Scoutmaster Musings

The new SPL led his Troop Leader Training session last night and today. Last night, just the Patrol Leaders were present to review the 12 month troop schedule and add another 6 months.
In March, the scouts started coming up with themes for their campouts instad of just skiing, climbing, shooting, ... They kept that thought process going this time with no prompting from me! In a year, we'll be doing "Ice Wars", "Winter Survival", and "Nifty 50s" campouts. Nifty 50s is tent camping but we'll go to a drive-in theater for a late show instead of a campfire. Ice Wars is a bunch of competitions like largest snowball, catapult target shooting, fastest hole drilled through the ice, ... and whatever else gets planned.
Surprisingly, the highlight of the night for some scouts was Balloons. I handed each scout a balloon and said the task was to come up with an activity for a patrol to do using just balloons. I figured it would take 10 minutes, but after playing with the ballons for about 50 minutes it was time for bed.

This morning, all the troop leaders joined us for the Training session. Three Life scouts helped present EDGE and other skill instruction sessions. It went very well. Each scout has a couple very good goals for their term which will make a big impact on the troop. We finished with lunch and sent everyone home.

Now, we just need to follow through with the commitments made.

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At our Troop Leader Training this morning, the topic of electronic devices came up again followed by the discussion of allowing them on campouts or not. It was pretty amazing how many of the scouts now have iPhones, iPods (Nano, Shuffle, Touch, Video, Photo, Mini), cellphones, and the like. From 6th graders on up, everyone had some device - in the past it has usually been one or two of the older scouts.

A few of them also mentioned that they had destroyed a device from rain, dropping, or losing it. That's another good reason to leave them at home when camping. But, I found online that there are a lot of iphone accessories and other supplemental gear to help protect these expensive gadgets - everything from cleaning kits to aluminum cases. Maybe some ideas out there for your scout's Christmas.

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When teaching is done in our troop, the scouts are always expected to use the EDGE techniques. At every Troop Leader Training session, these skills are covered and the Troop Guides and Instructors are continually reminded of the importance of this process.
We also have guidelines that teaching is done to groups no larger than 8 but preferably smaller, materials are prepared and available before the training, and every session has a short reflection time for feedback.

The EDGE technique is:

• Explain - describe what is to be accomplished and how it is done. Possibly more detailed background explanation of how something works. For example, using a compass to find a direction and explaining how a compass needle points north.
• Demonstrate - show the skill or task being done so the audience can see a correct way to do it. At the same time, explain what you are doing so your actions tie back into the Explain step. For example, hold the compass flat, turn until you are facing north and make sure everyone sees the needle pointing the way.
• Guide - let the learner try the skill while the teacher helps him as needed. This may need to be done multiple times until the learner can perform the skill unaided. For example, each scout locates west on his compass and turns until he is facing west.
• Enable - each learner performs the skill unaided while the teacher watches to ensure correct technique. For example, tell everyone to find southwest on their compass and face that direction. If any are facing incorrectly, the teacher needs to go back to Guide with them.

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Our troop is planning a Lock-in at the church for a Friday night in November. The scouts bring movies and watch them on the TV in the youth room. Unfortunately, with 40 or 50 scouts, a TV doesn't cut it any longer. We need something bigger.

An LCD projector hooked up to a DVD player and sound system would be perfect. We can show huge movies on the gym wall and it's like being in a movie theater. I have an LCD projector in my basement and my sons have had their patrols over to watch movies. But, I don't know if I really want it around the whole troop on the loose since it is quite expensive.

Instead of risking personal equipment, there are companies that rent and ship projectors around the country. For about $140, you can have a projector for the weekend. With 30 scouts, that's just $4.50 each for movies all night long. Actually, it arrives on Thursday and you return it on Monday, so you have access to it for four nights and three days.

If you are thinking about your own home theater like I have or something for troop presentations, then renting is a way to try it and see if it will work out before making a big investment.

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The plastic "Progress Towards Ranks" piece of the "Immediate Recognition Kit" (Item No. 01804) is being recalled by the manufacturer, Kahoot Products, Inc. The item may contain lead levels in excess of U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission standards in the paint on the totem badge. This is a voluntary recall and, pending formalization of the recall details, all consumers are urged to remove the Cub Scout Recognition Totem Badge from the child's possession and kept in a safe place where only adults have access. Detailed instructions for returning the product for replacement will be provided by the manufacturer and posted as soon as they are available. The manufacturer has received no reports of any injuries resulting from the use of the kits, but are urging this action as a precautionary measure. Please share this information with the other leaders and parents of Cub Scouts. You can read Kahoot's Recall Letter.

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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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