Teamwork on Meeting Night

We do our best to teach the boy scouts lessons that will help them in the real world, primarily through projects and service trips.  The projects are often related to working with businesses and leaders in their hometown because that helps them get out of their comfort zone and teaches them how to be resourceful.  Our goal is for every scout to leave with the ability to figure things out on their own when they don’t know what to do.

Our meeting Sunday night was an interesting one and a perfect example of just that.  The boy scout group leaders were out of town at a conference, so the normal meeting was held by one of the older members.  During the event, the power went out because the building’s commercial boiler had stopped working. This type of boiler provides electricity for the building.  On average, electric boilers last 15 years.  The one in the school was more than 20 years old, so it’s surprising it lasted this long.

When the lights went out, the team leader broke everyone into two groups to investigate potential causes.  Group one went to the circuit breaker to check the switches, while Group 2 went downstairs to look at the commercial boiler.  There was nothing wrong with the circuit breaker and the switches were still on, so it had to be a different problem.  Group 2 inspected the boiler and found multiple problems.  The pilot light had gone out and there was a broken seal in the connecting pipes, so they called a local boiler service to repair it.  The heating contractors showed up right away and were able to fix the seal and repair the boiler in under an hour.  The team leader paid for the service with his own money and had to be reimbursed later.  The point of telling this was to show how their leadership abilities are enhanced by this program.  They worked together to solve the problem that otherwise may have ruined the night.  After the boiler company left, everyone came back upstairs, and the meeting continued as normal.  It made us proud to see what they could do without the adults there.

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