Scoutmaster Musings

When a scout takes on a leadership position, he needs to identify goals for his term in office. Whether he's an SPL, Quartermaster, or Bugler, he should have a few goals that he will complete before the next scout takes his spot. To help scouts create and meet these goals, BSA training uses the SMART acronym.

• Specific - know exactly what completion of the goal will look like. Use Who, What, Where, When, How, and Why to define the goal. Rather than "Make the troop more fun", a specific goal would be "Have each patrol leader pick a troop meeting and have his patrol present a new skit at it to make meetings more fun."
  Specific goals help to focus efforts and minimize wasted time and effort.
• Measurable - know how you can tell when the goal is accomplished. Answering questions like "How many?" or "How much?" means the goal is measurable. A goal about improving the rank advancement of new scouts could be measured by how many advance at least one rank during my term. Larger goals may have measurable milestones so tracking of progress is possible while the goal is not yet complete.
• Attainable - believe that the goal can actually be accomplished given your resources and time. That doesn't mean it needs to be an easy goal - stretching abilities helps raise the belief in what is possible.
  It should be possible to describe what resources are required to reach the goal and show that they are, or will be, available. Setting a goal of a high adventure trip to Spain this year may not be attainable, but planning it for 1 or 2 years away could be.
• Relevant – make sure the goal relates to the job and has importance to the organization. Having the SPL plan a Cycling campout in a troop where only 2 scouts have bikes wouldn't be relevant. Having the Scribe design a more professional newsletter format would be relevant.
• Timely - know how long the goal will take to achieve. Without a deadline, a goal doesn't get finished. Every goal and task should have a finish date attached so progress can be tracked.

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As a leader, a scout will be called on to resolve conflicts between other scouts. Conflict isn't fun, but having a few skills to deal with it makes a leader more effective and able to keep his team unified towards the goal at hand.

The BSA youth training provides conflict resolution training. The EAR acronym emhpasizes the value of listening and then working to fix a situation.

EAR - Express, Address, Resolve

• Express - each person should be given the opportunity to tell their side and express how they view the situation. Equal time is given to all sides and no jumping to conclusions or prejudging should happen.
• Address - after listening to the involved parties, the leader voices the concerns so everyone understands the issues to be resolved. This ensures everyone is trying to work through the same problem, even though from different views. Acceptable changes to the situation that will ease concerns are discussed.
• Resolve - a plan evolves that will effectively resolve the conflict. This may be an obvious decision or may require each party giving up something to meet a compromise for complex issues. The leader needs to work so each side feels as good as possible about the solution.

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I found a site called pyramydair.com that is having a contest for blogs like mine. If enough of my visitors click this air guns link, then I will win my choice of items from their catalog, under $150. Pretty simple, huh?

So, I looked through their site and it's amazing how many pistols and rifles there are available that shoot pellets, BBs, rubber balls, darts, and even biodegradable ammo. There are air guns manufactured in USA, England, Czech Republic, China, Italy, Germany, and on and on - not just the old Daisy or Crosman choice.

But, that's still what I plan to go with when I win. I'll get the trusty old Red Ryder rifle by Daisy. It's a classic and my sons still enjoy watching 'A Christmas Story' where poor Ralphie will surely 'shoot his eye out' if he gets his own "official Red Ryder, carbine action, two-hundred shot range model air rifle, with a compass in the stock and 'this thing' which tells time" - to quote Ralphie.
The current model holds 650 BBs rather than just 200 but it still has a leather thong on the handle and an engraved stock. Besides, since the price is so reasonable on the Red Ryder's I'm hoping I can get 4 of them so the scouts can use them on our next Shooting campout. Being that 'thrifty' kind of guy, the Red Ryder is on sale to boot, so that makes it even more attractive.
I also have two nephews that are at least as dangerous as Ralphie and probably WOULD shoot each others eye out. :-)

The folks at Pyramyd Air have an imaginative way to get visitors to explore more of their site and report any problems, typos, or mistakes they encounter. In the upper right of the screen, there is a link that says "Want to get 5% off?" If you click that, it gives you more information about the program, but basically you tell them about an error you found or just a suggestion to make the site better and they'll send you a 5% off coupon. So, if you decide to buy a few air guns for Christmas gifts, get that coupon first and knock off $15 off a $300 order.

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The theme of Youth Leadership Training Continuum (YLTC) is Be-Know-Do. The BSA has reduced the leadership position training to these three core concepts in an effort to streamline the training and cover what is critical to successful leadership.

• Be - the values and attributes needed for a character of leadership. This is the internalizing of the Scout Law.
• Know - the skills needed for successful leadership. This includes technical scouting skills as well as interpersonal, communication, and planning abilities.
• Do - applying the character and knowledge to a specific position or situation. The leader uses his abilities to influence, motivate, direct, and participate to have his team complete a goal.

By focusing on Be-Know-Do, training covers character building, skills development, and teamwork necessary for a scout to create and lead a successful team.

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The Boy Scouts of America has a vision to be the foremost youth program of character development and values-based leadership training in the country. To support that vision, a Youth Leadership Training Continuum has been developed. It currently consists or three courses that work together to develop leadership in scouts.

The material in these courses is taken from the very best leadership courses available in many settings, even corporate executive training.

The courses are:

• TLT - Troop Leadership Training should be conducted by every boy scout troop with each change in troop leadership. This three-hour course is led by the SPL and Scoutmaster to train every youth leader. The three main sections focus on troop organization, methods of leading and teaching, and specific leadership position responsibilities.
• NYLT - National Youth Leadership Training is a week-long camp offered by each council to further build on the concepts introduced in TLT by simulating a month in the life of a troop. Participants learn about team development, leadership skills toolbox, and application of skills back in their home troop.
• NAYLE - National Advanced Youth Leadership Experience provides practical application of NYLT skills in a wilderness setting at Philmont. It includes COPE, GPS, WFA, LNT - got that? :-)

If you've used the 'old' JLT troop training program that was a complete course, the new TLT is just a couple page outline with very little direction. It is up to the SPL and Scoutmaster to make up and present the training they feel is important. TLT is specifically intended to quickly tell new youth leaders what they need to do and its success relies on the SPL having NYLT experience. If you have an opportunity to acquire an old JLT program, I recommend you get it so you can have more ideas available.
Since our troop does TLT twice a year and have been doing it forever, it goes smoothly and gets the new leaders ready for their jobs.

The NYLT course in our council is great according to the 6 scouts that have attended from our troop - 2 each summer. The troop pays for their camp in exchange for their commitment to use their new skills to guide the troop. The expanded understanding of EDGE, EAR, SMART, SSC, and Be-Know-Do is helping to bring the troop to a higher plateau of overall skills and leadership.

I don't have experience with NAYLE, but there is a web site with more info.

Hey, don't worry about all those TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms) I tossed around. I'll be blogging about them over the next few days.

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I saw the funniest thing this morning while out on my walk.
I was walking on the bike path that runs along a divided 4-lane road. So, it's path, curb down, 2 lanes, curb up, median, curb down, 2 lanes, curb up, sidewalk, grass - get it?
Right in front of me, a tiny mouse comes scurrying out of the grass and across the path. I couldn't even see his little legs, they were moving so fast. If you've ever seen a mouse run, the look like they are hovering as the zoom along. This guy was in a big hurry!
He ran right to the edge of the curb and kept on going - whoosh! into air off the curb and plomp! down to the road with a somersault on landing.
He kept right on running across both lanes right at the curb of the median without slowing down. Bam! He bounced back off the curb after hitting it full steam, ran back at it, and scurried up. Across the median and whoosh! into air off the curb again with a somersault when he hit the road. Across the 2 lanes as fast as he can go right at the curb - yep, Bam! again.
After tumbling back and scarmbling up the curb, he zipped across the sidewalk and into the grass and was gone. I swear if I had had a video camera, it would be one of those $10,000 home videos on TV. :-)

While continueing my walk, I figured that mouse must have had poor eyesight and could not discern the curbs. He just knew he had to get to cover and was bent on getting there no matter what.
It made me wonder how often we are set on reaching a goal and ignore the different ways we have to get there because we try to charge right down the most direct route no matter what. Maybe taking a little time at the start to check out the options and make a plan and then be willing to revise the plan as it unfolds would keep us from slamming our heads into curbs as much.

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I'll usually skip name brands and spend less money on no-name products, especially for commodity items like food, paper towels, and such supplies. From my experience, the extra money for a brand is not worth it. There isn't a taste difference to me between Kellog's raisin bran and a grocery chain's raisin bran.

But, one place I've found that a brand's reputation is worth paying extra for is in footwear. I've had cheap shoes fall apart quickly and that's a chance you can't really take at Philmont or on some other long-distance trek. Danner boots are high quality products that have been around a long time and have a great reputation. I'm partial to them because they are based in Portland, OR which is a wonderful town in a beautiful part of the country.

But, you don't need to go to Oregon to buy Danner, Rocky, Morrell or any other brand of boot as long as you have the Internet. Many sites carry Danner as well as other top brands of footwear at competitive prices. I recommend visiting a shoe/boot store and try on boots until you find one that fits - but then check the online prices and buy where you feel most comfortable doing business.

Our troop is heading to Philmont in June, 2008. With young guys and growing feet, I'm recommending they purchase their boots no earlier than March and no late than May 1. But, I've told the adults to consider getting boots for Christmas so they'll have plenty of time to get comfortable in them.

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An Assistant Scoutmaster in Nebraska saved a teenager from drowning in a car accident this summer. The article in the Papillon Times tells how he heard the crash at night, pulled the victim from the car, and performed CPR.

Next month, the ASM will receive a BSA lifesaving award for his actions. Now, that's the kind of recognition I like to read about.

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• No Mosquitos
• No Rain
• No Humidity
• No other troops
• No Quarrels
• Great food
• Great campfire songs and skits
• Great agenda

This was the perfect campout! The weather was perfect - I mean absolutely perfect with blue skies, low humidity, cool nights and a warm Saturday. The tinder was dry so scouts could easily practice their fire starting. The clear skies let them find direction at day and night without a compass. They even chose to sleep under the stars instead of in tents which is rare due to mosquitos and threat of rain.

The dutch ovens were well-used this weekend too. There was kelbasa sausage and potatoes, chicken chili, apple cobbler, chocolate/cherry dump cake, and Sunday morning doughnuts! There were a few PopTart holdouts and hotdog chefs, but it was good to see signs of better meals.

A couple older scouts spent a lot of time with the new scouts on their advancement requirements and that seems to have carried over to the troop meeting last night. I noticed more interacting and talking between patrols than is typical. Hopefully, it will continue.

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If your troop uses the Scoutmate software, it was announced last month that the folks that make it are throwing in the towel after 16 years. They sent an email to registered users, but things change quickly in some units so you may not be the registered email they have.

This would be a good time to consider using TroopMaster since they are offering a discount to past Scoutmate users. The Scoutmate site even recommends that you check into the move and there are instructions for converting your Scoutmate data to Troopmaster.

Now, that's nice to see companies working together for the ultimate good of the customers. I hate to see a product pulled from the market because that lessens the urgency of competition and tends to result in fewer choices with higher prices.

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A couple days ago, I mentioned being 'thrifty' and doing things myself. Sometimes, it's hard to distinguish between thrifty and cheap, according to my wife.

One area where I've learned that I need to be very thrifty is the stock market. Years ago, I set aside some money that I could invest however I wanted - kind of like play money, but it was real. It was something I had always been interested in, but was afraid I didn't know how to do it. So, having a set amount that I could lose or grow put limits on my involvement.

I did ok and any money I made I set aside out of the playing field. I made a few poor investment choices and the original funds got used up so my game was over. I pretty much broke even, making a little bit but not much, and that taught me that I'm not really very good at that.

Now, if it was just pretend money, it still might be a fun game. I was looking for resources for the American Business merit badge and I came across an interesting site called MyWallSt.net where they are having a rookie challenge that is free to register and participate. The idea is that you start with $100,000 in virtual money to invest in real stocks. You get to compare the results of your investments against other players. Now, that's my kind of investing. :-) And, they even have weekly winners of real cash. The site says they give away $1000 each week.
Well, it's a good way to learn about trading stocks with no risk. If an American Business merit badge counselor approved of it, scouts could use the site to buy and track their stocks for that requirement. Since they're under 18, they wouldn't eligible to win any real money so they might want their parent to register.

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So, I've been volunteering to set up computers at my son's school in the morning for their barrage of annual testing. It's pretty much monkey work - push buttons and type the same words over and over for each computer. It sure isn't difficult, but it takes about 30 or 45 minutes to do a room, so I'm freeing up a staff person for other work.

I've discovered that there can be a ton of unexpected benefits to volunteering for short-term tasks like this...

• I see some of my son's friends and some scouts in a different setting.
• I'm walking to the school so I get 45 minutes of exercise each day.
• My son thinks its fun to walk with me because he gets to school early and helps push the buttons - extra time with him is always a good thing.
• The school staff seem to genuinely appreciate the help - it's good to feel appreciated.
• I wear a different one of my umpteen Scouting t-shirts each day, so I might be noticed by some non-scouting boy - no inquiries yet.

Church, school, and other community groups always seem to be looking for more volunteers. I've made my commitment to Scouting for now, so I usually have to turn down the other opportunities - they're usually long-term needs and I put way too many hours into Scouts. But, short-term tasks are a great way to help out and try something new. Give it a try!

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