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Junior Leader Training Patch
Michael F. Bowman (mfbowman@USSCOUTS.ORG)
Sat, 29 Aug 1998 02:54:56 -0400
Hi Folks,
Since writing about the JLT Patch I've received a fair amount of mail
ranging from "I think you are dead wrong" to "that's how we do it and I
wish they'd put it in the manual".
As with many things in Scouting there's a good bit of literature that
touches upon any given subject making it hard to hold a single book or
phamplet and say this is the answer right here. Probably the most
authorative piece of literature on training matters is "Leadership
Training Committee Guide: Plans, Procedures, Materials" #34169, which is
intended for Council and District Training Committees. So I looked
there and elsewhere to doublecheck on whether there were any
restrictions on who wore the JLT Patch.
The only thing this manual said (also repeated in the Junior Leader
Handbook) was that a Scout who completed Troop level JLT was entitled to
wear the Trained strip for the office that he had trained for at JLT.
Neither source even mentioned a JLT patch, let alone who was qualified
to wear it.
Sometimes when there is an ambiguity like this, it is because BSA hasn't
adopted a firm policy or because it has several variations running in
different Councils to see which one works best before adopting a policy.
This may be the case here, although I can't say so with any certainty.
This also happens when Councils are given discretion to modify programs
to suit local needs (for example, meeting rural or urban needs).
Mike Brown was kind enough to write back and in his discussion talks
about a patch that as I understand it has JLTC on it as opposed to JLT.
The one that has the letters "JLT" is the one pictured in the Insignia
Guide. Apparently his Council is now developing its own Council JLTC
patch.
It may be that Mike's Council has for some time had test patches and
literature. Or it may be that his Scout Executive approved a local
issue patch with JLTC on it based on a generic national design before
going to a local design. And there may be local literature on JLTC that
is diffent in each Council. This is not uncommon either. For example,
the Guide to Safe Scouting is often republished by Council's with their
own more stringent requirements added in.
And Mike's Council is not the only one where the patch is given only to
those attending the Council level week-long Junior Leader Training
Conference - JLTC. In several Councils it appears that only the trained
patch is handed out for the Troop JLT.
Jim Sleezer wrote to relate that in his Council they had their own JLT
patch with segments for each phase of JLT "When I was a young scout, I
remember four Junior Leader training patches. One was for training at
Philmont or Schiff. The other three represented various levels--troop,
district, and council--and could be worn together as a single patch on
the right pocket."
Others wrote that in their Councils the "JLT" patch was given to anyone
attending any JLT course.
As far as I can tell from the wide variety of responses, the handling of
JLT patches is fairly well at the discretion of the local Council and
not uniform in application. The literature that I could lay my hands on
did not clear up the situation very much. So now I find myself a
little less certain about what the prevailing practice is for the JLT
patch.
The bottom line though is that we ought to be encouraging junior leader
training by whatever means we can.
In the absence of any hard rules it is my opinion that one way could be
to issue JLT patches to all who participate at the Troop or Council
level. Maybe it would make more sense to have two separate and distinct
patches. I'd vote for the current JLT patch for Troop level training
and a similar patch with JLTC on it and a gold milar border for Council
level training. But there are arguments that this would take away from
Troop run JLT programs.
Probably the leading expert on JLT is Lew Orans - thoughts Lew?
For more information on JLT stop by at
http://members.aol.com/commishweb/lead.html for a list of links to
relevant sites - a couple of the links may not be active.
Mike
__________________________________________________
Michael F. Bowman --- Professor Beaver NE-CS-41
Speaking only for myself in the Scouting Spirit
from Alexandria, Virginia - mfbowman@usscouts.org
Webmaster: http://members.aol.com/netcommish
http://usscouts.org/
http://usscouts.org/profbvr
Terry Howerton Sakima Group, Inc. SCOUTER Magazine Kansas City |
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