Scout Leadership Training Round Robin

My son is on his second round as SPL for his Troop and early this year was led the Troop leadership training. The entire training was Scout led and had the extra benefit of several NYLT Scouts to help with the process.

One new thing the SPL introduced was a roundtable exercise with the Scouts where he presented a series of scenarios for them to discuss. There were no adults in the room during the this time so that the discussion could be as open and meaningful as possible. The other day I ran across the stack of 3X5 cards he used for this and found the topics to be very interesting:

• Some Scouts are horse playing around at a Court of Honor where everyone can see. How would you deal with that?
• You see some Scouts throwing trash in the forest. How do you use this a teachable moment about the outdoor code
• You walk into your campsite and see a patrol member crying. How would you respond?
• You notice bullying in the Troop. What is the proper response
• Your leader gets too abusive with his authority. How to do change this? How would you resolve the issue?
• One of your patrols’ tents flood. How do you make a compromise
• A patrol member refuses to do KP even though he was assigned this on the duty roster. How do you deal with this?
• Leadership gets in an argument. What do you do? How do you prevent this?
• You’ve asked multiple times for a Scout to put his phone up but he is constantly is on it. What should be addressed and why?
• A Scout says that his knife was stolen and he can’t find it. What is the best solution?
• You suspect a Scout of taking illegal drugs. What do you do?
• No one in your patrol is listening to you. How would you handle and fix that?
• You lose a Scout and he goes missing. How would you find and make sure it does not happen again?
• You are walking down a trail and Scout notices a dead animal and wants to touch it. What do you do? Why?
• An adult is constantly coming into your patrol site for their son. How do you kindly take care of this?
• You notice a parent taking over the patrol and the patrol leader and his Scouts are not getting a chance to lead on their own. How do you restore order?
• You have a member in your patrol that the patrol doesn’t like. One day when he is away the Scouts start making fun of him. What do you do as a leader?
• You notice some of your patrol members not attending meetings and campouts anymore. How would you handle this?
• Your patrol lost a game this weekend and hasn't worked well together since. Their morale is low. How can you lift their spirits?
• One scout is homesick at summer camp. How do you lift is spirits and help him?
• Because of poor planning your patrol members did not buy enough food for a meal. How do you fix this?
• A Scout is constantly interrupting skill or is talking during skill with no respect towards others. What will you do?
• An adult is furious and mad. He starts yelling. What is the best response?
• An adult leader is rude to Scouts and pushing to have his way all the time. How do you handle this?

Based on this extensive list, I am sure it was quite a discussion!  Any of these sound familiar? Interesting to read these and know from his perspective after several years in the Troop most are something he has experienced. 

Reaching for Eagle

I will never forget that day way back when my son was in fourth grade and he came home from school with a flyer promoting Join Scouts night at his school. Little did I know at the time that it was the going to be the first step in a great adventure for him and for us as a family.

Now here we are six years later and Conner has reached a milestone as officially becoming an Eagle Scout. I am one of those “Life for Life” guys that was in Boy Scouts as a kid but joined late and then quit later as I entered high school after my best friend had “Eagled out”. Looking back, not following through to Eagle has been one of my great regrets in life.

For Conner, his journey has been one full of adventures through Monday meetings, service projects, weekend campouts, multiple summer camps, 2010 National Jamboree, 2011 Sea Base, 2012 Philmont, 2013 National Jamboree with even more to come.

While having all this fun I have seen him grow as a young man through his Scouting roles including time serving as Chaplin Aid, Troop Guide, Assistant Senior Patrol Leader, Senior Patrol leader and more. There has been adversity to overcome, relationship skills to learn, leadership skills to sharpen, conflicts to manage and more.

Conner’s project was a complicated one and only successful through the help of many other Scouts and adults that helped as well as mentored him along the way.

I am proud of my son for what he has accomplished and just as importantly I am proud to be part of this incredible and ongoing journey at all began with the little flyer so many years ago. Thank you son for talking me into giving it a try.

Wondering if Scouting is relevant to our society and will have a place in the future? From my perspective it is needed more than ever and this program will continue to make a difference for youth for many decades to come.

Conner—I am absolutely proud to be your dad and I love the man you are growing into now and the man you plan to be in the future. Congratulations on reaching this step in your ongoing journey: Dad

Final Philmont 10 mile training hike...

Yesterday was our final 10 mile hike and next up is the super challenge of a 20 miler on Sunday. The hike this week around was a little more scenic thanks to some time on a short trail through a local wildlife refuge. All of our hikes have been urban walks on paved paths prior to this and it was kind of nice to get some dirt on our boots for a change. Trails for these hikes would be ideal of course but her in our part of the state we would be looking at a long drive to find such a thing. We are fortunate at least to have a wide variety of walking trails available.


Overall this 10 mile hike experience has been a good one. The boys have taken the lead on each of them with the adults hanging a few steps back. Next week is going to be a big challenge with a 20 miler. I have run marathons and done other distance events but walking 20 miles is something new and finishing this is going to be an accomplishment for everyone.

After we complete the hike, the boys will move on to winter training which will be walking up and down stairs at a building downtown. Whew that is going to fun too! We have backpacking campout weekends set for the spring in various location and there is no doubt that these guys will be as prepared as possible for a great experience when they take that first step on the trail at Philmont in July 2012.