One of my favorite magazines, The New Yorker, has a recurring column titled Notes from All Over, a collection of miscellany that are interesting in and of themselves but don’t merit an entire article. Today’s article is like that, so I’m borrowing the title with apologies (and a tip of the campaign hat) to the esteemed periodical. Continue reading “Notes from all over”
Guide to Safe Scouting 2015 update
Although the print edition of the Guide to Safe Scouting gets updated each year or two, the information in the Guide is revised quarterly when changes are made. A printed or downloaded copy should be part of every Scouter’s kit, and while traditionally published as an 8 1/2 x 11 stapled booklet, recent paper editions have been in a smaller format and spiral-bound for easy reference and for fitting into your duffel or backpack.
The April 2015 edition of the Guide is now available online. This version contains a few changes and updates over the most recent printed edition issued last year. You should make note of the changes, especially if your program is affected. Continue reading “Guide to Safe Scouting 2015 update”
A leader we can learn from
The Golden State Warriors won the championship of the National Basketball Association this week. The team is led by an experienced basketball man – as a player, general manager and television commentator – but a rookie coach. Steve Kerr, in his first coaching assignment, took on a different style of leadership than those he played under or worked with, and certainly different from most of what we imagine a “head coach” to be. And he achieved not only something that is difficult but rare – guiding his team into winning a championship his first time ever as a coach.
Kerr, profiled this week in the Washington Post, didn’t consider himself to be the most important person on the Warriors’ squad. Continue reading “A leader we can learn from”
What are you clinging to?
Talking with the Cubmaster at a Blue & Gold banquet recently, I found out that her son is crossing into Boy Scouts this spring. In fact, he (and she) have already been on a campout of the troop that he is joining. Among other tales of the adventure that lies across the bridge, I gently advised her to quell the urge to do things that the boys should be doing. She had heard that before – from the Scoutmaster. On the campout, she thought it would be helpful if she’d wipe down the table after the patrol had lunch, whereupon the Scoutmaster reminded her that it was the boys’ job to do that – not the adults’. So she called her son over and told him to do it, and learned the next part – it’s not the adults’ job to direct the Scouts, but that they’re led by their own leaders.
There’s a lot to learn when an adult follows his or her son into a troop. Continue reading “What are you clinging to?”
The George Meany Award
You probably know the name George Meany. You might know that his name is associated with labor unions. Meany was the president of the American Federation of Labor, an association of labor unions, who proposed the merger with the Congress of Industrial Organizations, a similar association, forming the AFL-CIO in the 1950s. Meany served as the president of the combined organization for more than twenty years following its founding.
Meany was also a strong supporter of the Scouting movement in America. Like Scouting, labor unions consist of like-minded individuals working toward a common goal, whether it’s in the miniature society of a patrol or in a multi-thousand member organization like the UAW or AFSCME. It’s estimated that one in four Scouters is also a union member.
In recognition of his support of Scouting, the AFL-CIO recognizes union members who render service to their communities through Scouting. Continue reading “The George Meany Award”