GimletBlog

Old Scoutmasters never die, they just smell that way become Committee Chair.

When last we left you, I was Scoutmaster in my ward troop and also the Boy Scout District Training Chair.   After a wonderful week as a Course Co-Director for NYLT, I hoped to be able to be Course Director in 2012, but was waiting to find out if I would have the opportunity.

Wow, the changes a month can bring!   First, I was asked to be the Stake High Councilor over Young Men/Scouting and sustained on September 11.  As that precludes being Scoutmaster, the Assistant Scoutmaster was asked to be Scoutmaster and I became the Troop Committee Chair the next week on September 18.  Meanwhile, on Saturday, September 17 I was asked to be a NYLT Course Director, and then Monday, September 19, I was asked to be the District Commissioner.   It appears that both life and the Boy Scouts abhor a vacuum of time!

So now, I am recruiting constantly:  As Troop Committee Chair, I recruit troop committee members; as NYLT Course Director I recruit staff and participants for the program; and, as District Commissioner, I recruit Unit Commissioners.   Beware — I may be calling you!

This ends my five and a half year stint working directly with Boy Scouts as a Scoutmaster/Assistant Scoutmaster.  I still am working with Scouts directly as the NYLT Director but it is not a weekly activity.  I once again return to working with adults to try and get them to run the program to help out the boys.

Scoutmaster is one of those “jobs” that really becomes a self-identification and that has been a little bit hard to let go of.   When the boys went camping last month, and I had nothing to do other than answer the new Scoutmaster’s questions, it felt odd not to be going.  However, next year Thing Two starts Cub Scouts and I get to start all over again!

Triple Threat: New scoutmaster, visiting Japanese scoutmaster, old scoutmaster

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August 15 – 20 was the second week of National Youth Leadership Training put on by the Chief Seattle Council.  I had the privilege of acting as the Assistant Course Director for Program (Assistant Scoutmaster for Program).

In order to create the program a youth staff had to be recruited and then trained.  They were trained over one Saturday, three weekend programs and finally the entire week’s presentations were given an additional run through the three days before the August 15 showtime.  The youth staff performed exceptionally well.

Thing One was a Guide and loved by his Team/Patrol.  His style of servant leadership showed.

Showtime happened and the participants arrived.

The Scouts that participated were great kids and it showed.  One Scoutmaster that came to the presentations at the end of the program stated that while some of his Scouts that had been in the past claimed they did not learn anything and were often bored, those same Scouts were the ones that stepped up and led his troop after the program.  He had asked his troop committee to send four boys this year rather than the two last year.  Like many things in life, the value of the lessons learned at NYLT cannot be seen immediately but change the way these young men react to future opportunities.

It really is a Scoutmaster’s secret to success.

• Upcoming NYLT sessions for the Chief Seattle Council

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Friday night Team Gimlet drove to Camp Pigott for the last time (for the summer) to pick up Thing One and his gear.  His first year of camp staff is over!  We haven’t had time to hear much about it, but it must have been an overall positive experience, because Thing One already is planning on returning to camp staff next summer, and would like to work on weekend winter camp staff as well.

There was barely enough time to do laundry and catch a little sleep before Thing One and the Gimlet were on their way again, headed to Camp Sheppard for a week of NYLT staff.

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Our first official day of summer vacation, and the big guys are already heading out.

The Gimlet and Thing One are working on NYLT staff in August, and their final training session is this weekend.  Next week, it’s off to camp staff for Thing One.  While picturing (1) scout camp subsidizing a teenager’s food intake and (2) Thing One doing his own laundry are happy thoughts, we always miss Thing One when he’s not at home.

Meanwhile, Thing Two and Your Humble Narrator are keeping vigil at the local fruit stand:

We’re down to our last container of homemade strawberry jam, so we really hope “Soon” means soon!

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Visit the WashJam photo album in the Gimlet Gallery.

On August 20, 2009, my troop went in to Fort Lewis for WashJam. There were about 6,000 people who came to this camp.

There were activities like the mountain man area, where there was caber tossing, shot put, and knife throwing. They also had tomahawk throwing and archery, but those were either closed or had a long line.  Other fun activities were gold panning and blacksmithing.

On Friday I worked at a pizza stand to raise money for my 2010 Jamboree troop.  While trying to get rid of the last pizzas of the day, the whole pizzas had dropped in price since the afternoon from $18.00 to $10.00. at one point while walking through camp I made advertisement for the pizza. “oh wow, camp food! It may be charred on the outside! It may be raw on the inside! But at least it’s got that special outdoor flavor! … of lighter fluid! Mm-mm, when do we eat? Come and buy your troop whole pizzas for $10.00!” it was easy to work with the troop in the stand as runner (brings to the table the order) and as stocker (brings pizza from truck to stand and carries signs about the pizza and specials.

There was music at the end of the day at the stage, which the staff had built at Fort Lewis.  The rental equipment was bad and shocked one person, and there was nothing in between shows for a few minutes, but some of the songs were still good.

On Saturday I went to the NYLT staff meeting, which talked about when they would know who the staff would be, and when the dates of the staff meetings would approximately be. We also got to talk to who would be staff, which was fun. Later, WashJam had an inspirational speech at the stage at night.

Sunday was church all day. They had sacrament meeting at the stage for all 1,600 LDS troop members. After the priesthood meeting, there was dinner, breaking camp, and a fireside with talks. After the fireside, we finished up breaking camp and left.

I liked going to WashJam.  It was fun to especially do the mountain men area, and I liked the Order of the Arrow museum, and the booths about different camps, like Camp Sheppard and its High Adventure program. There were lots of things to buy at the stores.  It was fun to see people that I got to know from OA, NYLT, and Camp Parsons earlier this year.

If your troop goes to a future WashJam, see everything you can, and do as much as you can, because there’s not enough time to do all the activities. Sometimes it was hot and sometimes it rained, so troops should bring a pop up canopy.  It’s also a good idea to bring folding chairs so you don’t have to sit on the ground, and lots of food for breakfast and after the stands close.  I would recommend troops go to the next WashJam because it is fun to be with so many scouts and there are activities to do there that you usually cannot do in your home area with just your troop.

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On June 28-July 3, I went to national youth leadership training (or NYLT) held at Camp Pigott. When everybody got there at noon, we were shown around the camp and played Frisbee. Then, we were set up in patrols. Since the scout who came from China was in our patrol, we were The Foreigners, and I got to design our flag, which I got to take home at the end of NYLT.

We cooked our own food throughout the week on a camp stove. Unfortunately, on the first day our stove didn’t work. Finally, one burner did work, but then the end of the propane hose connected to the stove caught on fire, so we had the can of beef stew cold. The next day, we got another stove. Despite occasionally burning food, my patrol’s food was good. To teach about communication, we ordered what we wanted for lunch one day, and if we weren’t specific about amounts of food, we would not get everything correct, fortunately we were more specific that other patrols and got almost what we wanted.

Throughout the week, we had presentations by the staff with acronyms to remember leadership skills, and games with teamwork, like the spider web, where you would have to get through the holes in the ropes, only using one hole once and not touching the ropes. Another activity was where one person looked at a Lego building and described it to the rest of the patrol.

We also used GPS’s for a geocaching game. We followed the coordinates and used the hints to look for clues all around the camp. I found our troop guide in a forested area around our coordinates and then we had root beer floats. Another activity was the house of nails, where there was a nail stuck in a block of wood and we had to use all the nails not putting them in the wood and use balance. We almost finished it, but they fell over and it was time for the next game. We also made ballistas and would use these to catapult sponges at the staff. We did make one that was good, but it fell apart.

Every morning, there would be a weather report where a staff would throw a rock with drawings of suns and clouds on the sides in the air and say “it’s sunny” or “it will rain cows” depending on which side was up. There was also a joke of the day which either was or wasn’t funny.  There was also the word of the day, where everybody would say “N.Y.L.T!!!” and somebody would say “What’s that spell?” and people would either say “nylt!!” or “Nothing!!”

All the patrols did skits involving a leadership skill; my patrol did a skit about a Korean mountain climbing crew in 1818. One of the setbacks was when my character broke his arm, so they had to change the plans for the climb to work around my broken arm.

On the last full day, we did outpost, where we camped with our patrols in one of the Camp Pigott campsites for that night. Then in the morning, we left, cleaned up the camp, and prepared for the 6:00 feast. At 7:00 PM, there were the closing flags, and we also got folders with the NYLT patch, a note card with all the acronyms, the trained patch, and a certificate. It was a good experience, and even though the presentations were boring (which everybody agreed on) I know more than I did before about leadership.

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Thing One is tackling his busy summer schedule with one arm tied behind his back:  the day his cast was put on his arm, we drove him to Youth Conference in time for dinner.  He spent the next two days working on a service project and having fun, came home Saturday afternoon, and promptly headed out again that evening to a church dance.

The next morning we took him to Camp Pigott for a week of National Youth Leader Training (NYLT).  Usually just The Gimlet and Thing One make the drive; it was fun for the At Home Unit to see the camp and put all the photos into perspective.

Thing One can carry a backpack, but the doctor said he would have to have help putting the pack on and taking it off as he isn’t supposed to put any weight on the broken wrist.  He has a special cover like a wet suit for the cast so he can go swimming, but he can only wear the cover for 45 minutes as the vacuum seal may cut off the circulation in his arm if it stays on longer.  Exciting!

Here’s the entrance to the camp, and once we arrived, it was easy to find the place to stow all of Thing One’s gear.

The Gimlet arrives in disguise (but even without his scoutmaster uniform, he was recognized by the quartermaster), and takes Thing Two, future scouter, on a short walk around the camp.

A beautiful place to spend a week.

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