The Friendship Knot

A couple days ago I wasn’t quite feeling it before a troop meeting. It wasn’t scouts per say but I was having trouble getting my khaki on in a spiritual sense. My friend Shawn suggested to teach the boys something new as a way to kick my slump.
We dedicated the “educational” portion of the meeting to learning how to tie a scout neckerchief with a friendship knot. You could say I’ve always been a bit of an Anglophile, especially when it comes to Scouting. When our troop adult leaders added the neckerchief to our uniform, another Scouter friend, Kiff, taught me from across the pond how to tie a friendship knot as is common by our English Scout brothers. I’ve been wearing it that way ever since. Thursday night I taught the Scouts how to tie the friendship knot and then they practiced tying it on each other.

Tonight our troop welcomed four new Arrow of Light scouts from Pack 83 at their Blue & Gold. When it was our turn at the ceremony to welcome them to our troop the boys crossed from their parents on one side if the stage to the troop on the other. The parents removed their cub scout neckerchiefs and as each one was asked by name to join his troop, one of our troop scouts would tie their new neckerchief on them with a friendship knot. While the ceremony was simple it was very well received.
It was great to see the pack thriving. Between scouts and families they were busting out of the venue a few years ago we’d had room to spare and then some. God willing that growth will continue to make the troop grow too. With the four that crossed tonight we’re in double digits for registrations for the first time in a long time.
I’m excited to see how the Phoenix patrol carries through on their “Lead Train Inspire”. As a small patrol they’ve definitely lived up to their namesake. There hasn’t been a challenge put to them yet they haven’t beat when they have a common goal in mind.

 

Moving Up, Moving Forward

Based on the events of this week I’d almost think it was “advancement week” if there was such a thing. I had Scoutmaster conferences with four Cub Scouts who will be earning their Arrow of Light at their Blue & Gold next weekend. 5 Scouts total will be crossing to our Troop and will be the 2nd patrol of Troop 83.
We also had another Scout, who had moved away after Cub Scouts, come back to our Troop after moving back to the area. That combined with the coming crossovers means our troop will literally be doubling in size. Not that numbers mean everything. Just last weekend the “core 4″ of our troop participated in the Klondike Derby. Despite being the smallest patrol to participate and being one of the most inexperienced patrols, they still placed 11th (out of 27 patrols) and were a mere 10 points away from first place.
I was also notified that I have an interview this week to serve as one of the Scoutmasters for our Councils representation at to 2013 National Jamboree at Bechtel Summit. Keep your fingers crossed.
To top off the week, and what was definitely the highlight for me, I found out that I’ve been advanced to the 3rd of 4 phases for the selection process to become a ShelterBox Response Team (SRT) Field Operative. In August I will be returning to Texas for a 5-day “physically an mentally exhausting” evaluation of my skills as a Response Team member. If I pass this phase the next step will be the final training (9 days) in the UK in early December. From what I’ve heard these will be the hottest and coldest seasons respectively for each environment. I’m looking forward to the challenge.

 

ShelterBox Activities for Cubs and Scouts (Day 57)

Our council has a Tradeshow of Scouting coming up. I’ve volunteered (awaiting response) to host a booth about Shelter Box and Scouting.

Are you looking for ways to introduce your unit to Shelter Box or are working under a theme of Emergency Preparedness? Here’s some resources you can use:
Cub Scout Activities
Boy Scout Activities

For more information on Shelter Box and my involvement: click here

 

Day 56: ASM Training

➔ Got to listen to 2 episodes of Clark Greene’s Scoutmaster Podcast. Not sure how I fell behind but it was a nice envelope for the work day – one driving in and one driving home. Clark just recently moved the web site. Its a good collection of resources. I’ll especially be keeping an eye on the High Adventure location database he’s compiling.
➔ Heard from a Cubmaster in Texas about using the Google Sites templates for Scouts;
➔ Brainstorming on meeting activities for Thursdays meeting. Was going to do Patrol elections again but I know 1/3 at least cannot make the meeting.
➔ Had a mid-day roundtable via Twitter/Facebook about the need for IOLS training for Scouts that aged in to Assistant Scoutmaster positions. I could support “testing out” on the outdoor skills as I think they should be already able to demonstrate them; it’s actually the training of the Patrol Method that I see as being even more valuable and/or necessary.

Do you have young ASM’s in your Troop? Other than having been Scouts how are they trained?

 

Day 50! : 100 Days of Scouting

Halfway through 100 Days of Scouting! OK so it’s not 50 miles but there’s day’s where it certainly feels like it. Things have been slow in my Scout world the past couple days but certainly not today.

• Exchanged emails with Cubmaster on how to handle registering a new recruit and a transfer from another Pack;
• Was contacted by another Cubmaster about help setting up Google Sites for his Pack’s website;
• Worked with a Scout regarding a scholarship sponsored by the VFW for Scout of the Year;
• Got notice about a parade we’ve been asked to participate in this weekend in town;
• Attended my first District Committee (Web Committee) meeting. For a while I did ok at keeping quiet. For a while I held back from volunteering as well. For a while…
• Added 2 new Scouters to my #100DaysofScouting list/”newspaper”
• And thanks to @SM_Phil added a few new resources to my Scouting library;

How’s your 50 been? Easier/harder than what you expected?

So far it’s filling my goals:
1. Do “something” for a Scout, Scouts or Scouting each day;
2. New friends/new ideas;
3. Develop my writing and tuning the blog for what works with the audience (for day 101+)