Information, Observation, and Inspiration for Scouters
When many people think of “camping” they think of gassing up the RV and loading it up with groceries, beverages, maybe the ATVs, video games and sports gear, and heading to the lake, a KOA or a state park and plugging in for a weekend or a week.
To a lot of Scouts and Scouters, that’s not really camping – it’s a vacation in a tin can. But just what is Scout camping?
Troops go camping every month – it’s part of what we do. Continue reading “What is a Scout campout?”
Scouting volunteers know that the Scouting program is all about youth. We are here specifically to support and provide a Scouting experience for the Scouts. And while we may have some fun along the way, the program isn’t in place just so the adults can enjoy themselves.
I heard a story this week on the NPR program Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me about a preschool that recently opened in Brooklyn, New York. (You can listen to the segment here.) It’s not an ordinary preschool – it’s a preschool for adults. The preschool takes grown-ups back to their inner child and lets them experience the things they either miss from their childhood or those experiences they might have missed out on. You may have learned everything you need to know in kindergarten, but not everyone did, and this could be their chance to catch up.
Wouldn’t it be nice if there was Scouting just for adults? Continue reading “Scouting for grown-ups”
I got an e-mail from a reader:
I’m the advancement coordinator for our troop. Recently I was running the “Scouts Not Advancing” report in Troopmaster and noticed that we have a good number of Scouts who haven’t advanced in rank in 18 months or more. One of our committee members told me that an assistant Scoutmaster used to collect the Scouts’ books, went through them to see what hadn’t been signed off, then told the PLC what requirements were missing to try to get the Scouts to help others advance. What is the best way for the committee to help move advancement along? Should we have some of the older Scouts work with the younger ones to get requirements done? How about a troop meeting where we have a session with sign-off stations?
This is an issue that seems to come up frequently. While some Scouts advance quickly through the ranks, others seem to lag behind for one reason or another, and it sometimes makes the adult leaders wonder how to help them catch up. Continue reading “Scouts who are not advancing”
With the renewed emphasis on leadership – something Scouting has always produced as a by-product of our program – we’re compelled to examine just what we mean by leadership.
It’s been said that leadership is all about getting results. That’s truly the bottom line, when you think about it. Without leadership, people and organizations would wander aimlessly and not get anything cohesive done.
But what are we trying to get done? Continue reading “What kind of a leader are you?”
If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be ‘meetings.’
The humorist Dave Barry pretty much had his finger on the pulse of things with that observation. Economists seem to have a good grasp on the topic as well. John Kenneth Galbraith tells us that Meetings are indispensable when you don’t want to do anything, while Thomas Sowell cautions People who enjoy meetings shouldn’t be in charge of anything.
Meetings can be the bane of our existence, and seem to be a necessary evil in Scouting. Continue reading “Why do people attend meetings?”