Starting this month, I’m beginning a series of monthly articles based on a portion of my class at University of Scouting this year. Besides talking about issues that committee chairs typically encounter, I handed out and we discussed a suggested list of things that the committee needs to attend to, month by month. It’s a checklist of sorts, or a timeline for a troop committee’s year. Continue reading “Committee chair timeline: April”
What’s up with Cub leaders’ kids?
Cub Scout leaders are among the most committed of our adult leadership. They way overspend their “one hour a week” planning and conducting weekly den meetings and field trips, planning pack meeting participation, scheduling meeting rooms, sending out newsletters, wrangling parents to do stuff, recording and submitting advancement, collecting dues and fees, arranging snacks, purchasing craft supplies, and giving up the hope of using their dining room table for dining, for a few years anyway. They are dedicated to seeing their Scouts have fun, advance, and get the most out of the program.
Then why is it that their kids don’t seem as likely to cross over to Boy Scouts? Continue reading “What’s up with Cub leaders’ kids?”
Final thoughts on improving leadership skills
Here are a few final thoughts to conclude our series on leadership for the committee chairman.
Don’t help
Yes, that’s right. Don’t help!
Just as we don’t “help” the boys at troop meetings and campouts, we develop leadership in adults the same way – by staying out of their way. You selected and approved your committee members for a reason – because they are talented and able to help with committee functions. Let them work things out their way! Who knows? Their way may well produce better results than if they followed your direction.
Develop a resistance to jumping in and fixing things that don’t need fixing, or that are best fixed by others. Continue reading “Final thoughts on improving leadership skills”
Improving your own leadership skills
Scouting aims to teach leadership to our young people through the methods we use, but it’s equally important that our adult volunteers take the opportunity to improve their own leadership skills.
Adult leader training courses provide the nuts & bolts of how to do the job, but few actually teach leadership in a more abstract sense. Wood Badge, notably, is one in which leadership and life skills are emphasized.
Fortunately, leadership can be taught, but it’s important to know just what leadership is. Continue reading “Improving your own leadership skills”
Promoting your own ideas for change
Scouting has seen a lot of change in the first hundred years, even though the mission and aims have remained the same. Within our units, changes in the program often affect us too. But while the methods and values of Scouting remain constant, we often find ourselves in need of changing things within our units to more closely align ourselves with those values.
We also find that we may need a better way to do some things in order to facilitate a better experience for the boys. For example, we might need a different approach to equipment, fund-raising, or procedures.
Change can be led by anyone with a valuable idea and the support from others, but for various reasons, the committee chair is usually in the best position to advocate change. Continue reading “Promoting your own ideas for change”