[philmont] Team Building Skills

Ah ha! Everyone got it why I choose the Dallas Cowboys and that the problem is really the owner and not the coach. The neat part is that I did not even mention that. And I did not mention it on purpose to illustrate a point.
   
  That is the EXACT way an advisor should NOT advise. Stay off the "sideline". Let the crew members through the crew chief "discover" the problem and that way they discovered it and they fixed it. Nothing could be better. As an advisor, you get to sit back, smile and be happy that kids figured out what needed to be done and did it.
   
  Nothing could be better..
   
  Council contingents have several things usually that cause problems. The first is lack of cohesion within the youth.
   
  The second is lack of cohesion among the adults.
   
  In most cases, the people just barely know each other.
   
  It takes a lot of work in a very short period of time to overcome thing.
  
It is really easy to focus on boots, packs, type of clothes, shat if Johnny gets sick and all the miriad of things normal parents are concerned (and rightfully so) about what their son or daughter faces being a member of a Philmont crew. We tend to overlook the most obvious and most important.
   
  And since council Scout executives are more involved in recruiting "numbers" both in terms of youth enrolled and dollars coming into the council, the appointment of advisors is sometimes a political thing rather than a workability thing.
   
  A lead advisor appointed that does not have the time to prepare the crew is a big liability.
   
  We are so focused on youth protection for it's sexual abuse overtones, that we often loose sight of the other things. An over zealous advisor is eqaully abusive as a sexual predator and does probably as much psychological damage.
   
  I'll go one step farther then let you do some thinking on the subject. Even though the only thing in life I ever wanted to be was a Boy Scout and stayed with it and earned the rank of Eagle, am not patting myslef on the back because I'm an Eagle Scout.
   
  Keep in mind that Mr. Whitman, the man who murdered so many people in August 1966 from the Tower at the University of Texas was an Eagle Scout. So what.
   
  Before I write the next opinion, let me qualify it be stating that there are many adults who were not Scouts that make excellent advisors. Not every person had the opportunity to be a Scout.
   
  Now, here is what I am going to say. I believe there are many traits that would cause an adult to not be an advisor on a Philmont crew, but the number one adult that needs to be avoided as an advisor is the adult who was not a Scout themselves but is busy working on their "advancement". We all know ther is no advancement for adults, but we also all know adults that substitute the "knot" awards and key awards for rank.
   
  I am not trying to step on any toes and surely there are many good Scout leaders who were not Scouts themselves, but a person trying to play "catch up" is going to be too busy putting feathers in their own cap to effectively lead youth and be a good advisor.
   
  Sometimes an over zealous advisor will slip through the cracks and be along on trek. If so the best gift you can give the youth of your crew is to modify this advisors behavior even if it takes your total effort to do it. It's the youths trip and they deserve your efforts.
   
  The hardest thing a school teacher or a parent of kids has to do is "let them do it themselves". That is really difficult to do. Tough as it was, the best way to teach a kid to ride a bicycle is to let them do it including the falls and scraped knees.
   
  I was a public school science teacher for eighteen years. When someone asks me if teaching school was difficult, I tell them "no, not the subject I taught because we used the scientific method, did a lot of experiments and I let the students find out the answers for themselves". In short, it was a lot of fun. Some days it would have been a lot easier to have just said "memorize this".
   
  Just as in leadership and team skills, some kids learn to ride a bike quickly and for others it takes a long time Some choose to never learn to ride the thing.
   
  The same thing holds true with adults letting kids lead the crew. Some learn how quickly and some never learn at all and there are many in between.
   
  While on the trail at Philmont you will run across all types, the good, the bad and the ugly and that's just the way it is. Unfortunately the most prevalent leader is the "comander". And this is exactly why the Philmont administration emphasizes the crew is to be youth led.
   
  The best crews will have the "good" advisors. The good advisors enable the youth BEFORE they go. Be one and insist the other advisors do the same thing.
   
  John LeBlanc
  Eagle Class of 1959
  Philmont crew member 1958
  Philmont crew advisor 2002

 
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Received on Wed Nov 1 22:57:37 2006