Issue 651 – August 13, 2020

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This letter is for a fellow commissioner who’d prefer not to be named:

You asked be about a troop’s erstwhile “executive committee” and a policy they’d recently set. Now we know there’s no such thing associated with a Scouts BSA troop: All troops have a committee of men and women willing to roll up their sleeves to serve the needs of that troop–“troop” being the Scouts and their elected and Senior Patrol Leader-appointed youth leaders.

This “executive committee” had apparently created a Scoutmaster conference policy around the notion that the purpose of conferences is “for a young man to learn to carry on a conversation with an adult.”
Any Scoutmaster training or guide of at least the past four decades will tell them that this is mistaken. The BSA GUIDE TO ADVANCEMENT provides this definition: The Unit Leader (Scoutmaster) Conference is “a forum for discussing topics such as ambitions, life purpose, and goals for future achievement, for counseling, and also for obtaining feedback on the unit’s program.” And here are some of the Scoutmaster conference descriptors used in the TROOP LEADER GUIDEBOOK: “quite coaching,” “opportunities to reflect on their progress,” “mentoring,” “Scouts can seek guidance,” “help the Scout,” “guide, don’t tell,” “be authentic,” “be honest,” “listen,” “celebrate what your Scouts do beyond Scouting,” “a private conversation ‘in public’.”

As a former Scoutmaster, I can look back on many conferences that led to enormously positive results…but results that weren’t necessarily visible to anyone but the Scout and me. I learned that it was more my responsibility to reach and understand each individual Scout: These kinds of conferences—“visits,” as one SCOUT HANDBOOK calls them—aren’t “one size fits all.”

The other thing our training and reading tells us about Scoutmaster conferences is that Scouts don’t “pass” them; they simply have them. And there can be more than one! As a Scoutmaster, I didn’t want to have short chats with the Scouts of the troop just once in-between their ranks; I wanted to know what’s going on with them on a much more frequent basis. In fact, I kept a “little green book” with check-marks and dates for every Scout in the troop and never had less than two talks between ranks (often as many as once every couple of weeks, for some Scouts).

So these conferences aren’t for Scouts to “learn how to talk with adults”—they get to do this with their parents, teachers, religious leaders, sports coaches, music and other performing arts directors, aunts and uncles, and more. What they received from me, as their Scoutmaster, was someone who not only listened but listened deeply and treated them and their thoughts with complete respect.

I hope you’ll share with these folks what I’m describing here, although—and this saddens me—I suspect that they may not be interested in any viewpoint but their own.

I feel this way because you went on to tell me that their latest edict was this: “Since a Scout’s father can possibly be the Scoutmaster or assistant, any Scout seeking a Scoutmaster conference who is in this situation will be deprived of the experience of learning to carry on a conversation with an adult and, therefore, must seek to have that conference with someone else.”

Although their reason is wrongheaded, the idea in itself has some merit. There may be, for example, a good reason why a Scoutmaster might prefer to have an Assistant Scoutmaster have a chat with his or her own son, in case that Scout has a problem or dilemma they’d sooner not have with a parent, at that moment. But instead of making this some sort of silly “troop policy,” how about keeping it simple and let the Scout choose? Heck, if we’d like to think we’re here to guide Scouts as they make decisions for themselves, this could be a great way to start!
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Hi Andy,
We have a 14-year-old Scout who has a goal of making it to First Class rank by October, or November at the latest. But so far, he hasn’t been willing to go on troop camp-outs since Covid-19 hit because he’s afraid of the possibility of bringing the virus home with him after a campout and getting his younger brother—a 9-year-old apparently with heath issues—infected and sick. He also needs to pass his swim test for First Class rank, and I may have that one solved—I hooked him up with a local Swimming merit badge counselor, and they can work that one out.

Is there anything I or we can do to help this young man the camping requirements and help him make it to First Class by his goal for time? Thank you and stay safe. (John Burnham)

I understand this Scout’s reluctance, and I think you’re aces for looking for ways to help him!

For his First Class swim test, the first question for him is going to be this, Can he do this; that is, Is he prepared to show up at a pool and fulfill the requirements, exactly as written? If he’s not, then he needs to talk to that counselor, and—between the two of them—work up a plan. I sure hope they can find a pool nearby that’s open! But he and probably his parents as well need to understand that BSA requirements are not modified lightly, and only the national council can do this—no one else is ever authorized to make changes in any advancement requirement for anything.

For camping, the BSA has recently offered some ways to “cyber-camp” so that Scouts like this young man don’t get permanently de-railed by the Covid-19 environment and restrictions. They’ve been published in “Bryan on Scouting” and “Scouting Wire.” You can also get the most current information on this by writing directly to advancement.team@scouting.org – Bunch of good folks there, who can help you directly.

Stay safe, stay healthy, and stay positive!
Happy Scouting!
Andy

Have a question? Facing a dilemma? Wondering where to find a BSA policy or guideline? Write to askandybsa@yahoo.com. Please include your name and council. (If you’d prefer to be anonymous, if published, let me know and that’s what we’ll do.)

Although these columns are copyrighted, any reader has my permission to quote or reproduce any columns or column parts so long as you attribute authorship: “Ask Andy” by Andy McCommish.

[No. 651 – 8/13/2020 – Copyright © 2020 Andy McCommish]