Scout Leader Skills

Anyone who answers the call to service in Scouting is extraordinary. “Extra – Ordinary” – get it? Scouters do extra things. Ordinary folks bring their children to a Scout meeting. Extraordinary folks are already there to make the Scout meeting possible. Ordinary folks pack their sons up and send them out camping. Extraordinary folks pack themselves up and go camping along with them. Ordinary folks enjoy a quiet evening at home or a round of golf or maybe even a night at the movies....

A Scout is thrifty. A Scout works to pay his way and to help others. He saves for the future. He protects and conserves natural resources. He carefully uses time and property. Scoutmasters need to exercise thrift in ways that are not often talked about – Thrift in words. Paradoxically many of the character traits that make a good Scoutmaster can also make a tiresome Scoutmaster. Most of us like to talk and sometimes forget to stop....

In my early years a s a Scoutmaster I was upset when my Scouts chose to miss a meeting or outing in favor of another activity. It would not be too much to say that I took it personally (at that point I was doing most of the planning and leading anyway!). My initial response was to adopt a policy similar to one I have read many, many times in Troop-specific policy manuals; a set percentage of outings and meetings Scouts must attend to be considered active and a ‘leave of absence’ policy that outlined how to suspend a Scout’s active membership while they pursued another activity....

The more rules you have in the classroom, the more time you’ll spend enforcing them. Cookie Ohlson, teacher, Prospect Park Middle School, Pennsylvania Scouters can be tempted to make troop rules, the kind of rules that end with Scouts looking for and exploiting flaws in the rule making like so many lawyers. It’s not too long before the tipping point is reached and we spend more time policing rules than pursuing our true mission....

Almost all of us have either had the personal experience of working with someone who displayed bad apple behaviors … When this process starts to unfold at work, it consumes inordinate amounts of time, psychological resources, and emotional energy. … such circumstances underlie many people’s reluctance to fully commit to teams… they offend us, reduce our enthusiasm, change our mood and may ultimately lead us to personally de-identify or leave the group, with a high likelihood that the group itself will perform poorly, fail, or disband....

Scouting has long been a positive, constructive influence in the lives of young people. This vast potential for good lies in simple Scouting methods that have been applied effectively across widely different cultures and systems of belief. These methods need little adaptation, modification or complication – they only require application to create opportunities for Scouts to exercise the concepts of the Scout Oath and Law. Scouting requires surprisingly few rules, regulations and limitations....

The Scoutmaster conference is the principle contact with between Scout and Scoutmaster: Why does the Scoutmaster engage in this one-on-one review? The relationship between a Scout and his Scoutmaster is important for the troop’s health and for the Scout’s success. The Scoutmaster must watch the troop’s dynamics to see who is showing leadership, who is holding back, who is shy, who is working with the younger boys, who is skilled in outdoor activities, etc....

You may be familiar with the 1953 movie Mister Scoutmaster starring Clifton Webb, you may even know that the movie is loosely based on the book Be Prepared by author Rice E. Cochran; but it’s not likely you know Keith Monroe. Keith wrote Be Prepared under the pen name Rice E. Cochran, and was also a frequent contributor to Scouting magazine and *Boys’ Life.*Monroe was the Scoutmaster of Troop 2 Santa Monica, California for 42 years....

An experienced Scouter has worked with ten, perhaps twenty groups of Scouts ought to be a Scouting expert. A Scouting expert can spot difficulties and errors before they are made. Ask them how to build a fire or where to wear your veteran unit patch and they have an answer. But there’s one skill that often surpasses all the others a Scouting expert possesses; knowing how to keep your mouth shut....

Scouting begins with an individual commitment expressed in the life of the Patrol and Troop. Troops form districts, districts form councils, councils form regions and regions form our national organization. I’ve for years felt strongly that, in all training, we spend too much time on “how to” and vastly too little time on WHY. I believe, further, that the arbitrary drifting from the “model troop” and “model patrol” (yup, “model pack,” too) is a consequence of our failing to tell the new people we train WHY we do things in Scouting the way we do....

Patience and fortitude conquer all things. – Ralph Waldo Emerson Scouters must be patient. Scouting can be frustrating, even irritating, but an adult who shouts at Scouts portrays a weakness of character. Yelling is almost always an irrational, impulsive reaction. Verbal explosions are no less inappropriate than physical ones, and can do as much harm. Bringing a bad temper under control means recognizing what triggers a loss a temper and disarming them by something as simple as taking a few deep breaths or counting to ten....

Do you wrangle over what constitutes Scout Spirit, actively serving in a position of responsibility and active participation? The answer is not in numbers of camp outs, number of hours or contracts; not snap judgments or fits of temper; the answer is the guy in the glass. Scouting is more a mirror for individual assessment and development than a measuring stick. “The feller whose verdict counts most in your life is the guy staring back from the glass....

Part of learning is knowing we don’t know. Psychology’s four stages of competence describe this process: Unconscious Incompetence Neither understanding or knowing how to do something, nor recognizing the deficit or a desire to address it. Conscious Incompetence Does not understand or know how to do something, recognizes the deficit, without yet addressing it Conscious Competence Able to demonstrate the skill or knowledge with consciousness concentration. 4.Unconscious Competence So well practiced the skill or knowledge becomes “second nature”....

Before you waste anymore time trying to fix what is wrong with a Scout Troop look around and see if you can’t find one that is a better fit. Put aside the question of dedication, misplaced loyalty and grim determination and look at what the problems are doing to your son. People of good will sometimes find themselves at odds with one another in schools, churches, community organizations and Scout Troops....

Andy (at Ask Andy) offers this excellent analysis of one of Scouting’s biggest problems- If you’re a regular reader, you already know about the tyrants and tin gods, renegades and recalcitrants, bullies and belligerents, dictators, martinets, and “world’s oldest Patrol Leaders” masquerading as Scoutmasters. Thank goodness that, for every one of them, there are a thousand or more dedicated Scouting leaders who get it right! But how did this happen? How did we get so far away from True North?...

We do all we can to help new Scouts transitioning from Webelos – let’s not forget that Webelos den leaders stepping into new roles will need some help too. Thirty-plus years ago I was a Webelos Den Leader for eighteen (!) Webelos. I was recruited to be a Scoutmaster a year later, but it was a while before I stopped being a Webelos den leader and started being a Scoutmaster....

We learn best through action and discovery, not listening. Training is doing things in real time in real situations. Leadership training is like a claw machine – a clumsy remote control experiment aimed at catching a prize worth less than the quarters required to win. Training removed from the situation where the skills will be applied is about as effective as the controls on the claw machine. Most training tends to favor abstract explanations and remote analysis over action....

What we do as Scouters is more like gardening than management. Cultivating Scouting brings better results than managing Scouting. Cultivating means preparing the soil, planting the seed, and allowing the plants to grow. As they grow we keep the weeds away, and see that there’s adequate water and sunshine. Think about tomato plants, if you don’t stake then out they’ll fall over and sprawl around on the ground. If we respond to and focus the way they grow we help create productive plants....

John Kennaugh in a discussion from uk.rec.scouting makes the case for essential Scouting Skills; The skills Baden Powell (BP) instinctively identified as Scouting skills were based on the skills of our ancestors, making camp, putting up a shelter, cooking over a fire, exploring our surroundings without getting lost, learning about the natural world and how to use what it provides, constructing things with pieces of tree and rope, tracking, and finally gathering socially around a fire....

Recently I have come across a couple of instances of rule making that have rubbed me the wrong way. You know what I am talking about – long lists of dos and don’t s with associated penalties and even a place for a signature. Basically a behavior contract. Rules and contracts can stifle the spirit of Scouting. As soon as a contract is drawn or a rule is established a compelling reason will arise to make an exception because Scouts are individuals and have individual needs....