Fresh Ideas

It's been a few weeks away from the blogdesk for me and I'm ready to peck away at the keys again. Just took a break to do some 'real work'.

A big chunk of my time this past month has been spent in preparing the new Scoutmaster to take over next month. The new guy is an Eagle Scout, a very caring person, full of energy, and has a son finishing his first year with the troop. I think he'll be a great fit with the troop.
He has started doing the scoutmaster conferences now and did a scoutmaster minute at Monday's meeting which I did not attend. I can see his way of doing things will be different and he has some good new ideas. Fresh ideas are extremely important for the health of a unit. Just because something has worked for 5 or 10 years doesn't mean we should keep doing it. Something different and just as fun would be a good change.

Fresh ideas help to keep things interesting. Trying different ways to present the flags, close a meeting, set up camp, present a skill, or arrange patrol seating can all keep scouting a little more fresh. If an idea doesn't work as well as we hoped, that's why we have reflections - tweak it and try again or scrap it altogether.

Challenging the scouts to come up with fresh ideas has been a consistent goal of mine. It's easier for them to just plan the same old, fun campouts each year, but when asked to think of something new, they've come up with great outings. Just last weekend was their Wild West outing with horseback riding, gold panning, a chuckwagon dinner, and roping contests. They'll do their first Cave Camping in October and their first lock-in at the new BSA Base Camp facility in November. Keep it fresh!

Scout On
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