Wednesday, March 01, 2006

Tough Love

Over the last few weeks I have started to notice that our Venture Crew Advisor has not been planning any activities for our Venture Crew on Wednesday. He is even bringing one of his kids to the Venture Crew meeting. He usually sits in the back of the room and watch the activity unfold. He is fairly young (10 years older than the YM) and that may be part of the issue. He may feel more like a YM than one of the leaders.

This Wednesday I didn't have anything planned so I emailed the VCA to see what he had planned. He really didn't have any good ideas. So, I told him to talk to some of the crew members and see if they could work on some merit badges.

I arrived at the Wednesday activity with a backup plan but I was going to sit back and see what he did. Usually I had something planned just in case nothing else was planned and I usually ran the activities. This time, I wasn't going to do anything.

The time was turned to the Crew President and he sat there and asked what we were doing. They all looked to me and I looked to the Crew Advisor and asked him what he had planned. He just sat there with his child on his lap and shrugged his shoulders. There was a awkward pause as everyone could see that nothing was planned for today. The President actually did a great job of saving the silence by deciding to plan our next campout. He turned the time over to the Crew member in charge of the campout and they planned what they were going to eat and stuff.

After they were done, again, there was a pause on what we were going to do. I asked the Crew Advisor again and asked if he had anything. Again, a shrug.

I finished by going over a bunch of activities that were coming up that I thought they could participate in such as the "Fathers and Sons" activity and the "Scout - O - Rama". We then finalized the "Snow Sports" merit badge with a couple of the YM that were working on the badge.

Anyway, I hope he felt awkward and embarrassed that he didn't have anything planned. As bad as it went, I really still don't think he understands his roll as the Crew Advisor. I really feel that I am going to have to go over to his house and talk to him about his duties and how a Wednesday activity should be run. Then, I'll make sure he knows that he is in charge and that I'm not going to be planning the Wednesday activities any more.

Anyway, I tried "Tough Love" by letting the activity flop but I don't think he felt that it was his fault. We will see.