Life Scout
To: Prospective Life Scouts
From: Martin Lighterink
CC: Adult Leadership, Committee
Date: November 23, 2005
Re: Life Scout Requirements and Expectations
I want to take a moment to recap what I am looking for from you in the way of participation and leadership over the next year as you work towards Life. As you progress towards Life Scout more focus is placed on the learning and practicing of leadership skills as compared to the learning of more technical skills as a younger scout. When you feel that you can sufficiently demonstrate your active participation, leadership skills and other requirements then fill out and return to me a summary of your Life Scout requirements. I will then review it with the Adult leadership and Committee prior to setting you Scoutmaster Conference. I emphasize that it is important to demonstrate your leadership skills to the troop during this period of your scouting career. As a consideration in endorsing your candidacy as a Life Scout I will be looking for the following in the way of “Active Involvement” and “Leadership”.
Active in Troop
Attend Monday meetings in full uniform and participate. I would look for at least an 80% attendance rate over your 6 months period.
Attend 80% of the PLC meetings in a leadership capacity and in PLC required uniform. Actively participate in the meetings.
Run a Skill Development section of the Monday meeting. The Skill Development Section should run 20 minutes, be well planed, be interactive and should include handouts. (Much like a school presentation)
Attend a majority of the monthly overnight trips and all service or other mandatory events (Green Sales, Scout Fairs, Etc)
Leadership
Hold a significant leadership position like Patrol Leader. In this role you need to tangibly demonstrate what you have done in a leadership capacity and articulate what challenges you were presented with, how you overcame them and what you learned. Taking a turn in the Patrol Leader role helps with your development of these critical skills.
Be Scout in Charge for a monthly trip. Demonstrate how you planned it, organized it and led it. You should be able to articulate what challenges you were presented with, how you overcame them and what you learned. There should be very limited adult involvement in the planning of this trip. The package documents should include trip notes, trip budget, permits and a final accounting.
Mentor a younger scout. Demonstrate how you have helped younger scouts understand the skill needed for rank advancement and how you have helped encourage them in their scouting career.