This video speaks for itself, I want to note, however how the attitude and will of the adults involved made this a positive story. Listen to Chase describe how he felt and how he perceived things. Listen to Chase’s mom describe how she felt as a parent. It’s very difficult to imagine that 11-year-old as a young adult, especially when the going get’s tough, it seems like a loosing battle sometimes....
Scouts endure demands for their attention. In a classroom we listen for things that sound like they’ll be on the test, and strain out the rest. If someone asks a question everyone groans, because that makes the lesson longer. We learn not to interrupt, to run out the hour, and let the teacher talk. When it’s “time for instruction” do your Scouts switch into classroom mode and start looking for chairs?...
Sitting down, a sigh of relief, a cup of coffee, close your eyes, and think about a nap. What’s that? Somebody walking through the leaves. You open your eyes just enough to see the senior patrol leader striding purposefully in your direction, he stops a couple of feet away, wondering if you are awake. After playing possum for a few seconds, you look again. He’s still there. “Hey Mark, what’s up?...
Boys can hardly wait to go on hikes, sleep in tents, and cook meals in the open. They are eager to master the skills of Scouting and to put into practice what they are learning. They want to share experiences with their friends. They anticipate challenge, adventure, and recognition for their achievements. Troop members look to their Scoutmaster as the person who will help them realize the promise of Scouting....
Marathon runners sometime experience a sudden loss of energy that they call ‘hitting the wall’, they pass through an invisible barrier and get-up-and-go gets up and leaves. Youth leaders are especially susceptible to hitting the wall, and most do at some point. Communication breaks down, nothing seems to work, what seems simple becomes hopelessly complex, frustration and feelings of inadequacy follow. We can’t avoid the wall, we are all going to hit it, and we’ve seen it happen to others....
In Aids to Scoutmastership Baden-Powell writes: The Scoutmaster guides the boy in the spirit of an older brother…. He has simply to be a boy-man, that is; he must have the boy spirit in him: and must be able to place himself in the right plane with his boys as a first step. Boy-man? That’s a bit of poetry, a term to conjure with, and a paradox. (Before I go further any adult, who is a “boy-man” (adult-child?...
John Thurman was the Camp Chief at Gilwell Park and had an important role in shaping Wood Badge training. He authored many Scouting books (his three pioneering books are great resources). In his 1950 book Pioneering Projects, he offers some reflections on the Scouter’s role. Scouting isn’t easy to get at first, and it never has been. The “small voice” inside us says “this will be great fun, let me at it!...
Understanding how Scouts listen should help us figure out how we best communicate with them. There’s never enough time to get your message across. Even Fidel Castro, famous for giving six-hour speeches, had plenty more to add. If you’re given 8 minutes, take 8 minutes minus 7 seconds, not 9 minutes. The extra minute is selfish. The extra minute doesn’t actually make that much of a difference in how much you are able to communicate....
Carrying backpacks for the first time, Scouts leave the familiar comforts of home and strike out on the trail. Following flashlight beams through unknown territory, they arrive at the campsite with their friends. Tents are set up, a fire is lit and they gather around trying to shake off the cold. They talk excitedly about tomorrow’s climb over a mountain peak to the destination on the other side. They strain their imaginations in anticipation, careful to mask the uncertainty and vulnerability they feel in the volume and bravado of the conversation....
2012 Red Lantern Recipient Jan Steve’s, shares her inspiring story of ‘the challenge of a lifetime’ in the Edmonds News. The fastest musher in the history of Alaska’s Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race ran the 1000-plus mile course from Anchorage to Nome in just under nine days. The longest time to finish the race is 32 days. Each year the last musher to finish the Iditarod earns the Iditarod’s symbol of perseverance, the Red Lantern Award....
Organizations that do nothing but measure the numbers rarely create breakthroughs. Merely better numbers. Seth Godin via Seth’s Blog: Colors or numbers? One responsibility of every Scouter is keeping track of numbers. We track advancement, participation, membership, and fundraising numbers at the individual, unit, district, council, regional, and national levels because these numbers are indicators of successful program delivery. But, make no mistake, numbers are only indicators. When we observe numbers they can tell us things....
Mike Rowe at the National Jamboree telling scouts to “work smart and hard” encouraging something I have been trying to tell Scouts headed to college for years – find something you love and don’t ignore the idea of working with your hands as a career. Mike hardly needs any introduction; he’s a distinguished Eagle Scout best known to most of us as the host of the show Dirty Jobs. (The Distinguished Eagle Scout Award acknowledges Eagle Scouts who have received extraordinary national-level recognition, fame, or eminence within their field, and have a strong record of voluntary service to their community....
Frustration in organizations begins with someone saying “If I only had the authority to I’d … (fill in the blank)”. When someone says this one of two things are happening ; they are either expressing a strong propensity for leadership, innovation and initiative, or just cloaking a complaint in language that doesn’t make them responsible for change. We understand authority as the power to make things happen. That’s the organizational chart way of looking at things; top down, low-risk, chain of command....
Effective Scouters are alert to possibility, to the challenge of the moment. If we aren’t watchful, though, those transient moments of possibility become obscured by our preoccupation with competence. There’s no inherent virtue in being an experienced Scouter, after all if you stick with something long enough you become experienced. Hopefully experience leads to competence, but competence shouldn’t obscure possibility; As we get more experienced, we get better, more competent, more able to do our thing....
…the business of the Scouter — and a very interesting one it is — is to draw out each boy and find out what is in him, and then to catch hold of the good and develop it to the exclusion of the bad. There is five per cent of good even in the worst character. The sport is to find it, and then to develop it on to an 80 or 90 per cent basis....
Troop 676 of Bozeman during their August 2012 traverse across Spanish Peaks in the Lee Metcalf Wilderness of Montana, standing atop Indian Ridge listening to our oldest Scout tell an animated story about another adventure from the past. (Photo from Ryan Jordan) Scouts need some structure and direction but they also need the opportunity (plenty of it) for the alchemy of friendship and loyalty to do its work. This is something that Scouters can’t control or manage; trying to make a plant grow is futile and frustrating....
In a post titled The Patrol Leader’s Council and Planning I laid out the basis of structure, content, planning and preparation. Scouts establish a structure (the calendar of what’s happening), the content (what they’ll be doing) and plan (who will be doing what) and then they prepare for actually carrying these things out. The ball usually get’s dropped in the preparation stage when the patrol leader’s council meeting ends and everybody goes home....
Keeping older Scouts active and involved is a perennial concern. Scoutmasters wring their hands over losing older Scouts and many troops do have a problem keeping them around. The standard response is amping up the ‘wow’ factor of the program but I have never been very fond of the “bread and circuses” approach to Scouting. (If you aren’t familiar with the metaphor ‘bread and circuses’ refers to placating real concerns with superficial means of appeasement like diversions or distractions without getting to the heart of the matter....
Talking with Scouts about tragic events is one way we can help relieve some of the anxiety, anger and uncertainty we all feel; lend perspective, and find constructive action in response to tragedy. When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” To this day, especially in times of disaster, I remember my mother’s words and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers – so many caring people in this world....
When I served as a camp director I got some complaints about our dining hall steward’s attitude towards Scouts setting or clearing the tables. Scouts rotate the responsibility of serving as a waiter at our camp. They go early to set the table, serve the food during the meal and clear up afterwords. At any given meal there are Scouts who are new to the experience and they make mistakes. My dining hall steward was growing increasingly frustrated with their inexperience and yelled at them making them even more jumpy....