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Is there a difference between leadership in the outdoors and in other settings? The answer to this question and answers to email questions in this podcast along with your messages in the mailbag.
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To Jim from Troop 83, who asked what could happen to their Scouting experience as his council merges with another: We’ve gone through two mergers in our area over the last few years. First, our local council which served the northern Detroit suburbs merged with the council serving the rest of the metro area. Then, a couple years later, all the councils in Michigan merged and became one large coordinating council with regional field service councils. This model is sure to spread around the country in areas where it can be of benefit.
What has happened here is that the Scouting experience at the unit level has changed very little. We still have our districts as they existed prior to the merger, with the same professionals, commissioners and Roundtables as we had previously. There have been some camp and service center closures, but by making what were other councils’ camps available to all, the range of camping options for units has increased. For example, instead of the one Boy Scout resident camp our pre-merger council offered, we now have six in-council options.
The merger has also increased the availability of training and adventure opportunities. Instead of one National Youth Leadership Training course each year, we now have two in our field service council and six or seven across the coordinating council, giving Scouts more choices of courses to attend and increasing the opportunity for older boys to be on staff. There are three Wood Badge courses this year. The merger of our OA lodges has resulted in more conclave and fellowship weekends at a larger variety of camps while keeping the same number of chapters. Districts come together to hold camporees which are open to all, and with combined resources they can do larger and more exciting events than a single district could have done previously.
Merging councils can be a messy affair, especially when there are set ways of doing things in those councils, but if the adults take a positive attitude and find ways to ensure that the Scouting experience is improved for the youth we serve, the merger of councils can be done successfully with many benefits.
To the Webelos den leader who wanted to give his den a taste of youth leadership, try making use of the denner concept.
The Denner is similar to a patrol leader but resized for the Webelos level. It’s a good way to introduce boys to the concept of leadership and service to their fellow Scouts. In the vein of the old advice “never do anything a boy can do,” here are some things the denner can do that you’re probably used to doing:
– Call the den meeting to order
– Select the flag corps and call the flag ceremony
– Take attendance and collect den dues
– Hand out materials needed for an activity
– Help select a game for the den meeting and lead the game
– Help teach skills
– Close the den meeting
– Bring a snack for the den
The denner is supposed to be elected by the den, but you should find a way that each boy gets a chance to be denner for a month or so. And make sure they know in advance when it’s their month to be denner. You may want to meet with next month’s denner a week or two in advance to go over duties and expectations. With eleven boys in the den, you’ll have just enough time so that each boy can be denner for at least one monthly term.
Alright Clarke, the geek in me just had to figure this one out. IF you keep doing the podcast, and IF you keep the schedule of releasing a new podcast on Monday each week, THEN Troop 918 will have their chance to be mentioned in Podcast 918 on Monday September 20th, 2027!! You’ve got a long time to wait Troop 918, but I’m sure it will be worth it. Keep it up Clarke, it’s great stuff.
Scoutmaster Merrick Fonnesbeck
Troop 581, Lehi, Utah
** To be mentioned: Monday, April 05th, 2021
Hey Clarke,
Thanks for the on going delivery of the great podcast. While I am no “green horn” to Scouting, I am relatively new (a few years as a den leader, and now a couple as a asst. SM) and so I find your podcast to be educational and having me consider how I approach Scouting. I have been listening for about six months now.
Generally, I have found your thoughts, insights, and responses to be good counsel, Even when my knee jerk reaction has not been in complete agreement with yours, I can see the way you came to that point and the wisdom in it.
I was pretty surprised and in disagreement with you on your recent thoughts on leadership versus outdoor leadership however. I think you mixed two things in this conversation: leadership and the tools used in different environments. The tools used in either environment are indeed different: pie charts versus a square knot, etc. You are correct in that using corporate management tools in the Scout setting are likely to be ineffective, or at least in setting up folks to be frustrated Scouters.
Leadership however is NOT those tools and transcends the environment. The principals of leadership are stated well in something the like the Scout Law – which have bearing in both environments. In fact, if you go back to the podcast prior to this most recent, you describe differences in leadership in this way (the despised leader, etc).
Anyway, thanks in any case for leading me to think about this.
George Zack
Hey George – thanks for your kind words.
We don’t really disagree at all, I may not have expressed the idea too well, but you arrived where I was headed! Leadership skills are applicable in any context, certainly, and I did note that developing leadership in the outdoors affords Scouts skills that will serve them for a lifetime.
What I wanted to point out was the difference in the environment (outdoors vs. typical business management) the same set of skills are employed, but just in a different way.
The point was getting Scouters thinking about the difference, why it is important, and how to go about making the most of it.