I have a calendar running in my head, geared to the school year calendar. Decades of programming for young people will do that to you. Last night I was watching our Scouts, talking to our Scoutmaster and I heard myself say, “oh, and by the way. Is the senior patrol leader ready to present the […]
Patrol Method
The Patrol Leaders Council – John Thurman
John Thurman was a prolific writer and Camp Chief of Gilwell Park from 1943 to 1969. I have taken some of his thoughts on the patrol leaders council (called the Court of Honor in the UK at the time) and updated them with modern terminology suited to Scouting in the U.S.A. I plan on sharing it with my senior patrol […]
Tom Takes a Hike
I had this message from Tom; the same Tom you hear when we have a Scoutmaster panel discussion on the podcast. Any of us Scoutmasters who are invested in youth leadership and the patrol method have times of frustration and doubt – at least I know I do! Hi Clarke, Well my Scoutmaster OCD and ADD and ADHD […]
Training or Experience?
I get this email fairly often; ‘I have been reading what you have to say about the patrol method and youth leadership buy MY Scouts don’t seem to get it. We’ve done youth leader training and even sent them to NYLT but they just don’t lead. What are we doing wrong?’ It’s not that you’re […]
The Troop Pivot Point
One troop is led by adults, one is led by the Scouts. What’s the difference? At the risk of oversimplifying the answer the difference is focus. Troops run by adults are focused on results. Troops run by Scouts are focused on process. I accept that between the two extremes of fully adult and fully youth […]
Valuing and Evaluating
As adults in positions of authority our exchanges, no matter how casual, carry the weight of position and authority. This is why I school adults to be very careful about what they tell youth leaders because what they say will be interpreted as instructions and they will be followed. We also must be careful to […]
‘I Don’t Know’ is a good answer
I advocate using guided discovery (asking questions) to help youth leadership find their way. Often my questions are rhetorical, in other words I do not expect that the person I am questioning has an answer. This can be a very blunt instrument, and sometimes a bit aggressive, so I do have to measure the way […]
Three Reasons Your Scouts Are Not Leading
THE REASON They don’t appear to know how to lead. WHAT’S HAPPENING Scouts are elected to leadership positions but are doing a lackluster job. They don’t seem to appreciate the opportunity and are very slow to take things on. THE SOLUTION Sometimes this apparent lack of initiative is a matter of perspective. What we picture in our minds as leadership […]
Unqualified, Unskilled, Immature: Perfect!
Experience, maturity and skill are not prerequisites to leadership; they are the traits produced as we practice leadership. We often get email or comments from Scoutmasters with a troop of young Scouts wondering how they can be anything like boy led. They look around a bunch of immature 11-year-old boys and don’t see anyone who measures up to their preconceived […]
Lead by Walking Away
Adult leaders often say things like; “I don’t override the boys decisions at all. ” “I asked them what they wanted to do.” “This was their decision.” What most of us fail to recognize is that many of these ‘boy led’ decisions were probably coerced, at least in part, by the presence of adults when they were discussed. It’s not that the […]
Scouting’s One Essential Feature
At our council camporee in December I walked around the entire camp and saw only two troops that had identifiable patrols. Most troops were set up as one unit, with all the tents lined up and no discernible internal division into patrols. Because our site was so small, our tents were all jumbled up and […]
Patrol Choice Chart
Patrol Choice Chart PDF FILE I am often asked about how patrols are formed, who does the choosing and how the choices are made. Scouts do the choosing and one way for them to choose is using the chart above (open the PDF file to see the chart in detail). To divide a group of Scouts […]
Storming, Storming and Storming
Bruce Tuckman first offered a theory of group development in the mid 1960’s. Tuckman’s model has been a part of Woodbadge training for about a dozen years. Here’s Tuckman’s three stages: Forming Individuals want to be accepted by the others, avoid controversy or conflict. The group is busy with routines: who does what, when to meet, […]
Lead, Train and Inspire PowerPoint Presentation
Here’s the PowerPoint presentation I use at troop leader training. Please feel free to use and adapt it as you see fit (you do not have to credit me.) Here’s the article explaining the concept Before this session, I call the older guys who have seen this before off to the side and ask them to lay low […]
A Universal Job Description for Scout Youth Leaders.
Is there really a job description for Scout youth leaders? Every First Class Scout is a leader by definition. Three requirements for advancement are common to every rank after First Class: 1. Merit Badges 2. Service to the community 3. Leadership: ‘Serve actively in a position of responsibility’ It is every First Class Scout’s job to […]
Patrol Hikes
From The Patrol System Published by Scouts Canada in 1960. Not a new idea, but a good one none-the-less. What would happen if you put this information in the hands of your patrol leaders? You want your gang to become a real Patrol—and only a hiking Patrol is a real one. We can break Patrol […]
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 […]
Transforming a “Skull Full of Mush”
“The Paper Chase” started as a novel, was made into a movie and, finally, a TV series in the 1970’s. The story follows a law student in his first year at Harvard. The student’s nemesis is the brilliant, dispassionate and relentlessness Professor Kingsfield. Kingsfield has an off-putting demeanor and, at first, appears to be indifferent to his students and their problems. What he […]
Making Troop Leader Training Memorable
One of my Scouts was out last fall for a while playing football and was thinking about not coming back. His dad encouraged him, he came back, and in February he was elected Patrol Leader. This led to him participating in our Troop Leader Training Conference (TLT). Now he is really pumped and excited about Scouts. This […]
Scout Leadership is Not a To Do List
Scout leadership is not all about ticking things off the to do list – or even having the list in the first place. Leaders possess the initiative, sense of purpose and skill that motivates others. They are able to look beyond the task into the motivation behind it, they are able to see what needs to happen […]
How Does a Patrol Leaders Council Plan?
If the Patrol Leader’s Council (PLC) is supposed to be responsible for planning meetings and outings for their Troop how does this happen in practice? There is no universal model, agenda or method but there are some broad underlying principles: Give them the tools A little bit of training, a lot of questions and a […]
Responding to Initiative
Imagine you are 13 and have just been elected patrol leader. Perhaps you’ve watched how all this works for a year or two and have at least some idea of what patrol leader does. It’s likely that this is the first time you’ve had this kind of responsibility so you can’t really fully appreciate what it […]
Scoutmaster Podcast 40 – Patrol Method Book
Scoutmaster Podcast 40 Interview with the authors of a fantastic patrol method book – Working the Patrol Method. Applying the patrol method is a perennial challenge for all of us, indeed it is the subject of much of the Scoutmaster blog and podcast. I cannot recommend Working the Patrol Method strongly enough – an essential tool for […]
Working the Patrol Method
It’s about time! Working the Patrol Method a Scout leader’s guide to youth leadership training is the best work on the patrol method since ‘Green Bar’ Bill Hillcourt’s Handbook for Patrol Leaders last published in 1965 or Baden Powell’s Aids to Scoutmastership originally published in 1920. Authors Rob Faris,Ted Knight and Harry Wimbrough have created […]
