The how’s and why’s of including scout parents into leadership and help with running the program for the boy and cub scouts
Transcript:
Getting help within the scouting program is hard, but sometimes its harder still to accept the help from those willing to give it.
This is one of the things that I am guilty of, that of taking on added responsibility and not letting it go when I have the opportunity.
During my scouting career I would plan trips, set up meeting locations, plan programs, sell popcorn, do budgets, make newsletters. If there was a job to do, as most dedicated scouters will do, it step in to get things done for the sake of the program.
When I stepped up as cubmaster, and also when I began as ScoutMaster I had lots of jobs, some of which rightfully belonged to the pack and troop committee.
As the face of the troop the Scoutmaster works with the scouts. The committee is supposed to handle the logistics of the program. So when trips need to be set up, sites reserved, court of honor programs made I would be running around – – AND doing my actual scouting job.
Not only was this not fair to me, but the load really needed to be spread out among others.
You do this so that those others can take on more responsibility within the program. So they can learn, benefit and give back to the program.
Is fact, you are robbing them of the opportunity to do so when you take on the additional responsibility.
There are lots of reasons why this happens. You get burned and a program doesn’t go off as expected. Someone drops the ball, and your program suffers.
Accountability is important, and it’s easy to hand someone a job and hope for the best. It’s better however to hand them a job and periodically check back to make sure its on track, so it doesn’t fall through the cracks, at least at first.
There are other benefits to having folks pick up part of the program. One of the more important ones is that they bring a different perspective than your own, They know stuff, and have experienced things that can make your program more rounded.
Succession is also another big benefit.
If you are the current leader and you are doing lots of stuff outside of that responsibility you need to consider how those elements are going to get done when you are not in the program.
While you may believe you are a lifelong scouter, things happen, people move on, move away and as children age out of the troop or pack, coming to a weekly meeting is less of a draw.
I have seen it myself, as when my youngest was part of the Troop there was a set of 7 parents that were very active. Now that our kids have aged out, only 2 remain, including myself.
Letting others do for you, helps the unit and helps the continuity of leadership we all hope to obtain. But, this is what works for us.
Take what you like and leave the rest, and as we say in Woodbadge, feedback is a gift, leave yours below in the comments, with the hope we can all learn together.
I’m Scoutmaster Dave, and this was the benefit of including parents to make a better program
