Selecting Quality Leaders

[AdvanceOn]

I like the idea of putting a more positive swing on the leadership selection process. Our district is like so many others, short on leaders, long on needs. What I've seen so far is a lot of the "if you don't do this this pack/troop/den will fold" guilt trip.

 

The other thing that I see as ESSENTIAL, not optional, is immediate training. I am a new appointed ADC for Cubs in our district. I immediately went out and got the required training (had to go out of district, also had to find it for myself). The others aren't going to get training until middle of May (too long to wait IMHO). How can we effectively do a job if we're not trained?

 

Anyway, as I contact my packs the common thread that continues to come up is NO TRAINING or maybe Fast Start.

 

The other issue for these people is that the way training is being done is prohibitive. A daylong training makes it impossible for many people to attend. We live in a rural, relatively low socioeconomic area. No transportation, very little childcare, etc.

 

I can't promise anything yet but I'm looking at bringing the training to the Packs rather than having the pack leaders come to us. Seems to me this might be a good use of some of their leader meetings. We can tailor the training to their needs/schedules. The only change to the syllabus should be that the training will be done over weeks rather than a day.

 

What do you think? Has anyone else done this?

 

If we don't try another way SOON we're going to lose some dedicated people.

 

 

Bob White -- I have saved your list and will try some of your suggestions as I work with my Packs.

 

[Bob White]

Advanced on,

You'll be glad to know that that the days of day-long Cub Leader Basic Training are gone.

 

Cub Training has ben brought down to 2 sessions.

New Leader Essentials (90 minutes)

Job Specific training (Under 3 hours)

 

Job Specific training has individual modules for Tiger Den Leaders, Wolf/Bear Den Leaders, Webelos Leaders, Pack Committee, and Cubmaster/Asst. Cubmaster. You only attend the session for your specific responsibility. If your pack position changes you only go back and take your new Job Specific instruction.

After that there are longer-all day courses for supplemental training such as Pow-wow, Baloo, and Webelos Outdoor Training

 

Once a Cub Volunteer has completed basic they may immediately attend Woodbadge for advanced leadership skills.

 

As far as Fast Start, it has been recently revamped and re-released. Your council should be getting the new tapes this month if they haven't already arrived. however Fast Start is no longer required for basic training. It is a helpful tool though for orientation for new leaders.

 

Best of luck,

Bob

[sctmom]

I think the idea of taking the training to the leaders is great!

 

I live in a council and district that covers many miles, mostly rural. Those volunteering have children. Not everyone works Monday - Friday, 8 to 5.

 

Training is not stressed a lot in our pack. Many leaders go for a while before finding out about Roundtable. It is also hard to attend when it is 30 minutes to 1 hour away, on a weeknight. I would have to take my son with me. We would not get home until late, he often has ball practice on that night, it's the same night as our school's PTO meeting, on and on and on.

 

I know our pack needs a training advocate. Someone to really encourage and HELP people get the training they need. Seems to me like most people aren't going to go looking for it.

 

[Bob White]

A fairly new committe position has been created for packs and troops. Pack Trainers and Troop Training coordinators, they will be able to not only promote training within their own unit, but once developed as trainers will be able to present most of the new training modules within the unit at the units convenience.

[AdvanceOn]

Bob White -- Our district is having a DAYLONG training next weekend using the new training modules. They're just cramming everything into that one day. Part of the reason for it is that they're bringing council trainers in for the day. I don't agree with it but that's what has been set up.

 

I'm sure I'll have to beg for the new Fast Start video. I just finally got the old one for the troop level.

[eisely]

It is my sense that recruitng or selecting adult leadership is more of an issue for packs than for scout units because of the built in turnover. Active parents graduate with their sons. When the sons graduate from high school and scouts, many parents stay with the program at that level in some capacity. I like Bob White's process for selecting leaders. I have never seen anything like that done in practice.

 

Our troop has adopted a "parent promise" that is a piece of paper that lists various positions that parents sign. It has increased parental participation. I agree with the posters who point out the issue with single parent households. I would never exclude a boy from such a situation just because the single parent, usually a custodial mom with few financial resources and need to work for a living, simply cannot do much. These boys need scouts and I have always found such single parents willing to try to do something, if only work the phones when needed.

[Bob White]

You're right that packs have a harder time, but the problem persists with troops also.

 

I don't know how many have noticed but the first policy in the Guide to Safe Scouting says that no unit volunteer can hold two jobs in the same unit. So if you are on the charter as a den leader, you cannot also be on it as a committee member. So if you have a pack with tigers through Webelos 2, you must have a minimum of 9 registered adults (there are actually 10 mandatory positions but the Charter Org. Rep. Is allowed to also be a Committee Member.) and alot of packs do not have that kind of depth.

 

When I started as a Cubmaster our pack had less then 30 boys, and at total of 7 adults. The Committee chair and I followed the program I outlined for you (which by the way is actually a BSA formula found in a brochure "Selecting quality Leaders" and in less than 2 years we had 96 scouts, 14 dens, 2 trained uniformed leaders in each den, 3 trained uniformed Asst. Cubmasters, and 12 trained uniformed Committee Members that each had a specific job to do monthly. I would rather have 44 trained adults helping than 9). When I moved after 3+ years one of my assistants took the reins and the transition was pretty much seamless.

 

Just a few months ago a local Pack tried this plan and registered 9 adults in under 2 weeks.

 

I hope you find it as successful.

Bob

[ozemu]

Great info everyone. I've just sent this thread to our other leaders. It will help heaps I'm sure. Keep it coming.

 

For info - to compare your system to ours. Cub Leader training is an initial meeting (2 hrs), and three weekends.

 

Add activity specific days and weekends which are optional. Wood beads is another 3 weekends and project. This is a great hurdle to our prospective leaders.

[scoutmom]

Here's my 2 cents worth:

 

When I started as a Den Leader a few years ago, it was because "there was no one else to do it". I got a Den of 10 Wolves. I begged and begged for an assistant. I had lots of unoficial help from parents but no one would commit to being official. Our pack committee was falling apart. The trett people who were consistently at meeting were moving on to Boy Scouts with their sons. I then started informing the parent in my den of every meeting. Everything. Committee meetings, Roundtables, you name it, they knew when it was, where it was and how long it was. Well, from this we managed to get 1 Assistant Scoutmaster (now Scoutmaster), a new treasurer, new Secretary, and 3 additional committee members and a Committee Chair. I still didn't get my assistant, but that's another story). My den grew to 15 boys at one point and I knew I had to do something drastic to resolve the situation. (splitting the den was not an option because the boys wanted to stay togeter and the parents wanted them together) So, I resigned as Den Leader. Guess what? Three new people signed up to be Den Leaders. We now have three Leaders and the den is a First year Webelos Den. It is working out great and I am serving as an Assistant Scoutmaster. I found that informing people of what was going on worked in our Pack. Tell them what's going on and when and they get interested. We are not in a similar situation because most of the Pack Leadership is from our Den and we will be crossing over next February. We are very busy putting the word out and keeping our eyes on potential replacements. I'm happy to say we have some good prospects.