8 October 2008
Additional Scoutmaster Duties
Posted by admin under: advancement .
Loathe as I am to heap more work on my tired, old Scoutmaster I’d have to say that the idea from Scoutmaster Musings is a good one. Find ways to see your Scouts outside of your meetings and outings.
A requirement for every rank advancement in Boy Scouts is Demonstrate Scout Spirit in your everyday life. This requirement is handled in many different ways, from being an automatic sign-off to requiring scouts to write essays on what they’ve done to fulfill it.
It’s a difficult one for a Scoutmaster to sign unless you see the scouts outside of scouting. Looking for opportunities to interact with scouts away from the troop is a good idea. Maybe you’re lucky and go to church with some scouts, or maybe you’re a school teacher or coach, or work in a popular store. Other than that, it might take a bit of work to track ‘em down.
Although I am a lowly Committee Chairman for my Boy Scout troop I have a good relationship with most of the boys. I haven’t been on every outing or even every troop meeting. What I have found is that when you talk about the boys’ interests outside of Scouting and ask about it in subsequent conversations they start to realize that you do care about them as people and don’t think of them as one of many Scouts in the troop. The idea above sounds great, but what a load of extra time it sounds like. Finding a way to make it work will be the challenge each Scoutmaster needs to work out for himself.
- Religious But Not Churchy
- BSA: Picnic and Learn
- GSUSA: Service Unit Coup
- BSA: Parent Meeting with Few Parents
- Parents Not Doing Their Duty
