Each Junior Leader fills one or more "Positions of Responsibility" in a Scout Troop.
Lately, I’ve had a series of experiences in Scouting with
various boys filling Positions of Responsibility. Here are a few thoughts on the commonality of
these experiences.
A few weeks ago, I was present as a Unit Commissioner at a
Troop Court of Honor where the Senior Patrol Leader position of responsibility
was handed off from one scout to another.
Unusually, the outgoing SPL had not wanted to be replaced, but had lost
the election and graciously agreed to serve as the new Assistant SPL. He said a few words at the Court of Honor,
expressing his hope that his successor would do a good job. He was a good sport about it, but it was
clear he was disappointed to be leaving a job he considered to be his.
A few weeks before that, I got to work with Den Chiefs in my
Pack, one of whom was leaving with the outgoing WEBELOS den as they crossed
over into Boy Scouts, and two of whom are remaining to continue working with
our boys. Our three den chiefs are from
two separate troops, and have wildly different levels of experience both as Boy
Scouts and as Den Chiefs, so they keep me on my toes.
Last weekend, I served as the Advisor to the youth chair of
my Order of the Arrow Lodge’s annual One Day of Service. For this event, we use every campsite in our
local camp, and have troops spend the day retiring U.S. Flags. This has been happening for several years,
and gets larger each year. This year
we spent from 9am to 5pm working at eight different sites within camp and
burned more than 1500 flags that were in poor condition. We ended our day with a very impressive
campfire, capped with the calling out of approximately 30 scouts and scouters
into the Order of the Arrow.
The common thread in these experiences was the continuously
high quality of the youth who make these programs happen.
The outgoing SPL had inherited a mess when
he took over in August. The Patrol
Leader’s Council meetings had largely become just an excuse for the older boys
in the troop to hang out and eat pizza together. Over just six months this young man, still in
junior high and only a Star Scout, had restored the PLC to a functioning body,
and had put together a full-year program plan that his successor will
complete. He’d also worked with two
different Cub Packs to assist in recruiting.
(Very successfully too, the troop’s almost 30% larger than it was in
August.)
Our Den Chiefs are given a one-session orientation in the
fall, in which I explain that they have the most difficult job in Scouting,
seeing as how they have so many different people that they have to keep happy,
from the leadership of their home troop, to the leadership of the den, to the
boys and parents in the den (and most especially me, the coordinator of the Den
Chief Program at our pack). They’ve
performed admirably – showing up on time, in uniform and prepared for their
role in our meetings. I was able to
award two of them the Den Chief Service Award for completing a successful year
in the role at our February Blue and Gold Banquet.
Finally, the OA Event.
I can’t say enough about our Order of the Arrow Lodge Leadership. From the rookie event chair (Who’s only been
in the OA since last June) to our Lodge Chief and his Vice Chief, to the random
Arrowmen who stepped up on no-notice to assist in a number of tasks on
Saturday, the youth leaders performed magnificently. (How many 8th graders do you know
who are willing to stand up in front of an audience of 80 of their peers AND
ADULT SCOUTERS, and speak off-the-cuff about the schedule for the day?)
The best lesson for a scouter in all this, of course, is to
give the youth their initial training and get out of the way. When they know you’ll have their back, and
give them the support they need, they can do amazing things. (The Lodge Chief came to the One Day of
Service event at lunchtime, directly from his college placement exams, with a
box full of the orientation packets for the new candidate members of the Lodge,
and his assistant arrived with personalized scripts for the Ceremony Team to
use Saturday night – despite the cast changing as late as Thursday and the list
of new candidates not being finalized until Wednesday.)
Of course, the prudent scouter also makes allowances for the
fact that they ARE youth . . . I got an e-mail on Monday pointing out that I
was still responsible for the lodge we used as our HQ on Saturday – and there
was mud on one of the doors and a cot left set up in one of the rooms. I’d left before things were finished on
Saturday night and had another commitment Sunday, so I’d hoped the youth staff
would get everything cleaned up . . . but they missed just these few things. I ran out to the lodge Tuesday night and spent
not more than 15 minutes putting away the cot, cleaning the door, shaking out
two rugs and sweeping the floor.
Give your Junior Leaders the room to fail . . . most of the
time their successes will be spectacular and their failures will be small.
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