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Going, going, gone

A young man, well-liked in his school, just months away from graduation, elected as homecoming king by his classmates, takes his own life.

Another young man, also popular in high school, another homecoming king – valedictorian, accepted at a prestigious university – ends his own life as well.

Another young man fails to awaken one morning. His parents find him groggy and unresponsive. After three days on a ventilator in intensive care, he starts to come out of it. He eventually recovers, but his family is scarred by the incident.

These may be isolated incidents, but they happened in my community – and within the last few months. Continue reading “Going, going, gone”

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Improving your own leadership skills

Scouting aims to teach leadership to our young people through the methods we use, but it’s equally important that our adult volunteers take the opportunity to improve their own leadership skills.

Adult leader training courses provide the nuts & bolts of how to do the job, but few actually teach leadership in a more abstract sense. Wood Badge, notably, is one in which leadership and life skills are emphasized.

Fortunately, leadership can be taught, but it’s important to know just what leadership is. Continue reading “Improving your own leadership skills”

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Who has the keys?

One of the unique properties of the Boy Scout program is that it is boy-led. It’s not a program where adults put together activities that the youth members merely participate in. When properly done, and when adults don’t inappropriately usurp their authority, the Scouts plan and lead their own program within the boundaries of Scouting.

In one of his podcasts, Scoutmaster Clarke Green likened this to a game of basketball. The players play the game but they do so according to the rules of the game. And the coaches cannot step across the line and play the game for them.

Recently, there was a thread on one of the discussion groups where the topic drifted over to whether the boys actually take charge. “We never really give them the keys,” Continue reading “Who has the keys?”

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Promoting your own ideas for change

Scouting has seen a lot of change in the first hundred years, even though the mission and aims have remained the same. Within our units, changes in the program often affect us too. But while the methods and values of Scouting remain constant, we often find ourselves in need of changing things within our units to more closely align ourselves with those values.

We also find that we may need a better way to do some things in order to facilitate a better experience for the boys. For example, we might need a different approach to equipment, fund-raising, or procedures.

Change can be led by anyone with a valuable idea and the support from others, but for various reasons, the committee chair is usually in the best position to advocate change. Continue reading “Promoting your own ideas for change”

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The 4-1-1 on big changes ahead

Say goodbye to the Law of the Pack.

By now, you may have heard about the BSA executive board’s approval of the resolution to have all programs – Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts, Venturing and Varsity Scouting – use the Boy Scout oath and law. The change, one of many on the horizon, was recommended by volunteers and adopted by the board this past week.

Gone will be The Cub Scout helps the pack GO and other familiar phrases that we pounded into our boys’ heads (and our own) for so many years, to be replaced by “A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful…” at pack and den meetings. Cub Scouts will also be reciting the words “physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight” before they can even grasp what those words mean in some cases. Continue reading “The 4-1-1 on big changes ahead”