Scouting Fundamentals

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....

This recent post from Seth Godin encourages us to think about the way we approach our work as Scout leaders: We train kids to deal with teachers in a certain way: Find out what they want, and do that, just barely, because there are other things to work on. Figure out how to say back exactly what they want to hear, with the least amount of effort, and you are a ‘good student....

Applying the patrol method is a perennial challenge for all of us, indeed it is the subject of much of the Scoutmaster blog and podcast. Someone took the time to make this patrol method video from the filmstrip that was part of the Scoutmaster Fundamentals course decades ago. However dated the format it is has some very pertinent, practical advice. The storytelling format is a very effective way to relate the principles involved....

Why and how does Scouting work? What’s our role? How do we best serve our Scouts? I’ll discuss my answers in this first edition of the Scoutmaster Podcast. You can also listen to a story about the first (and last) appearance of the “fire Snake”, instructional methods for Scouts, and some ideas about coaches and players in Scouting. In This Podcast Bald Eagle [0:25] Why Scouting? [1:10] This Has Got To Be True -The Fire Snake [6:38]...

Is Scouting really competing with sports, clubs and similar activities? Aren’t our goals somewhat similar to those of organized sports, performing arts, debate, and the many other extra-curricular activities available to our Scouts? I’ve adopted the attitude that we cooperate with these other activities in offering our youth every advantage in learning something about the world and developing important skills. Scouting offers a lot but we really shouldn’t require a Scout to choose it above all the other things he is doing....

If we are to focus on the success of our Scouts what evidence do we have that they have achieved success? There are a few simple questions in the introduction to the Scout Handbook that serve as excellent benchmarks for success; Are you ready to become an expert hiker and camper, to explore the natural world, and to meet challenges with good judgment and skill? Are you eager to make the most of yourself and succeed in the best ways possible?...

Scouting shares that paradoxical combination of simplicity and complexity found in a round of golf or a game of baseball. The goal is simple, the means direct, yet the process is complex. Scoutmastership, like properly swinging a golf club or baseball bat, takes a few minutes to learn and a lifetime to master. Skilled Scoutmasters concentrate on one thing – the success of their Scouts. Individual Scouts will have individual standards of success so Scoutmasters have twenty or thirty different (though likely very similar) standards to work towards....

I don’t think of myself as particularly a persnickety or doctrinaire so what follows is probably out of character. I do like to write therefore I strive to observe the rules of grammar and rely greatly on my spell checker. As someone who regularly writes about Scouting I have developed my own rough and ready conventions of usage and capitalization. Now that I have found the Language of Scouting I shall do my best to mend my ways....

What does Scouting cost? Depends how you look at it; I think Scouting is free. I’ve volunteered in our local government for a dozen or more years. If I hear someone complaining about their water bill I point out the water is free, it’s the pipes that cost money. Making water safe to drink, getting it to your house, and treating wastewater costs money – but the water itself is free....

What would your Scout Troop look like without a manual, by-laws or a reasonable facsimile thereof? Would anybody notice? B.S.A. literature, to my knowledge, does not mention such documents so one wonders where they came from? In my case as a young Scoutmaster I encountered the usual litany of problems and disappointments. I hit upon the idea of legislating – I’d just write down the rules and things would be clear, my Scouts, their parents and my fellow leaders would all fall in line once they read my pronunciations....

Our nationwide organization of some 2.8 million youth and 1.3 million adult participants is defined by written Scout rank requirements policies and procedures. Individual understanding, subject to an individual point of view, can lead to some misinterpretations if we do not read requirements, policies and procedures with an open mind. As an example look at these Scout rank requirements: Scout Badge 7. Understand and agree to live by the Scout Oath or Promise, Scout Law, motto, and slogan, and the Outdoor Code....

Who are the most important volunteers in Scouting? They have more power and influence than Council Presidents, Commissioners, Scoutmasters and Cubmasters all put together. Without their participation and support Scouting would quickly come to a complete halt. They bring endless energy, resources and real transformational power to their role. They are the only volunteers we simply cannot afford to lose. Have you guessed it yet? The single most important volunteers in Scouting are the Scouts themselves....

Scouting has long been a positive, constructive influence in the lives of young people. This vast potential for good lies in simple Scouting methods that have been applied effectively across widely different cultures and systems of belief. These methods need little adaptation, modification or complication – they only require application to create opportunities for Scouts to exercise the concepts of the Scout Oath and Law. Scouting requires surprisingly few rules, regulations and limitations....

Scouting begins with an individual commitment expressed in the life of the Patrol and Troop. Troops form districts, districts form councils, councils form regions and regions form our national organization. I’ve for years felt strongly that, in all training, we spend too much time on “how to” and vastly too little time on WHY. I believe, further, that the arbitrary drifting from the “model troop” and “model patrol” (yup, “model pack,” too) is a consequence of our failing to tell the new people we train WHY we do things in Scouting the way we do....

Andy (at Ask Andy) offers this excellent analysis of one of Scouting’s biggest problems- If you’re a regular reader, you already know about the tyrants and tin gods, renegades and recalcitrants, bullies and belligerents, dictators, martinets, and “world’s oldest Patrol Leaders” masquerading as Scoutmasters. Thank goodness that, for every one of them, there are a thousand or more dedicated Scouting leaders who get it right! But how did this happen? How did we get so far away from True North?...

Scouting’s progressive program is built on the idea of developmental stages. Tiger Cubs work hand in hand with their parents, Wolf Cubs build on the relationships with their family, Bears build on the concepts of community, Webelos on self-reliance and independence. The Scout Troop and Patrol builds on all these skills as Scouts progress through the ranks. Every so often I come across a situation where some overheated leadership has taken it on themselves to depart from the age appropriate activities and blaze their own trail....

What we do as Scouters is more like gardening than management. Cultivating Scouting brings better results than managing Scouting. Cultivating means preparing the soil, planting the seed, and allowing the plants to grow. As they grow we keep the weeds away, and see that there’s adequate water and sunshine. Think about tomato plants, if you don’t stake then out they’ll fall over and sprawl around on the ground. If we respond to and focus the way they grow we help create productive plants....

John Kennaugh in a discussion from uk.rec.scouting makes the case for essential Scouting Skills; The skills Baden Powell (BP) instinctively identified as Scouting skills were based on the skills of our ancestors, making camp, putting up a shelter, cooking over a fire, exploring our surroundings without getting lost, learning about the natural world and how to use what it provides, constructing things with pieces of tree and rope, tracking, and finally gathering socially around a fire....

Imagine you are watching your favorite sporting event as the game begins and the players take the field. They make a few mistakes and a few good plays as the game unfolds. No matter what happens during the game the coaches don’t leave the sidelines and begin playing. The players take the field and the coaches stay on the sidelines. Now imagine Scouting as a game. We have players, (Scouts), coaches (Scouters), we wear uniforms, we learn skills and rules, (the Scout Oath and Law, camp craft, etc....

The Test of the Patrol Method An old experienced Scoutmaster said once: “The test of the Patrol Method is in the easy chair!” His audience looked nonplussed, so he elaborated his statement: “Get an easy chair and place it in a corner of the Troop meeting room. If you can sink into it just after the opening ceremony and just sit throughout the meeting, without a worry for its success, without lifting a finger or moving a foot until time comes for the closing-well, then your Troop is run on the Patrol Method-your boy leaders are actually leading....