The Boys Ask Green Bar Bill About the Patrol Method

A virtual question and answer session with Green Bar Bill about the patrol method from the December 1943 Edition of Scouting magazine. If you aren’t familiar with Bill “Green Bar Bill” Hillcourt check out these articles to learn more. Download this article as a PDF document below. The Boys Ask Green Bar Bill About the Patrol Method GENTLEMEN, we’ve been pushed entirely out of the picture this month. We invited a bunch of Patrol Leaders to this Round Table, because we wanted to find out what questions boys ask about the Patrol....

June 8, 2017 · 11 min

The First Green Bar Bill Article in Boy's Life.

In Podcast 265-266 I played excerpts of a recording of Green Bar Bill Hillcourt where he mentions his first article in October 1932 issue of Boy’s Life. The “Cover to Cover” section on page 2 introduces Bill; We start off in this issue by roping in Green-Bar Bill to write a monthly page of Scout ideas and suggestions. Take a slant at Green-Bar Bill’s page in this issue, and you’ll see what we mean....

May 6, 2015 · 8 min

A Troop Revolution

Vilhelm Hans Bjerregaard Jensen was a Danish Scout who became a Scoutmaster during the early years of the Scouting Movement. He decided to see something of Scouting around the world, worked his way through Europe and England, arrived in the United States in February 1926 and took a job with the national headquarters of the Boy Scouts of America. James West (the BSA’s first National Executive) solicited Vilhelm’s thoughts on Scouting....

April 28, 2015 · 12 min

Keep the Promise of Scouting

What, precisely, is the promise of Scouting? No one would know better than William Hillcourt: Your Life as a Scout You are an American boy. Before long you will be an American man. It is important to America and to yourself that you become a citizen of fine character, physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight. Boy Scouting will help you become that kind of citizen. but also, Scouting will give you fellowship and fun....

July 3, 2013 · 5 min

A Visit with Green Bar Bill

A fascinating video artifact found at author Win Davis’s website In April of 1987, Bill Hillcourt came to Central Florida. He visited for an evening with Scouts and leaders from Boy Scout Troop 46 in Longwood. What he had to say is pretty interesting. The Boy Scouts of America was still recovering from decisions made in the 1970s to modernize the program. The program changes didn’t work and all through the 1980s, Bill worked tirelessly to reinvigorate Scouting....

July 2, 2013 · 1 min

Scouting as a Game - Green Bar Bill

William “Green Bar Bill” Hillcourt is the man who wrote the book on Scouting, literally. His Patrol Leader’s Handbook is, without a doubt, his best and most influential work. His understanding of scouting was simple, but not simplistic. To an outsider, Scouting must at first appear to be a very complex matter. If it were only possible to swing the gates of Scouting wide open to him and show him from a vantage point in one immense view the full panorama of the Scout Movement!...

October 17, 2012 · 5 min

Ten Skills Scoutmasters Need

Ten skills Scoutmasters needbased on The Ten Essentials of Scoutmastership penned by William ‘Green Bar Bill’ Hillcourt were part of the Scoutmaster’s Handbook for many years. 1. A belief in boys that will make you want to invest yourself and your time on their behalf. As Plato said “Of all the animals, the boy is the most unmanageable”. But our work is not merely managing boys as if they were our employees, teaching boys as if they were students in a classroom or preaching to boys as if they were our congregants....

February 17, 2012 · 7 min

Train ‘em, Trust ‘em, Let ‘em Lead!

William “Green Bar Bill” Hillcourt is the man who wrote the book on Scouting, literally. His Patrol Leader’s Handbook is, without a doubt, his best and most influential work. His understanding of scouting was simple, but not simplistic. Here he lays out the scoutmaster’s job in a few sentences: “Let them lead in practically everything. Let them work out their own problems, interfere as little as possible—but be ever ready to give wise guidance—not when you think they need it, but when they seek it....

August 10, 2011 · 1 min

Scoutmaster Podcast 73 - The Boy from Aarhus

From Aarhus, to New York, and beyond … … the remarkable story of how young Vilhelm Hans Bjerregaard Jensen’s encounter with a crate of WWI surplus semaphore flag poles changed the course Scouting in the United States. But I had become a restless dreamer. The two world jamborees had stirred my blood. I had met people from around the world. I wanted to meet them on their home grounds. I arranged with my newspaper to be its roaming reporter on a trip around the world....

June 13, 2011 · 1 min

Building Confidence in Youth Leadership

Green Bar Bill Hillcourt’s oft repeated encouragement to “Train em’ trust em’ and let them lead” remains the simple formula for building and maintaining confidence in youth leadership. Hillcourt’s formula has three active components Train Training youth leaders need not be a protracted formal training event. Real-time, authentic and immediate on the job training (OJT) has proven to be an effective approach. OJT works best where there is an existing model of good youth leadership Absent this model it must be created by showing Scouts good youth leadership in action....

October 3, 2008 · 2 min