Youth Leadership

[eaglescout4029]

I always wondered one thing about the Boy Scouts. One of the pillars it was founded on was leadership. The patrol method and leadership were created for this reason. SPL, ASLP, Scribes, and all the positions were created.

 

If you look at the tasks of each youth leadership position you can see that Boy Scouts is youth led with adult supervision.

 

Using that statement, why does the youth leadership stop at the troop level? When you look at similar youth organizations: 4-H, FFA, Beta Club, etc all have local, district, state, regional, then national level officers or youth leadership. Even scouting programs such as Venturing and OA have youth leadership on levels above the local level. So, why not Boy Scouts? What is your opinion?

[Eagle92]

Good question, probably b/c the founding fathers of the BSA didn't include youth on the committees that created the BSA. In reference to OA, Venturing, and Sea Scouts, if memory serves those positions were first internal positions, that later expanded onto district, council, regional, and national levels.

[sherminator505]

My experience with leadership beyond the Troop level as a Scout was a mixed bag. I found that for the most part, SPL's did not attend district roundtable. Even though there wasn't anything preventing youth from attending roundtables, most of the time I was the only one there and when there was another Scout, he was usually a Life Scout informing the district Scouters about his Eagle Scout project. I didn't have a vote on anything, and I didn't expect to, but I still felt like a full participant.

 

I'm not sure if roundtables operate the same way today (I suspect they still do) but it seems that most of the limitations on Scout-age participation beyond the troop level are self-imposed. Also, it should be noted that due to legalities, adults are required to make the decisions beyond the scope of day-to-day troop operations.

[nolesrule]

What were they voting on at a roundtable?

[John-in-KC]

Our distict has and does invite SPLs to RT for particular functions: Planning camporee program is one of them.

 

I think the other part of this is that the 11-18 year band was to learn the functions in relatively small groupings. The Order provides leadership opportunities beyond the unit. Exploring (70s version), now Venturing also provides leadership opportunities beyond the unit.

[sherminator505]

"What were they voting on at a roundtable?"

 

 

Camporee activities and such. My memories of exact content is scant now as it was over 20 years ago.(This message has been edited by sherminator505)

[MichaelOA]

Probably because it wasn't the goal that national had/has in mind. The main focus of the scout should always be to his troop, even when he is in other scouting programs such as OA, which has sectional, regional, and national levels these positions are guaranteed to go to someone who is over 18 and has time to devote to being in that position without neglecting his troop since he is no longer a youth member.

 

In a way scouts can have a form of leadership council wide by staffing council events, such as summer camp, nylt, or other activities. There is always a chance to lead out of your troop just don't always expect a silver or yellow epaulets.