How Scouts’ friendships strengthen patrols

Experts weigh in on how friendships could actually strengthen development, especially when it comes to Scouting in patrols.

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Five tips for great troop leader elections

He’s right, and like the election for a state governor or U.S. Senator, proper planning is needed to make troop elections run smoothly and ensure that all candidates have a fair shot.

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Preparing Boys for Leadership

A three-level training continuum provides progressively sophisticated tools for developing youth leaders in your troop.

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Let Your Scouts Lead

Want to achieve a youth-led unit? Find the balancing point between helping them succeed and letting them flounder. Here’s how.

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This is Not a Test

A board of review should gauge the quality of a Scout’s troop experience and encourage future advancement, not ask him to pass rank requirements — again.

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Creating functional Boy Scout patrols

Scouter A.S.’s troop has two patrols: the “chaos” patrol of new Scouts and the “I’m too cool” patrol of veterans. He asked for ideas on creating a better unit structure, where older Scouts teach younger ones.

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A New Vision of Youth Leadership

Revised council-level training will help prepare Scouts more than ever to provide important leadership to their troops.

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What to do when younger Scouts resent Troop’s ‘bossy’ junior leaders

A Scouter asked how new Scouts—who were used to being led by adults as Cub Scouts and now complain about older Scouts’ authoritarian leadership—can be helped to accept boy leadership in the troop.

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Tips for encouraging a large troop to be boy-led

Readers respond to a unit committee member who asked how a troop of 100 boys might provide Scouts with opportunities to lead when adults find it easier to assume the leadership roles.

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What to do when older Scouts stay aloof

After a three-year drought of new members, J.R.’s troop has had an influx of new Scouts. “How can we get our older boys to mingle with the new guys and show them what to do, instead of doing it for them because it’s easier?” he asked.

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