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Scouting has been called a “game with a purpose.” Youth and families join Scouts to go on adventures and form good friendships with good people. In a nutshell – to have fun! Along the way, if our Troop does its job, our Troop’s members (youth and adults) develop as we achieve the Aims of Scouting (see below). That’s the “why” we are all here. No worries – easy, right? No, it’s not really easy – doing Scouting right takes a lot of work, but that work is well worth the investment; it will be rewarding and we’ll have fun doing it! And the work is lighter when we all pitch in. Many hands make light work, as the saying goes.
The mission of the Boy Scouts of America is to prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices over their lifetimes by instilling in them the values of the Scout Oath and Scout Law. This mission translates to four objectives, also known as the Aims of Scouting: Character Development, Leadership Development, Citizenship Training and Physical Fitness. How do we accomplish this mission and achieve these objectives? By providing Scouts and their families with a fun and engaging program in a youth-led Troop that uses the eight Methods of Scouting (Scouting ideals, the Patrol Method, the outdoors, advancement, association with adults, personal growth, leadership development, and the uniform). What does “youth-led” mean? Glad you asked!
Unlike Cub Scouts where the Den Leader (an adult) leads the Scouts, in Scouts BSA, it’s all about the Scouts! The Scouts hold the primary leadership roles. You may have noticed that our Senior Patrol Leader, has been sending the majority of the emails to the Troop lately. She also sent the initial emails to the leaders of local Cub Scout Packs inviting them to bring their Webelos to our Open House this week. This is part of what it means for our Troop to be youth-led.
Another part of being a youth-led Troop is using the Patrol Method (one of the eight Methods of Scouting I mentioned above). The Patrol Method gives Scouts chances to lead that are hard to find anywhere else. Unlike sports, band or other activities, Scouting with the Patrol Method gives Scouts the chance to be “hands-on” as leaders, employing leadership skills and teamwork to function successfully in all kinds of circumstances – hikes, campouts, service projects and other fun stuff! Patrols are small by design – every Patrol member has to do her part, and that gives each Scout ownership of the Patrol’s successes and failures. (More about failures later….)
So, since the Scouts are the primary leaders, the adults don’t have much to do, right? Ha! Well, someone has to train the youth to be leaders – and transport Scouts to campouts, teach merit badges, reserve campsites, etc. There’s plenty of work for our Troop’s adults.
Adults in Scouting are role models and they strive to provide an ideal learning experience for the youth. Youth will often learn “better” from adults who are not their parents. So, we adult leaders gotta band together to help our Scouts and Troop Family grow. (We may even do some growing ourselves along the way….) Every adult volunteer has something valuable to offer – teaching a merit badge about your favorite hobby, leading hikes on your favorite trails, or sharing life lessons you gained as you pursued your career. We’ll be circulating a Troop Resources Survey to identify the talents we have in our Troop. As we continue on our Scouting journey together, we’ll explore how we can best utilize our Troop’s talents to enable our Scouts to lead. Every Troop is unique because the people who make up that Troop are unique. We may not run ourselves “just like” another Troop you may have seen. Even though our “why” is the same as other Troops, our “how” will be unique to Troop 226, incorporating best practices from other units and programs to fit the needs of our members.
Part of creating this safe environment is allowing our Scouts to fail – as long as they are safe – so that they can learn from those failures. Taking on challenges is how we grow, and it means we will fail. If we’re not failing, we’re not reaching for big enough challenges.
I know that this may not sit well with our “Straight-A Students” or our “helicopter parents”…. I can see it now – a Scout says to her parents, “Mr. L said it’s o.k. to fail, so I shouldn’t be grounded for the ‘C’ I got in Algebra!” Or a Parent says “Mr. L, you said adults need to ‘hover’ less and now she got a ‘C’ in History! I knew I should have typed her essays for her!!” To that Scout, I say “If you did your best on each assignment and test along the way, asked for and accepted help when you needed it, learned from your experience, and you can take pride in what you accomplished, then that ‘C’ is ok. You worked hard for it and you earned it yourself. (And maybe make sure you’re taking math classes that are appropriately challenging for you.)” I’d say something similar to the parent. So, in the context of Scouting, it’s ok if a Scout needs five tries to learn how to tie a knot, or if a Patrol Leader lets a meeting run 10 minutes over time – so long as she is the person doing the work, she does her best, she learns from the process (with good guidance from senior Scouts and adult leaders who create appropriate challenges), and she can be proud of her accomplishment.
We meet weekly on Wednesday evenings from 6:45pm-8:00pm*
*Check the calendar and/or announcements for schedule changes. Just in case, it would be safest to reach out to confirm our meeting for a particular week.
A Scouts BSA Troop Developed by Girls, for Girls and Led by Girls located in San Diego, CA
