Scouting Fundamentals

Overshadowed The way it ought to be How is the one essential feature of Scouting explained? We are all familiar with this quote form the founder of Scouting; The Patrol System is the one essential feature in which Scout training differs from that of all other organizations, and where the System is properly applied, it is absolutely bound to bring success. It cannot help itself! Baden-Powell B.P. knew, early on, that this one essential feature was so singular, so unusual, that it was in danger of being lost in the tumult of good intentions....

Via Curious, Useless, or Simply Interesting Scout Knowledge What is authentic Scouting? 52 Scout leaders from 16 countries in the European Scout Region replied to a survey about the retention of young people in Scouting conducted by the World Organization of the Scouting Movement (WOSM) during the World Scout Jamboree in Sweden. Their responses indicate that Scouting everywhere shares common challenges. Here’s some key thoughts offered in answer to one survey question that I think are particularly important;...

Adults keep an eye on things from a respectful distance and Scouts lead themselves. When we talk about boys planning, preparing and leading Scout outings some folks reply “Good grief, how can you leave the Scouts in charge when the troop is going on a strenuous hike to Jones Mountain and they have no experience? As Scoutmaster, isn’t it my responsibility to be closely involved in each Scout’s preparation for every activity?...

This is post number four in this four part series on the patrol method**1. The Character School, 2. The Adult Role, 3. Objections, The first post in this series about the patrol method paints a picture of the patrol as the central unit of Scouting, next we discussed the adult role followed by discussing the usual objections that arise when we put the patrol method into practice. Trying to work with patrols as though it were 1910 instead of 2013 is like sending a telegram in the age of email....

This is post number three in this four part series on the patrol method 1. The Character School, 2. The Adult Role, 4. Making it happen Our first post in this series establishes the patrol method as the character school of Scouting, that real self-government makes the Scout Oath and law more relevant than a bunch of concepts preached by adults. That Scouts find meaning in the life of the patrol and troop where individual responsibilities become group responsibilities....

This is post number two in this four part series on the patrol method 1. The Character School, 3. Objections, 4. Making it happen Imagine a bus tour of some important city where, seated in the air-conditioned comfort of a motor coach, we listen to the guide explain each landmark in detail so we won’t miss anything. The guide sticks to the script, we sit behind the tinted windows of our bus dutifully turning our heads to the left, then to the right....

This is post number one in this four part series on the patrol method**2. The Adult Role, 3. Objections, 4. Making it happen The patrol system is not one method in which Scouting for boys can be carried on. It is the only method. It is not the slightest use to preach the Scout Law or to give it out as orders to a crowd of boys: each mind requires its special exposition of them and the ambition to carry them out....

Two of the effects physicists describe apply to our work in Scouting: The Observer Effect Changes that the act of observation makes on the phenomenon being observed. A tire pressure gauge releases air from the tire thus changing the pressure we are testing. The Proximity Effect When two atoms come into proximity, the highest energy, or valence, orbitals of the atoms change substantially and the electrons on the two atoms reorganize....

William “Green Bar Bill” Hillcourt is the man who wrote the book on Scouting, literally. His Patrol Leader’s Handbook is, without a doubt, his best and most influential work. His understanding of scouting was simple, but not simplistic. To an outsider, Scouting must at first appear to be a very complex matter. If it were only possible to swing the gates of Scouting wide open to him and show him from a vantage point in one immense view the full panorama of the Scout Movement!...

Use this image as your Facebook Cover: here’s how On my honor, I will do my best To do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law; To help other people at all times; To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight Be Prepared Do a good turn daily How do Scouts advance? By doing the things that Scouts do. Scouts go, camping, hiking, exploring, discovering… they build fires, **cook,**and eat… they plan, develop, and present… they instruct, lead, and create… they sing, speak and yell… they run, play and **shout…**they learn, develop, and grow...

‘Aim’ is a particularly well chosen word to describe our focus as adult volunteers in Scouting. Scouting has three specific objectives, commonly referred to as the “Aims of Scouting.” They are character development, citizenship training, and personal fitness. One definition of ‘aim’ is “A purpose or intention toward which one’s efforts are directed”. As a shooting sports director for our camp years ago I learned a great deal about aiming. It’s not as simple as leveling a bow or rifle at the target and hoping for the best....

Scouting’s policies and procedures, the rules that create the Game of Scouting, are not intended to check the ardor, interest or inventiveness of Scouts but to guide their efforts towards the aims of Scouting and to keep them safe A common problem arises when we misunderstand the place of a specific Scouting procedure or policy. Sometimes they seem helplessly inefficient or circuitous so we attempt to fix them. But like the rules of a game define how the game is played the policies and procedures of Scouting define how we reach the aims Scouting....

Ten skills Scoutmasters needbased on The Ten Essentials of Scoutmastership penned by William ‘Green Bar Bill’ Hillcourt were part of the Scoutmaster’s Handbook for many years. 1. A belief in boys that will make you want to invest yourself and your time on their behalf. As Plato said “Of all the animals, the boy is the most unmanageable”. But our work is not merely managing boys as if they were our employees, teaching boys as if they were students in a classroom or preaching to boys as if they were our congregants....

At our council camporee in December I walked around the entire camp and saw only two troops that had identifiable patrols. Most troops were set up as one unit, with all the tents lined up and no discernible internal division into patrols. Because our site was so small, our tents were all jumbled up and crammed into the site. Only our senior patrol leader and his patrol leaders really knew where the individual patrol boundaries began and ended....

… Our charge as volunteers in the movement is help to create tomorrow’s productive, responsible, happy citizens. We can’t do that if we don’t keep our doors and arms open to these young men, understanding that the “ultimate volunteer” isn’t us: It’s the Scout himself. If he gets sick and tired of our nagging him (instead of positive reinforcement of good habits) or “dinging” him, when it comes to rank advancement (even when he’s proven he can knock off the skill-set required without breaking a sweat), then he’s going to walk…and that’s the very last thing we want to have happen, because then we can no longer instill in him the ideals and values of the movement (yes, we’re a movement; not an “activity”)....

Do your Scouts share your ambitions? You may be pulling in different directions if they don’t. How can we align the ambitions of our Scouts, our adult leadership and those of the Scouting program? One way to find out is to make three lists: List number one; adult leader ambitions Sit down and make a list of your ambitions. Not what you think they should be but what they are. Do a little soul searching and write down the ones that come to mind without editing and see what you come up with....

Reader Bill Macfarlane, Scoutmaster of Troop 8 in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, writes: I was at Round Table the other day and overheard a rather heated discussion about “boy-led” troops. I heard one of the participants ask; “Where is it written that troops are boy-led?”. This got me wondering where this was written in BSA literature so I decided to look. Here’s what I found: “Training boy leaders to run their troop is the Scoutmaster’s most important job....

In an earlier post, I reported on a poll and discussion of how the eight methods of Scouting are applied in our troop. We followed that up with a poll during the youth leadership training. It was great for discussion in that setting, and there were some interestingly different views on how our troop is doing in applying the methods of Scouting. I’ll use “+” and “-” for the strengths and weaknesses columns....

Our central work, our focus, as Scout leaders is to create opportunities for Scouting: to create chances, approaches and advantages : OPPORTUNITY: A combination of circumstances favorable for the purpose; a good chance or occasion to advance oneself. Favorable circumstances: an opening, event, probability, possibility. A suitable time, occasion, moment. CHANCE: The happening of events without apparent cause, or the apparent absence of cause or design, an unpredictable event, a risk or gamble, an advantageous or opportune time or occasion, a possibility or probability....

Scout leader training tends to focus on the practical and, I fear, often misses the big picture. Most of the questions and comments I receive are about action oriented, practical matters. More often than not problems arise because people have missed the big picture rather than their lack of knowledge of some procedural process. What is the big picture, the grand unified theory of Scouting? I have been working on theories but I still haven’t arrived at a conclusion....