Forgetting the outing in training

Came back last night from a presentation of wood beads to a good friend of mine and as is normal, the after meeting discusion between scouters from the area began. The topic that came up and i have seen this in threads, is that all training is going to be geared toward developing leadership skills, not outdoor skills.

Hello, is Texas asleep????

While leadership skills are an important goal of scouting, best realized by the boys by doing instead of being told, it is the outdoor experiences that are the enticements of scouting.

If we present to a boy an opportunity of being outdoors, with his friends and peers, in charge of themselves (under the supervision of TRAINED leaders, they eagerlly sign up.

If we present it as a leadership conference and (IMHO) a corporate minor league mind set, well I see us killing a successful program

[Why is it we are always fixing things that ain't broke???]

I found myself a little more disheartened.

Thanks

J

Outdoor emphasis and outdoor adult training are alive and well in the Mt. Diablo Siverado Council here in California. Out of curiousity I do plan to sit through the new adult training in just a few weeks, just to check it out.

My understanding is that there is a new course coming, I've already seen the syllabus, called Outdoor Skills for Leaders (or something like that, I can't remember). It's a course where the outdoor skills that have previously been part of Fundamentals and Woodbadge will be presented and taught. Beyond that, I too am disappointed that they seem to have been removed from previous venues, but am hopeful that this new course will come soon, and will be well thought out.

The outing in training will not be forgotten, just moved to a new course. I, for one, and I said so in another thread, think the new Wood Badge is great. It does not neglect the outdoor experience. And just because leaders are being taught effective leadership skills means we have to ignore the whole what of conducting our den, pack and troop meetings. We can just do it better.

I just end the new Wood Badge and have started my ticket. The first weekend all meals were prepared for us. The second weekend we had to plan and prepare all the meals for our patrol. I learned some new outdoors skills from my patrol members. I don't know how other Councils run the course but ours was done at the Scout Camp. Tent camping both weekends so the outdoors skills are still there.

I was on staff for a multi district "Outdoor Leader Skills" (OLS) training event two weekends back. Having now seen the trainee responses for both that course, and the indoor leader position training segment, I would rate the outdoor training a huge success. This was my first time as a trainer for adults, and I found it very rewarding. Those who had been instructors in the past were more critical. Everybody involved, trainers and trainees alike, were disatisfied with the indoor segment taught earlier.

We tried to stick to the OLS syllabus, but found the syllabus wanting in many ways. First of all, there is nowhere near enough time in one weekend to cover all the subject material. It was advertised as a course in "Introduction to Outdoor Leader Skills" and that would be the best way to characterize it. In the staff discussion immediately afterward we were concerned about the amibiguity in the objectives of the course. Is it a course just to teach skills to adults, or is it a course in how to teach skills to scouts. We were most successful in those elements of the course where we could make it a hands on experience, from safe stove operation to orienteering. We found the new scout leaders to be most engaged as students when we could relate the specific skill to a teaching technique for training scouts.

I would have to say this. I found it much better than "Scoutmaster Fundamentals" that I went through about ten years ago. Never made it to wood badge, so I can't comment on that.

I recently (March) took over a troop where I had been an ASM for several years. The previous SM was very much into high adventure and low-impact camping and placed a tremendous amount of emphasis on teaching these skills to the Scouts. The result was that we had a great bunch of followers that had good camping skills but could not lead worth anything. In addition, our troop was gradually shrinking. Since March, I've been emphasizing leadership skills. We still camp ten times a year. Amazingly enough, our campouts have actually gotten better because the Scouts are actually leading instead of just waiting to follow someone. I emphasize leadership skills for two reasons. First, they are the best set of skills that you can equip a young man with before he goes out into the real world and they can be used in virtually any situation. Second, in order for any organization to grow and prosper, the leader must duplicate himself (or herself) by developing other leaders. Otherwise, the group will never grow beyond what the one leader can handle.