Topic
What it takes to lead a troop week after week. Scoutmasters and assistant Scoutmasters wrote openly about vision, patience, mentoring youth leaders and the occasional rainy campout.
200 posts · 2007–2020
10 posts
The Ten Essentials of Scoutmastership penned by William 'Green Bar' Hillcourt were part of the Scoutmaster's Handbook for many years. A belief in boys that will make you want to invest yourself and your time on their behalf. As Plato said " Of all the animals , the boy is the most unmanageable ".
Here are some excerpts from a reply to a letter from a frustrated Scoutmaster over at Ask Andy Usually, the single most important thing adult leaders can do to improve delivery of the Boy Scout program is to step back.
If I could speak to myself 25 years ago when I became a Scoutmaster here is what I would say: Learn as much as you can from training and reading. Study these invaluable references: Guide to Safe Scouting , Advancement Committee Policies and Procedures Manual , Insignia Guide , Scoutmaster's Handbook and Baden Powell's Aids to Scoutmastership .
The Scoutmaster conference is the principle contact with between Scout and Scoutmaster: Why does the Scoutmaster engage in this one-on-one review? The relationship between a Scout and his Scoutmaster is important for the troop's health and for the Scout's success.
The Thanksgiving Holiday has once again come to those of us in the United States. As I prepare to join my family in the annual turkey dinner I look back on my years in Scouting and discover there are a lot of things to be thankful for over the last three decades with the troop.
1. Making things more efficient Changes that compromise the responsibility of the scouts to do for themselves may make things more efficient, but they are inimical to the spirit of what we want to accomplish. Inefficiency 2. Applying uniform standards "Our standard for badge earning—as I have frequently said—is not to attain a certain level…
Our district held its fall Camporee this past weekend and efficiently combined the outdoor skills portion of Scoutmaster Specific Training into the agenda. The idea being that adult leaders will be there with their troops anyway and the day of training would require minimal time away from family or troop.
Recently in the PTCmedia forums a Scouter posted a new topic. It caught my eye, as leadership always does. His post asked several questions: "Who makes up your unit's leadership? Is it current parents? the Old Goat or rocking chair Patrol of people that are retired or semiretired?
Keith Monroe was a longtime contributor to Scouting magazine and Boys' Life . His book, Be Prepared , an account of his joys and struggles as a Scoutmaster, was published in 1952 under the pen name Rice E. Cochran. Here is an excerpt concerning Scoutmaster's dividends: The biggest dividends...
Aquatic activites are a huge part of Boy Scouting, at least here in the land of 10,000 lakes. The aquatics beach at summer camp is probably the busiest area of the camp. You will find Boy Scouts swimming, sailing, rowing, canoeing, and snorkeling.
