New Scoutmaster - Whose Troop Is It?
| Category: | New Scoutmaster |
|---|---|
| Notes: | Delivered by the Senior Patrol Leader or another senior Scout to the troop during a change of Scoutmasters. Works the night of the change or at the first meeting with the new Scoutmaster. Part of a series - see also new-scoutmaster-passing-it-on, new-scoutmaster-first-words, and new-scoutmaster-a-word-from-the-committee. For a full ceremony, see /ceremonies/change-of-scoutmaster-ceremony. |
Things feel a little different tonight. For a lot of us, there's only ever been one Scoutmaster. Now there's a new one, and it's okay if that feels strange.
But I want to ask you something. Whose troop is this?
It's ours. It always has been. Scoutmasters are here to guide us, train us, and keep us safe. But we plan the campouts. We run the patrols. We teach the new Scouts. We decide what this troop is like. That doesn't change tonight.
So here's our job. Our new Scoutmaster doesn't know our traditions yet. They don't know which campsite floods, or which patrol has the best cook, or what we sing at the last campfire of summer camp. Somebody has to teach them. When a new Scout joins, we don't expect them to know everything on day one. We show them. We can do the same thing here.
Give them a fair shot. Answer their questions. Be patient when they do something differently. And when they ask, "How do you all usually do this?" give them a real answer, because that question means they're trusting us to lead.
And before we move on, let's make sure the Scoutmaster who brought us this far hears it from all of us: thank you.