Happy New Year, fellow Scouters! Â As we enter January, many troops will be holding their youth leader elections and embarking on another six months on the bumpy road to leadership development. Every troop has its own way of selecting candidates and conducting elections, and the Scoutmaster should consider helping the process along by encouraging the boys to elect patrol leaders and the Senior Patrol Leader from a pool of responsible candidates. Continue reading “Responsibility”
Get out of the way!
You may know that I went to Michigan State and am a big Spartan fan, so I’m delighted at the success of the football team this year. Up until last Saturday’s road loss to Iowa, the Green and White were undefeated, 8-0, and ranked fifth in the nation. Â This despite having both off-season and recent difficulties with some of the players, having to play archrivals the University of Michigan at their stadium, and head coach Mark Dantonio suffering a heart attack shortly after the heroic win against Notre Dame. (If you weren’t following the story, don’t worry – he is OK, and has since returned to coaching.) Continue reading “Get out of the way!”
The true measure of a leader
A recent column by John Hagel and John Seely Brown in Forbes magazine reveals the startling news to corporate leaders: Â In the past, a leader was measured by how many followers he had, but in the future, a leader must produce more leaders to be considered successful. Continue reading “The true measure of a leader”
Adults and the PLC, revisited
Earlier I posted my opinion that the PLC is for the boys and that the only adult who attends is the Scoutmaster, and not members of the troop committee or parents.
Recently, a post to the Scouting Magazine blog touched on this topic, where one of the parents (who also happened to be the Committee Chair) stated that the Scoutmaster told her she was not welcome at the PLC meeting, and she felt this was in violation of the “no secret meetings” policy of the BSA. Continue reading “Adults and the PLC, revisited”
Dealing with troop election results
This month’s What Would You Do? question in Scouting Magazine comes from Scoutmaster D.M. of Ft. Myers, Fla.:
We recently had our troop leadership elections, and the Scouts elected a senior patrol leader who is inexperienced, uncommitted, and has no real sense of responsibility. I am worried about the direction of the troop, but I want to respect the boys’ choice. What do I do? Continue reading “Dealing with troop election results”