You may be aware that another revision to the health and medical record form has been announced. The new form, expected to be officially released this month, is intended for use across all BSA programs, from the unit level to Jamboree and high adventure bases. The main changes include being bilingual (English & Spanish) and some of the pages being scannable, as with the current membership forms. While it’s intended to provide comprehensive information for Jambo attendees, it becomes mandatory for unit use in January 2014. Continue reading “The BSA medical form and your troop”
Helping your committee succeed, part 1
Beyond agendas, meetings and paperwork, the committee chair’s job includes supporting, inspiring and helping your committee members succeed in the jobs you have recruited and selected them for.
Continuing in our series aimed at the new committee chair, this article will go into the many ways you can encourage your committee members and help them enjoy their roles supporting the troop and its Scouts.
The oft-forgotten Scouter
Which registered Scouter in your unit is often invisible to your membership but is essential to its success?
Here’s a hint. This Scouter is also a member of your council committee and has a vote in council affairs.
If you guessed the chartered organization representative, you’re correct! You’re probably also well versed in unit adult leadership. Continue reading “The oft-forgotten Scouter”
The committee chair: Primary responsibilities
A recent article aimed at the new committee chair listed a few things that I’ve found to be helpful when starting the job or any job in Scouting. But what are the actual responsibilities of the committee chair?
Hopefully if you’ve been to training, or taken it online, you can answer that, according to the handbook. The committee is generally responsible for the mechanics of the unit, and while a lot of miscellaneous items fall to the committee chair, the main points include: Continue reading “The committee chair: Primary responsibilities”
Embracing youth leadership characteristics
Developing leadership in others is always a challenge, but developing leadership in youth is particularly so. Young people haven’t acquired the seasoned reasoning ability that many adult leaders have. As adult leaders in Scouting, we must recognize this and meet youth on their level.
One of my favorite web authors is Dan Rockwell, who writes the blog Leadership Freak. He appears several times a week with short, concise posts that can help clarify a particular topic relating to leadership in corporate society. Â I often find parallels in what he writes to the challenge of developing leadership in our youth within Scouting – indeed, Dan has written me back to say he’s very supportive of the work that we Scouters do to develop future leaders. A recent post discussed the strengths and foibles of youthful leaders in an organization. Since this practically describes Scouting to a “T”, I thought I’d highlight some of the ideas in his post and add some comments to help you put them in a Scouting context.
Dan recently asked Facebook readers to name some of the mistakes that young leaders make. I’m sure you’ve seen many of these before in your Scouts. Here are a few of the issues his readers cite, along with my observations:
- Reluctance to lead. Young leaders may not be able to believe that they are capable of leading and show it through reluctance to take on a leadership role. Through clearly-defined expectations and regular evaluation, we can overcome that reluctance.
- Assuming dissent is resistance. While it’s almost expected that boys will put each other down, our youth leaders need to realize that others may have a different take on the solution to a problem or the way to proceed. For instance, if while on a hike a Scout tells his patrol leader he thinks they should take a different trail, he probably has a good reason besides a desire to stir the pot.
- Hiding ignorance. Most of our boy leaders have never done this before, so it’s natural to expect that they don’t know what they are doing. It’s important to be on the lookout for signs that they may not have a grasp on their responsibilities, so a gentle nudge through some well-thought-out questions would be helpful.
- Not asking. This ties in with the last point. Anticipate that your youth leaders may not ask for help, for fear of looking stupid, and be prepared with questions that will help lead him in the right direction. A skillful Scoutmaster or assistant Scoutmaster can do this without the Scout even realizing the intent.
- Being arrogant. Boys love to brag and show off in front of their friends. Empowered with a position of responsibility, they may show a tendency to “throw their weight around.” Recognize when this is happening and be ready to de-fuse the situation.
- Assuming collaboration just happens. The best-laid plans are useless unless they are communicated. Boys tend to plan without considering the steps needed to put their plans in place. Help them to learn that they need to explicitly make sure everyone in their patrol knows the plan and what their role is.
- Inconsistency. This just comes with the territory, and improves with time and experience. As long as no harm is being done, consider it as a sign the youth leaders are experimenting with different ways of doing things. This is their place to try, fail and improve.
Please go and read Rockwell’s post. He gives several key points of what to teach young leaders and to equip them for success. Feel free to leave a comment here on how you can apply these thoughts to improving the leadership skills of your Scouts. As Dan reminds us in his post, remember:
The strength of youth is passion. Never quench it; always fuel it.