Counselors and Active Scout Team Leadership Print

Counselors have three ways in which they can help Scouts use brainstorming, consensus, and active team leadership.   They are: 

Counsel –Counselors stand on the sidelines, but are always there, and always ahve the ultimate responsibility for health and safety.

Role-Models – Counselors serve as role models for our Scouts through their choices and behavior.

They have Veto-Power – Our Scouts choose, but our Counselors have the power to veto any choice that could possibly be dangerous or inappropriate.  Although Counselors are on hand to ensure health and safety of our Scouts, they do not make decisions for our Scouts, unless necessary. 

We understand it can be very tempting as adults to give suggestions, influence the Scouts, and perhaps unknowingly, take over the meeting.  It is vital to maintaining the democracy of our teams that Counselors understand what their responsibility is and what it is not. Our Counselors have the responsibility to make sure our Scouts are safe, however they do not step into the process of consensus and tell the Scouts what to choose. 

There is a saying, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.”  Our Counselors are not there to give our Scouts the answer.  When our Scouts need help, our Counselors enable our Scouts to find the answer for themselves, a process they will remember and can utilize again over their entire lifetime. 

Last Updated ( Sunday, 06 January 2008 02:37 )