[NO. 675 \u2013 20TH YEAR OF HELPING SCOUTS, SCOUTERS, & PARENTS]
April to August is a pretty long break, and I apologize to all my loyal readers. As best as we can figure out, my \u201cWORDPRESS\u201d account was somehow corrupted. I wasn\u2019t able to fix it, despite many intermittent attempts. Yes, I did sit back and relax from publishing for a bit. But I sure didn\u2019t think it would take till now to get back up and running again. Here\u2019s a HUGE THANKS to Paul Wolf (our advancement maven and guru) for getting me out of the mess I was in!
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Here we go again! I sure hope this works!!!
Dear Andy,
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Before the Covid world we\u2019re in, our parents used to drop their kids off before our monthly Pack meetings and then pick them up when the meeting ended; few ever stayed around during these meetings. We\u2019re going to start up again in September, first with outdoor meetings. Later in the year we\u2019ll see if we can go indoors safely. But what about the drop-off\/pick-up? We\u2019ve had lots of time to read up on how a pack should operate (we were all brand-new leaders right before Covid hit, and \u201cinherited\u201d what had been done before). Our leaders\u2019 manuals say the parents should stick around, but a lot of our Cubs have brothers or sisters who need looking-after, or at least that\u2019s what these parents are telling us. Any ideas? (Bob O\u2019Linck, CM, Montana Skies Council)
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Sounds like you\u2019ve got a BSA means \u201cBaby Sitters Anonymous\u201d situation. I\u2019m guessing that your parents (and former leaders) didn\u2019t know that monthly meetings are where their sons and daughters get to perform, lead songs and skits, and get awards like Wolf and Bear and Arrow Points and stuff. Or maybe your predecessors were the \u201cstars\u201d of the show. Or maybe you were the kind of pack that hires a magician or snake charmer or clown to entertain the Cubs each month. All of which means the Cubs were just sitting like lumps and watching instead of being the show itself! Consider reversing things. Make the Cubs the stars and you leaders sit back and enjoy their show\u2026along with their parents and brothers and sisters!
Dear Andy,
Instead of indoor troop meetings, we\u2019ve concentrated on outdoor events for our patrols. But when we have camp-outs at nearby lakes, it kills us that we can\u2019t have a troop swim! Yes, several of our adults are trained in Safe Swim Defense. But none of them has BSA Life Guard or YMCA certification. We do have two Scouts who earned BSA Life Guard at camp two years ago, so they\u2019re still \u201ccurrent.\u201d But since they\u2019re under 21, they can\u2019t be supervisors. Can we invite a SSD-trained, BSA Life Guard adult from another troop to come with us, so that we\u2019re covered? (Irv G. Ranch, Land O\u2019 Lakes Council, MN)
Sure you can do that, and that\u2019s a great idea. But you actually don\u2019t have to. So long as your adult supervisor is SSD-trained, and you have Scouts with BSA Life Guard, you\u2019re covered for a troop swim. That\u2019s because your registered adult supervises (SSD Point 1) and the Scouts are the lifeguards (SSD Point 4). Happy trails\u2026and lakes!
Dear Andy,
We just lost our Cubmaster; she moved away. She was really great with the kids, and she\u2019ll be tough to replace. I\u2019ve spoken with our parents, but they seem afraid of all the work involved. Any suggestions? (Norman Lake, Mecklenburg County, NC)
Cubmaster was one of the best jobs I ever had in Scouting. As some wag once said, \u201cDen Leaders do all of the work and get none of the glory, but Cubmasters do none of the work and get all of the glory!\u201d Now that\u2019s not entirely true\u2014the Cubmaster is, after all, the \u201cpatrol leader\u201d of the Den Leaders who form the \u201cpatrol.\u201d But, like a good patrol leader, the Cubmaster\u2019s primary responsibility is to delegate\u2026to the Den Leaders. The Cubmaster is also responsible for the content of the monthly Pack meetings, while the Den Leaders meet with and prepare their Cub Scout dens. And it\u2019s the Cubs themselves who get to perform, while the Cubmaster is the \u201cEmcee\u201d or \u201cRingmaster\u201d for the night!
If you present it this way, any parent with even a modest flair for \u201ccrowd management\u201d would be crazy to not grab the Cubmaster slot!
Dear Andy,
I\u2019m a Unit Commissioner and I really like my job and my units\u2019 leaders. But a couple of my units doesn\u2019t like it when I drop by unannounced. They think I\u2019m a \u201cspy\u201d for the council. Of course, I\u2019m hardly that. I drop by as a friend would. Is there any way I can change their point-of-view? (Glen Watkins, Hudson Valley Council, NY)
Maybe dropping in unannounced really isn\u2019t such a cool idea. I know this is depicted a lot in family-type TV shows, but in real life? Well, not so much.
Would you do that to a friend? Probably unlikely. You\u2019d call first to see if they\u2019re home and if it\u2019s a good time, and then you\u2019d probably bring something to show your friendship\u2014maybe that tool you borrowed last spring or some just-baked cookies, right?
Well, your units\u2019 leaders like to be treated the same way. So do it! Call first. And maybe if it\u2019s not convenient, respect that. Then, when you do go, bring something. It can be actual cookies, or maybe a flyer about the upcoming Camporee, or news about a Roundtable or a training event! That\u2019s what a true \u201cfriend-of-the-unit\u201d would do. I\u2019ll bet you can do it, too!
Dear Andy,
At a National Jamboree, I happened to notice some odd-looking beaded \u201cnecklaces\u201d around some Scouters\u2019 and Scouts\u2019 necks. They all had claws at the bottom. They didn\u2019t seem to be \u201cOA.\u201d What was I looking at? Thanks! (Lynn Guinee, SM, Los Angeles Area Council, CA)
You spotted members of The Tribe of MIC-O-SAY! (Check the Internet\u2014there are websites that explain more than I\u2019ll do here.) MIC-O-SAY, founded in 1925, is\u2014like the Order of the Arrow (est. 1915)\u2014an \u201chonor camper fraternity.\u201d It began in the St. Joseph Council, Missouri, and spread over the years to further councils in the Missouri-Kansas area. MIC-O-SAY was created by a locally famous Scouter and Scout Executive H. Roe (\u201cChief\u201d) Bartle, to \u201creinforce the principles of the Scout Oath and Law, and foster continued participation in Scouting\u2014especially camping.\u201d The \u201ccoup beads\u201d and claws you saw represent advancement through the levels of MIC-O-SAY commitment.
Dear Andy,
When Webelos Scouts join our Scouts BSA troop, that\u2019s great, but we\u2019re having trouble getting their parents involved in the troop, too. They think they should \u201cdrop-and-run\u201d when it\u2019s troop meeting time, and we never see their faces! We need help, but how can we do this when all we ever see are the tail lights of parents\u2019 cars? Help! (Ward Montgomery, Chicago Area Council, IL)
I had the same problem when I was Scoutmaster. The Committee Chair and I decided to try holding a \u201cnew parent orientation meeting,\u201d with light refreshments. We, along with my assistants and her committee members personally called (way better than a \u201cbroadcast email\u201d!) each new parent, describe what we\u2019re doing for them, invite them, and get a commitment that they\u2019d attend (we didn\u2019t settle for \u201cmaybe\u201d or \u201cif nothing else comes up\u201d).
Once there, our Committee Chair explained how all parents whose daughter is in the troop needed to have a \u201cjob\u201d in order to support our girls and their troop. On the cork-board behind us, we had pinned a bunch of index cards, each with a different job and description on it (e.g., Outing Drivers\u2014Transport patrols to or from outings, Treasurer\u2014Keep the troop books and pay all bills approved by the CC, Advancement Coordinator\u2014Keep records of Scout rank advancement and merit badges earned, and purchase awards for courts of honor,\u2026etc.)
We explained that every family should take at least one card (we recorded who took what) and that any \u201cleftover\u201d cards would be \u201cassigned.\u201d Probably because they thought this was an ongoing \u201ctradition,\u201d everybody took a card.
(BTW once the Committee Chair finished her explanation, there was an awkward silence among the parents and, at first, nobody moved. That\u2019s when I\u2014as planned\u2014added, \u201cRight now, the first people to pick their job has a bunch of great choices; but if, at the end, there are cards left up here and also uncommitted parents, we\u2019ll just assign the rest. As we had hoped, the parents wised up fast and made bee-lines for the cork-board!)
Stay safe, stay healthy, and stay positive!
Happy Scouting!
Andy
(AskAndyBSA@Yahoo.com)
[No. 675 8\/17\/2021 Copyright \u00a9 2021 Andy McCommish]
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[NO. 675 \u2013 20TH YEAR OF HELPING SCOUTS, SCOUTERS, & PARENTS] April to August is a pretty long break, and I apologize to all my loyal readers. As best as we can figure out, my \u201cWORDPRESS\u201d account was somehow corrupted. I wasn\u2019t able to fix it, despite many intermittent attempts. Yes, I did sit back […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2767"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2767\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2770,"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2767\/revisions\/2770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}