Re: [Philmont]: Need help with a question

I have been away for a few days but I do want to respond to the "Bear in
camp" issue.

As has been pointed out, there are a number of issues here. I am surprised
that no one has approached the parents of the scouts to inform them what is
going on. When things are not running smooth in a troop, the first thing
that happens is that scouts start to walk away. At this point, if the SM
stays, the scouts should be searching for another troop. Along with fixing
the adult leadership issue, it is important that we think about giving
these scouts a chance to finish their advancement, if that is a goal of
theirs. So they may want to be looking for another troop while this troop
is cleaning up the other issues.

I too have faced such issues. I had my SPL and the SPL previous to him
kicked out of camp by the camp staff a few years ago. The camp discipline
procedures were working overtime by time I got wind that there was an
issue. I said nothing to the scouts involved, but let the camp handle
everything. All I had to do was to call their parents and make sure they
were home when I dropped the scouts off.

After camp, the committee chairman and I sat down with the two scouts
(individually) and told them what they did wrong (they already knew, but I
did it in detail), why it was wrong, and if they did it again, they were
out of the troop. (I will not go into ugly details here, but some troops
would not have given these boys a second chance.) In the case above, it
seems the SM had not told the scouts anything. That alone should be a huge
red flag to the committee.

I have had a number of scouts leave our troop for various reasons. In each
case, if the boy wanted to continue in scouting, I made sure he found
another troop. Maybe the SM of this troop should be talking to the scouts
and if he will not let them advance, he should be finding another troop
that will.

Of course the best solution for this troop may be to get the scoutmaster
calmed down a little.

----------------------------------
Roman J. Smith
Scoutmaster Troop 505
roman.j.smith.13@nd.edu

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Received on Tue Aug 19 07:15:18 2003