How to be a better Scouter

team_unity_200It goes without saying that every Scouter is in on the mission of Scouting to provide and support an excellent program for our boys. We’re looking for ways to better relate to the Scouts and our fellow Scouters. In what’s known as the 80/20 rule, in general 80 percent of the results comes from 20 percent of the effort in just about any undertaking.

In a recent Fast Company blog post Six Painless Ways to Become a Better Boss, developer and CEO Brendon Schenecker explains several relatively simple steps one can take to improve their relationship with the people they oversee and support. Continue reading “How to be a better Scouter”

Sharpen your saw!

logs_200There’s an old story about two lumberjacks who each thought of themselves as the very best wood cutters in the world. One day they decided to have a log-cutting competition to determine, once and for all, who really was the most proficient at cutting logs. One of the lumberjacks worked feverishly throughout the contest, swinging his ax without rest to the point of exhaustion. The other lumberjack worked at a more leisurely pace. Even in the midst of the competition, he took several breaks while his competitor was chopping away. When the contest ended, much to everyone’s surprise, the second lumberjack had cut the most logs and was declared the winner. Continue reading “Sharpen your saw!”

We have to get it right!

RuleBook_200What if the coach of a basketball team let eight or nine players play at a time? Or let them shoot into both baskets? Have you ever seen a baseball game where the batter could swing at as many pitches as he wanted to until he got a hit, or keep running the bases after she was tagged out? Would a band director let the trombones play the flutes’ score if they liked that music better?

These are all absurd situations. The rules of various sports are clearly defined, and the game has to be played by those rules. A band or orchestra has to play the score pretty much as it was written, or cacophony would result.

So why do some Scouters fail to understand how a troop works, or disobey the rules because they think they know better? Continue reading “We have to get it right!”

Why do volunteers falter?

discouraged_200Scouting is a volunteer organization. We knew that already. Except for a relatively few paid staff members at the national and local council levels, almost all of the work of Scouting is done by volunteer adults, giving of their own time and resources to make Scouting happen for the youth.

Because of this volunteer nature, the people who actually keep the wheels turning are in a different position and place than in a typical large organization such as a corporate or governmental entity. Much of this involves generous people stepping forward to take on sometimes challenging roles; other times we invite selected individuals to join our movement and carry its aims forward. Continue reading “Why do volunteers falter?”

What you can’t get online

classroom_200From the beginning of our movement, it’s been clear that training is the key to success. Baden-Powell had a way with training, in that he believed that it was important to educate the soldiers he led in battle so they would learn to be aware of their surroundings. The philosophy carried over to Boy Scouting as he discovered that boys were using his military training manual to concoct their own games. He was known for saying that the most important object in Boy Scout training is to educate, not instruct, and eventually conducted the first Wood Badge course for training Scoutmasters in a practical manner.

Today we continue the training tradition. Continue reading “What you can’t get online”