Scoutmaster Musings

Day 14: Had a scoutmaster conference with the scout that had to cancel yesterday. Just in time for him to also have his board of review this evening.

I met with the two high school-aged patrols this evening to discuss their general leadership in the troop - and have rootbeer floats.

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Day 13: We got blasted by snow all day, so a scoutmaster conference got cancelled in the evening.

It was pretty much a "day off" from scouting and everything. I guess that's ok once in awhile.

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Day 12: The troop held it's Klondike Derby today at a local elementary school. The Duct Tape patrol scheduled, planned, and ran the event - they did a great job!

Each patrol built their own sled out of absolutely anything they wanted over the past month. At the end of the day, the sleds raced over a course that was about 1/4 mile. Fortunately, our warm weather than then big cool-down yesterday made for well-packed snow and scouts could run on top instead of through it.
There were also sprint races and most of the day was filled with stations. A compass scavenger hunt, winter first aid, boot hocky, scout law race, and building a snowblock house.

Just a great, fun day to be out scouting.

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Day 11: Attended the first of three Blue Golds this evening. We had one older scout (8th grade) and four young guys there to welcome two new scouts. It was great to see this older scout that has never really had much leadership experience step up and organize the younger ones. I think he's going to have a great year.

Another scout from our troop participated in his first Arrow of Light ceremony with the Order of the Arrow. He was pretty nervous but did a terrific job. The ceremony was quick and looked good from the audience's view.

I also met with the new SPL for an hour, starting his training. He still needs to get a few more guys to fill out his leadership team, but he's chomping at the bit to get moving. So, I covered some basic job duties and gave him a handful of tasks to work on - getting his TroopKit.com meetings scheduled and preparing for the Troop Leader Training session.

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It's interesting how every six months the whole feel of the troop changes when that new SPL takes over. Sometimes the meetings are chop/chop/chop and go home, while other times they are fun and rambling offtrack half the time. Merging the styles and skills of the SPL with his ASPL and the PLs is an important task for the scoutmaster to get done early on. It's a challenge to figure out the right amount of guidance that will help the SPL take charge but not alienate his peers or let chaos reign.

I'm really looking forward to this term and how things will unfold. I expect we have probably the most enthusiastic SPL in history - kind of like a pony running and bucking in the field but not getting anywhere yet. :-) Directing that energy will be fun.

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Day 10: Two scoutmaster conferences for First Class and one for Life today. A Tenderfoot showed me how to handle knife, axe, and saw and even got a fire going with one match in the cold wind - good job! I think his mom was impressed. :-)

A Second Class scout needing the 'constitutional rights and obligations' requirement for First Class set up a time and place for his uncle, the attorney, to talk with anyone in the troop that needed to do it. Nine scouts took advantage of the opportunity tonight and it was an interesting discussion to listen in on.

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Day 9: I spent three hours researching our troop's history today. Did you know that your council probably has records of all the youth and adult members in your troop since you were chartered? I didn't expect it would be so easy to access them, but it was. Well, our council was easy to work with anyway, but we were only chartered in 1982, not 1910 like some of you guys.

So, they had paper copies of what are termed "Expire Rosters" - those registrations that will expire soon if not renewed - listing all youth and adult names. If a name is on the 2009 roster but not 2010, you see that he dropped from the troop sometime in the 2009-2010 year. For a troop that has not kept up its own history very well, these rosters can be very helpful.

I wrote down all the names for each year and brought them home. Then, I typed them into a Word document. Now, I can pass them on to the new Troop Historian and see what he decides to do with them.

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Day 8: Contacted the last den leaders about Webelos cross-overs. Finally have the 'firm' numbers and commitments. The SPL has asked for volunteers to attend the cross-over ceremonies and welcome the new scouts. There's a couple scouts assigned to each of the three ceremonies, so we're ready there.

Printed out the information sheets we give to new scouts - youth app, adult app, welcome letter, survival guide, year's schedule, everything to get them up and running quickly.

Went through the scout handbooks of a couple transfer scouts and entered the data into Troopmaster. Now, there's a fun way to spend 1/2 hour of your life. :-)

Finally, hooked up a couple more instructors for the district's Intro to Leadership Skills training this spring.

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I'm curious what you do when welcoming a new scout to your troop.

We used to have scouts welcome him at his cross-over by replacing the neckerchief and blue shoulder loops with the troop's custom neckerchief, slide, and green loops. Then, he'd be given troop numerals, scout handbook, binder of information, and pointed over to me so I could welcome him and his parents too.
We've had some scouts never show up after that, so it has changed.
Now, they don't get the custom neckerchief, slide, and troop numerals at cross-over. At the first troop meeting after they complete their "Joining" requirements, the troop does a simple ceremony where these items are presented by the SPL and the new scout is a 'member'.

That saves on lost items and gives incentive to get moving on advancement. It also makes the cross-over faster and less confusing and introduces each new scout once again to the troop later on. The new scout gets his scout handbook right away which he needs to get started, and the green loops show he's a boy scout.

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Day 7: Our troop is considering dividing into two troops. We've discussed it for the past year and are now in the decision-making stages since I've announced I'll be done as scoutmaster in the fall. We have two excellent scoutmaster candidates lined up, facilities in which to meet, about 70 families to divide, and 8 months to get it done. It's an exciting time.

This afternoon, I chatted with one of the scoutmaster candidates to start sharing all my information, files, tasks, and 'stuff'. I chatted with the other one last week.

We had a troop committee meeting specifically for parents to discuss the split, followed immediately by a troop meeting. The scouts elected a new SPL to start on April 1 for a 6-month term. Now, I get to start training him and helping him choose his leadership team and schedule Troop Leader Training.

We also had Order of the Arrow elections. The scouts in this troop have historically been very stingy with these elections. They proved that again last night by electing only 1 scout out of 14 eligible candidates. I did not hear the introduction to the voting so I'm not sure how the stage was set, but I need to ask about it.

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Day 6: I spent most of my afternoon in a district annual planning meeting, representing Training. It wasn't much fun really, but important work to figure out when we'll have Camporee, Klondike, Pinewood Derby, Scoutmaster and Cubmaster training, Outdoor Leader Skills, OA events, Eagle Previews, and the dozens of other things that go on each year.

Oh, and I baked cookies to take to the meeting and took a bag of wooden neckerchief slide blanks from Whittler Bob so everyone there could take one home to carve.

Tomorrow night, I've got troop meetings. Yes, I know it's Valentine's Day - that's why I brought flowers home today! And, I was pretty darn proud of myself too.

So, don't you dare forget your Valentine tomorrow!

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Did you ever notice how much a BSA troop flag looks like a Campbell's soup label? Why's that? Coincidence or conspiracy? Hmmmm, I wonder.

Another thing that's interesting. Look closely at those little gold stars around the bottom of the soup can label. They aren't really stars - they are fleur-de-lis. Another BSA/Campbell's connection. Hmmmmm, I wonder.

Finally, one other point to ponder. The diameter of the top of a Campbell's soup can is precisely the same as the height of a scout rank patch. A scout can clean a soup can and store all his previous rank patches in it forever! Hmmmmm, I wonder.

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Day 5: Set up two scoutmaster conferences, had a nice chat with an ASM, informed one emailer that the 'Popcorn Kernel' patch was not an official BSA position and another that Bugling and Music are still separate merit badges.

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Contacted Webelos den leaders about scouts crossing-over this month and to see if anyone would benefit from a rah-rah chat about Boy Scouting.

Emailed some other scoutmasters about training scheduled this spring.

And, voted for Garr for the American Spirit Award over at Boys' Life.

Now it's Friday evening and time to get away from this internet for awhile. :-)


If any other scouting bloggers want to use the numerals, they are at http://boyscouttrail.com/i/nums/[xx].jpg - replace [xx] with 01, 02, 03, ..., 98, 99

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Day 3: Wrote two letters of recommendation for Eagle scouts for scholarships. Our council has an Eagle scholarship as does NESA and other organizations. This is one instance where achieving that rank does pay off.

If any other scouting bloggers want to use the numerals, they are at http://boyscouttrail.com/i/nums/[xx].jpg - replace [xx] with 01, 02, 03, ..., 98, 99

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I received my Leave No Trace membership packet in the mail today from lnt.org. I keep my membership up since I present their workshops and training sessions. The package included a cool member's t-shirt but I gave that to my son and said he could count it as his birthday present. I don't think it will work.

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