Scouting, Volume 61, Number [6], September 1973 Page: 4
122, 64 p. : ill. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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ises to himself. The written word also
serves as a starting point for the
next conference, since he and the
Scoutmaster can then discuss
whether, and how well, he fulfilled
those goals.
Experienced Scoutmasters suggest
these guidelines for conducting per-
sonal growth agreement conferences:
• Put the Scout at ease; make it
clear that he will neither "pass" nor
"fail" this requirement.
• Be a listener. If the conversation
lags, you must get it going again so
that a conclusion is reached. But do
as little "leading" as possible.
• Build on a boy's interests. First
find out what they are, then let him
discover where they might take him.
• Don't try to analyze problems or
give advice. Help the boy learn to
solve his own problems. Obviously,
if really serious problems come to
light, he may need more expert help
than you can provide; perhaps from a
clergyman or other professional. But
remember that the purpose of the
conference is not analysis but to help
the boy grow.
• Divorce the personal growth
agreement conference entirely from
the progress review. The review is a
check on how well he has completed
requirements for advancement. That
is not the aim of the conference, al-
though the last part of the conference
should be spent on planning the
Scout's next advancement activity,
such as which merit badges or skill
awards he will earn next.
• As its name suggests, the con-
ference is "personal." Don't try to
meet with two or more boys at the
same time. Many Scoutmasters like
to hold conferences in their homes,
away from the bustle of troop activity.
In any case, give your undivided at-
tention to one boy.
During the last program year, a
mini-course in the personal growth
agreement conference was given at
Scout roundtables. One of the fea-
tures of that course was a recording
of a sample personal growth agree-
ment conference, showing how a
typical conference should go. If you
missed that roundtable, you can still
hear the record. Ask your local coun-
cil to order a copy, which costs 25
cents. It's recorded at 33 1/3 rpm.
There is also a unit of training on the
personal growth agreement which
you can go through with a coach
counselor from your district.
For more information about the
personal growth agreement confer-
ence, see pages 19-21 and 84-88 of
the Scoutmaster's Handbook and
pages 82-85 of the Scout Handbook.
TROOP LEADER DEVELOPMENT
All of the training experiences and
practices that are provided for senior
patrol leaders and members of the
leadership corps come under the
heading of Troop Leader Develop-
ment. In this short piece, the empha-
sis is directed to the opportunity for
the development of leadership corps
members.
Council and district courses are
provided for leadership development
for senior patrol leaders and leader-
ship corps members. At these week-
long experiences, the members of
the leadership corps are given an
opportunity to develop a commitment
or project that they will perform
when they return to their home troop.
As a Scoutmaster, your responsibility
is to help members of your leader-
ship corps to carry out these projects
so that the corps member will grow
in his leadership development. He
has been exposed to eleven skills or
leadership competencies and he has
developed probably three projects
in which he will include all eleven
competencies. This means that he
will do these in combination using
several of them in one project.
The basis for these projects is the
material in Patrol and Troop Leader-
ship manual. If you as Scoutmaster
have had Wood Badge training, then
this is familiar material. If not, then
you would be helpful to your leader-
ship corps members by acting as a
cooperative partner. You can read
the material in the Patrol and Troop
Leadership manual so as to be aware
of their general nature. Not having
had the training experience, it would
not be wise to try to coach the
leadership corps members in the
technical detail. However, you can
be most helpful by observing these
young men as they serve on your
troop staff in the role of counselors
of other troop leaders.
After all, the whole purpose of
leadership development is to improve
the quality of patrol action. If a patrol
and its patrol leader become more
effective as a result of the counseling
and coaching of a leadership corps
member, then he is contributing
something to their development. Ad-
ditionally, he must be improving his
own leadership potential.
A leader has two main jobs: one,
to get the job done; two, to keep the
group together. A leadership corps
member may be assigned by a senior
patrol leader or a Scoutmaster to
work with a patrol leader to help him
become more effective. Through his
counseling, the corps member should
help the patrol leader to become
more effective in accomplishing the
task of his patrol and at the same
time see that the group holds to-
gether. The essence of this second
goal is that the group is happy and
satisfied at the same time that they
are getting a job done.
The purpose of this short exposi-
tion is not to explain the intricacies
of each of the leadership skills, but
rather to show how a Scoutmaster
can assign a corps member in his
troop so that he will be receiving
training and the troop will benefit at
the same time. The purpose of the
leadership corps is twofold: one, to
provide additional leadership for the
troop, and two, to hold the older boys
in the troop while they are develop-
ing their leadership potential.
In working with others in the troop
and working with a patrol is just one
of several opportunities a corps mem-
ber will have to use most of the
competencies. However, since he
should not take over the leadership
of the patrol more than In a tem-
porary situation, he will have the
greatest opportunity to counsel and
to evaluate. He will be counseling
the patrol leader in the jobs the pa-
trol leader faces. It may be a teach-
ing situation or it may be an action
situation in which the group needs to
organize itself for a particular task.
Much of the corps member's time will
be spent observing, then after the
action is over he will counsel with
the patrol leader and help him to
evaluate how well he and the patrol
performed. The next step would be
his own evaluation of how well he
performed in the counseling role.
Since he can be of greatest help
when he can, through his observa-
tions, determine what the problem is
and what needs to be done, he will
be observing and then evaluating. He
will show his skills as he counsels
and helps the patrol leader to see
what course of action is open to him.
Since most troops are continually
training patrol leaders in their func-
tions because of elections happening
at least twice a year, there is much
need for coaching of patrol leaders.
Normally the Scoutmaster does a
great deal of this. With the addition
of the leadership corps, the Scout-
master has helpers in this task. This
takes even more skill because the
Scoutmaster will be removed a bit
from the training of the patrol leader.
All benefit from this action because
boys are leading boys in the process.
There are several other possibilities
in normal troop operation that sug-
gest training projects for the leader-
ship corps members: preparing for
camp-outs, Scout show participation,
Courts of Honor, and other major
events provide real challenge for the
leadership of a troop. Members of
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Boy Scouts of America. Scouting, Volume 61, Number [6], September 1973, periodical, September 1973; New Brunswick, New Jersey. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth353576/m1/68/: accessed May 2, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Boy Scouts of America National Scouting Museum.