Leadership Training

One of the things that the BSA does very well is to provide opportunities to develop leadership. It is provided for in training and experience for both our youth and adults. Is your unit taking full advantage of the training opportunities?

In Boy Scouts, the National Youth Leadership Training or NYLT course is offered to provide your troop leaders with the skills they need to be able to successfully operate a troop. If you talk with scoutmasters around the area that have youth running their programs that have been through NYLT they will tell you that it makes a big difference in how their troops operate. Many units help subsidize the cost to the youth by funding at least a portion through a reimbursement to the youth upon successful completion of the course. For more information on the next NYLT course, go to www.blackhawkscouting.org/nylt/index.html .

As important as having our youth trained is having our adults trained. The adult leadership course is Wood Badge which is open to any registered adult. This is not an outdoor training course and it is much more than team building. This course covers, among other things, the stages of team development and the appropriate leadership skills that should be utilized. Over the past several years we have had a growing number of cub scout leaders attending Wood Badge to where recent courses have had more cub scout leaders attending than either boy scout or venturing leaders. Each unit is encouraged to send at least one adult on a regular basis. A number of units help subsidize the cost through a reimbursement following successful completion of the course. For information on the next course see www.boundless.hostrefugee.com/~wbadge/ .