Boy Scout
White Stag National Youth Leadership Training slots still available
Attention Scoutmasters, Varsity Coaches and Crew Advisors! Space is still available for youth to attend National Youth Leadership Training / White Stag. Courses offered in June and July. NYLT is an exciting, action-packed program focused on developing your Scout’s leadership skills they can then use in your unit. Register a Scout today at the Council website.
Carolyn Small | Program Director – Special Initiatives
High Adventure Trips in Winter, Too
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Our Team Leader for District Operations Darin Stendl joined our new District Executive Con Sullivan in attending our Roundtable Meeting last Thursday. At the RoundTable, the agenda was focused on High Adventure Trip Planning. As we were reviewing the opportunities provided by National Council, the topic of Minnesota’s cold weather program Okpik came up. I asked if anyone was familiar with Okpik. Darin volunteered that he had attended twice. As a result of his story, I asked him to Read the rest of this entry »
Scouting with the Handbook
“Do you have your handbook?” How many times at meetings have you asked this question?
As a passionate scouter, I enjoy the opportunity to interact with the scouts. As I sit to reflect about how to improve my skills, I often wonder if my passion is getting in the way of truly allowing the boys to play the game of scouting.
The story of the spread of scouting in the early 1900’s keeps coming to mind. There were two parts to the process: boys naturally grouping together in patrols to camp and play the game of scouting versus the adults trying to promote its spread for their own purposes. Each has furthered scouting.
Saturday’s “Ideal Year of Scouting”
Saturday is the annual training for “Ideal Year of Scouting.” Assistant Director of Field Services Darin Stendl reported at Roundtable last night that this is designed as an “open house.” This means that you can show up at the time that is convenient for you. There will be training sessions all morning and vendor booths available. These vendors will be happy to discuss what opportunities they have your youth.
The event takes place at Golden Burke Scout Service Center from 9 AM to 1 PM this Saturday.
This program is ideal for unit leaders, committee members, and the Patrol Leaders’ Council. Every unit should send a representative!
For more information, see the Crossroads of America Council website.
June Roundtable Agenda
Our June Roundtable will be held, as always, beginning at 6:30 p.m. at Second Presbyterian Church, 7700 N Meridian St, 4th Floor, Indianapolis. RSVPs are welcome, but not required.
We plan on introducing our new District Executive Con Sullivan. He will be asked to give a few remarks.
The opening general session will be “Maximizing Council Resources for Your Unit” by District Commissioner Jeff Heck.
We will then break into Cub Roundtables and Scout Roundtables.
Sharla Merrick our Cub Roundtable Commissioner will host a conversation on Cub Recruitment, with a special emphasis on what will be happening in July, August, and September this year.
Jeff Heck will host a conversation about planning high adventure and using fellow district members as resources. We will discuss BSA bases and non-BSA trip ideas, planning cycles, and problems to watch out for.
Please be sure to invite any and all adults from your units. It is very important to get as many membership coordinators from all of our units to participate in Sharla’s discussion. Cub Recruiting this year is going to require Boy Scout Troops’ help, so please have your membership coordinator attend.
– Jeff Heck
Useful Camp Gadgets as Teaching Aid
As we arrive at our Ransburg campsite, the Firecrafter phrase “useful camp gadget” appears. For new scoutmasters, this seems to be a unique phrase. It is as mystical is the idea of “scoutmaster.”
In fact both of these phrases go back over a century. A scoutmaster is a reference to the 19th century word “master,” which was short for “school master.” The schoolmaster had a master’s degree, which gave him the authority to teach bachelor’s degree candidates. Baden Powell picked up on this notion of a master-as-a-teacher when he named “scoutmasters.” Simply this was a teacher of scouts. Scoutmasters were assumed to have deep knowledge of a particular area, scout craft. The biggest part of this was woodcraft.
Can your Troop Boost Advancement at Camp?
What are some ways that your troop can truly excel in advancement at summer camp? If you do increase your emphasis on advancement with scouts, does it make more work for the adults? Maybe not.
As we discussed earlier this week, it pays for the adult leaders to be familiar with the Guide to Advancement (2015) that is now available online as a webpage and as an e-book in PDF form.
What is the Fundamental Unit of Scouting?
As adults, we are involved in our units: packs, troops, and crews. We rarely stop to consider who is the most important part of the unit. As we talk to Council representatives, they talk about our units as packs, troops, and crews. This is for a good reason. Their job is to support the adults at those levels. Council’s (and, therefore, district’s) focus is on creating and maintaining a place for boys to do scouting.
This focus from council on units can easily confuse the adult leaders that those units are the primary units of scouting. If council focuses at that level it must be the most important, right?
Wrong. The most important is the den or patrol. Our focus is the boy and his enjoyment and growth. The den or patrol (which I simplify to patrol for reasons that will become more clear shortly) is where the boy experiences scouting. He wants to do scouting with his friends. He is more likely to continue scouting if his friends are physically nearby. The patrol is where this proximity can and should occur.
Clarke Green shares some very interesting literature from Canadian scouting about why and how this works. It is worth a read.
What should we learn from this? Do these lessons apply to Boy Scouts only or do they apply to dens and crews?
The stronger the identity and cohesiveness of the patrols, the stronger the pack, troop, or crew. The boys doing what they love as a patrol will never fail to seek more of the fun. They want to spend time with their friends their own age. If they get this, they will want to share the joy with younger scouts. It starts a healthy cycle of do, model, teach, and do again.
Webelos to Scout Transition . . . For Adults
We spend a long time and effort worrying about the boys transitioning from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts.
Frankly that’s not the biggest problem.
The people who have the hardest time transitioning are the former cub leader-parents. Boy Scouts is often a culture shock.
Considering that a former cubmaster may be very accustomed to watching the boys progress from year-to-year in there nice, tidy, little den. Rarely is there a difference in age greater than 14 months. The den leader is an adult, who maintains order much like a teacher in a classroom does.
And then the transition the Boy Scouts.
Guiding scouts via questions
For many younger parents today, the 1970’s hit detective drama Columbo is ancient history. Every episode had a scene something like this:
CAC North Star Unofficial Website 
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