Last month I mentioned that I would be taking part in a National BC Scouts meeting. One of the topics of this meeting was the Leadership Course. On behalf of Queensland I presented what we believed to be our top 10 topics that should be covered in the course. Thank you to all those (including the Patrol Leaders and Assistant Patrol Leaders) who contributed towards our list. The top 10 from Queensland were as follows: Behaviour Management, Leadership and Teamwork, How to Instruct, The Patrol System, Planning and Programming, Communication, Task Management, How to Build a Team, Organisation and finally Problem Solving. There will be more to follow on the Leadership Course next year.
When planning for next year think about including some traditional topics in your yearly overview. Good scouting should always have a direct link back to the fundamentals. Sometimes we forget to think about the structure that started scouting. Consider some of the Scouting History both worldwide and in Australia.
One of those skills that seem to be lost is the art of camp oven cooking. Recently I have seen a number of scouts given the opportunity to do this. As part of this experience the scouts learnt the safety that is part of this. The risk assessment is built into the activity so there should not be any fear. Often it is too easy to simply use gas cooking. A possibility would be organizing a camp with camp oven cooking as the theme.
Allow the scouts to experiment, make mistakes and learn from their hands on experiences. It is only in this way they can learn the correct methods.
Fruit Parcels Pizza Sausage Rolls
(Photos courtesy of Brisbane North Region PL’s Adventure)
I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone in Scouting a wonderful festive season and look forward to catching up with many of you in the new year.
“Trust should be the basis for all our moral training.” Sir Robert Baden Powell
Chris Foreman (Taipan) Branch Commissioner Scouts
bc.scouts@qldhq.scouts.com.au