Camping with a Purpose

Is your summer camp experience preparing your Scouts for their futures? Taking Scouts on campouts, for many of us, may be, by now, old hat. Every month going on an overnighter can get repetitive and parentheses dare I say it? Parenthesis tedious? Getting into a rut about camping can kill the fun for the youth and kill your vital enthusiasm for the program. Yes, we still go on these campouts; usually for a myriad of reasons until we hit winter.  Before you know it though, it is time to start thinking about summer camp. (What? Already?)

I would submit that your waning enthusiasm for the monthly campout is probably affected by summer camp in a couple of ways. First, it is the thing you worried about for months and months and then throw together at the last minute. Other Scout leaders, parents, and church leaders expected it to happen after all. Or, it becomes so dreaded that you're trying to find any activity other than summer camp to do with the boys (it's expensive after all, and time off work is hard…) Things do not have to be this way. Campouts, particularly the annual summer camp experience, can be a way to re-energize your camping batteries for the years to come.  Here is a strategy to help ensure your camping experience is beneficial, engaging, and fun! 

Go camping with a purpose planned by your youth. All too often we go camping just to go camping or to drill the basics.  And how often do we let the youth plan the campout? I mean, really plan it, not just in the motions, but actually affect the outcomes of the experience.  Do the boys go camping to have fun? Great! Add a purpose to their fun that they develop and the experience will be one they remember and grow from. Now, they may need some help with this part, but that does not give us license to do it for them.

You as their leader know what they need to learn, your church leaders have things they want the youth to learn by the time they go to college, on a mission, etc. (Don't believe me? Ask them, they really do!) They should be communicating those things with you. Guide your boys to make decisions and set goals for their outdoor experiences that align with their church leader’s goals for them and then get out of their way!

Allow the Deacons Quorum presidents to make real decisions and exercise his priesthood keys on behalf of the troop. Boys need an extended trip away from Mom and Dad? Work that into the goals. Need help making and keeping promises or following through? Nothing teaches better than first-hand experience that affects the entire group. (This might mean you eat oatmeal for every meal, or burn pancakes a lot…)

Summer camp is no exception to this suggestion. Go to summer camp with goals that aren’t merit badges are rank advancements. Go with a goal for team building, learning how to cook, or even getting away from Electronics (provided that this is what the boys decided their goal should be), and expect everyone to come on board with the benchmarks that you can measure after camp is over. If you can't measure it, how do you know how you did after all? Expect the youth leadership to guide, and encourage, and direct as they see a need. Allow them to do just that - lead. Explain that this is not a passive process, but an active one that will require help - from other youth leaders, parents, and the Lord. Expect revelation and act on it when it comes.

Then watch. Help them learn. Guide their decisions and the spiritual experiences will come – so will the badges and the advancements. Watch what they do in the process - most of it will line up with the other requirements. A true byproduct of this spiritual learning experience.

All of a sudden, the pressure is off of you to force a good camping experience and your boys can become invested. And when Mom asks about badges you can have a conversation about goals of church leaders, mission prep, and self-reliance – all things we know moms and dads care deeply about. 

I remember an activity that I participated in as a Varsity Scout (may it rest in peace…) that I will never forget. We had decided we wanted to go on a mountain biking activity that the team planned. So, we pulled out the map for an area we decided would be a good route and started looking where we would go, where we would rest, and where we would stop. Well, as the crow flies, it was about a 10-mile ride. We figured that if we started in the morning we could make it to the campsites at the top of the canyon by dinner time.  We planned the entire trip - from how to get there to making sure that we had enough leadership and that food and all our resources would be in place when we needed them.

One of our leaders had decided to go with us on the trip and the other one was going to the top of the canyon in the truck to set up camp (not ideal for today...). As we were dropped off at the bottom of the canyon and began our trip it seemed like everything was going to work out fine. We made our stops and kept biking up the canyon. However, once we hit our projected time of arrival at the campsite was when we started to think there might be a challenge. We started telling each other “it [the campsite] must be just over the next rise.” After saying this multiple times it was clear that we had made a pretty major miscalculation in the time that it would take for us to travel the almost sixteen-mile route that we estimated looking like ten on the map.

Our leader, Brother Beck, kept us moving, though. Encouraging us along the way and even taking time with a few of us to stop and offer water or food. As I got to the point that I felt that I would not be able to continue, Brother Beck stopped with me and not only encouraged me to continue, but also asked a simple question “Have you prayed for help from Heavenly Father?” Nothing more. As I knelt and prayed I knew that this would be an experience that I would never forget.

Similar experiences can be had by every youth that attends camp! My challenge to you is to create opportunities that will allow for growth and then take advantage of those opportunities to their fullest potential. Scout camp is the perfect venue for such opportunities, if planning and preparation are done well and the focus is where it should be!

Be Prepared by Learning Who We Are as Scouts and Sons of God – Integrity

One of the most important things a young man can learn today is how to determine right from wrong. In a world of so many opportunities, for good and not, it is imperative that our youth have ample opportunity to exercise their decision-making powers to learn to choose those things that will improve themselves and those around them. The world is ever-changing. People change. Standards are continually in flux. However, integrity cannot change with them.

The author John D. MacDonald has said “Integrity is not a conditional word. It doesn’t blow in the wind or change with the weather. It is your inner image of yourself, and if you look in there and see a man who won’t cheat, then you know he never will.” The youth today, particularly our young men, need to learn to find that integrity within themselves. Integrity, in all that we do, can become the center of an effective youth that has the chance to learn through doing. Scouting can provide those opportunities in an environment that is safe, effective and meaningful.

Scouting was able to help me find a great deal of that inner image John MacDonald mentioned. Through watching effective, trained leaders who cared about each youth in their circle of care and who allowed those youth to make decisions that would build integrity for themselves, I was able to gain a fundamental understanding of what having integrity means to me. In everything they did, from their interactions with us as Scouts to the way they treated others at church functions and in their own professional lives, I was very fortunate to have leaders that exuded what integrity meant to them. I could see that the things they talked about in troop meetings were not just for Scouting. They were for every day, all time. Those experiences, as well as lessons, provided by loving parents, other life missteps, and my own personal growth have given me a perspective and understanding that will, I believe, help me better understand how to instill integrity in my own children.

It is imperative that we give our youth an opportunity to see and experience what growing integrity is like. Mistakes happen; amazing opportunities are around every corner; it is the fundamental integrity and self-image that every youth needs that will help them to make the most of those opportunities.

This was an article I wrote in Dec. 2014 for the blog The Boy Scout, a blog for the Utah National Parks Council, Boy Scouts of America. 

4 things that working in the Theatre has taught me about working in Non-Profits

There are so many volunteer and activism opportunities available today that many non-profits might struggle getting and keeping volunteers and donors engaged in their cause. Working in the theatre, both non-profit and professional, has shed some light on how non-profits can keep those individuals engaged long after they come to the show.

1. Know your audience

It does not make sense from a business perspective in the theatre to produce a show that no one is going to come and see. Particularly in the non-profit theatre world, if you do not have butts in seats you do not have money and resources to fund future projects. It is the same with any other organization. You MUST know your audience – who they are, what makes them tick, what inspires them, what turns them off. Most of the non-profits that have a direct influence in the community have one thing in common – they are trying to fix a problem that they see in the community. More than anything that we do in the non-profit world, resonating with people and their direct connection to that communal pain is among the most paramount missions we can have.

2. Never bore that audience

In the theatre, particularly children’s theatre, there is one benchmark that you can utilize to tell whether or not the production is interesting and engaging - children. If the production can grab the kids attention and keep them engaged you know that you have something special. The gauge of success is the amount of rustling that you hear in the seats. The minute that there is something that is not engaging in the production those kids will begin to wiggle, chat, whisper, and look for something more interesting that what is happening in front of them. Donors and volunteers are much the same. Unless what they are seeing from you as a non-profit is engaging, interesting, and important those individuals will go to find the thing that is engaging, interesting, and important FOR THEM. The things that are important for you and your non-profit may not be the things that are important to the donors and the volunteers. it is key to align your objectives with the expectations and interests of your base.

3. It is always easier to scale back from going full out rather than trying to pull more out of anyone/anything

Working as a theatre director one of the most frustrating things that I would run into would be actors who would come to a rehearsal and not be “present” in the rehearsal process or those that would “mark” their performances. I, as a director, cannot pull good acting out of an actor (shocker, I know!). It is much easier for me to tell an actor to scale back what they are doing on stage in a rehearsal than it is to pull acting out of an individual. The same applies for non-profits. Stop approaching projects (fundraising, special events, community outreach) half-heartedly!! It is much easier for an organization to ask for something to be scaled back slightly than to hem and haw over not getting what they needed to begin with. Think BIG. Act BIG. Set goals that seem like they are OUTRAGEOUS. Then, get some perspective, scale the project into manageable steps and GO GET THE OUTRAGEOUS!!

4. Always leave them wanting more!!

“Remember, our production in March is coming and you do not want to miss it!!” There needs to be something that keeps your audience engaged after they have done something for you; whether that is attend a production of donate to your current giving campaign. There is nothing more dangerous than a volunteer or donor who thinks that they are done with your organization simply by giving a couple of hours or a couple of dollars. Keeping your volunteer base engaged after your major event can increase the retention rates for future interactions with those individuals. Now, this has been used to a point in the traditional non-profit fundraising scene for some time, but only in a limited way. A post-event email/letter/card is not enough. Period. Personal interaction with donors and volunteers after events, donations, etc. with a further call to action are imperative. That means having something for them to DO after they have already done something else. Planning is key. Commitment to further activities, planned giving, corporate partnerships - all of these might work to an organizations advantage in this regard. Communication of further need and an apreciation of the good work that has already been done can keep your organization in the forefront of their activism and volunteer calendar.

Don’t let those engaged, willing volunteers and donors slip into inactivity. Keep them engaged. Ask them to do hard things. These things can help non-profits help to get and keep those key players engaged for longer in their causes.

Outside Only Friends

Vlogging from my car (again...). My kids have "outside only" friends. Do yours?

Vlog - Let's try this thing!!

Let's talk about STUFF!!

Here is my first attempt at a Vlog. I hope to have a weekly installment. My goal is to have something up every Friday. Theatre Projects, Non-profit World, Geeky Stuff!!

Personal Heraldic Achievement

This is something I have been working on for quite some time. Now I have it finished for myself - my own personal Coat of Arms, Badge, and Standard. I have finished one for dad and am working on one for each of the brothers as well, but it was sure nice to have mine completed.

Here is the Blazon:
Blazon: Per pale raguly argent and sable, dexter in pale a fleur-de-lis azure and a rose gules, barbed and seeded proper, sinister a griffin segreant argent, beaked and membered or, armed and langued gules. 
Mantling: Argent doubled Sable
Crest: A demi sun gules. 
Motto: Family Is Our Strength
Badge: A male demi-griffin segreant Sable, beaked Or, langued Gules, rayed and armed Argent, holding in the dexter claw a rose Gules barbed, seeded, slipped and leaved proper.
Standard: In the hoist, the arms of Nicholas Hutchinson; in the fly Argent divided into three compartments by two transverse bands Sable bearing the motto FAMILY IS OUR STRENGTH in letters Argent, in the first and third compartments his badge and in the second his crest; fringed compony Argent and Sable. 

Work in progress...

Also Working on...