Boy Scout
Anti-Fragile and Scouting (Part 1)
As I have mentioned before, I have been reading the works of Nassim Taleb, beginning
with his book Anti-Fragile, part of the Incerto series.
Since I plan on writing a series of commentaries on this author’s work, let me begin by giving a quick version of his biography.
Taleb is a polyglot (i.e., French, Arabic, English, etc.) and graduate of Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. He was born and raised in a small francophone village in Lebanon to a well-connected Greek Orthodox family. Through most of his later childhood, he was surrounded by the Lebanese Civil War. After coming to America he has been a floor trader in the commodities exchange and worked on derivatives trading. He eventually received his doctorate and served as a distinguished professor at NYU’s School of Engineering and Dean’s Professor at University Massachusetts at Amhearst.
He is deep. He is thorough. He is just damn funny.
Unit listings updated
I have been working to make sure the unit listings on this site are up to date.
Each unit chair should assign someone to provide me udpated information or contact me directly to confirm the accuracy of the information posted.
Many Cub Packs and Venturing Crews do not have websites. This is very damaging to your ability to look credible and inviting. Please seriously investigate having a website hosted on a service like WordPress (which I use for this website), a FaceBook page with multiple administratiors, or using a built-in web service for advancement like TroopWebHost.
The Cub Packs are listed here.
Perception and Adaptation
In some of my reading on other subjects, I ran across some scientific research from the mid-1800’s that I think is fascinating in its potential application to scouting. I am going to go down some complicated paths in this series of articles, so allow me to set the context first.
The View from the Eagle Board
For those of you who have sat on an Eagle Board of Review more than once, you likely can confirm that the following scenario is common.
A 17-year old in full dress scout uniform walks in the door. He is often clean shaven (although beards are increasingly common). He walks erect even if slightly nervous about what he is walking into. He firmly shakes hands with each member of the Board of Review. He answers questions about his Eagle project in great detail. He has pride in his accomplishments. He looks the part of an Eagle Scout already.
As he sits through the Board, the Board members ask the Eagle candidate to reflect on his beginnings in scouting and his growth. The candidate describes his first campout in the rain. He reflects on his anguish and discomfort. He laughs about how those deprivations are nothing compared to the later discomforts of camping in the snow of winter amidst the howling winds. He reflects on what he learned about overcoming obstacles, adapting, and accepting his circumstances.
He has learned that slight discomforts at home are nothing compared to facing the elements and the discomforts Mother Nature offers.
In my role as District Commissioner, the BSA charges me with the primary mission of encouraging Best Practices in our units. In other words, I am responsible for being able to explain to leaders why BSA policies are in the best interest of the unit, its leaders, and its scouts. That does not mean that I agree with each and every policy, but it does mean that I should be able to articulate the rationale in the light most favorable to the BSA’s intent.
For example, I should be able to articulate why units that camp the most are the more successful; why units that allow the boys to experiment with the patrol method with guidance and boundaries from the scoutmaster corps are more successful than units where adult leaders run the program; or why units with Senior Patrol Leaders who work the Patrol Leader Council are more successful than units where Senior Patrol Leaders acts as the patrol-leader-of-all. Read the rest of this entry »
Fall Camporee Updates
From Camporee Chair Mark Pishon:
Dear Camporee Stakeholders:
I’m very excited to announce the Purdue Motorsports Engineering Program will be joining us at the Subaru facility with their Grand-Prix Go-Karts.
We are only 12 days out so please get registered. The information and all the updates are attached.
YIS,
Mark Pishon
Fall Camporee Chair
Cell 317.374.2262
Willie Award Judging Criteria Fall Camporee 2017.pdf
Secrets to Eva’s Success and Lessons for Scouting
“The secret of Eva Moskowitz’s Success Academy” in the New York Post tells the story of a charter school system in New York. It tells how the school has inner city kids performing well on standardized tests and grades.
Success Academy breeds success: Its inner-city students outperformed every other school district in the state in the 2017 exams. And one big secret to that success has been the application of the kinds of tactics and strategies that helped bring the city back from the brink more than once — this time, applied to education.
Both “broken windows” policing and Success Academy schooling target minor infractions that create a culture of chaos.
Writing about dealing with disruptive students in 2006-07, Success Academy’s first year, Moskowitz notes that when teachers are unable to stop even one student’s incessant misbehavior, it “can have a domino effect . . . and soon the teacher is playing whack-a-mole rather than teaching.”
That meant imposing “cultural expectations” on the classroom, which soon developed into a barometer Moskowitz calls “culture data.” Standardized test scores can only tell you so much so quickly. But monitoring “latenesses, absences, uniform infractions, missing homework, incomplete reading logs, and whether our teachers were calling parents about these problems” can serve as a “canary in a coal mine.”
It also manifested in instruction styles that required the kids to pay attention in class — such as randomly calling on students to respond to other students’ answers during a lesson — rather than just hoping they absorbed the information and then testing them to find out.
Consistent standards are also key. Unlike union-dominated schools, Moskowitz’s charters could fire bad teachers and administrators, ensuring those standards are applied evenly.
* * *
She explains: “Excellence is the accumulation of hundreds of minute decisions; it is execution at the most granular level. Once you accept the idea that you should give in to things that make no sense because other people do those things and you want to appear reasonable, you are on a path towards mediocrity.”
In scouting, we are not trying to be data hounds or playing BigBrother to make sure all is well with our scouts. But even laying aside the data, there are insights we can learn from this story.
If a scout regularly misses campouts, what does that tell us about the scout’s experience in scouting? What is that scout’s absence on his fellow scouts? Is it reasonable for a scout to miss a campout because he doesn’t “find it interesting”? If a parent accepts this complaint from the scout, what should the Cubmaster or Scoutmaster do in response?
Save the Date: Scoutmaster/ASM IOLS Training
North Star in cooperation Del-Mi District are running an Introduction to Outdoor 
Leadership Skills (“IOLS”) from Friday evening, October 27 to Sunday morning, October 29, 2017 at Camp Belzer. This is taking place concurrently with the Del-Mi District Camporee.
This training is required for all persons registered or registering as a scoutmaster and assistant scoutmaster through the Rechartering process. This training is now the only training that must be done in person.
This training session will be a great opportunity to have adults truly understand what makes the scout outdoor program so successful as a citizenship and character development program. You will have a chance to meet fellow scouters from around the Crossroads of America Council. You can experience the power of scouting first hand.
We will have a faculty composed of scouters from around the council who are very knowledgeable about the topics they address. Meeting these scouters will be worth your time, even if you have already taken the course at summer camp.
UPDATED 9/29/17: The link is now live Save the date now and look at the Council calendar to reserve your spot when the sign up opens up near the end of September.
Scout Night with the Pacers
Council has released information about Scout Night with the Pacers.
For complete information, download the flyer here.
REMINDER: Roundtable Thursday
For Roundtable we will have two excellent programs.
We will kick things off at 6:30 pm with a short Youth Protection Training (Y01), open to all scouters. This is all you need for Cub Scouts and Boy Sccouts. It does not qualify for Venturing Youth Protection.
At 7:00 pm, we will open with our normal General Session. We will try to keep this brief (under 15 minutes).
After General Session, the Cub Scout Roundtable will focus on Den Leader Training. This is designed to qualify the Cub Scout Den Leader as fully trained for Lion through Bear years. (Webelos Den Leaders should also take Outdoor Webelos Leadership Skills (“OWLS”).) Den Leaders should have received emailed invitations from Cub Scout Roundtable Commissioner Bill Buchalter. Pack Chairs should call their Den Leaders to encourage attendance. Remember this training is mandatory for rechartering for all currently enrolled Den Leaders. The class will be taught by Bill and District Chair John Wiebke.
After General Session, the Boy Scout Roundtable will have a guest presentation on the 
new-ish Nova Program from Troop 56 Committee Chair and Wood Badge Candidate (Eagle Patrol) Sandy McNutt and his fellow Eagle, Hou-Koda Committee Member and Troop 307 Committee Member Kelli Brooks. This presentation is relevant to Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, and Venturing. So if Cub Leaders don’t need training, this might be the session for them.
Please help us have a big turn out for Roundtable.
Adults Wearing Eagle Pins
Since a refrain at an Eagle Court of Honor is “once an Eagle, alway an Eagle,” can adult Eagles wear their Eagle Scout Pin?
We all know that the Eagle Scout patch should be retired from a scout uniform, when the scout turns 18 and becomes an Assistant Scoutmaster. He then can wear the Eagle knot for the rest of his life.
But can the adult wear his Eagle Pin to an Eagle Court of Honor.
Bryan on Scouting tried to address this in 2014. Unfortunately, his article was slightly incorrect. I met Bryan at National Jamboree this past summer. Having read his material for years, I can vouch that he does his research thoroughly, and his personality in person is very humble and self-effacing. Consequently, I believe his error is less a lack of diligence than a lack of clarity in the scouting literature.
Simply put, the Boy Scout Insignia Guide allows an adult to wear the pin for “formal Eagle occasions.”
So if we are trying to make sure that a new Eagle Scout feels part of a larger circle of scouts and scouters, we can encourage all Eagles to wear their pins to the Eagle Court of Honor.
This accomplishes two key goals, among many others. First, it allows the new Eagle Scout, the non-scouting visitors, and the newer scouts to see the people who are Eagles more clearly. The men whom they respect wear the pin. Second, it allows more people to identify the Eagle knot. This means that some of the mystery of an adult’s uniform is removed. With greater real recognition, more adults may seek the company of existing Eagles as mentors in scouting, and more youth will seek to join their company as fellow Eagle Scouts.
Den Chief Online Training
Have you had your Boy Scouts take their Den Chief Training? In-person is always best.
But online is better than none. This requires Flash, so it will not work on Apple mobile devices. If your computer does not have Adobe Flash already, you can download it for free from Adobe.com.
Den Leaders, Scoutmasters, and future Den Chiefs should all take the training just to make sure that everyone is on the same page.
Den Leaders should have a short bullet-point list of expectations to share with the Den Chief and Scoutmaster to provide accountability and ease of cooperation. Here is an example of where you can start.
CAC North Star Unofficial Website 
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