How I came to be a Scoutmaster

Basically, I was "called" to be a Scoutmaster for my ward's BSA troop. For those of you not familiar with the LDS church, normally adult leadership positions in Scouting are given as church callings, meaning the bishop of your ward (or the Stake Presidency for district leaders) are inspired that a certain person should be given a particular position. Being faithful and believing this call to truly be inspired, I accepted the call and became Scoutmaster of our BSA troop in August 2005.

There is no clear reason why I was called to this position. I was 26 years old at the time, so I obviously had no kids in the program. In fact, I have no kids at all. I also was not much of an outdoorsman, and my experience in Scouting as a boy was limited to Cub Scouts. My chosen profession does not involve dealing with youth (I'm an accountant/auditor). I did not grow up in the LDS church, so I am not that familiar with the role of scouting in the overall youth program, although I did serve for a short time as a secretary in a Stake Young Men's organization. On the surface, I seemed to be a very poor fit for the position, however I was determined to do my duty and serve in the best way I could.

Unfortunately, almost immediately after my call was received, I was sent away for business for two weeks, and a week after my return I was sent away for an additional seven weeks. It is certainly very hard to re-establish a program when you are thousands of miles away for the first three months of your tenure.

Upon my return I tried to read as much as I could on Scouting and attend training classes as my schedule permitted. I also tried to learn more about the history of my particular unit. I eventually came to the realization that this unit lacked organization and didn't closely follow BSA or LDS guidelines for running a Scouting program. That is when I understood why I was called to this position. Who better to provide structure and organization and see to it that the rules are followed than an auditor? In my professional life I was expected to go into unfamiliar organizations, learn their policies and procedures and then validate that those procedures were being followed, and if they were not followed to recommend action as to how to remediate the deficiencies. That is exactly what I was to do here. I had to learn the methods of Scouting, assess where my unit was in practicing those methods, and formulate and execute a plan to fix the problems and make things run the way they should. Of course it is never that simple...

Welcome to my new blog!

Welcome to my new blog! As a relatively new scoutmaster for a unit sponsored by the LDS Church, I decided it might be fun to start a blog to chronicle my learning and adventures with our scouting program. Very soon I'll post regarding my background and how I became involved with Scouting and some of my growing pains in learning the duties of my new role. I will also discuss various scouting topics, posts questions, and share experiences from my troop.

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to come back soon!