To those that remember the old 4th of July Denver Bears games…where are the Beach Boys? via Facebook
July 04, 2013 at 07:16PM
Holy pop bottle rockets Batman, this stadium is bursting at the seams. via Facebook
July 04, 2013 at 02:40PM
Work is done, now time for fun! BBQ at a friends house, then Sky Sox baseball and fireworks. Can tonight be more American? via Facebook
July 04, 2013 at 09:22AM
Happy 4th of July! I spending Independence day confined to a desk, but still hoping you are having a great day! via Facebook
Technology in Scouting: A blessing or a curse?
In this corner, we have modern-day Scouting, where technology enhances the delivery of the program in ways never thought possible.
In the other corner, it’s traditional Scouting, that rare respite from a young person’s screen-based life one weekend each month.
Can’t we all just get along?
That’s the thinking I espouse in the latest episode of ScoutCast, the BSA’s monthly podcast. Yes, you read right; I’m honored to say the guest this month is yours truly.
In the 13-minute podcast, I tell the hosts some ways in which technology can be both a blessing and a curse for your pack, troop, or crew. By sharing personal anecdotes, ideas from blog readers, and some useful online tools, I add my thoughts to the important discussion about how your unit can walk the line between technological over-reliance and under-reliance.
This ScoutCast is a continuation of a discussion started last year on my blog. Read some other troops’ electronics policies, but remember that no one size fits all and that your troop’s youth leaders should set the policy themselves. Otherwise, good luck enforcing it!
Cubcast: How to engage parents
It’s the summer and, hopefully, you’re out and about doing fun activities with your Cub Scouts, but have you found yourself wondering, “Gee, how can I get the parents more involved?”
The CubCast team thought you might, so Linda Case, committee chair for Pack 459 in Whitehouse, Tenn., explores opportunities to engage parents in the Cub Scout program in the July 2013 episode.
Photo from Flickr: Some rights reserved by stepol
How to keep your troop out of the ‘death spiral’
What separates a successful Boy Scout troop from a foundering one? The answer hasn’t changed in a century.
It’s the patrol method, and it’s been around since at least 1920 when Scouting founder Lord Baden-Powell explained it in his Aids to Scoutmastership (link opens PDF).
“The Patrol System is the one essential feature in which Scout training differs from that of all other organizations, and where the System is properly applied, it is absolutely bound to bring success,” B-P writes. “It cannot help itself!”
But too often these days, adult leaders are reactionary when it comes to the patrol method. They start with good intentions, but when they see the slightest hiccup, they take the reins from the boys and run the troop themselves.
Clarke Green, who writes the excellent unofficial Scouting blog “Scoutmaster CG,” calls this the “troop program death spiral” in a recent post.
He writes:
When they apply the concepts and practices of the patrol method the first results are almost always disappointing from the adult perspective. Scouts seem to be incapable, incompetent, or lazy. Scouts’ efforts are disjointed, chaotic and fall far short of creating the orderliness and efficiency adults imagined they would. Instead of looking at this state of affairs as a positive indication of growing and developing leaders this ‘disappointment’ is viewed as a failure of the patrol method as an idea.
An adult-run troop works fine for a while, Green writes. There’s less uncertainty and trouble. The Scouts enjoy having their work done for them. But none of this lasts, he says.
Green continues:
Unless the adults are able to come up with more new and even more entertaining experiences the Scouts start to leave. Adults get upset when the Scouts don’t properly appreciate what is being done for them, this turns to frustration, hardens into resentment, and leads to rulemaking.
That attitude drives a lot of Scouts away, and when Scouts leave adults become even more resentful or upset. Adults are already fatigued from trying to hold things together and doing everything so things continue to spiral down.
Read Green’s entire post to see the benefit of sticking to the patrol method, even when the going gets tough. Much of the success of the patrol method relies not just on Scouts getting trained, but Scouters, too. Wood Badge, the phenomenal adult-leader training course, for example, bases its curriculum around a practical application of the patrol method. Scouters don’t just hear about its function, they live it for six days.
In the end, the key is perseverance. Don’t just abandon this time-tested method of Scouting delivery because you have a few bad meetings or campouts. Stick with it.
“It sounds a big order,” B-P writes, “but in practice it works.” He continues:
Then, through emulation and competition between Patrols, you produce a Patrol spirit which is eminently satisfactory, since it raises the tone among the boys and develops a higher standard of efficiency all round. Each boy in the Patrol realizes that he is in himself a responsible unit and that the honor of his group depends in some degree on his own ability in playing the game.
The patrol method in your troop
How do you successfully maintain the patrol method in your troop? How did you overcome those bumps in the road? Help your fellow Scouters by leaving a comment below.
H/T for the post idea to Mike Menninger
June 20, 2013 at 10:04PM
And the Sox won… via Facebook
June 20, 2013 at 09:57PM
Wow the Sox rallied and it’s now 11-11, bottom of the 9th.. via Facebook
June 20, 2013 at 06:57PM
It’s a bit smokey but still a great night for Military Appreciation Night at Sky Sox via Facebook
Ideas that click: 11 ways to improve your unit’s website
If first impressions are everything, your unit website better be good.
These days, many prospective Scouts and their parents will research your pack, troop, or crew online long before they pick up the phone or visit one of your meetings.
An easy-to-navigate, well-designed, regularly updated website can mean the difference between recruiting a new Boy Scout and watching him join the troop down the street.
With that in mind, here are 10 ways to improve your unit’s website:
1. Consider your audience
When creating or improving a unit website, the first question you should ask is: Who is this site for? You probably will come up with four distinct audiences:
- Current Scouts
- Current Scouters and/or parents
- Prospective Scouts
- Parents of a prospective Scout
All decisions about content (and organization and design) should include an analysis of how each of those audiences would be affected. Think like a member of each of these customer groups, and consider why they’d be taking the time to visit the site. What do they want, and do they have an easy time finding it?
2. Consider the motivations of your audience
You know who they are, but what do they want? Here are a few ideas:
Current Scouts:
- Check the calendar of meetings, campouts, and troop events
- See photos of past events as a reminder of how much fun was had
- Find a packing list for the next campout (usually accessed the night before departure)
Current Scouter and/or Parent
- Check the calendar of meetings, campouts, and troop events
- Find out when to pick up/drop off for the next campout
- Find a packing list for the next campout to make sure their Scout isn’t forgetting, say, a flashlight or sleeping bag
- Get contact information for other parents
- Find answers to questions about advancement, including where to sew patches, etc.
- Pay dues or register Scout for jamborees, summer camps, or other events
Prospective Scout
- See photos and videos to learn what Scouts in this troop do
- Find out what cool places the troop is headed off to in the coming year (or places recently visited)
- Learn when to come visit a meeting
- Print off a flier to hand to Mom or Dad
Parent of Prospective Scout
- See meeting times/location to determine whether it’s convenient for family’s schedule
- Find a calendar of upcoming and past events to make sure the troop’s active
- Get contact info for the Scoutmaster to schedule a visit or ask questions
3. Make it easy to navigate
Don’t make it difficult for current or prospective members to find what they need. A navigation bar at the top of the page or along the left side can make information easy to find in a hurry.
4. Tell them when and where you meet
One of the first questions a potential new member will have when visiting your site is, “When and where do you meet?” Make their life easy by providing that information “above the fold,” meaning it’s visible on the home page before scrolling down.
5. Include a calendar
Modern moms and dads plan their calendars months in advance. By including meetings and outings on a detailed online calendar, you’re giving parents and Scouts fewer excuses for missing activities down the road. But if you’re going to prominently display a calendar, be sure it’s updated. Speaking of …
6. Keep it updated
If the most-recent activity on your unit’s online calendar is from 2010, that sends one of two messages to potential recruits: (1) this unit has stopped operating or (2) this unit is unorganized. There’s some work involved in keeping a website up to date, but it’s one outward-facing sign of a vibrant, active pack, troop, or crew.
7. Appoint at least two webmasters
Many hands working on a website make everyone’s job easier. So giving admin powers to multiple users makes sense, especially if someone goes on vacation or gets swamped at work. For troop or crew websites, at least one of the admins should be a youth to keep their needs and interests in mind. After all, “youth-led” applies to the online realm, too.
8. Upload your packing lists
Consider this scenario: It’s the night before summer camp, and, of course, Chase hasn’t even started packing. That’s not a huge problem, except for one thing: Chase can’t find the packing list he was given at the troop meeting on Monday.
Sound familiar? Alleviate this headache by including last-minute details right on your homepage. I’m thinking departure time, meeting location, emergency numbers, and, yes, the all-important packing list. But this sensitive information shouldn’t be publicly displayed, which brings us to …
9. Protect sensitive info
Create a verified login system that prevents unauthorized users from seeing certain parts of the site. Unregistered visitors should be able to see the time of your weekly meeting, an email address or phone number for the Scoutmaster, a summary of your unit’s recent successes, a few photos, and other key information.
They should not see Scouts’ last names, trip itineraries, members’ contact info, or anything else that could be used maliciously.
Read more about unit website guidelines at this official BSA page.
10. Be brand-compliant
Let’s call this one a Level 2 tip. After you’ve completed Level 1, which is building a website that’s functional and easy to navigate, think about branding your site using official BSA logos and colors. I blogged about this earlier this month, but it’s worth repeating that the BSA Brand Identity guide includes exact specs on official Scouting colors. The goal: a consistent look and feel to all the ways a Scout and his family interact with the organization.
11. Start a blog
Perhaps I’m biased, but I’m a big fan of blogging as a way to share news and updates in a conversational format. Ideally, these posts would be mostly written by Scouts and include photos and perhaps video from recent trips. Other thoughts:
- Trip recaps should be short and written in the mindset of “look what we did last weekend.”
- There could also be a Cubmaster’s/Scoutmaster’s Minute blog post where the top adult leader can share some weekly or monthly words of wisdom.
- To be a viable blog, I would suggest posting something no less than once per week. Any less and the thing would become stagnant.
- I would suggest having one adult and one Scout be primary administrators of the blog, with the Scoutmaster and other youth and adult leaders having the ability to post to it, as well.
- A blog post doesn’t have to contain many words at all. It could simply be four or five photos with fun captions.
Share your successes
Does your pack, troop, team, ship, post, or crew already have a phenomenal website? Share the link in the comments section below so others can learn from your example.
