Scouting Thoughts

Posted on by Jordan

I wanted to wait a while after having finished the Scoutmaster training to let my thoughts settle in a bit before I wrote this post. I may have waited too long, and lost some of the wild enthusiasm I had before, but I am going to try and put something together none the less.

Even without owning a TV it has been impossible to miss the fact that we are in an election season. Obviously this election, like most elections, is important, and there are plenty of other places online that talk about why. I bring this up because I was captivated by the idea expressed at some point during the training that “it is easier to build a boy into a man than repair a man gone wrong” The exact words were more elegant than that… but you get the idea.

I don’t want to sound overly grandiose, or set expectations too high for the guys coming out of my troop, so I suppose I should scale that back in a little until I have some idea what day to day working with the troop is like.

As much as I thought I had nailed down in my head what I was going to say in this post it is becoming remarkably fuzzy…

First off, it was very refreshing to realize that the goal of Scouting is to let the boys develop character and maturity through being able to learn, and fail, in safe environment. I guess I should explain, in this context ‘safe’ basically means ‘nobody is going to die’. Not that anybody at the training wants to see a kid get hurt, but there was an expectation that when you turn a dozen 13-year old boys loose with pocket-knives, a few bad-aids may be needed before the day is done.

I somehow managed to go my entire time in scouting as a boy without realizing that the adults weren’t doing that much of the “leading,”   and never would have guessed that it was by design. If things are running properly, the scoutmaster isn’t suppose to do anything but act as an advisory for the senior patrol leader and the guys supporting him. I could be remembering an overly-ideal troop setup, and I haven’t been with my new troop long enough to know how practical that ideal is, but I know it is a real goal of my local troop. So much a goal, that one of the longer standing Scoutmasters is best known for his ability to smoothly guide overly-helpful parents away from the boys so they can continue to struggle putting up a tent!

I hope this doesn’t make me sound like I am excited to watch a bunch of kids get hurt or something. I am just really happy to know that Scouts aren’t overly protective or so scared of a lawsuit that they wrap everything in foam.

I know that my first real job with the troop will be as an assistant patrol advisory for one of the newer patrols. This means that another Scoutmaster-trained parent will be the primary guy trying to gently steer them towards earning their next rank, and I will fill in behind him. It also means I will be working with 13-year old boys… my dreams of building better citizens for tomorrow may not last long against the booger-jokes and giggling, but at least I can try right? 🙂

-Jordan

Camp Out Debreif, Physical Report

Posted on by Jordan

I haven’t even started writing this post and I am already afraid I am going to beat scouting to death as a blog topic in the next few weeks. I guess that is the downside to my using this blog as a place to post whatever comes to mind… anyway bear with me, it isn’t the only thing Heather and I are up to! 🙂

In an attempt to keep this brief and focused, I am just going to talk about the practical side of the training weekend, and leave my reflections on it for a later date.

First off, as you might have guessed, not all of my camping gear was 100% ready to go after having been packed away for the past ten years.

Things that weren’t perfect:

  • The elastic in my tent poles — completely dead!
  • My cold-weather sleeping bag
  • ‘flint and steel’ kit — not really flint, whatever it was made out of was corroded beyond use
  • Sleeping mat — still functional, but they make much nicer ones now
  • Flashlight — got me through the weekend, but the switch tried to die a few times
  • First-aid kit — didn’t need it, but the bandages are looking a little… crispy at this point

Things I apparently don’t own anymore:

  • Mess kit
  • Hatchet — not that I need one at this point, but I used to have one I though
  • Camp shovel
  • Extra rope

Last but not least, things that worked just fine:

  • My tent — ignoring the pole issue
  • Rain gear — didn’t need it, but still appears to be in great shape
  • My hat

Beyond equipment, I felt like the majority of my ‘scout-craft’  type skills weren’t too rusty. I still remembered most of the knots, and I don’t have any doubt as to my abilities to light a fire. First-aid is one I should re-visit I am sure, and the compass driven navigation course was more challenging than it should have been. I am really looking forward to getting more opportunities to hone all of this stuff.

Going back to equipment, I ended up feeling really sheepish when I unpacked my sleeping bag and said “oh yeah, I am still allergic to down, and this is a down bag!” The other detail I had forgotten about until the next day, when during a session they pointed out that cold-weather bags shouldn’t be stored in their compression bags long-term. I have a feeling a decade counts as long-term, and it might explain why the insulation wasn’t performing as well as I might have hoped. Luckily it wasn’t really that cold.

Most of the other things I had at least weren’t surprises; they were just products of my not finding the time before the trip to replace/restock/re-evaluate them. It’s really kind of exciting, although given the time of year most of my “shopping” probably going to be constrained to appending items onto a wish-list. At least I don’t anticipate anther camping trip for a few months now.

If that was too much naval gazing, I can at least offer you a link to the pictures I took

-Jordan

Long Weekend, Short Post

Posted on by Jordan

Hey there!

I really have so much to say about scouts right now, and I am really excited after having just completed an entire weekend devoted to scoutmaster training.

Sadly, I am really tired and haven’t even dealt with all my gear yet.

Hopefully I can find time to pull together my thoughts enough to have a coherent post about how scouting looks from this side of graduation. Worst case you will end up with a rambling info-dump, but the faster I wrap up this post the better our chances of avoiding that are.

-Jordan