New Troop Leader Training

[AvidSM 11]

Has anyone conducted the new Troop Leader Training (34306A) in their unit? How did it go?

 

This new training program for youth leaders in a troop consists of three one hour modules: 1-Introduction to Leadership, 2-How to Do Your Job, 3-What is Expected of You. It replaces the Scoutmasters Junior Leader Training Kit.

 

I recently conducted this training with my SPL and seven scouts, two of which were patrol leaders. It took about four hours due to taking breaks in between the modules. During some of the breaks, we played some of the games from the old training course.

 

I thought that this new training went well. It seems to be focused on what the boys need to know to run their patrols and the troop as a whole. It prompted a lot of good discussion with the boys about program changes they would like to see and what they need from the adult leaders.

 

The olders boys were glad to hear that they got rid of the video from the old course. The younger boys got a little restless by the fourth hour, but by that time we were into the Scoutmaster's conferences and the rest played a game.

 

I used powerpoint slides to outline the sections of each module and to help prompt the discussions with questions. These slides took some time to prepare, but were worth it due to the structure they provided. The actual training booklet gives only a very brief sketch of the modules and their sections.

 

I provided each boy with a handout of the slides and copies of chapters 3 and 4 of the Scoutmaster's Handbook. And, at the conclusion of the training, they all got their "trained" patch and the patrol leaders got copies of their handbooks.

[Fishsqueezer 10]

I will be conducting the Troop Leadership Training in January. I'm glad to hear it went well. This will be the first time my troop has done any training. I like the idea of a Powerpoint to help explain ideas. I plan on breaking the training into 3 1-hour sessions.

 

Since our council hasn't conducted youth leader training for over 3 years, I've also developed a number of mini training courses from the NYLT curriculum. They are designed to last 30 minutes or less, have an activity, and emphasize specific leadership topics like leading a meeting, using a duty roster, problem solving, etc. I plan on conducting them about 40 minutes before the meeting starts and will be testing them out on my troop this spring. We'll see how it goes.

 

 

[Eagledad 2777]

This is good information, thanks for the report.

 

Barry

[FScouter 24]

Share with us your "vision of success" and how you explained to the SPL how to write his vision of success. How did you get the two visions aligned?

 

Had you ever heard of "EDGE" before, and how did you learn enough about it to teach it?

 

 

[AvidSM 11]

I told the boys that a "vision" is a picture in your mind of the way thing should be. Then I presented my "Scoutmaster's vision of success" in three points, in priority:

 

#1 - All Youth Leaders trained and doing their jobs = Boy Run Troop

 

#2 - All Adult Leaders trained and doing their jobs

 

#3 - Meeting our Goals as established during the Annual Program Planning Meeting

 

My SPL reviewed this and said that his vision was for everyone to be doing their jobs like they are supposed to. This aligned with my #1 point.

 

The EDGE method seemed straightforward enough to me to introduce to the boys. Perhaps it's because I'm an engineer? I taught the boys a butterfly knot using the method. The four steps, explain, demonstrate, guide and enable seem to flow into each other well enough that I was confortable with it. I would think most Scoutmasters would not have a problem introducing it in this training, with the more extensive EDGE instruction happening at NYLT.

 

The parts of the training that got their attention and prompted the most discussion was the "Start - Stop - Continue" assessment of how the Troop was doing and asking them "What do you need?". We got a lot of good ideas on how to improve the program from these sessions and a list of new equipment and items to bring up to the committee.

 

This training was a real good shot in the arm for the SPL and the PL's - especially the PL's. We had our first PLC since this training last night and it was very productive with lots of specific tasking from the SPL. They all seem more focused on what they are supposed to be doing.

 

 

 

[Eagledad 2777]

>>The parts of the training that got their attention and prompted the most discussion was the "Start - Stop - Continue" assessment of how the Troop was doing and asking them "What do you need?". We got a lot of good ideas on how to improve the program from these sessions and a list of new equipment and items to bring up to the committee.

[EagleBeaver 10]

I just picked up the "Troop Leadership Training" (TLT) packet from the scout shop yesterday for $7.00 with high hopes that it would be an improvement over the stale, 5 year old, "Scoutmaster's Junior Leader Training Kit" (JLT). Man, what a disappointment. If you want to see the new TLT packet instead of paying $7.00 for it, take a look at http://training.cfcbsa.org/forms/TroopLeaderTrainingSyllabus.pdf - it is the entire 15 pages online. It just doesn't have the wallet cards.

 

As a scoutmaster, I believe my highest goal after keeping things safe is training the scouts. I MUST be missing something here. There must be some additional resources that I forgot to buy or that are not available yet. Have any of you found what I'm looking for? Can anyone tell me that there is more information to use for training troop leaders than this?

 

If this is it, then I have some work ahead to create our own troop training workbook using resources from the JLT and this new outline. Having each troop develop their own training program with such minimal guidance seems like a bad, inefficient thing to be happening.

 

mn_scout

--------------------------------------

JLT was 128 pages and TLT is 15 - 15 pages for a new scoutmaster to use to train his troop leaders to run a troop.

 

JLT had 2 page "Guide for Conducting an Introduction to Leadership" sections that I could copy and use as support for the person doing the session. That was pages 15-88. These seem to be replaced by a wallet card for each position that lists the job duties and has a place for the scout to write his goals and sign his name.

 

JLT had a "Continuing Training Opportunities" section with 10 pages of scenarios, tips, and advice - some of them were lame, but they had points. TLT now has 2 pages and it is just advertising NYLT, Philmont training, and an OA national seminar. No help, no advice, no tips, nothing.

 

JLT had pages 89-116 devoted to the troop leaders training session with suggestions, goals, activities, games, and guidelines. In TLT, it is now less than 3 pages.

 

[vmpost 10]

I agree that having inadequate materials is a bad idea. This is why there are so many different "standards" out there...we each teach our own interpretation, which isn't all bad, but allows for much dissension amongst the ranks. The panel who has input on these new materials is mostly volunteer, so we get what they think we need.

 

Get the Patrol Leader's Handbook & Senior Patrol Leader's Handbook. They have some great information in them. You will still have to put together your own material, but this is a good place to start.

 

(Maybe we can make our syllabi available to other leaders through this forum and save each other from re-inventing the wheel?)

 

Do you have quality trained leaders in place in your troop? Meet with them...what do they think needs inculded? What would they do differently? The last several years, our troop leaders run the training and the adults are facilitators. As long as they include some core things you all agree on, they can and will make a more interesting presentation than adults.

[FScouter 24]

I consider the new Troop Leadership Training to be only a weak supplement to the former Scoutmaster's Junior Leader Training Kit. Far too much is left to the imagination. What is EDGE?? What is "Servant Leadership"?? What is a "Vision of Success"?? What are the "specific tools from the Scoutmaster Handbook" that should be handed over to the new boy leaders?

 

Expand these topics from 2-3 sentances into 2-3 pages and then we wet-behind-the-ears Scoutmasters might have something to work with.

[John-in-KC 311]

A Scouter I know was a licensed child pyschologist; he has sponsored District-wide unit JLT weekends for several years. It was a major project of his Wood Badge ticket.

 

I asked him to compare the two curricula. He had already done this, working with his Council Commissioner.

 

SHORT VERSION??? He has rejected the new package. He assesses the training product of unit JLT as superior, thus he will continue to use Unit JLT. FScouter, you're in good company.(This message has been edited by John-in-KC)

[EagleInKY 14]

I used the new material for our troop leader training in December. My results are similar to AvidSM. I believe the guys enjoyed it more than the previous format and maybe took home a little more practical material. We finished the day with pizza for lunch and then the PLC stayed for the afternoon to work on the annual plan. I did not do the SM Conferences because we held it before elections. I'll be following up with the guys over the next month now that we've had then.

 

I agree that the material is very light. For a SM without experience, it doesn't help a whole lot. I supplemented the material with games and activities from past experience. Fortunately, I've got the experience of several JLTs, Woodbadge or other leadership development activities to pull from.

 

I'm thinking about putting together some supplementary material and posting it on a website. If I could only find the time... :-) .

[watercub 10]

I'm about to use the new and old materials to do a JLT/TLT/whatever in March. I won't forget the pizza. I was going to take a similar approach to EagleInKY in that me and the SPL were going to blend in elements of Wood Badge, NYLT and the JLT book. I found TLT shockingly light.

 

Getting the leaders to have a vision of what can be and guiding them towards that vision is becoming a Scouter emphasis again in our Troop. This Troop Leader Training seems to be taken much more seriously than in the past. In the past, it was "we need to do this thing so we can get leaders to Green Bar..."

[AvidSM 11]

Great minds must think alike! I got pizza for the boys afterwards too!

 

I agree with most of the posts so far in that you have to bring in some of the old course and mix it in with the new.

 

I was just as suprised by the lightness of the matrial in the new training packet. It took a lot of work to take that rough outline and turn it into a course. Why did National issue such a sketchy outline? I would have more confidence in teaching the course if I had more to go with.

 

And about the vision thing. It's simply a picture in your mind as to the way things should be in your Troop. It's your ideal of how a Troop should be run and what the program should be. Without a clear vision to share with the boys, they have no direction as to where things are headed.

 

The new course only gives an introduction of the EDGE method. Give it your best shot based on outline and tell the boys they will learn more in depth at NYLTC.

 

I don't agree with rejecting the outline alltogether and going back to the old course. The boys hated the video and WE did most of the talking. Youv'e got to get the boys to start talking!

 

The old course did nothing to focus the boys on what they should be doing and what steps they need to get there. It was more of a job description and a team building exersize.

 

The new course engages the boys more and gets them to think more about what they should be doing for the Troop. And, more importantly, it sets tangible goals for them to shoot for.

[dkurtenbach 348]

I guess I would have to say that I am not particularly impressed with the new Troop Leadership Training program (#34306A)(replacement for Junior Leader Training). Two main things:

 

(1) Like the Patrol Leader Handbook, TLT is written for older Scouts, not for 12- and 13-year-old patrol leaders. These younger Scouts simply can't sit through discussions of chapters of the Patrol Leader Handbook, discussion of the Scoutmaster's "Vision of Success," a discussion of servant leadership, or a "thinking/writing session." These guys need to be _doing_, not sitting; but this training really doesn't include fun, practical exercises that demonstrate various aspects of leadership.

 

(2) Like too much of our training, there is far too much lecture/discussion. Too much school, not enough Scouting.

 

(3) While the titles or themes of the three modules -- "Know," "Be," and "Do" -- seem to indicate three relatively distinct (but related) facets of troop leadership, the actual content of the modules really doesn't break down that way, and they all sort of run together. For example, position descriptions are discussed in both modules one and three; the Scoutmaster shares his vision of success in module two, while the Scouts write their definitions of success in module three. The titles of the modules are confusing: Module Two -- How To _Do_ Your Job [emphasis added], which includes the EDGE 4-step training process (Explain, Demonstrate, Guide, Enable) is subtitled "Be" rather than "Do"; Module Three -- What Is Expected Of Me? -- which includes the discussion of servant leadership, is subtitled "Do" rather than "Be." It would seem to make more sense for module two to

have the "Do" designation and module three to have the "Be" designation.

 

There is some good stuff in TLT (including the tear-off position description cards), and it certainly takes a very different approach than the teambuilding exercises of JLT. However, it seems to be trying to emulate our adult training model, which seems to me exactly the wrong approach.

 

Dan Kurtenbach

Fairfax, VA

[ronvo 10]

I see the the three modules are called "Know," "Be," and "Do" -

 

And the book is only 25 pages? Maybe we are getting back to real scouting

 

Form the 1934 Handbook's Eagle Requirements:

 

FOR ME TO BE AND DO

 

Maybe instead of presenting it in the church basement with powerpoint slides and bought pizza it would work better at camp or at least at the park and the boys cook their own lunch?

 

just an idea to put the outing back in Scouting

 

ronvo