Scout Leader Skills

Is Scouting really competing with sports, clubs and similar activities? Aren’t our goals somewhat similar to those of organized sports, performing arts, debate, and the many other extra-curricular activities available to our Scouts? I’ve adopted the attitude that we cooperate with these other activities in offering our youth every advantage in learning something about the world and developing important skills. Scouting offers a lot but we really shouldn’t require a Scout to choose it above all the other things he is doing....

Here’s five ways to Succeed as a Scouter Trust the Program Rely on 100 years of proven results Embrace changes when they are announced – stay current No short-cuts When you make things easier for adults you usually diminish the experience for Scouts Conduct activities that are age appropriate Understand how the Scouting program responds to the age group you are working with. Foster a sense of growing personal responsibility and initiative....

Unpredictable sometimes difficult Scout behavior is part of adolescence so it is a part of Scouting. Scouting responds with a program who’s intrinsic design is a response to this and the other vagaries of being a Scout-aged boy. Boys naturally form groups within groups and institute traditions and practices like initiations, pecking orders and all other forms of regimentation. They are more likely to create their own version of ‘The Lord of the Flies’ than the ‘Hardy Boys’....

How do we maintain discipline, require accountability and promote responsibility without resorting to shame or allowing our anger to take over. My answer is twofold – be an adult and be kind. Scouters are supposed to be exemplary adults. We are to bring our experience and compassion to bear on the lives of our Scouts to help them through adolescence into adulthood. We are supposed to rise above pettiness, bickering and anger by using mature, fair and evenhanded judgment....

If we are to focus on the success of our Scouts what evidence do we have that they have achieved success? There are a few simple questions in the introduction to the Scout Handbook that serve as excellent benchmarks for success; Are you ready to become an expert hiker and camper, to explore the natural world, and to meet challenges with good judgment and skill? Are you eager to make the most of yourself and succeed in the best ways possible?...

Scouting shares that paradoxical combination of simplicity and complexity found in a round of golf or a game of baseball. The goal is simple, the means direct, yet the process is complex. Scoutmastership, like properly swinging a golf club or baseball bat, takes a few minutes to learn and a lifetime to master. Skilled Scoutmasters concentrate on one thing – the success of their Scouts. Individual Scouts will have individual standards of success so Scoutmasters have twenty or thirty different (though likely very similar) standards to work towards....

On our backpacking trip this weekend we adults were reminiscing around the campfire. Three of six of us had either not been Scouts or had been Scouts only briefly. The two who had been Scouts for a brief time said that they left Scouting because of hazing. Hazing may be ritual or other activities that use harassment, abuse or humiliation as a way of initiating a person into a group. It can be expressed in practical jokes, bullying, unwanted physical contact or a number of other methods....

I don’t think of myself as particularly a persnickety or doctrinaire so what follows is probably out of character. I do like to write therefore I strive to observe the rules of grammar and rely greatly on my spell checker. As someone who regularly writes about Scouting I have developed my own rough and ready conventions of usage and capitalization. Now that I have found the Language of Scouting I shall do my best to mend my ways....

Two Scout-related stories of the application of zero tolerance policies (here and here) have been making the rounds of late so I am taking the opportunity to comment on the concept of zero tolerance. ‘Zero tolerance’ became a familiar term in the 1990’s as an outgrowth of a belief that the inflexible enforcement of minor laws would prevent the commission of major crimes. While this theory of law enforcement has been largely discredited the remnants remain in our school systems and in the wider society....

What does Scouting cost? Depends how you look at it; I think Scouting is free. I’ve volunteered in our local government for a dozen or more years. If I hear someone complaining about their water bill I point out the water is free, it’s the pipes that cost money. Making water safe to drink, getting it to your house, and treating wastewater costs money – but the water itself is free....

One would rarely call my Troop a well oiled machine or a model of efficiency. That’s the principle reason I love it so. A dear friend who was a very successful artist worked out of a studio that was best described as a hot mess. Not just typically messy – we are talking breathtaking disorder. Even so he produced art of penetrating simplicity and beauty. There’s a point during any Troop meeting or outing when I look around and see the same breathtaking disorder....

T**he President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation (the Council) was established in 2003 to recognize the valuable contributions volunteers are making in our communities and encourage more people to serve. The Council created the President’s Volunteer Service Award program as a way to thank and honor Americans who, by their demonstrated commitment and example, inspire others to engage in volunteer service. Recognizing and honoring volunteers sets a standard for service, encourages a sustained commitment to civic participation, and inspires others to make service a central part of their lives....

Scoutmasters see a lot of adolescent angst in our role as Scouters and parents. We need all the help we can get You may recall the episode of the original Star Trek series entitled ‘Amok Time’. It occurs to me that the story line has interesting parallels to how boys experience adolescence. Spock’s behavior has become irrational and inexplicably emotional. He reveals to Captain Kirk that he must return to Vulcan and initially refuses to explain why....

What would your Scout Troop look like without a manual, by-laws or a reasonable facsimile thereof? Would anybody notice? B.S.A. literature, to my knowledge, does not mention such documents so one wonders where they came from? In my case as a young Scoutmaster I encountered the usual litany of problems and disappointments. I hit upon the idea of legislating – I’d just write down the rules and things would be clear, my Scouts, their parents and my fellow leaders would all fall in line once they read my pronunciations....

Scouting’s vitality springs from experiential, hands-on experience rather than academic abstraction. Scouts actually do things rather than study how they are done. As an artist and tradesman I have had a long acquaintance with the benefits of working with your hands. I haven’t any formal education past high school and have had to find my own way. One of the things I most value about Scouting is the emphasis on learning by doing....

The BSA’s annual report for 2008 shows that membership numbers are continuing to decline as the ratios of Scouts to leaders remain steady. The table below reports membership changes from the past four years and analyzes the sizes of units and leadership ratios. I am counting on more mathematically talented folks to check my work and the assumptions I draw from the numbers. 2005 2006 2007 2008 Change % YOUTH Tiger Cubs 243,609 247,017 241,851 231,471 -12,138 -5% Cub Scouts 834,562 819,882 800,729 798,060 -36,502 -4% Webelos Scouts 667,153 634,962 645,406 636,104 -31,049 -5% Total Cub Scouts 1,745,324 1,701,861 1,687,986 1,665,635 -79,689 -5% Boy Scouts 879,789 860,675 851,572 844,939 -34,850 -4% Varsity Scouts 63,637 62,161 62,016 60,940 -2,697 -4% Total Scout/Varsity 943,426 922,836 913,588 905,879 -37,547 -4% Venturers 249,948 244,266 254,259 261,122 11,174 4% Total Scouts 2,938,698 2,868,963 2,855,833 2,832,636 -106,062 -4% UNITS Cub Scout Packs 51,469 51,077 50,780 50,213 -1,256 -2% Venturing 20,117 19,920 19,920 19,998 -119 -1% Boy Scout Troops 42,811 42,269 41,947 41,628 -1,183 -3% Total Traditional Units 122,582 121,530 121,034 120,262 -2,320 -2% ADULT LEADERSHIP Cub Scout Leaders 493,165 480,457 480,316 470,400 -22,765 -5% Boy Scout Leaders 520,591 519,557 524,962 528,534 7,943 2% Varsity Leaders 23,380 22,799 23,356 23,392 12 0% Venturing Leaders 63,821 63,500 65,645 65,621 1,800 3% Council Leaders 45,269 43,638 43,829 44,406 -863 -2% Total Leaders 1,146,226 1,129,951 1,138,108 1,132,353 -13,873 -1% Unit Ratios Scouts per Troop 20....

If we respond to problems by instituting troop rules or policies we become enforcers. Few rules don’t have legitimate exceptions, so we also become judges. When rules are broken there must be a penalty, so we end up having to dole out punishment. As the matrix of rules and policies grow most of our time is spent enforcing, judging, and punishing. A system of enforcement, judgement, and punishment obscures the aspirations embodied in the Scout Oath and Law, and our aim of building character by examining those aspirations....

Who are the most important volunteers in Scouting? They have more power and influence than Council Presidents, Commissioners, Scoutmasters and Cubmasters all put together. Without their participation and support Scouting would quickly come to a complete halt. They bring endless energy, resources and real transformational power to their role. They are the only volunteers we simply cannot afford to lose. Have you guessed it yet? The single most important volunteers in Scouting are the Scouts themselves....

Here is a tribute to a great Scoutmaster from one of his former Scouts. April 1953, a brand-new Boy Scout, I walked for the first time into a troop meeting. I’d been a Cub Scout, earned my Webelos Badge (Arrow of Light, it’s called today), and had just turned 11 years old. I was taller than most boys my age, and more shy than most. Painfully shy, a characteristic that wouldn’t leave me for several more years....

Although I concentrate on Boy Scouts rather than Cubs I have been both a Den Leader and Cubmaster. This time of year I attend one or two Pack Meetings to welcome new Scouts as they cross the bridge from Webelos. At the risk of being curmudgeonly I offer these observations. The Pack Meetings I attend are almost always too long. One Hour, or better 45 minutes, is the ideal. Of this time allow a maximum of 20- 30 minutes maximum for speaking, awards, etc....