Recommend Reading for New Leaders

[ScouterRob 10]

I have 3 new adult leaders that has no training with scouts. The older leaders that were trained has left.

 

There is no training for new leaders in the district for a couple of months and they have all completed all of the fast track and online training.

 

So I am looking for any recommend reading to start the new leaders with?

 

My list has started with the following:

 

Boy Scout Handbook

Scout Master Handbook

Boys Life

Scouting

[ScouterRob 10]

I also forgot, I want this reading list also for our scout library and future leaders training.

[NealOnWheels 73]

What about training in neighboring districts?

 

Have they taken any of the on-line training?

 

Roundtables can be useful.

[asm 411 10]

The current Boy Scout Handbook

The current Scoutmasters Handbook

 

Previous issues of each. I personally like the 5th Edition of the Scoutmasters handbook. It has a very detailed description of the Patrol Method. I have recently found out that the 3rd Edition(it is in two volumes) may be better but I have not acquired a copy yet. Typically these can be purchased for under $10 each.

[click23 66]

G2SS

 

There are some supplemental training modules available for download here, http://www.scouting.org/BoyScouts/TrainingModules.aspx ,see if there is anything that you think that they might need.

 

As for online training, http://scouting.org/Applications/MyScoutingFull.aspx , Fast Start: Boy Scouting, This is Scouting, and Youth Protection Training would be on the top of my list. There is some more supplemental training course there too.

 

[Eagle92 110]

Concur with getting training outsdie the district, and council if possible. My district is in a weird location in that 2 other councils have their offices closer than the council 1 am in. SO if you are in that situation, check out he other council's info.

 

As for books.

 

1) Intro to Outdoor leadership Skills. yeah it's the training syllabus, but it is handy/

 

2) the 3 Volumes of Programs Helps and the Troop Resource Book. Better still if you can find it is the old Woods Wisdom Book. They broke WW into 4 books.

 

3) 2nd ed. of the Scout FieldBook. haven't read the 1st or 3rd, but compared to the 4th ed. I like the 2nd better.

[CalicoPenn 729]

Boys Life is fine, but probably won't add anything of value to a leadership role.

 

The obvious are there - Boy Scout Handbook and Scoutmaster's Handbook. Of course, as mentioned, all the online training should be taken advantage of as soon as able.

 

I'd add The Patrol Leaders Handbook. That should be the bible for your youth leaders.

 

The Den Chiefs Handbook - it gives some good insight on Cub Scout Pack operations and program differences from a Troop perspective - useful for transitioning Webelos to the Troop. It also provides insight to one of the easiest recruitment tools available to Troops.

 

The Boy Scout Requirements book - this book lists all the requirements for ranks, merit badges (all of them) and special awards - it's not the ultimate source for answers on how to meet the requirements, but its a very handy tool to have around as a single point reference for advancement requirements (especially if a lad wants to earn a merit badge like Composite Materials - wouldn't it be nice to know as a leader just what the lad is required to learn?).

 

For a non-Boy Scout book, I recommend "Who Moved My Cheese" - it's a general business leadership book about change - and if there's any one thing to know about the BSA, it's "expect change - anytime, anywhere".

 

Calico

[HICO_Eagle 93]

The current Boy Scout Handbook

 

I'm afraid I'm going to have to disagree with this. They need to be familiar with the current (11th) edition of the Boy Scout Handbook since that's what the boys are using but they will be much better served by reading the 10th (previous) edition. In my opinion, the 11th edition is horrible, I don't understand how it has lasted as long as it has.

 

I haven't picked up the current edition of the SM Handbook (I'm afraid to after seeing what they've done to the BSH) but the previous (8th) edition had a lot of good information in it.

 

I like the 1972 edition of "Patrol and Troop Leadership", "Scouting for Boys", and the 6th and 9th editions of the Boy Scout Handbook. The latter two have some outdated information but a lot of very useful supplementary material that is unfortunately missing from the most current edition. The reprints of the 1st edition are interesting and have some lost elements of woodcraft but it's not entirely necessary and I'd leave that for later.

 

The 3rd (previous) edition of the Fieldbook is also very handy with some great info on low-impact camping. Again, I haven't picked up the current edition (hmm.... do you see a pattern forming?), it seems to be physically larger and more expensive but I think the overall quality has degraded.

[Eagle92 110]

Hico,

4th ed. is OK, good info on lots of different topics, but it's basic info. Stuff you'ld find in a MBP if you ask me BUt it has backp[acking, kayakaing, Horsemanship, sailing. Still a good resource, but I prefer 2nd edition. Then again the 2nd ed. was a gift I got pre-cub scout and have amazed me since I first got it, so I may be biased.

[Beavah 205]

* SPL and Patrol Leader handbooks.

* The leader's guide to whatever summer camp you're planning to attend

* The BSA Fieldbook.

* A non-BSA outdoor leadership book, like the Appalachian Mountain Club's Guide to Outdoor Leadership or the National Outdoor Leadership School's Wilderness Guide

* A fun learning read like Allen & Mike's Really Cool Backpacking Book.

* An alternate handbook, like Mark Ray's The Scoutmaster's Other Handbook, or one of the Underground Scoutmaster's Handbooks that floats around the net.

 

If BSA training isn't available, yeh can at least get 'em jumpstarted on their outdoor skills with training from a local outfitter like REI.

[asm 411 10]

Regardless of the how we feel about the quality or contents of the current incarnations of the handbooks they are the books that the programs is currently based on.

 

Once a new leader understands where we are suppose to be headed currently then supplementing the program with additional knowledge from what the BSA used to do is great.

 

If we start in the past then the new leaders will be wonder why the Scouts either aren't doing something or why they are doing other things. "Hey why are you guys not trenching your tents?" or "Why do you care about cyberbullies?"

 

I know these are extremes but unless the Scouters have a firm understanding of the Scout's reference material then they will be out of sync with them. Don't we have enough of that already just by our age differences?

[John-in-KC 311]

First, the training...

 

Fast Start for the Boy Scout program

 

This is Scouting

 

Youth Protection Training

 

THEN, they can start reading. As regards skills, earlier editions of any manual may have skills which are no longer best practices. That's especially so in first aid and LNT outdoorsmanship. As regards values, I agree that several older tomes are better than the current stuff.

[SSScout 1615]

Baden-Powell... Aids to Scoutmastering

 

Eric Sloan...Diary of an Early American Boy

 

Gary Paulson... Hatchet

 

Anything by Ernest Thompson Seton

 

Oh, and go to SLST and IOLS ASAP.