How to keep your scouting program alive and energized from senior patrol leader to senior patrol leader.
Show Notes:
- Mindful Leadership: The 9 Ways to Self-Awareness, Transforming Yourself, and Inspiring Others
- Troop Positions Resource (Troopleader.org).
- Position Description Cards (PDF- Scouting.org)
Transcript:
When scouts first bridge into the troop you can peg the ones that are natural leaders and those that are there for the donuts, although sometimes they can surprise you.
But as ScoutMasters and assistant ScoutMasters it’s our responsibility to encourage leadership qualities in the boys.
This is one of the reasons that positions of responsibility are a big component advancement at higher ranks.
Starting small however it begins with us when new boys enter the troop. As part of a new scout patrol we have them change up Patrol Leader every month, until June, when they move on the 6-month schedule we use for the other patrols.
This gives them a little taste of power and responsibility, but not enough to scare them away totally.
As our troop has a lot of boys it’s difficult to give the youngest scouts a position of responsibility other than for their patrols, but the bi-yearly schedule at least gives 4 different boys a chance to lead.
As boys get older there are more opportunities, and we encourage them to take on these responsibilities all the way up to Senior Patrol Leader, but even this is somewhat crafted, as each Senior Patrol Leader has 2 assistant senior patrol leaders, and we strongly encourage the SPL to choose one of the 2 assistants from the next level of boys.
Even if this younger boy doesn’t eventually become Senior Patrol Leader, he carries with him the knowledge and experience from the older group to pass on when the oldest boys age out.
We take positions of responsibility pretty seriously, and while there are occasions when we have had to remove boys from a position, usually this doesn’t happen.
While I can be a bit of a softie and may give more of the benefit of the doubt that I should, I’ve heard from some leaders who strip a position from a boy on a dime.
I personally think this is a bit harsh, but as times in a position of responsibility count towards rank, I can understand the abruptness.
While each boy is different, my approach is to establish the overall responsibilities for each position and have touch points along the way to keep the boys on track. So if things start to go wrong things can be addressed. But this is what works for us.
Take what you like and leave the rest, and as we say in Woodbadge, feedback is a gift, leave yours below in the comments, with the hope we can all learn together.
I’m Scoutmaster Dave, and this was the Developing your farm system for future leaders.
