Training
Voyageur training
Here is part of an email from Don Bievenour, Assistant Scoutmaster at Troop 56 and long-time Voyageur Staffer.
[Voyageur is a unique program to the Crossroads of America Council. It is offered to adults, once in the spring and once in the fall. T]he Fall course is usually warmer but there are no guarantees.
For those of you that have taken the basic course and want to qualify for your instructor arc, the additional requirement is one more day, a Saturday, so that your skills can be used to teach new students. Sundays are not an option because there is very little training.
Attainment of the instructor’s arc allows that Scouter to rent council Voyageur canoes, trailers, and equipment. This rate is typically cheaper that the on water canoe liveries.
I am teaching two courses at the U of Scouting: Essentials of a A Canoe Outing P180 and Canoeing in the Council P184 . The Voyageur program will have a booth on the midway.
Let me know if you have any questions.
Quarterly vs Annual Planning
For regular followers of Clarke Green’s podcast and blog, you know Clarke has been beta testing a quarterly planning model with his home troop. He has hinted at several elements before.
Now he has rolled out an article on the details and overview of the plan. Take a look!
We Don’t Know — What We Think We Know
In scouting, we spend an inordinate time dealing with the unknown:
- Will it rain?
- Are the boys ready for the backpacking trip?
- Is the Senior Patrol Leader-elect ready for his job?
- Am I ready to be the Cubmaster, when everyone else tells me I would be great?
One of the best reasons that scouting works is that it teaches scouts (and adults) humility in the face of the natural elements and adversity in scout meetings. Why is humility important?
Humility is the personal characteristic that a psychologically balanced person has. Humility is not self-deprecation nor self-doubt. Humility is the desire to self-critique that leads to a more thorough and thoughtful response.
To get a sense about how important a dose of humility is, consider the impact of a lack of humility in introducing problems. This is the Dunning Kruger Effect.
So from this video we see that lacking humility to question preparation and understanding leads to hubris and Greek tragedies (and miserable camping trips).
Estimation error is a huge problem in self-assessment. A scout filled with hubris and self-confidence with not a trace of humility estimates that all of his plans are perfect. “I know it won’t rain, so we don’t need the dining flies.”
The estimation error of a humble scout is smaller. “I don’t think it will rain, but, if I am wrong, we will pack dining flies. Maybe we will just take two rather than three.”
One of the best lessons a scoutmaster or cubmaster can teach a scout is how his decision fits in larger patterns of human nature and behavior. Since scouting is learning through experience, it is important to allow safe failures. But it is even better to reflect on how those failures occurred and how to “fail more successfully” next time. To me a more successful failure is one that avoids the errors made last time. “I am not error free, but I work to only make an error once. The next time, I will inadvertently find a new error, hopefully of a smaller magnitude.”
Does your troop or pack take the time to reflect on its successes and failures before going to bed or departing a meeting, when the reflections and lessons are more profound? A scoutmaster or cubmaster suggesting the power of humility during these timely reflections is one of the greatest character building lessons we can offer, that are hard to duplicate anywhere else.
Long-Range Planning: an Alternate Proposal
Traditionally in BSA units, National recommends that units do an annual planning conference one time per year. This is designed to discuss the budget, annual calendar, and longer-term projects, like high adventure outings. The idea is that at least once per year that the unit makes sure that it is staying on course. This is usually done concurrently with the annual program calendar.
The result is that the unit has a full agenda to talk about the calendar. Dealing with other long range issues gets varying discussion and analysis. For units that do the planning as part of an evening meeting, they run out of time quickly. For units that have a full retreat, they have plenty of time, but may have different items on their agenda.
Compounding the problem, most officers of the unit only plan to be with the unit until their son (and soon to be, daughters) leave the unit. This makes planning a much shorter term vision than the unit probably needs. But in terms of prioritzation, it allows the players to focus on what affects them and shorten the agenda.
Scouting already has a tendency to “meeting” our volunteers to death. We tend to have too many short meetings rather than taking the time to do a retreat once.
Information for this Weekend’s IOLS at Belzer
This weekend, North Star in cooperation with Del-Mi, is running the only in-person, required training for Scoutmasters and Assistant Scoutmasters. It will be at Camp Belzer.
For attendees, please plan on bringing the following items
Watch this page for updates on any last minute updates.
Trained Den Leaders Required for Rechartering
Den Leaders, like all registered leaders in North Star, must be trained in order to allow them to be registered with their pack at rechartering. This is one of the largest training deficiencies that we have in the district.
That means that they need to take the online training under My Profile at my.scouting.org.
The biggest obstacle to get people trained online is that do not have a working my.scouting.org account.
At the next meeting, have a listed of people who need training. Pull each one aside and have them login to their my.scouting.org account. Have them go to the Training section and make sure that they can start the online training by picking the right course. You will identify problems quickly this way. Then let them finish at home.
We will also be offering a Den Leader Training in person at the next Cub Scout Roundtable, Thursday, November 9, 2017 at 7:00 pm at Luke’s Lodge, on the campus of St. Luke’s United Methodist Church, 100 W 86th St, Indianapolis, IN 46260. This will be the last live offering in calendar year 2017 for North Star District (and third roundtable offering of the same). You can register here.
Scout troops should follow the same pattern.
All training is available online this year, except Scoutmasters’ and Assistant Scoutmasters’ class Introduction to Outdoor Leadership Skills which will be offered at Belzer October 27-29, 2017. Click here to register. (The one on the training hub is out-of-date, and has been replaced with this one.)
YPT Update
Thank you to all the scouters who have been updating their Youth Protection Training. Your efforts are paying off. In 2018 we are running ahead of 2017.
We still have a bunch more to go, the trends are excellent.
Roundtable Thursday
This Thursday we will have a busy roundtable.
We will have all the following at 7:00 pm
- Den Leader S
pecific Training for all grades; - Camping skills for Webelos Den Leaders and Cubmasters with demonstrations by boy scouts from Troop 56;
- Introduction to Rechartering methods and other fun of unit administration. This is open to all persons handling rechartering; and
- An open forum for boy scout leaders not involved in rechartering.
We will also have Youth Protection Training for Cubs and Scouts live at 6:30 pm.
See you Thursday at Luke’s Lodge on northeast corner of campus of St Luke’s United Methodist Church, 100 West 86th St, Indianapolis, IN 46260 at 7:00 pm.
REMINDER: District meetings
Thursday, October 5, 2017 at Second Presbyterian Church, 4th Floor:
- Commissioners: 6:00 pm, Room 401
- District Committee: 7:00 pm, Room 405
Thursday, October 12, 2017 at 7:00 pm (except where different below), Luke’s Lodge, outbuilding on Campus of St Luke’s United Methodist Church, 100 W. 86th St.
1. Youth Protection Training (Y01) (6:30 pm)
2. Boy Scout Roundtable: TBA. Possible topic: path to Eagle.
3. Cub Scout Roundtable: planning your next camp out. Presented by Scouts from Troop 56 and RTC Bill Buchalter. (Great for Pack Programming Chair, Pack Chair, Cubmaster and Den Leaders, especially Webelos Den Leaders). Tents and gear explained.
4. Rechartering breakout for Unit Rechartering Coordinators. How to rechartering. Changes to system.
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 »
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