Scoutmaster Musings

Well, there are some jokes around about how you can tell if you are spending too much time scouting. Tomorrow, the troop is going skiing for the weekend and I am not going because there are enough adults to drive already signed up. I feel just awful about missing an outing with the guys! Sure wish I was going!

I believe that the minimum required adults should go on an outing so that the chances of it truely being 'boy-led' are increased. Since I'm not really needed, I'll be staying home. There are a handful of new parents that have not done camping with us all summer that have signed up, so its important to get them into the program. I know it would be good for me to be there to show them the ropes, but I've already let the old goats that are going know I want them to teach the new guys.

My youngest son will be going on this skiing trip. That's actually a really good thing because he'll have an opportunity to lead his patrol without the scoutmaster dad around, and I'm sure he'll do just great. He tends to be my shadow on outings since this is his first year. I suppose in a year or so I'll never see him and miss him hanging around terribley, but that's a good thing to experience over time.

Anyway, on this outing both the SPL and ASPL will be absent so the patrol leader of the patrol that is organizing the outing has volunteered to be acting SPL for the weekend. What a great experience for him! At the Patrol Leader meeting this Monday, he took on the duties and is ready to give it a shot. Since this is just his 2nd year in Boys Scouts, it would be great to see - wish I was going! The biggest challenge will be to make sure the older scouts show him the respect and support he deserves for accepting the role. I've let the adults that are going know I would like them to keep an eye out and remind scouts as needed.

We've had reallly cold temps for the past week and the news says it should snow lightly all day on Saturday so it should be just a super time - wish I was going!

Now, I just have to figure out what to do at home all weekend while I'm waiting for Sunday to finally arrive so my son can tell me about his adventure.

Scout On! wish I was going.

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A dozen scouts and 5 adults from the troop played bingo last night. Not a typical 'scout' outing was it?

But, we played at a senior assisted care facility along with about a dozen elderly residents. It was great to have 11 year olds interacting with 91 year olds for a couple hours. One of the Methods of Boy Scouts is 'Adult Association' because boys need contact with adults they can emulate. They really got to experience that last night.

One resident was deaf so a scout wrote down the numbers called out so this person could participate. That was very encouraging to watch and you could see the scout understanding that his job was important.

I got to meet a man that had been a boy scout during the Great Depression. He told about how he could not afford a uniform and how he attained First Class, but then had to drop out to work. He asked the scouts what merit badges they were working on and what ranks they were.

Another man said he was an adult leader of a troop about 40 years ago. There were around 20 scouts in the troop but he was pretty quiet and did not share much else.

I believe it was a good experience for the scouts to meet these men and understand that scouting has a life long impact. Someday, they will be grandpas and great-grandpas telling stories of their scouting adventures to little kids.

It was also a good evening to bring some companionship to a few of our neighbors, especially in this time before Christmas.

Scout On

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So, the troop now has a schedule for 18 months. Lots of exciting places to go, things to do, and skills to learn. Now comes the hard part.

How do you get 25 or 30 boys to a location 100 or more miles from home and back again for the weekend? Well, of course we need adults that will drive. And will use their vehicle. And have insurance. And will give up a weekend at home for a weekend in the woods. That all tends to whittle down the adults willing to support the troop.

Some people have to work on weekends. Others have commitments to teach Sunday School, fix the house, or watch younger kids. And still others need to run errands, walk the dog, or get their hair cut. Some people can always come up with something that prevents them from going on a campint trip without really admitting they just don't want to do it. It's much more efficient to be told that someone can not, does not, and will not camp - then I can spend time encouraging others instead.

In our troop, we are very fortunate to have a few highly active adults that recognize the value in participating in the outdoors program of Boy Scouts. These 4 or 5 adults attend about 80% of all our outings and have been invaluable in making the program happen, along with occasional participation from other adults. They are the nails that really build an adventurous and exciting year for the scouts out of all the events the scouts have planned.

I'm worried that some of the nails will get bent as they are used over and over. Unfortunately, we don't have a hardware store to easily buy more when needed. We have to start from scratch like the Blacksmithing at Philmont Scout Ranch. While we were there this summer, a staff member sat on a fence and it broke. He went into the shop and, starting with a rod of iron, crafted a big ol' nail and pounded it into the fence - good as new!

Every year, I get a few new iron rods delivered. Some of them fire right up and become strong nails in just a couple months - others sit in the fire for years and never do become a useful tool. I'm really hoping for some good iron this spring since it looks like a few old nails are wearing out.

Scout On.

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I hope you all had a restful, enjoyable Thanksgiving weekend. My family visited all the relatives and we were lucky to have good weather for all our driving times. No big family arguments, either, so that's a bonus. :-)

The Troop Committee discussed and approved the troop's 18 month schedule last week so the SPL will present it to the troop at tonight's troop meeting. There will be a lot of excitement about the new outings that have never been done before - geocaching, military base, biking, huck finn - and the high adventure trips to Wyoming and Utah.
Then, at least by the parents, realization of the costs to do these things will sink in. :-( So, the new fundraising plans will also be announced to hopefully soften the blow. :-)

Scout On

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One challenge of having a very active troop is that outings to interesting places tend to cost quite a bit. We need to provide opportunities for scouts to pay their own way.
The troop has historically sold Christmas wreaths and Trails End popcorn in October to raise funds. Our policy has been to have money from each sell go into an individual scout's account so that scouts making more sales have more money to pay for camping.
With the popcorn, Trails End receives 1/3 the price, the council receives 1/3, and the troop receives 1/3. Our troop keeps 1/3 of its 1/3 and puts the other 2/3 of its 1/3 into the scout's individual account. Not confusing, is it? Anyway, a scout sells $90 of popcorn and receives $20 in his account while the troop receives $10.
With the wreaths, a scout receives $5 per item sold no matter the price just to keep things simple. Prices range from $12 to $40 with $15 being the most popular.
We have 6 troops and 8 packs in the area and competition to sell wreaths and popcorn has gotten pretty strong. So, the troop has begun looking for new fundraising ideas. The scouts came up with ideas, from selling Girl Scout cookies to Saxophone reeds. :-) They then whittled down the ideas to a few and the troop committee decided to support a Flag Service idea for this year to see how it goes.
The criteria used to determine how good a fundraising idea is included:

• renewable - will the customer buy again next year or just once?
• investment - what costs will the troop have to get started?
• profit - how much will be made from each customer?
• pay rate - how much per hour can a scout make? how many customers can he manage?
• competition - how new is the idea? are other organizations doing it? will it take work away from someone's job?
• appropriateness - does the product or service reflect well on the values of BSA?
• accountability - can the income be fairly distributed to scouts that put in effort?

The flag service met our guidelines and we are now in the process of surveying the community to get an idea of the level of support for such a program. If it turns out that enough probable customers exist and enough scouts will participate to manage them, then we'll go ahead in 2006. I'll let you know how it goes.

Scout On!

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Yesterday (Nov. 21) the site was not available most of the day. I'm sorry about that - I've been told the hosting service where I run this site was attacked and had a bunch of problems. If I can't rely on their servers, I'll start looking for something better, but bad stuff happens when there's bad people out and about.

Last night, our troop committee approved all the monthly campouts and the 4 high adventure trips planned by the scouts for the next 18 months! So, now each patrol can start organizing the next outing they are responsible for while I present the schedule to the adults and try to get an adult to be a resource for each outing. I'll also be getting adults to volunteer to drive for each event.

Our outings have gotten much better now that the patrols understand how to organize them rather than having adults do most of the planning. Summer of 2006, the troop will take our first self-directed backpacking trip. This entire trip - food, hike route, campsites, travel, costs, training - will be planned by scouts with guidance as needed from an adult. I'm very excited to see how it comes together over the next 6 months.

Scout On!

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Last weekend, the troop put together its 18 month plan. The Senior Patrol Leader, ASPL, Scribe, and 7 patrol leaders met to figure out what the scouts want to do. What a great job they did!

Three adults attended just to give input about school calendar conflicts and other district level events such as Camporees. Other than that, the scouts did it all.

Each patrol leader brought ideas from his patrol. The ideas were listed and then narrowed down to about two dozen. From there, the scouts marked which ideas made sense to do in summer, spring/fall, or winter. They then plugged them into months of the year.

With the campouts for each month in place, a weekly calendar was used to list every holiday, troop meeting, PLC meeting, and district event. That showed which weekends made the most sense for campouts.

From this activity, the troop had its schedule of meetings and weekend campouts for the next year and a half. Each patrol leader then chose which campouts his patrol would take responsiblity to organize, plan, and lead. They will have an adult resource for each campout and will report their progress monthly at PLC meetings.

After a break, the scouts tackled the task of High Adventure trips. The same process of sharing ideas, prioritizing which sounded the most fun, and then choosing the best was done. We now have the high hopes of a week-long backpacking trip to the Bighorns of Wyoming in 2006 and Arches National Park in 2007. These are in addition to SeaBase in 2006 and Philmont in 2007.

These will be the first trips of this magnitude that the troop will have scouts completely plan. We have been preparing them for this for the past 18 months by asking them to perform a larger and larger part of weekend campouts. In the past, scouts made the schedule but then adults would organize and prepare for individual campouts. Now, a patrol does everything for a campout except pay for reservations, drive, and other tasks requiring an adult. Of course, the patrols of the younger scouts need more adult support than the older ones, but it has been working out great.

Historically, our troop has planned 12 months of outings in October. Since our SPL holds the position for 6 months, this means the SPL elected in March did no troop planning. Now that we have 18 months scheduled, each SPL and his team will do scheduling. The upcoming 6 months is firm, the next 6 months can be modified if necessary, and the next 6 months needs to be filled with activities.

It was rewarding to see the scouts have ownership of the troop's plan and I'm excited to see how well they take on the organizing and promoting of their trips.

Scout On!

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Hey, if you are one of the two people that read this blog then you noticed it hasn't been available or updated recently.
I just finished moving the site to a new server and it took awhile for everything to get hooked back together correctly.

Anyway, I'm baaaaaaaack.

Our troop hasn't been idle the past month, though. We had a Shooting Sports campout in October that was a hit. One of our adult volunteers went through the Rangemaster training so he can manage us while shooting 22s and shotguns. This was the first time shooting shotgun for a lot of the scouts. We shot about 600 shells and there are about 550 completely good clay pigeons laying in a marshy field now - not many hits.
One scout brought a pumpkin for a .22 target. Another brought a plush Sonic the Hedgehog doll. Firm things make better targets - plush dolls just absorb the bullet and get a black freckle at the entry point. I'm taking some circles of sheetrock next time, hoping they will explode into puffs of dust - we'll see.

Well, its now really trying to become winter here, but thats ok because we've got skiing in December and snowhuts in January to look forward to.

Scout On!

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The box elder bugs are out in force all over the south sides of everyone's houses in the neighborhood. The sun is warm, the air is cool, and the leafs are just thinking about changing color. Must be time to sell popcorn and wreaths again!

I've never really enjoyed fundraising. Some people get into it, but I'd just as soon eat glass. I have finally come to understand, though, that going to each neighbor's door and asking if they'd like to purchase a Christmas wreath is an annual ritual. It is expected and even looked forward to by a substantial number of folks.

I tagged along with my youngest son this morning on his first day of selling. He did a great job after practicing on our wonderful next door neighbor. It's a chance for me to say 'HI' to people I only see a couple times each year (isn't that sad.) and check out their yards, trees, and shrubs.

It's also quite fun to hear people say 'Oh my, it's that time of year already!' or 'Wreaths already? Where did the summer go?'

Our boys have a goal to pay for half of their scouting costs. That takes quite an effort on their part, especially now that the older one can do Philmont and SeaBase. They've learned that they are providing a good product that some people really want and they are making money selling it. They've also learned about competition in the marketplace as they go to homes that have promised their business to another scout. The one thing I still want to check that they understand is that these people are being very generous and supporting their scouting experience so they need to be sincerely thanked.

And, hey, if you really need some popcorn, please just send me an email. One of my boys can sell it to you over the Internet and have it delivered to your home - free delivery! :-)

Scout On!

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Every six months, it happens - the current troop leaders are ready for a break and a few scouts are sure they can do a better job running the show. And, so we have Troop Elections!

Actually, only the Senior Patrol Leader is elected by the scouts and he then is responsible for selecting his leadership staff of Assistant Sr. Patrol Leader, scribe, librarian, historian, bugler, chaplain aide, OA rep, instructors, troop guides, and den chiefs. Each patrol also elects their own Patrol Leader. This is a lot like our national elections - we elect the president and he appoints his cabinet.

We're fortunate to have a great scout as SPL and his election platform was more fun so he has some key promises to fulfill this winter.

Now that he has selected his leadership staff, he and the ASPL are busy training them. I've spent an hour with him explaining his job, what is expected, and setting goals, and now he is passing that down the line.

Our next big joint effort will be our annual Planning Conference and Youth Leadership Training course next month. The SPL and Scoutmaster share the leading of these events and I'm excited to see what great new ideas these guys dream up.

Scout On

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On our troop outing this weekend, we toured Root River Hardwoods sawmill where they logged hardwoods (oak, cherry, walnut, maple, hackberry, ..) and turned them into rough boards. Then, we toured their shop where they turned dried, rough boards into molding and finished boards.
After these tours in the morning, we made lunch at camp and then went on a cave tour in Mystery Cave.
After the tour, we stopped at Pine Tree Apple Orchard to learn how apples are harvested, graded, packed, and sold.

It was a very busy day with a great introduction to 3 different industries - agriculture, tourism, and lumbering. Unfortunately, no scouts in the troop are taking the Farm Mechanics, Forestry, Geology, or Woodworking merit badges. We did not take advantage of a good opportunity because we did not plan ahead far enough.

Looking ahead, the troop has scheduled a shooting sports outing next month. I've discussed the availability of the Rifle Shooting merit badge with the patrol organizing the outing in the hopes they will use its requirements as part of their agenda and tell the troop that it is available.

More importantly, I've made it part of my agenda to always check what merit badge or other award might be applicable to any outing the troop plans. And, then make sure the scouts organizing the event are aware of the opportunity for advancement well ahead of their event.

Scout On

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I really enjoy the times I get to sit one-on-one with a scout for a scoutmaster conference and try to see his view of the troop and scouting. In our troop, we have 59 scouts and 20 of them are new so it is a challenge finding time on outings and at troop meetings to talk with many of them. The scoutmaster conferences are very important to keep in touch with those scouts that don't attend some events.

I have a few goals in a conference with scouts that have not achieved First Class rank yet. I try to find out how their scouting experience is going their first few months. Are they having experiences they expected? Have they done things they were surprised to be doing? What skills have they learned to do? I mostly just ask prompting questions and then listen to their thoughts.

I also like to hear what they do besides scouting. Since I only get to interact with them at specific times, there's a lot more they do that I don't know about. Remembering who does what can be a challenge so I try to keep notes.

Finally, I believe its important to share with them what I feel is important in scouting. I simply share that in today's world we really need people willing to lead, help, and care for others, and to have the skills to help when needed. Also, I tell them to keep their eyes on the older scouts and try to figure out what makes a good scout. At every conference, I ask them if they've figured out any more of the puzzle. It's sometimes enlightening to hear from a scout that has really been taking this to heart and searching for an answer.

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