[Philmont] Selecting a Crew Leader

You have already gotten the primary answer to Question #1, that being
that the Crew should elect their Crew Chief after several shakedown
events. And that rotating the position for each event between the
qualified applicants gives everyone a chance to see who's the best choice.

Two additional points I would recommend: First, in one of your earliest
meetings, discuss what a Crew Chief is and does, and how his
responsibilities differ from typical PL or SPL positions. Second, have
a rational age and/or experience cutoff to pre-establish the "qualified"
applicants. This precludes the Crew from selecting an overly young or
inexperienced Crew Chief that will be in over his head, and also
prevents the election of a boy who the other Scouts know they can
dominate or ignore (the latter being a problem that is occasionally seen
in Provo Crews, notably those with small groups of older Scouts from 3
or 4 different Troops; this is a situation requiring your strongest
boy-leader, not your weakest).

To pre-address the usual screeching, this is not to say that a younger
Scout cannot make an effective Crew Chief, but - just as in many adult
situations - everyone will (usually) be better off if the choices are
stacked in favor of age and "genuine" experience. And if you have a
real go-getter among the younger Scouts in the Crew, he'll end up being
the Crew Chief's right hand man anyway, irrespective of formal position.

As far as Question #2 goes, if you follow the above advice, your
question will answer itself.

- Dr. Bob

emaes@provide.net wrote:
> All,
>
> We will be having our Crew Leader selection meeting very
> soon. Beforehand I have 2 questions for the group to help
> me with...
>
> 1) Our contingent is made is made up of scouts mostly from
> our troop, but we have a few scouts from different troops
> in the area, so we have the issue where not everyone knows
> each other. It is important to me that everyone have a fair
> shot at being elected the Crew Leader if he so desires. So,
> what are the steps a Council Contingent uses to choose a
> crew leader?
>
> 2) We have a reading impaired scout who is nearly a Life
> Scout, a good leader, and IMHO would make an excellent Crew
> Leader. Question: Does his reading impairment issue prevent
> him from being a candidate for Crew Leader? Once at
> Philmont, how critical are good/excellent reading skills
> for the Crew Leader? If they are, where would that be,
> besides in Logistics? Can the adult advisor assist
> (ARGH!!)?
>
> YIS - Eric Maes
> Philmont '03, '08
> Isle Royale NP '83, '00, '06
>

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Received on Tue Oct 23 18:21:24 2007