Ch-Ch-Changes

This Sunday they released me as Scoutmaster for troop 519 and called Bill Tayler to take my spot. They didn’t kick me out of the program all together though. I’ve been asked to serve as Committee Chairman for the troop. I’ve got some mixed emotions about the changes. First of all I think I’ll enjoy being committee chairman. It’ll give me a chance to work on my Woodbadge ticket from a slightly different perspective than I’d originally planned. I also know that a fully functioning committee can really take the boys’ plans and turn them into reality. I’m looking forward to doing just that.

On the other side I will miss dealing directly with the boys. I’ve been working with this same group of young men since they were all about eight and I was their primary teacher, then their Cubmaster and then later on when I was their Assistant Scoutmaster and Scoutmaster. It’ll feel kinda different just working with the leaders than the boys. Don’t get me wrong I’m still going to invite myself on plenty of campouts. It’ll actually be nice to go out and just enjoy the campout and let somebody else stress the details.

As I was growing up and my folks were pretty active in scouting I noticed a large group of leaders who seemed to be just in the program for the adult camaraderie. They went to roundtables and training sessions to hang out with the other adults. It was their own little cliché. I kinda felt like they were missing the point. All the training and support mean little if they don’t actually apply it to the programs and ultimately the boys. I made a promise to myself that I’d never forget what Scouting was all about and I’d strive to stay as close to the boys as I could. My job as committee chair now takes me a step further up the ladder than I’d have chosen, but I’m still close enough to really make a measurable difference in the lives of these guys.

We had our first committee meeting last night with me as chairman. I was pleasantly surprised by the participation. We had about ten parents and leaders there and I feel like we got off to a good start. As I was writing my Woodbadge ticket I noticed that it would be really easy to become one of those who became too separated from the boys. I made a conscious effort to word my ticket in such a way that I was only doing things that I felt would directly improve the quality of the program for the boys.

Commitment

There's an old metaphor that gets used a lot to explain the difference between involvement and commitment. You need look no further than your morning breakfast of milk, bacon and eggs. The cow and the chicken were involved in providing the milk and the eggs, but the pig was committed to provide the bacon.

Last month my youngest played the cat in her preschool class's production of "The Little Red Hen". You know the story. The hen looks all over town to find some help to make some bread but nobody is willing to sacrifice anything to make it happen. Yet when the bread is done they all want to take part in the feast. It's amazing how timeless some of this fables actually are. I think I've had to face this situation much more as an adult than I ever did as a child.
Lately I've been dealing with a lot of people who haven't even been willing to provide milk or eggs or help at all in baking the bread and it's very frustrating. They don't even come close to the Pigs level of commitment. Yet I'm sure that some of these same people will be the ones knocking on the door to participate once the aroma of the bread starts wafting out the windows.
Perhaps they all should have paid a little bit more attention when they were in preschool. Or maybe they just need to have a 5 year old tell them the story.

Climbing adventure

Our monthly scout campout was last Friday and Saturday. We were supposed to head up to Mount Yonah to work on our climbing merit badge. The weather was looking a little bit unpredictable so I changed our destination so the guys wouldn't have to schlep all the gear up the access trail just to get rained out. There is this cool little rock climbing area just over the state line in Alabama. I used to go there at least twice a month but lately it's been more like twice a year. The rock is nice, especially for beginners, but the "local flavor" leaves a lot to be desired. At about 3:00am Saturday morning I sent the following email to my wife from my Blackberry:

Good morning.
Well we've had an exciting night so far. We pulled into Sandrock at about 8:00 and set up camp. Not too many people up here . Just a couple of climbers and one group of rednecks off in the woods.
At about 1:30 I get woken up to the sound of the scouts yelling "forest fire!"
So I got dressed and grabbed the water jug and started over towards the flames that were going 40 feet into the air. Somebody had set fire to the jiffy johny that the Climbers Coalition had paid for and it was spreading to the trees around it. I quickly realized that this was much bigger than I could take care of so I called 911.
I did my best to control the perimeter with the little water I had. My biggest concern was the trees that were burning 30' above me. As I continued to do my best to keep the perimeter, which was now about 50' across, under control I noticed that several places got worse when I put water on them. This was a gas fire. Somebody had put gas in the john and set it on fire. The whole time I was doing this I had one shirtless, missing a few teeth, redneck shadowing me insisting that I not call the police. When I told him that they were already on there way he got defensive and even accused me of starting the fire. To which I told him, "You might want to go back to camp and lay low for a little bit. When the firemen show up they'll see me, sober and trying to contain this and you, drunk, just standing around and they'll draw their own conclusions." He threatened to kick my @$$ a couple time but his slightly less drunk buddies convinced him it wasn't a good idea. I had 8 scouts standing around who were pretty sure that there was gonna be a "tussle". I think one had actually placed a bet on it. Nothing came of it. I just kept assuring then that I hadn't accused anybody of anything. I just wanted to get the fire out before it got any worse.
After about 20 minutes of my futile efforts the local volunteer fire department began to show up. First on the scene was a good old boy with his two young daughters who showed up in his Camaro. I was a little concerned until I saw that he was wearing his turn-out gear. In a matter of minutes there were three firetrucks on the scene and about twenty of Sand Rock's finest quickly got it under control. I told them what little I knew about how it could have started and they said they'd send up a deputy to make a report. I shook all their hands and thanked them for getting here before it got any worse. So far I haven't seen a deputy yet.
Conspicuously absent from the last half hour was my inebriated friend and his buddies. Perhaps picking a fight with the one guy who was trying to put the fire out wasn't such a good idea now that there were so many firemen on the scene.
Oh well. That's the excitement so far. I'll call you in he morning and give you a full report. Hopefully our day of climbing will not be marred by the event.

The day did get better. We never saw a deputy but we had a full day of climbing and the guys had a great time. We set up a few top ropes on the begineer wall and then went down to work on a taller route. I think the hardest they did was maybe 5.6 but they all got he chance to get up in the air and see what this "climbing" thing is all about.
We didn't finish the merit badge but I had a few scout come up to me and ask to go again. I since got on a discussion board and pledge the troop's support in helping to clean up Sand Rock at the next Climber's Coalition trail day. Now that they've seen first hand the effects of people abusing the land it'll be good to expose them to another group that cares for and actually takes stewardship of this world that we have to enjoy.
Here are a few picures from the weekend.