Training
John Cleese on Stupidity
John Cleese is one of the best observers and commentators on the human condition. He is deep and funny simultaneously. I disagree with his world view and some of his conclusions that arise from his observations. Nevertheless his observations are keen.
In this short clip, he focuses on people who don’t know that they are stupid. Very funny insights.
But let’s take that a bit deeper than just a look at stupidity. At the 0:25 mark, he quotes a professor, “In order to know how good you are at something, requires exactly the same skills as it takes to be good at thing in the first place.” Is this a true statement? In part, yes; in part, no. Let’s start from his premise that a “stupid person” doesn’t know he is stupid.
When my son was in preschool, we were sitting at the dining room table one night. I commented about an event of the day, “That is so stupid.” My son piped in, “Daddy said the S-word.” My wife and I stared at each other trying to recall if I had said the four letter word or not. My wife quickly recovered and asked, “What word was that?” My son look horrified at the prospect of repeating the forbidden word. After some coaxing and reassurance that he would not get in trouble, he proclaimed the S-word as “stupid.” He explained that at preschool two of the boys called everyone “stupid” so often, the teacher had told the kids to repeat “Don’t say ‘stupid’!” every time they heard the forbidden word.
So borrowing this preschool lesson, let’s change Cleese’s very funny use of the S-word to something more prosasic. Using more diplomatic language, we can translate that to “an inexperienced and uninformed person.” What does the translation do to our understanding of the professor’s point, “In order to know how good you are at something, requires exactly the same skills as it takes to be good at thing in the first place.”
Rechartering Outline Updated
District Commissioner has revised the Rechartering Update page on this website in anticipation of the new Rechartering season.
Dates, times, and locations of rechartering turn-ins have been posted. Please make sure that your unit’s chair and/or the rechartering champion have placed these dates on their calendars. If they cannot make it, they may ask another person to attend in their place.
Please be advised no turn-ins at the Council Registrar window will be accepted. Those will be put in the inter-office mail and sent to the District Executive. This delays processing of your Application to Recharter.
Please be advised that scouters without a current YPT expiration will prevent your Application for Recharter from printing your finalized roster. This is new for October 2017. Work on YPT now so that you can complete recharter turn in on time.
Den Leader Training Report
Last night, Thursday, September 14, 2017, at Cub Scout Roundtable, Roundtable 
Commissioner Bill Buchalter and District Chair John Wiebke led a Cub Scout Den Leader Training.
Thank you to the following Den Leaders who participated:
- Alaina McSherry (Pack 175, Christ the King RCC);
- Tyler Christman (Pack 18, Second Presbyterian);
- Alexandra Hoogestraat (Pack 747, St Richard’s School);
- Jay Lorentz (Pack 18, Second Presbyterian);
- Vince Biedron (Pack 175, Christ the King RCC);
- Jeffrey Hamilton (Pack 171, St. Luke’s RCC).
We received wonderful reviews on the quality of presentation that Bill and John gave. All participants were happy to share the experience in person rather than doing the training online through my.scouting.org. They felt better connected to the local scouting community and received ideas, such as taking Tiger Cubs to Holiday Park to let the park docents help the Tigers complete some of their advancement requirements.
Pack Committee Chairs, please encourage your Den Leaders to get trained. Den Leaders who train in person get a richer and more informative experience than the generic online experience. They will learn about local resources and be more likely to continue as Den Leaders, since they will feel part of something larger than themselves or their pack.
Remember training is required for all leaders as part of rechartering, which begins in less than 20 days!
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.
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.
New BALOO Training Curriculum
The new BALOO training curriculum was published this year. A copy is available here.
Here are some of the points of emphasis from Council Training Director Jay Soucy:
A few major points in the new BALOO syllabus
- Pack overnighters and Webelos den campouts require a BALOO trained Scouter at the campout.
- This new course requires an overnight campout. Starting at 8 AM Saturday to 11 AM Sunday.
- This course has 85 pages of handout for each participant.
- Participants should complete the 6 on-line BALOO lessons prior to taking the practical portion. If not, a “Train” status will be withheld until the on-line portion is completed.
Other Rumored Changes
I cannot independently verify these yet, but Bobwhite Blather is a reputable site about scouting. He reports that in addition to the fee increase one change that is moot to the Crossroads of America Council (i.e., YPT before initial registration, a long-standing CAC practice) two other changes are coming in 2018:
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All adults at summer camp must be registered. In the past, a parent of a Scout could camp with the troop, subject to local requirements such as completing YPT or being cleared by the state’s human services central registry. Beginning in 2018, however, any adult who accompanies a troop to a long-term (over 72 hours) resident camp or other activity (such as high adventure) must be registered with the BSA, even if they are the parent of a Scout on the trip. This is to allow the BSA to conduct the criminal background check and for the chartered organization to explicitly approve of the adult. They can be registered with the unit in any of the positions available, including Assistant Scoutmaster, committee member or Unit Scouter Reserve. The latter is preferred if the adult has no other responsibilities with the troop – but if you have vacancies on your committee, this might be a good way to bolster it.
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Internet Rechartering is improved. I haven’t seen too many specifics, but the new rechartering process is more in line with the tools available at my.scouting.org. Most of us have suffered with the previous Internet rechartering system, including its reliance on a specific browser to complete some of the steps. If the new system is like the other current tools, it’ll work with a variety of modern browsers including Chrome, Firefox and Safari. It’ll also include many convenience improvements such as allowing electronic authorization and online payment.
Any time the BSA says that they are “improving technology,” I start having heart palpatations. If past experience is any indication of future performance (since this is not an SEC compliant website), we could be in for a bumpy rechartering year.
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.
YPT renewals: Reasons and Methods
As part of council’s effort to keep people current on their Youth Protection Training status, they send out emails reminding persons needing training that expiration is approaching. A quick how-to for online YPT is available here.
This past week, District has sent out its own emails emphasizing the need for YPT renewal, too. This message is slightly different. The council only seeks renewal of YPT near deadlines. The District request emphasizes the importance of completion before October 1, 2017 for persons expiring before March 1, 2018.
Why the inconsistent message? Well, we have posted previous articles about rechartering. The problem is that National Council has allowed different local councils around the country to use different rechartering cycles. We are on the calendar year basis, so our units’ charters expire on December 31st each year. Some council expire on February 28th/29th each year. Having a universal rule on YPT is hard to explain with different local councils having differing charter expiration dates.
So, we simplify it by telling you how the myriad different rules on YPT and rechartering all fit together. As the above-linked article indicates, the optimal time for Crossroads of America Council members to renew YPT is between March 1st and October 1st each year. If you came from another council, you might have experienced a different optimal cycle due to rechartering differences.
Unit Committee Chairs, please make sure that you have a YPT Champion. You or a more tech-saavy member of the Key 3 can authorize a unit member to see the Training Manager records. A Unit Key 3 member can go on my.scouting.org to the Organizational Security Manager. Under “Functional Positions,” you can select “YPT Champion.” Use the green plus sign to designate a person to do this job. Please remember that this designation must be renewed every year, otherwise your YPT Champion will be locked out.
Your YPT Champion should be familiar with problems of training records not showing up on my.scouting.org if there is a conflict between BSA Member IDs on the unit roster versus on the my.scouting.org. For more information on how to reconcile this problem, see this flyer from National Council or our previous article.
To help units get YPT done easier, we are offering YPT at the next two (Sept and Oct) Roundtables beginning at 6:30 pm. We will use the video and mark all participants as having their YPT up to date. You can then stay for Roundtable.
Units can also use the YPT videos from YouTube (you will have to pause at critical times for conversations) and Facilitator’s Handbook to run their own in-person YPT. This is a great way to get new parents trained on YPT. It generally gets great reviews for first-timers to better understand how we protect their kids. You can see the National Council Website for overview information. Please make sure that the Unit Key 3 update the participants’ training records in the my.scouting.org Training Manager immediately. (The YPT Champion should be able to do this, too, if I am not mistaken.)
Misbehavior, Ideals, and Scouting
As I have watched the news this past weekend, I have seen families flooded by storms. I have seen individuals bring themselves to action with their own fishing boats saving lives, individuals delivering clothes and material to the Houston Convention Center, and first responders from all over the country arriving in Houston to support the local Houston first responders.
Moments later, I watched a news report about Antifa supporters attacking Neo-Nazis and similar protesters, using disturbing techniques from decades ago.
What contrasts these two sets of stories present about our modern American experience!
Scouting represents one of the most powerful sources of good in America today. We teach morality and citizenship through 12 simple points. The Scout Law is a powerful tool for teaching good citizenship and good choices.
Yet in modern scouting I see some well-intentioned persons in the national office pushing the latest buzz phrases of “anti-bullying.” This is a profound mistake and flaw in the scouting program. It is a mistake that unintentionally contributes to conflicts rather than calms conflicts. (I must admit the BSA’s approach is less egregious than other similar campaigns that I have seen. There are fewer “don’t” phrases and more “here are things to watch out for”.)
Have you ever watched your son run around a pool deck, right next to a lifeguard? What does the college-aged lifeguard usually do? The lifeguard yells, “Don’t run!” What happens? Your son may slow down to a jog or to a walk or to a skip. Very quickly though, the lifeguard’s admonition is forgotten. Almost certainly in the next 5 minutes, the lifeguard will again be yelling, “Don’t run!” again. Is this a lesson that boys just don’t listen?
What happens if the lifeguard changes her admonition? What if she yells, “Walk!”? In my personal experience, the lifeguard won’t have to contend with jogging or skipping. She will have to contend with running 5 minutes later. With a second admonition of “Walk!” she will likely have to intercede less often. Overall the pool deck will have more kids walking. Read the rest of this entry »
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