I only know of three necessities for anyone who wants to be an effective Exploring Leader, youth or adult:
Training, training, and more training!
The Exploring Division of the BSA has
plenty of training courses available to help develop leadership
skills and knowledge of the program. As Exploring Training
Chairman for Hudson Liberty Council and a National Exploring
Instructor, I cannot overemphasize how many people in our program
are undertrained.
You certainly wouldn't take medications without reading the instructions, or play baseball without knowing the rules. Why would anyone not get training? The only reason I can think of is that it hasn't been offered. If your Council doesn't have someone who can teach these courses, you have a few options:
I chose option number 3, and in 1995 I went off to
Philmont Scout Ranch and Explorer Base to attend the Explorer
Training Conference. It was definitely one of the highlights of
my tenure in the Exploring program.
During my week at PTC I took every Course in the Exploring Training Plan, and did some instructing as well. Our instructors for the week were great, we had a lot of fun, and learned a lot.
I was Training Chairman prior to attending PTC, but going showed me what courses I wasn't aware of, what resources to use, which materials were actually current, and focused me on the training plan.
If you have the chance to take this course, jump on it. To get an invitation, do what I did once I found out the course existed - bug your EE to get your name on the list that your Council submits to PTC for invites.
Local Council Exploring Structure
Before we can really delve into training, I'd like to review some basics of how Exploring is structured within the local Council. There are two basic ways a BSA Council can administer the Exploring program - within it's existing Districts or as a separate Division. There are many Council's which also operate with a hybrid of those two methods. The size of your Council, number of volunteers, number of Exploring units, or level of staffing can have an impact on how your Council structures the Exploring program. Since I am most familiar with program delivery in an Exploring Division, these pages will concentrate on that method. Further information on Exploring in Districts can be found in the Exploring Council/District Operations Manual (BSA #33630).
In any of these structures, there should exist a Council Exploring Committee headed by either a Council Exploring Committee Chair or a Council Vice-president for Exploring. As with Cub and Boy Scouting, the "Key Three" method is used in running the Exploring Program, with a slight difference. In an Exploring Key Three, the three members are the Council Exploring Chair/Vice-President, the Exploring Executive (or other professional Scouter assigned to Exploring), and the Council Explorer Officers' Association Chair. Some Councils utilize a "Key Four" or "Key Five" including the EOA Advisor and/or the Service Team Chair. Personally, I consider youth involvement in the Key Three, as well as the Council Exploring Committee, to be essential to a successful Exploring Program.
Explorer Officers' Association
The key to a successful Council Exploring Program is the Explorer Officers' Association. This youth committee is basically the program committee of the Exploring Division. Most important is to ensure that the EOA is given adequate support and latitude in developing and implementing Councilwide programs. A strong EOA can not only provide program opportunities, but can also implement public realtions, membership recruiting, leadership training, and provide youth leaders with an opportunity to share experiences and ideas.
Exploring leadership training is designed to provide all youth and adult leaders a series of simple but effective training opportunities to meet their needs. The plan doesn't require a lot of equipment or material and all courses are scripted so that they can be taught by those with limited Exploring experience.This is very important for a lot of courses. For example, without the scripts, it would be very difficult for a new Post Advisor to run the Post Officers' Seminar. All leaders, youth and adult, can wear the Trained patch shown above once they have completed basic training for their position. Theknots shown above are for wear on the uniform as recognition for Adult Training Awards.
Outside of Fast Start training, Quarterly Advisors' Meetings, and EOA meetings and forums, there are a good number of formalized Training Courses available for youth and adult leaders in the Exploring program.
Individual Post Program
I consider four courses to be absolutely essential to the good operation of a Post - Adult Explorer Leader Basic Training, the Post Officers' Seminar, the Post Leadership Workshop, and the Exploring Advanced Leadership Development Workshop.
Division/District Program
Courses to support ongoing Division/District operations include Adult Explorer Leader Basic Training, Post Leader Workshop, Service Team Training Workshop, Exploring Advanced Leadership Workshop, Explorer Officers' Association Training, EOA Exploring Program Conference, and the Council/District Exploring Committee Workshop.
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Page last updated November 13, 2001