Information, Observation, and Inspiration for Scouters
Last month I stepped down as our troop’s committee chair, a role I’ve held for over seven years. After selecting my replacement, I made the announcement in front of the committee at our monthly meeting, and informed our troop families a couple weeks later at our quarterly court of honor.
I was tempted to take the floor and announce loudly “I quit!” and walk off, but the announcement by itself would have sent the wrong message. Continue reading ““I quit!””
When I first volunteered with the troop committee, there was a lot of interaction between the Scouts and adults on campouts. At one low point in our membership (a trend that was not surprising in retrospect), we had nearly as many adults as Scouts going camping. Why not? – the adults enjoyed camping as much as the boys did. However, the adults didn’t exactly leave the boys alone. In fact, on many campouts the boys asked the adults to do the cooking (and the adults agreed – especially the Scoutmaster). I’ll say we had some delicious meals, but that’s not the point, at least for the Scouts. We’d get to camp and the adults would be barking orders at the Scouts to get the dining flies and tents set up over there, and would jump in and do it for them if they were having trouble. Hikes were nearly always led by the Scoutmaster or an assistant (as in the movie Follow Me Boys or any of a dozen other stereotypes). Adults often fiddled with the menus the boys drew up (even making the menu occasionally themselves), taught Scout skills, built fires, and got on the boys to clean up. It’s no wonder I was conflicted about the way I saw things unfolding versus the way I had heard it was supposed to be. I didn’t know it at the time, but it was a classic sign of untrained adult leadership. Continue reading “The role of “other” adults, part 2″
Nearly all of us grew up with our sons in Scouting, starting first with Cub Scouts. We remember the pleas for help from the Cub parents. You were always in need of a parent to head up the next outing or field trip or make a run to the Scout shop or work at the popcorn sale table at the supermarket this weekend. Cub Scouts doesn’t run without heavy parent involvement, so we get somewhat accustomed to feeling the need for lots of parental help and missing it when it isn’t there.
So naturally, when our sons cross over to a troop, those of us who are committed to the program step forward and volunteer for an adult role. Continue reading “The role of “other” adults, part 1″
For  most kids, play dates can be fun. You get dropped off at a friend’s house, play a few games, maybe have lunch or a snack that Mom prepared, the go play in the backyard, watch TV or play video games, then get picked up and go back home. Sounds like fun, right? But for a lot of people, what they fondly remember were long days spent playing with friends in an unstructured manner. You’d go to the park and swing on the big swingset, roam the neighborhood, ride bikes all over town, sneak into the kitchen and cook some hot dogs for lunch, then just hang out and build a fort in the backyard with things you’d find in the garage. Continue reading “Let boys be boys!”
Spring is finally here, and with it comes all sorts of outdoor activity. Driving home from work I pass by several churches, schools and city parks. At one church Friday afternoon, the middle school baseball team was having their practice. The city park was set up for soccer, and there were boys and girls from kindergarten on up playing in contests and at practices. Baseball diamonds were filled with all manner of games from tee-ball to fast pitch. A lacrosse game was underway at the high school as well.
I couldn’t help but notice that every one of these teams was in a uniform of some sort, whether it was their game uniforms, practice t-shirts or warmups. Each team wore the same color and style and it served to identify the team and the individual players on it. The coaches had the same team garb on as well. Continue reading “It’s uniform season!”