Thinking of Scouters as coaches … … can help us understand our role in the game. These are just analogies – we aren’t actually coaches, and Scouting isn’t actually a game. Analogies are not exact copies, they only resemble what they represent. What a Scouter does may be similar to coaching, but Scouters hold an unique role in […]
Scoutmaster Responsibilities
A New Approach to Scout Troop Planning
No matter how we hard tried our Scout Troop planning seemed to be losing the battle for for space on crowded family calendars. Participation in our program was all over the map, some events would be well attended, only a handful of Scouts would show up for others. Patrols were rarely at full strength and […]
Scoutmaster Podcast 348 – Who Leads Scout Leaders?
If the Scouts are leading themselves who is leading the Scout leaders? This week I’ll field a couple of email questions that ask the question “who leads the Scout leaders?” Scouting is a team sport, while we all work to build consensus it’s not a democracy. It is, as BP said, “a jolly game” that depends […]
Scoutmaster Podcast 321- Brownsea Island Moment
21 boys boarded a boat in Poole Harbor… … they had no way of knowing they were pioneering a movement for millions of young people around the world. Several lived well into old age to vividly recount their experiences decades later. Scouting’s pathways are now worn by travel, but each new Scout today has a “Brownsea […]
What is Your Scouting Legacy?
You probably can’t appreciate what your Scouting legacy will be a few years from now. Today you have your hands and your head full of getting things done; looking into the future may not be high priority. No matter how hopeful or difficult things may seem at the moment, no matter how well or poorly you imagine […]
Podcast 318 – Troop Leader Guidebook Vol. 2 PART TWO
No 11-year-old boy joins Scouting to get his character developed… … and few boys join to attend troop meetings, wear the Scout uniform, or sit before boards of review. Instead, they sign up for fun and adventure. Last month Walter Underwood joined me on podcast 313 to review the first volume of the Troop Leader Guidebook. We got […]
Podcast 317 – Troop Leader Guidebook Vol. 2 PART ONE
What is the ninth method of Scouting? Author Mark Ray begins the second volume of the Troop Leader Guidebook with these words; Back when you first attended Scout leader training, you learned that Boy Scouting has eight methods: adult association, advancement, ideals, leadership development, outdoors, patrol method, personal growth, and uniform. Now that you’re a seasoned leader, however, you realize […]
Podcast 316 – Scouting is Discovery
What has a Mesoamerican Step Pyramid got to do with this? Today I want to talk about leadership, but I want to see if I can get you to come along with me and really examine what this means in Scouting. Leadership in Scouting is based on discovery. I have (what I hope is a great) analogy […]
Ten Ways to Frustrate a Youth Leader
How do I know what frustrates a youth leader? I have been guilty of each of these ten things at one time or another. People who volunteer to work with Scouts are generally good-hearted, well-meaning folks who want to do their best to guide Scouts towards growing into useful, good hearted people themselves. But this goodwill is not enough, we have to strive to […]
So Far, So Good! Audio Book
Happy to announce today that my book So far, So Good! A a new Scoutmaster’s Story is now available as an audio book. If you aren’t familiar with the book it’s the story of Chuck Grant’s first few months as a new Scoutmaster. Chuck is asked to take on the job after serving as an assistant Scoutmaster, and […]
What is a “Youth-Led Troop”?
Many Scouters claim; “We have a youth-led Troop,” but what does that really mean? Official literature mentions this sort of thing often, but how is do we really define “youth-led”? We’d like to think what the Scouts do and how they do it defines “youth-led”, but it doesn’t. Young people lead themselves all the time, it comes quite naturally to them. […]
Scoutmaster Podcast 301- Your Scouting Vision
What’s your vision for Scouting? Have you ever taken the time to really examine your Scouting vision, how you picture where you are headed as a Scouter? When I first became a Scoutmaster my vision was defined by what I knew at the time. The pictures in my head were so powerful, it sounds silly now, but […]
Leadership, Power, Responsibility, and Service
Anyone who takes on a position of responsibility as a leader will feel pretty self-important at first. After all, you have been chosen, or you stepped in when no one else did. It’s a big ego boost to have a title, to have people follow your directions. That’s a pretty heady feeling isn’t it… all that power? Power scratches an itch, […]
Every Scout is a Leader
We tend to focus only on directive leadership roles when we are thinking about engaging our Scouts in leadership, but every Scout can (and ought to) be a leader. Here’s some thoughts you can use to encourage all of your Scouts to engage in leadership. Leadership is much more than standing in front of the group […]
Being Mentally Awake
“I cannot teach anybody anything. I can only make them think” ― Socrates On a long November night our group of eight was crossing Indian Pass in the Adirondacks when all but one of our flashlights quit in the cold and rain. We leapfrogged our way slowly by shining our one working light on the trail, hiking twenty yards or so, moving the light to the front of the […]
Three Leadership Styles
Although the founder of Scouting Baden-Powell and the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu lived centuries apart on opposite sides of the world, each describe the same three distinct leadership styles. More often than not we’ll find some aspects all three styles in the same person. I know I have used all three styles at one time or […]
Outside Influences – Podcast 285
What do we do about outside influences in the lives of our Scouts? To begin with let’s figure out what’s “outside” and what is “inside”? Let’s interpret outside influences on our Scouts as something that is beyond our scope of control and inside influences as something within the scope of our control as Scouters. If […]
B.P.’s Blog – Listen
During his lifetime Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the worldwide Scouting movement, wrote many books and articles directed to Scouters. Each Sunday I’ll publish a selection from his writings in the hope that you’ll draw inspiration and understanding from his timeless ideas. A FURTHER way of discovering activities that will appeal to the boys is for […]
Podcast 258 – Scouting’s Most Important Volunteers
Is it the Council President, commissioner, or Scoutmaster? Nope, listen to find out which volunteers Scouting can’t do without, and to answers to email questions about a new Scoutmaster, Scouts who won’t lead, and new Scout patrols. LINKS Bedwetting and Scouts Kandersteg 2016 MUSIC in this podcast By a Campfire on the Trail Sponsored By […]
Podcast 257- Who Leads Who?
… if we have youth leading Scouts who do we lead? Find out who the Scoutmaster leads and directs in this podcast as well as answers to questions about merit badges, Webelos wearing sashes, and adult supervision of patrol meetings or activities. Links in this podcast Blue Card Infographic The Big Three Resources every Scouter […]
10 Point Scout Troop Checkup
Active, aware, Scouters all ask themselves how well they are delivering the Scouting program. There are any number of ways to measure metrics, the Journey to Excellence being the most familiar and widely used tool. I am going to suggest ten questions a Scout troop can ask of itself that do not have metric answers. Hopefully the answers would help […]
10 Ways to Develop Youth leadership
1. Promote Ownership If youth leadership is actually responsible for the running the program, (meetings, outings, the whole megillah), they must have sense of ownership. Without ownership they will not have a sense of responsibility. 2. Praise publicly, criticize privately Critique and advice are tempered by a sense of care and support and quietly offered. Praise is frequent, always overheard, and shared […]
The Story of a New Scoutmaster – So Far, So Good!
Most of you will have read the series “A New Scoutmaster” I started publishing this fall (here’s the first chapter). Because of the overwhelmingly positive response I expanded the story past the original twelve chapters, edited, expanded what I had already written and I am happy to offer the result in my new book So Far, […]
A New Scoutmaster – Chapter Fourteen
This is the fourteenth installment in a story that follows a new Scoutmaster, Chuck Grant, attempting to use the patrol method in a troop that has forgotten how. I’ve based this work of fiction on the stories shared by readers and listeners, questions they have asked, and the advice I commonly share in reply. Scoutmasters can expect to encounter challenges and […]
