New Leader Training

[gwd-scouter 11]

The subject of new leader training came up at our last month's Roundtable.

 

 

NLE is offered in the Fall each year with one session in Sept., Oct. and Nov. New leaders can choose whatever session they'd like to attend so it seems that given a choice of 3, all new leaders would be able to find time in their schedule for one.

 

But, in our District, less than 20% of our new leaders get even the basic training (this is mostly true at the Cub Scout level).

 

I am a Boy Scout leader now and it seems a bit easier to get new Boy Scout leaders to training, but when I was a Cubmaster it was very difficult to get new den leaders, ADL and especially Committee members to attend one of the three Saturday trainings.

 

Do any of you have successful district training programs? If so, would you mind sharing info on what makes yours successful.

 

Thanks,

 

[Lisabob 13]

I've had the same problem getting new cub leaders trained. In part this was a logistics issue but in part it was a matter of "culture." By the time they get to boy scouts, most parents have at least a passing acquaintance with BSA, while many new leaders in the cub program are brand new to the entire organization. So troop leaders are probably already "on board" and more willing to go to training.

 

Some things that seem to work around here:

1. offer a variety of times/days for NLE. Parents of young kids might find it harder to take an entire Saturday or Sunday off but they may be willing to attend an evening session. Maybe even offer kid-sitting for the youngsters, depending on how brave you're feeling and how much help you'll have.

2. Location. Make it as convenient to get to as possible, and/or offer NLE in several locations around the district. (something I wish our district and council did a better job of!)

3. Publicity - don't just rely on district or council channels, which new leaders won't be acquainted with until too late. If packs do a round up in Aug/Sept, new leaders are just getting off the ground in Sept/Oct, it might be Nov. before they even know training exists and then it could be too late to schedule it. (esp. as committee members, where their involvement and interaction w/ council could be limited at first). If you have good Unit Commissioners then they should help promote training. Otherwise, if you have some experienced and active cub leaders, you can ask them to help you promote training in their area.

4. If certain units are chronically under-trained, and you have the staff to do it, offer to do an NLE session at upcoming committee meetings for them. Then they have no excuse and might actually get themselves to training!

 

Good luck!

 

Lisa'bob

A good old bobwhite too!

[SR540Beaver 116]

In our council and district there is no excuse for not attending other than you just don't want to. There are 11 districts in our council and the majority of them are in close proxemity to Oklahoma City. If you can't make a NLE in your district, there are a number of other districts less than 30 minutes drive time you can attend. The first Saturday of November, our Council conducts an all day training Pow Wow that covers Cubs, Boys and Venturing training of every kind. There are even fun classes like knots, cooking, LNT and fire building to fit in between course such as Troop Committee Challenge, NLE and Merit Badge Counselor. Also, our district trainer is willing to come do a group training if there are enough people and he offers NLE at Roundtable each month. Like I said, the only valid "excuse" is that you don't want to get trained. You might suggest doing the training at Roundtable. It gets them around other scouters in an environment where info is being passed around and they get the training at the same time.