Twitter is pretty neat.   In it’s simplest form, it means if you “follow” the BSA feed, anytime they have anything they feel is interesting they will text message you.    But it also means you can talk back to BSA, and all others who are following their feed simly by replying to their tweet.   Depending on how BSA uses it, they tweet out questions to get instant feedback from those following their tweets (presumably Scouters).  You can monitor Twitter on the web, but most have tweets routed to their cell phone.

The first BSA tweet is:

Have you heard? NBC Nightly News interviews Chief Scout Executive Bob Mazzuca about our Hispanic initiative on March 3. Tune in!

Brazian Young Men find refuge at camp

Well if the Misplaced Americans blog is accurate they have come up with a brilliant solution –  schedule summer camp for that week and ship the boys out to country.    The post is sobering about some of the problems those youth face (maybe a little TMI about the family problems they face, as it could be embarrassing to the boys, even if only by association) but it puts the problems the boys in your ward have in perspective.

After much contemplation I settled on this: the single most important factor in judging YM leaders is how they minister to the boys.    My definition of “minister” is the amount of love you have for them along with the works you do that are motivated by that love.    I think that is how Jesus will judge YM leaders.   Fortunately, I don’t have the capacity to see into hearts, so I can’t judge that, so I need to find a different way to judge you all.

So, I started looking for a metric… a number.    Without a doubt the most important number is the percentage of  your young men who serve Missions.   On the surface that works, but I decided it wouldn’t be fair to use that number.   Frankly that number is largely dependent on the spiritual circumstance of those who are delivered to your door.   That is not to minimize the affect the YM’s program can have, but it is to say it is not the only or even necessarily the primary factor (primary factor would be home life, IMHO).

So, how about measuring the time you spend with the boys.   While that is absolutely relevant to the quality of the program, it is often not in the control of the leader.   Sometimes they just have jobs that don’t allow them to go camping once a month and a week off for Scout Camp and a week off for High Adventure.    A fair measure might be the percentage of your free time after legitimate work demands & family obligations, but I have no way to judge that.

So the measure that I came up with to judge the quality of your program is this:   How well do you plan.    Are you making it up as you go along?   Are you constantly scrambling at the last minute for Mutual Activities?   Are you teaching the boys to plan?  Do the parents know what is scheduled?  Are assignments made and followed up on?

Obviously I am just goofing around, and not really judging anyone,  but I have been thinking this through in an attempt to evaluate my own effectiveness as a YM leader.     My weakness is lack of planning, and I now set on improving that.    How are you stacking up?

In a ward I was in last month a young Deacon froze up while passing the Sacrament.    He just got a bit turned around and lost his bearings.   A good brother stood up and helped him, but it was a good reminder of how scary it can be for some of our young men participate in ordinances, especially when it is their first time.

Over at Small and Simple blog  there is a great story of  a new Priest’s nervousness over Blessing the Sacrament for the first time.    The story has a punchline which I won’t spoil, but you can learn a lesson about getting too comfortable and not spending the time necessary to get Young Men ready to participate in ordinances.

The thing that I found interesting was this:

They bring pieces of bread round on sliver platters to the accompaniment of the organ and all we have to do is sit there and wait until it arrives, each taking a piece.

Either the reporter made a mistake or that ward is a bit maverick. I believe the Handbook of Instruction specifically says not to play music during the Sacrament.    Not that I necessarily agree with that, I think some quiet music would be nice, I am just commenting on the deviance.   I wonder if it is a single ward thing,  whole stake, region or all of England.   Anyway I thought it was interesting  enough for an overly dramatic headline.     Any differences in the administration of our central weekly ordinance is interesting, in fact last summer I wrote about a ward I visited that used an organ flourish as the Priests and Deacons returned to their seats after the Sacrament.       I would be interested in hearing about any other “maverick” Sacrament traditions you may have seen over the years.

Over at Life on Golden Plates they have a cool post playing “find the Apostles” with a large format photo of the entire capital steps during the inauguration. You can zoom in and see pretty much every face on the steps.

If you don’t have the patience to play, click here to see the answer.

Patrick Winston

The single best how-to-teach video that I have ever seen is available online.  It is a 45 minute lectuer by MIT professor Patrick Winston.    He calls it “How To Speak”.    From what I can see, Patrick was was born boring, but taught himself to give great lectures.   He studied it and broke it down into very specific skills.   It is fascinating, and ANY teacher or Sacrament Meeting speaker could improve their game markedly just by watching this lecture.

Scout Sunday Patch

Yesterday we observed Scout Sunday.   I loved seeing the boys in their uniforms.    Two older members with no connection to the Youth stopped me to tell me how much they enjoyed seeing the uniformed boys.   I also overheard a conversation in the hallway with 2 members saying the same thing.

So today I make my rounds through the LDS blogs and and and surprised to learn that Scout Sunday is controversial.   OK, I don’t really think it is controversial in real life, but in the Drama Queen blogernacle, it is controversial.

Anyway, it is a very interesting post over at Times and Seasons

BTW- I have this theory that most everything on the local church level that is controversial is because leaders have failed to plan well, or communicate well.    I arrive at that theory because everything that I personally been involved with that has turned out  “controversial” was  directly related to those failures by me or other leaders.

In the Times and Seasons post there is a bit of mini-drama is over whether or not the YM should pass the Sacrament in their uniforms.    In our ward we notified the Elders Quorum early, so they prepared it and passed it.   They enjoyed participating in that ordinance this one Sunday, the Boys get to see the men passing, which builds their appreciation for the importance of the ordinance.   Families get to have their boys sit with them through the entire meeting.   Sounds like a win-win situation, or as Micheal Scott says– “a win, win, win situation”.