Your unit’s complaint form

Regardless of how hard you try, you just can’t please everyone. The sentiment goes all the way back to the Greek slave Aesop, whose fable about the miller, his son and their donkey concluded with “he who tries to please everybody pleases nobody.”

I enjoy reading each issue of the Scouting advice blog Ask Andy as soon as it comes out, much the same way that I put other reading material aside to read through Scouting magazine when it arrives in the mail. Andy deals with a variety of thorny issues, many of which involve parents complaining about the way things are done in their pack or troop. (Andy does try hard to please everybody who writes in with questions, and while some may not like his advice, it always rings true.) Continue reading “Your unit’s complaint form”

Why are we still training?

“Every boy deserves a trained leader.”

“Train ’em, trust ’em, let ’em lead!”

If there’s one thing that’s everywhere in Scouting, it’s training. We train our youth leaders to run their troop. We teach Scout skills – that’s a form of training.   Even in Cub Scouts, we teach the boys to say the promise and the Law of the Pack in the course of “instilling the values” As adults, we take online training for youth protection, Cub Scout leadership, safe swim, weather hazards, and others. We attend Scoutmaster leader-specific training, outdoor skills training, BALOO training, and the list goes on. Continue reading “Why are we still training?”

Teaching is communicating

If you’ve ever had to stand in front of a group and try to teach them something, you’ve experienced it. Sometimes you can talk until you’re blue in the face and still get the feeling that you’re not getting through.

Over on Clarke Green’s ScoutmasterCG blog last week was an article called Escaping the Classroom. It’s about employing teaching methods more appropriate than classroom instruction when dealing with Scouts. After all, they get between six and seven hours of class each day. No wonder they won’t want to come to “Scout school” at a troop meeting or on a campout. Clarke discusses involve using the EDGE method to not only train but to develop more trainers in the process. Continue reading “Teaching is communicating”

Scouting’s “one piece of paper”

Most successful leaders didn’t get that way by accident. Leadership is a learned skill, based on guiding principles and developed through experience. For an organization, these guiding principles are usually codified in a mission statement, which members of that organization follow in carrying out their responsibilities.

In addition to a mission, true leaders need a moral compass that guides their stewardship and service within their organizations. For most, the way to arrive at which way their moral compass points is through introspection and careful consideration of their personal values and vision. Continue reading “Scouting’s “one piece of paper””

Abolish “death by meeting”!

A while back I posted a series of articles on making your committee meetings more effective. These were aimed at the committee chair or meeting facilitator to help improve the meeting experience for everyone concerned.

Harvard Business Review had a short “management tip” article recently on ways for participants to, as they put it, save the meeting that’s going nowhere. It’s a very short article but it can get you to thinking, especially if you’re stuck in such a meeting.

My solution to these issues  is prevention, and that lies in the hands of the committee chair: Continue reading “Abolish “death by meeting”!”