OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS # 80 - Opportunity
It's been awhile. Things just kept coming up. I so apologize to all those who wait religiously each week for the Opportunity Knocks to come out. And for those who worry that I have died or become incapacitated, that hasn't happened yet. I'm getting up there but I have some time left.
Today's Opportunity Knocks is about exactly that. Opportunity.
Troop 26 provides a huge opportunity. The opportunity to earn the Eagle Scout Award. Not all scouts are given this opportunity. Many scouts want it but can't find it. I can't get over the number of men I have met at Philmont and Sommers and National Jamborees who told me they only got as far as First Class, Star or Life, offering the excuse that "we didn't have enough men", or "our adults didn't teach classes", or "we didn't have enough adults to go to summer camp". Everybody who didn't make it had a ready made excuse. It was about somebody else not doing what they were supposed to be doing. "I didn't get it because my Scoutmaster quit and they couldn't get anybody to take his place". (Why didn't you join another troop?) "I just needed one badge and nobody in my troop taught it." (Why didn't you go to your Council office and find a counselor?) "I just waited too long and other things started getting in the way." (Why did you allow things to get in the way?)
There a million excuses. I've used most of them. I quit Scouting as a ninth grader with two merit badges, and First class. Looking back, I am devastated by my lack of resolve. I could have done it. I chose not to. I chose to blame it on a lack of counselors. I chose to blame it on a change in Scoutmasters. I chose to blame it on friends at school who had little respect for scouts. I chose to blame it on friends, girls, jobs, grades. But I made that choice. I chose not to succeed.
The Eagle Scout Award isn't easy to get. That's why so few young men actually get it. They are an exceptional group of young men. And at the time they get it they have no idea how special it is. That comes later.
We just had a Court of Honor. Several of the recipients of the Eagle Scout Award were over eighteen. They just barely got their final badges, their projects, their paperwork, and their letters of reference in before the deadline. They did it at the last minute for a variety of reasons, I suppose, but as I watched the ceremony, one thing became crystal clear. The opportunity was here! The counselors were here. The camping program was here. The trained Scoutmaster and Assistant Scoutmasters were here. And they still almost missed it.
Why?
I think that your childhood and especially your teenage years are about making determinations about what you want to do in life. It's about setting goals. But it is very possible, in fact probable, that some of the goals you set will be upstaged by newer goals as you get older. Some of the goals you set for yourself will be put on the back burner by goals that are set for you by someone else. I think that teenagers are trying to grow up and act older. That's why many of them decide to sever their relationship with Scouting because they see it as "little kid stuff". They are sixteen and seventeen years old and there are ten year olds at their scout meetings with the same uniform on. How do you explain that to a school friend or a girlfriend who doesn't know what scouting is all about. It's hard to explain. So it becomes easier to just quit.
As a Scoutmaster, what can I do to counter this trend? Well, I'm convinced that I can't. I really can't. By the time the boy is seventeen years old, there is nothing I can do. If I wait that long to do it!!! I need to start when they are ten years old. I need to tell them up front how they are going to feel in several years. I want to be honest about the things that might get in the way of finishing what you start. Grades, sports, cars, jobs, honor classes, girls. We know those things are coming. So I want the scout to know that those things are coming too. I want to push the concept of "a scout is brave". Stand up for what you want. Don't let other people tell you what you can belong to and what you can't. I want to use every minute of age ten, eleven, twelve, and thirteen, to help them build confidence in themselves and build in them a love for scouting. I can do that by offering a wide range of activities that challenge them to be better, smarter, active, and more competent. I can build goals within scouting that are achievable and things they can look forward to. From a simple first time campout in the summer sun at age ten, to a night spent at the base of Baldy at Philmont at age seventeen, through the rain and the boring classes and the peer pressure at school, all the way to that night when they turn their final paperwork for Eagle Scout in. I want to offer them a variety of adult leaders who represent a variety of ages and hobbies and skills and professions. I want them to make lasting friendships through shared experiences. I want them to learn from the examples set for them by older scouts, and, in turn, set those examples for those who follow.
I think we do that in our troop. I think we have done a pretty good job of that.
And yet, at the last Court of Honor, there were several scouts who just about missed the opportunity. They succeeded, but they came so close to failing. It was scary how close they came to giving up. A failure that would haunt them for years to come. And they didn't know how much it mattered.
I hate losing Life Scouts. I hate it. I hate it more than I hate the Pittsburg Steelers. Life Scouts come so close. They are so close they can actually see it. I hate it when they just fade away after spending a good portion of their childhood with us in scouting.
I am tempted to feel bad and accept part of their failure as my failure. Wasn't there something I should have done? Wasn't there something I could have done? Should I have sent a card when I noticed that they were missing too many meetings? Should I have called on the phone? Would that have made a difference?
And then I received a new perspective that I would like to share with you as part of this Opportunity Knocks #80. And I got this perspective listening to a NFL head coach as he was being interviewed after a bitter loss to an archrival. He was asked why his team lost. He was asked if he could have done something different. He was asked if he shouldn't have spent more time in practice on one skill or another.
The coach looked the reporter in the eye and said.."Look! I'm just the coach. I do everything I can to put my players in a position to win. But the coaches don't go out there on the field. When the whistle blows, the players have to go out there and play. They have to decide when to give up. They have to decide if they are going to give it their all during the allotted time. They have to decide about how much effort they are going to give. Coaches coach. Players play. Every game is an opportunity to get better. We'll look at the film this week. This coming week, we'll practice. Next Sunday, we'll put our players in a position to be successful. Maybe they will. That's why we coach."
That just about says it all. Scouting is about preparing for life. All the points of the Scout Law and all the parts of the Scout Oath are personal traits that our kids will need as they play the game of life. We have to hope that as Scout leaders, Sunday school teachers, school teachers, coaches, and counselors, we have given them enough skills to play the game successfully.
To continue the football analogy, you've all seen games on a college and professional level where when the fourth quarter starts, all the players raise their arms with four fingers in the air. It signifies that the game is almost over. They only have a quarter let to get it done.
Right now in Troop 26, we have over fifty Life Scouts. Being a sixteen or seventeen year old Life Scout is like being in the fourth quarter. Some of our scouts are approaching that critical age. Some are already sixteen. Some are seventeen and some are turning eighteen in 2008. There is still time but it is running out, especially considering the things that are being added to each scouts plate. And it isn't going to get any easier. It's going to get progressively harder. I hope that some Life Scout or some parent will read this and feel a new sense of urgency and resolve.
I am reminded about one of my Assistant Scoutmasters. Jeff Weaver. He is concerned about two such older scouts that are good friends of his Eagle Scout son. They joined at about the same time. Jeff's son recently earned his Eagle Scout award and Jeff feels a sense of loyalty to his son's friends. He calls them every couple of weeks or so, just to check in and offer his support. All of our Assistant Scoutmasters are like that with different kids. Jeff is so dedicated to helping these two boys finish. I hope they finish as well. But Jeff and I are looking at these two boys from two completely different perspectives. Jeff made his Eagle. I didn't. Jeff represents success while I represent failure. Jeff wants these two boys to experience that sense of pride and success that he felt. I want to help these two boys avoid that feeling of failure that I continue to feel to this day. We both would do anything for them. But it all comes down to the two scouts. And don't misunderstand me. They are both wonderful kids and terrific troop members and they are going to make wonderful men and great dads someday. It just comes down to how badly they want to succeed. Encouragement only goes so far. Now it's about their individual will to get it done. And they haven't a clue how disappointed Jeff and I will be if that door closes at age eighteen and the opportunity for success is gone.
I want to take this opportunity to congratulate all those boys who persevered and stood in honor while their dad smiled and their mom pinned the Eagle Scout Award on their uniform shirt. Congratulations on a job well done. All you Eagle Scouts out there. Do you feel it? Do you feel the success? Do you feel the sense of accomplishment? You should. It's not easy to earn. And you did it.
See you all next week.
Bill Shaffer
ScoutmasterTroop 26
Today's Opportunity Knocks is about exactly that. Opportunity.
Troop 26 provides a huge opportunity. The opportunity to earn the Eagle Scout Award. Not all scouts are given this opportunity. Many scouts want it but can't find it. I can't get over the number of men I have met at Philmont and Sommers and National Jamborees who told me they only got as far as First Class, Star or Life, offering the excuse that "we didn't have enough men", or "our adults didn't teach classes", or "we didn't have enough adults to go to summer camp". Everybody who didn't make it had a ready made excuse. It was about somebody else not doing what they were supposed to be doing. "I didn't get it because my Scoutmaster quit and they couldn't get anybody to take his place". (Why didn't you join another troop?) "I just needed one badge and nobody in my troop taught it." (Why didn't you go to your Council office and find a counselor?) "I just waited too long and other things started getting in the way." (Why did you allow things to get in the way?)
There a million excuses. I've used most of them. I quit Scouting as a ninth grader with two merit badges, and First class. Looking back, I am devastated by my lack of resolve. I could have done it. I chose not to. I chose to blame it on a lack of counselors. I chose to blame it on a change in Scoutmasters. I chose to blame it on friends at school who had little respect for scouts. I chose to blame it on friends, girls, jobs, grades. But I made that choice. I chose not to succeed.
The Eagle Scout Award isn't easy to get. That's why so few young men actually get it. They are an exceptional group of young men. And at the time they get it they have no idea how special it is. That comes later.
We just had a Court of Honor. Several of the recipients of the Eagle Scout Award were over eighteen. They just barely got their final badges, their projects, their paperwork, and their letters of reference in before the deadline. They did it at the last minute for a variety of reasons, I suppose, but as I watched the ceremony, one thing became crystal clear. The opportunity was here! The counselors were here. The camping program was here. The trained Scoutmaster and Assistant Scoutmasters were here. And they still almost missed it.
Why?
I think that your childhood and especially your teenage years are about making determinations about what you want to do in life. It's about setting goals. But it is very possible, in fact probable, that some of the goals you set will be upstaged by newer goals as you get older. Some of the goals you set for yourself will be put on the back burner by goals that are set for you by someone else. I think that teenagers are trying to grow up and act older. That's why many of them decide to sever their relationship with Scouting because they see it as "little kid stuff". They are sixteen and seventeen years old and there are ten year olds at their scout meetings with the same uniform on. How do you explain that to a school friend or a girlfriend who doesn't know what scouting is all about. It's hard to explain. So it becomes easier to just quit.
As a Scoutmaster, what can I do to counter this trend? Well, I'm convinced that I can't. I really can't. By the time the boy is seventeen years old, there is nothing I can do. If I wait that long to do it!!! I need to start when they are ten years old. I need to tell them up front how they are going to feel in several years. I want to be honest about the things that might get in the way of finishing what you start. Grades, sports, cars, jobs, honor classes, girls. We know those things are coming. So I want the scout to know that those things are coming too. I want to push the concept of "a scout is brave". Stand up for what you want. Don't let other people tell you what you can belong to and what you can't. I want to use every minute of age ten, eleven, twelve, and thirteen, to help them build confidence in themselves and build in them a love for scouting. I can do that by offering a wide range of activities that challenge them to be better, smarter, active, and more competent. I can build goals within scouting that are achievable and things they can look forward to. From a simple first time campout in the summer sun at age ten, to a night spent at the base of Baldy at Philmont at age seventeen, through the rain and the boring classes and the peer pressure at school, all the way to that night when they turn their final paperwork for Eagle Scout in. I want to offer them a variety of adult leaders who represent a variety of ages and hobbies and skills and professions. I want them to make lasting friendships through shared experiences. I want them to learn from the examples set for them by older scouts, and, in turn, set those examples for those who follow.
I think we do that in our troop. I think we have done a pretty good job of that.
And yet, at the last Court of Honor, there were several scouts who just about missed the opportunity. They succeeded, but they came so close to failing. It was scary how close they came to giving up. A failure that would haunt them for years to come. And they didn't know how much it mattered.
I hate losing Life Scouts. I hate it. I hate it more than I hate the Pittsburg Steelers. Life Scouts come so close. They are so close they can actually see it. I hate it when they just fade away after spending a good portion of their childhood with us in scouting.
I am tempted to feel bad and accept part of their failure as my failure. Wasn't there something I should have done? Wasn't there something I could have done? Should I have sent a card when I noticed that they were missing too many meetings? Should I have called on the phone? Would that have made a difference?
And then I received a new perspective that I would like to share with you as part of this Opportunity Knocks #80. And I got this perspective listening to a NFL head coach as he was being interviewed after a bitter loss to an archrival. He was asked why his team lost. He was asked if he could have done something different. He was asked if he shouldn't have spent more time in practice on one skill or another.
The coach looked the reporter in the eye and said.."Look! I'm just the coach. I do everything I can to put my players in a position to win. But the coaches don't go out there on the field. When the whistle blows, the players have to go out there and play. They have to decide when to give up. They have to decide if they are going to give it their all during the allotted time. They have to decide about how much effort they are going to give. Coaches coach. Players play. Every game is an opportunity to get better. We'll look at the film this week. This coming week, we'll practice. Next Sunday, we'll put our players in a position to be successful. Maybe they will. That's why we coach."
That just about says it all. Scouting is about preparing for life. All the points of the Scout Law and all the parts of the Scout Oath are personal traits that our kids will need as they play the game of life. We have to hope that as Scout leaders, Sunday school teachers, school teachers, coaches, and counselors, we have given them enough skills to play the game successfully.
To continue the football analogy, you've all seen games on a college and professional level where when the fourth quarter starts, all the players raise their arms with four fingers in the air. It signifies that the game is almost over. They only have a quarter let to get it done.
Right now in Troop 26, we have over fifty Life Scouts. Being a sixteen or seventeen year old Life Scout is like being in the fourth quarter. Some of our scouts are approaching that critical age. Some are already sixteen. Some are seventeen and some are turning eighteen in 2008. There is still time but it is running out, especially considering the things that are being added to each scouts plate. And it isn't going to get any easier. It's going to get progressively harder. I hope that some Life Scout or some parent will read this and feel a new sense of urgency and resolve.
I am reminded about one of my Assistant Scoutmasters. Jeff Weaver. He is concerned about two such older scouts that are good friends of his Eagle Scout son. They joined at about the same time. Jeff's son recently earned his Eagle Scout award and Jeff feels a sense of loyalty to his son's friends. He calls them every couple of weeks or so, just to check in and offer his support. All of our Assistant Scoutmasters are like that with different kids. Jeff is so dedicated to helping these two boys finish. I hope they finish as well. But Jeff and I are looking at these two boys from two completely different perspectives. Jeff made his Eagle. I didn't. Jeff represents success while I represent failure. Jeff wants these two boys to experience that sense of pride and success that he felt. I want to help these two boys avoid that feeling of failure that I continue to feel to this day. We both would do anything for them. But it all comes down to the two scouts. And don't misunderstand me. They are both wonderful kids and terrific troop members and they are going to make wonderful men and great dads someday. It just comes down to how badly they want to succeed. Encouragement only goes so far. Now it's about their individual will to get it done. And they haven't a clue how disappointed Jeff and I will be if that door closes at age eighteen and the opportunity for success is gone.
I want to take this opportunity to congratulate all those boys who persevered and stood in honor while their dad smiled and their mom pinned the Eagle Scout Award on their uniform shirt. Congratulations on a job well done. All you Eagle Scouts out there. Do you feel it? Do you feel the success? Do you feel the sense of accomplishment? You should. It's not easy to earn. And you did it.
See you all next week.
Bill Shaffer
ScoutmasterTroop 26
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