Transition from Adult to Youth Leadership - Introduction

Placing the leadership of a Scout Troop squarely in the hands of the Scouts themselves and keeping it there is the single greatest service a Scoutmaster can offer his Troop.

Before this can happen the adult leadership must understand exactly what they are trying to accomplish, define their relationship to the Scouts and overcome the reservations that they have with investing the Scouts with leadership.

Perhaps the single most important concept to grasp is that a Scout Troop belongs to the Scouts, not the adults who are there to help.

Scouting is not a program we prepare and present for Scouts, it is something that they do for themselves.

Scouting is not merely useful skills, object lessons or curriculum it is an experience for Scouts in self motivation, self government and self realization.

Adult leaders are not the chief executive officers of the enterprise but coaches and mentors to the real leaders – the Scouts.

Coaches and mentors help develop skills and provide motivation but can only observe the game being played from the sidelines. Two common fears keep many of us from a Scout led Troop: Wrong Decisions We fear that given such latitude Scouts will make bad decisions. They will. When they do it is our job to encourage them to find a better approach, to learn from their mistakes and to get back on track. We will always review decisions effecting safety and propriety so Scouts are not put in harm’s way.

Wrong Emphasis Why would Scouts choose to do the difficult or challenging things the program demands if they could just decide not to do them? Why go camping if they could just have pizza parties and go to amusement parks?

Scouting works because it appeals to boys, they are in a Scout Troop because it is what they want to do. They will not significantly change things even if given the latitude to do so. Some of us fear that if we allow Scouts to own and administer their Troop they will choose activities and practices that don’t achieve the goals of Scouting. Our job is to give them some broad guidelines that direct them toward the right goals.

These guidelines are best expressed in the promises contained in the first few pages of the Scout Handbook . Once we have overcome these fears, or simply accept that they will always bother us, we can move ahead towards a Scout-led program. In the next post we’ll discuss the first few steps that begin the process. This is one in a series of posts about Transitioning From Adult to Youth Leadership: Starting the Transition What Really Matters The Patrol Leader’s Council Asking Questions