your exact understanding of the ‘right’ way to do things, so how do you volunteer cooperatively? The answer isn’t all that complicated, it’s one you likely remind your Scouts of all the time. Volunteering is challenging enough without the trouble created by those who can’t work cooperatively together with others....
Help! Everyone needs help, right? Most Scouters, at one time or another, find ourselves overwhelmed, discouraged and helpless. Don’t worry, you aren’t alone, and there’s a way out! See if the email answer about getting volunteers to help in this podcast helps you. In addition I’ll offer some advice about how a troop handles Eagle courts of honor, how changes are made when a senior patrol leader who is not performing as expected, what to do when it’s time for leadership elections, what qualifies as camping for first class requirements,whether or not a troop can require that Scouts request a board of review(here’s the three “secret weapons” every Scouter ought to have I mentioned in my reply), and how to handle the challenge of a large group of new Scouts....
Podcast Episode (00:23:53): Download MP3 Listen to Scoutmaster Podcast 234 | Sponsored By ScoutmasterCG.com Backers Getting along has more to do with us than others… I get plenty of email from folks who are having problems getting along with their fellow volunteers or Scouts. Is there a simple answer that would resolve most conflicts and difficulties in Scouting? I think there is! Join me in Kandersteg next summer! Details Here....
You gotta have a cake! I am more interested in the bigger ideas of Scouting rather than writing about my own Troop or my individual experiences. Bear with me today as I share what’s been going on recently. Short of two years ago I delivered this letter to our Troop Committee: Tuesday, October 09, 2012 To The Committee Troop 24 April 2014 marks my 30th year as Scoutmaster and I have come to the decision that September 1, 2014 will be the date of my retirement....
Perhaps you’ve asked for help, and folks let you down. Your Scout’s reactions to your efforts may be somewhat less than what you expected. You’ve tried to apply what you’ve learned and it falls flat. Welcome to the club! You already know what I am to write, you’ve read or heard it a thousand times before; but read it anyway. Disappointment is a lonely feeling, because we see it as evidence that nobody actually understands what’s important to us....
Sponsored By ScoutmasterCG.com Backers Some great email questions regarding aquatics awards, finances, and working with adult volunteers along with a visit from our old friend Brick Mason! Resources mentioned in this podcast – my Scout accounts article, FISCAL POLICIES AND PROCEDURES FOR BSA UNITS from the BSA. Podcast Archive Get The SCOUTMASTERCG APP Podcast: Play in new window | Download Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
Podcast Episode: Download MP3 Listen to Scoutmaster Podcast 217 | Sponsored By ScoutmasterCG.com Backers From time to time I receive email from Scouters who have some basic disagreement with the way the program is being presented in their unit. These disagreements aren’t over things that endanger Scouts, the disagreements are usually around the application of the patrol system or youth leadership. This can be very frustrating. What do you do if you find yourself in a situation like this?...
Sponsored By ScoutmasterCG.com Backers In this podcast a big thanks for the work you do, some thoughts on board of review policy, and your messages in the mailbag! Links Guide to Advancement 2013 Podcast: Play in new window | Download Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
Sometimes all we need to solve our biggest problems is a slight shift in attitude. What would things be like if our first assumption was goodwill? The patrol leader who forgot to do something may have honestly forgotten to do it, not just ignored their responsibility. I forget all kinds of things! Assume goodwill. The Scout that earned three merit badges last month may just have worked hard to achieve something rather than trying to get around your standards....
Frank Maynard’s excellent blog ” Bobwhite Blather ” addresses one of the most common problems in Scouting: wearing too many hats! “An hour a week,” we were told, and soon found that it’s not always an accurate estimate, “but who’s counting?” we reason, because it’s for our sons and those of our friends and neighbors. … we realize that there are almost always more things to do than there are people to do them....
As a camp director one summer, years ago, several Scouters complained that our dining hall steward was getting out of hand. We served all our meals family style and Scouts served as waiters. Waiters arrive before the meal to set the table, serve the food during the meal, serve their table during the meal, and clear up afterwards. Troops rotate this responsibility for a full week so at any meal there are Scouts who are new to the experience and they make mistakes....
I don’t think my friend Berk really cared too much about what other people had to say about the ceremonial campfires he built at our Scout camp (and they were some impressive campfires). What he really cared about was what he thought of them. I can recall some occasions where (at least to my eye and gauging the reaction of the crowd) the campfires performed perfectly. They lit easily and flooded the ceremonial fire circle with light, dying down at the appropriate time in the program like they were on a timer....
To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive, and the true success is to labor. Robert Louis Stevenson Why should you be a Scouting volunteer? Through three decades of guiding my Scouts as a volunteer Scouter I’ve camped and hiked and canoed my way through some beautiful places, shared a thousand campfires and grown older (perhaps even wiser) in the company of many great Scouts and Scouters....
Have you ever been described as “generous to a fault’? Volunteering is a wonderful, generous way to spend our time but we all have a breaking point. If we don’t have volunteer boundaries there’s a pretty good chance we are headed for a crisis. Call it burn-out fatigue, or what-have-you – it’s the point where it all piles up and makes us doubt whether we can keep going. I can’t tell you exactly what boundaries you need to set up, I can share some basic thoughts that will help you find them....
Why do we volunteer? How many volunteers are involved in Scouting and what do we do? A 2011 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report notes that 64.3 million people volunteered last year 29.9% of women and 25% of men in the U.S. volunteered. 35 – to 54-year-olds were the most likely to volunteer. Persons in their early twenties were the least likely to volunteer The volunteer rate of parents with children under age 18 (33....
How do we attract and maintain volunteers? What are the benefits of volunteering? Who volunteers and why, what they need what they want from volunteering? Here’s ten facts about volunteering and volunteers that should help you grow your number of volunteers: **Volunteers give without expecting anything in return yet they are rewarded in personal growth and development. What you give you get; goodwill is developed by giving away goodwill. –**Talk about what makes the work meaningful, how you feel about being a volunteer and how it has enriched your life....
No matter what community volunteer effort or organization, whether local, national or worldwide in scope, there’s a fairly immutable rule of the way people will perceive your efforts: 25% of people will actively support the effort by volunteering, contributing financially and talking positively with their friends, coworkers and family about the work. 6o% of people will be neutral. They will neither support or detract from the effort. They will have a reasonably balanced opinion about the work....
Can a volunteer be too involved in their work? Yes. Need is constant and concerned human beings want to fill the need. They can’t. Most volunteers will not encounter a situation that demands truly heroic action or sacrifice yet they impute such importance to their work they can overextend themselves. Volunteers often get involved past their capacity of time, experience and skill. Subtle influences of ego are involved. We may be asked to take on a prestigious position, we may see the offer of awards or recognition, we may seek to have influence or power....
I’ve often heard about the difficulty of recruiting adult help from other Scouters and I wonder, sometimes, if it has to do with the way we ask? When the coffee is flowing and the discussions range wide we volunteers commiserate with each other. How many times have you heard things like: “Why are we the only ones who will do this?” “How come I can’t get anyone else to help?”...
Once in a while a young, energetic Scout leader bounds up on my front porch here and says: ‘I have a great new idea!’ The old Scouter grips his cane, stares over his bifocals and replies ‘There is nothing new – now get off my porch!’ They walk away muttering under their breath ‘ What a curmudgeonly, cane waving, old man!’ No one has actually called me that (at least not yet)....