Advanced Basic Leadership Challenge
Course Book
By Thomas C. Nulf
Purpose
The purpose of this course is to further Scouts leadership and management skills. It is designed to teach high-level management and planning for senior leadership positions. The methods and techniques taught in this course are life skills; they will be used by the Scout long after his experience in Scouting.
Overview
This course is designed for 6 classroom sessions of 1 hour a field exercise and a final exam. Some classroom sessions will be accompanied by handouts. Prior to the course, the Scouts should obtain the following materials: a small pocket notepad, a reliable pen or two, their Basic Leadership Challenge Course Manual and binder, a legal pad or paper for writing and taking notes, and expense money for the course. Scouts will be required to attend ALL of the classroom sessions and all of the field exercises. If a Scout misses an classroom, he may make it up by contacting the Course Director to schedule a remedial session right away. A Missed Field Exercise may not be possible to make up. The Course Director has the authority to remove a Scout from the course at his discretion.
Course Outline
I. Classroom I - Basic Leadership Review
A. Introduction
B. Review
1. Three Types of Leadership
2. Dealing with Problems
3. Caring for your Command
4. Notetaking
5. Tasks
6. Decision Making
7. Your Image as a Leader
8. Followership
II. Classroom II - Planning
A. What is involved in making Plans?
B. Time
C. Degree of Detail Needed
D. To-Do Lists
E. Creation of a Plan
III. Classroom III - Operations
A. Definition of an Operation
1. What is an Operation?
2. How does an Operation differ from a Task?
B. Preparing for Operations
1. Intelligence/Information Gathering
2. Inventory your Assets
3. Make your Plan
4. Warning Order and To-Do Lists
5. Put Assets in place prior to launching plan
6. Operations Orders
IV. Classroom IV. - Execution
A. The Plan
1. Delegation
2. Supervision
3. Follow-up
B. Your Image
1. Professionalism
a] Appearance
b] Speaking
2. Discipline
3. Time
4. Degree of Detail
C. Tips
V. Classroom V. - Briefings
A. Introduction/Overview & Positive Lists
B. Specifics
C. Questions
1. Prepared Questions
2. Impromptu Questions
D. Summary
VI. Classroom VI - Staff Skills
A. Purpose of Staff Officers
B. Duties of Staff Officers
1. Keep Leader Informed of all Relevant Information
2. Act as Messenger
3. Act as Scribe
4. Accomplish Administrative Tasks to Keep Leader Available for Decision-Making
5. Prepare Options for Decision-Making
C. Chains of Command
D. Making Your Staff Work for You
VII. Field Exercises
VIII. Wrap-Up
A. Conclusion
B. Commentary
C. Awards
* - Case Studies and explanatory handouts will be given with each event.
Course Description:
I. Classroom I - Basic Leadership Review
A. Introduction
This course will consist of six classroom sessions interspersed by several field exercises of various types. At least one field exercise will occur at a regular troop campout and another will occur in town on a weekend day. Currently, there is no need for a special campout for this course. You must complete ALL classroom sessions and field exercises in order to pass the course. You must complete all homework assignments and pass all quizzes and the final exam in order to pass the course.
B. Review
This section is a review of the principles and techniques taught in the Basic Leadership Challenge Course. For more detailed information concerning these topics, consult the Basic Leadership Challenge Course Book and associated materials.
1. Three Types of Leadership. The three types of leadership are:
1) Leadership by Fear.
2) Leadership by Reward.
3) Leadership by Motivation.
Use the third type of leadership because it works better on a longer-term basis.
2. Dealing with Problems. When confronted by someone who is not doing what you have asked them to do:
1) TAKE HIM ASIDE. Tell him that you observed that he is not doing what you asked him to do.
2) Ask him why he is not doing that. If he says he did not understand, re-explain the task and have him repeat back the instructions so you both know there is no misunderstanding.
3) If he said he DID understand but was doing whatever it was wrong, then ask him to tell you what you asked him to do. If there is a misunderstanding, correct it and go on. If he responds correctly, ask him why he was not doing it (or doing it correctly).
4) If he says he does not feel that he has to obey you or your orders ask him why. Then talk with him and reach an agreement for him to do that task. It may involve having a third party mediate or him leaving your organization but you cannot allow someone in your organization who will not follow you.
Do not allow fights to start nor should they continue. Your job once a fight has started is to separate the two parties, calm them down, and make them agree NOT TO FIGHT. You do NOT have to resolve the dispute but you DO have to make sure they do not continue to fight.
3. Caring for your Command
Be sure to take care of your people. Never ignore their complaints because it is important to them even if it is not important to you. You may have to sacrifice to insure their safety and welfare. Visit your sick and injured people often. Call those with poor attendance. Never betray someone’s confidence unless what they tell you will or has resulted in illegal, unsafe, or immoral activity. Know your people - what they like and dislike. Memorize their first and last names ASAP. Get food and rest AFTER all of your people have. Make sure they are warm, dry, fed, rested, and get whatever assistance they require. Put them before yourself. When representing your people, such as in a meeting, think of what THEY want even if you personally disagree with it.
4. Notetaking
Write down every order ever given to you. Write down every piece of information that is passed to you so you can pass it along to your people. You ARE responsible for information that is passed to you so you cannot afford to blow it off or simply trust it to memory. WRITE IT DOWN. This is especially true for higher level leaders and their staff because the information that you will be dealing with is more complicated and you will get more of it. Make sure your people write down orders passed to them by you. Keep updated records on your people - their phone numbers, addresses, attendance, and key information about them.
5. Tasks
A task is a distinct set of activities that you can assign a person to work on. It is generally very narrow in scope. For instance, peeling potatoes, lighting a fire, typing a document, pitching a tent, etc. are tasks. Setting up camp is NOT a task because it involves several different activities, each of which can be broken down into tasks. Some tasks are simple, some are complex, some are long while others are short. You can only assign one task at a time to a person but multiple persons can work on the same task. Generally speaking, the more people you have working on the same task, the faster it will be accomplished. In order to assign more than one task to a person, you will have to prioritize the tasks assigned so that the person knows which task to do in which order.
Keep everyone active until all tasks are accomplished and use as many people in a task as you possibly can to avoid alienating them.
6. Decision Making
There are four steps in decision making:
1) Gather as much information about the issue involved so you can make the best judgment possible.
2) Determine 3 possible solutions and think through the outcomes.
3) Pick the best solution.
4) Execute your decision.
The first step of this process is the most important. You cannot make a good decision without information.
7. Your Image as a Leader
Your image is critical. Be calm and professional at all times. Look as though NOTHING can get you upset especially in times of stress. Your people will be looking to you for strength. Your good example will help them. Do not yell at your people. Dress professionally so that people (including your superiors) will take you seriously. Be attentive to detail and your people will eventually realize that detail is important and they will be attentive to detail too. You set the standard of what you expect of your people.
8. Followership
You must follow the orders of your superiors without complaint and to the best of your ability even though you may feel the orders are hypocritical, faulty, based on bad information, poor judgment, etc. If you do not execute orders given to you to the best of your ability, you are showing your people that it is okay to disobey orders and that orders that you give to them are unimportant. The only times when you can (and must) disobey orders are when the orders are immoral and/or illegal. You may ask your superior for an explanation of an order, but he is not obligated to give you an explanation. Likewise, you may give your superior advice about a decision, but again he is not obligated to follow that advice.
II. Classroom II - Planning
A. What is involved in making Plans?
A plan is a blueprint or roadmap of what you intend to do and how you intend to it. A plan will answer five questions: WHO is involved doing WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, and HOW they are to do it. Presumably you already know WHY you are doing something or you would not be planning it but you can include WHY so that other people involved are kept informed.
B. Time.
TIME IS YOUR ENEMY! There is never enough of it and the time you do have goes quickly. Time is not a bank. You cannot get back time that has past and you cannot borrow it. You cannot gather it up for use later. There are a few things you can do, however, to make time less of an adversary.
Plan extra time for accomplishing tasks. If you cannot allow extra time for each task, allow extra time for groups of tasks or at specified points in your program. This will allow you to catch-up in the event that some elements of your program run behind.
Plan as much detail as you can so that when it comes time to execute, you know exactly what needs to be done. This will minimize thinking during execution of your plan. Thinking takes time.
Prepare as much of the plan ahead of your execution time as possible and set in place all the things you need for your plan to be accomplished because you do not want to waste time doing preparation when you could be starting on your operation. Be sure to plan time for briefings and giving instructions and answering questions.
Let your people know as far in advance as you can about your plans. Those who can or need to assist in preparations should be the first to know.
Issue Warning Orders to your subordinates giving them an overview of what preparations they need to make. The purpose of a warning order is to allow your people to start preparing and working on your plan while you finish all the details.
Plan to use as many of your people as you can. The more people involved, the quicker the work gets done and the less individual responsibility per man.
C. Degree of Detail Needed
I had a boss once that asked me to make a map of all the oil wells in Libya for client reference. I used my college education to locate all the necessary resources and then spent a great deal of time and effort making a precise and accurate digital map. He was shocked and dismayed that I had wasted so much time on this since all he wanted was a rough sketch of an idea where they were located in general. He compared my work to making a Cadillac when all he wanted was a bicycle. In plain terms, I had overproduced.
This illustration highlights two common problems. The first is that his orders were unclear. You must give precise orders to your people or you risk them misinterpreting what you want. Second, you must balance the amount of time with the degree of detail needed for what you need to accomplish. Don’t get carried away with doing things a certain way when a hasty job will accomplish the task requirements. Don’t be lazy either or in a rush. If a task requires that you be precise and accurate, spend the time to do so. If it does not, don’t waste time.
D. To-Do Lists
A To-Do list is merely a checklist that you make for yourself or for your subordinates of all the things you need to accomplish. This keeps you from forgetting things and insures that you get everything done that you need to do. I use them all the time at work. It can vary from a note on a stick-um pad to a typewritten, organized, prioritized list with times and dates for accomplishing these tasks. Making a To-Do list has three benefits: 1) it keeps you organized, 2) it speeds you up, and 3) it makes sure that everything you need to do gets actually gets done. Get used to them and use them. They will help you throughout life.
E. Creation of a Plan
1. Write down your objectives.
Figure out what you need and want to accomplish before you even start planning and use this list of goals as an outline as you fill in your plan. Take one objective at a time and build your framework of how you intend to accomplish that objective before doing the next objective. This will lead you into the next step.
2. Determine the order objectives are to be met.
You should have your objectives and rough ideas about how you want to accomplish them. You should now determine if any must be completed in a particular sequence - in other words is it necessary to do one thing in order to do another. If not, your planning will be very easy and very flexible. If not, which is more likely, chart out which needs to be done first. This is the beginning of your Operational Flow Chart.
A flow chart is a series of boxes each of which contains a decision or an task to be accomplished. These boxes are connected by lines in the order in which they are to be accomplished. See the Flow Chart Example. Once you have your flow chart formed with a box for each objective in the order that you want them to be accomplished in, you can continue the planning process.
3. Determine all of the various tasks required for each objective.
You have should have a rough idea of how you want to accomplish your goals already. Here you detail them out as precise and as detailed as necessary. Generally speaking, the more detail, the better. For instance, if your overall operation is a troop hike and one objective is to eat lunch in the middle of the trail at a particular site, you need to determine what tasks are required to accomplish this goal. You need to consider how the food will get there, how many people you need to feed, how many people can the site accommodate at once, how much equipment do you need and how will you get it there, how many people will be needed for cooking and equipment purposes, etc. etc. etc. These details you will add to your flow chart and yes, it can get VERY, VERY complex quickly. That is okay because that is why you are making the chart - to keep an otherwise complicated operation from becoming a monster.
For every task you need to figure
- how many men?
- how much time is required?
- what materials are required?
- what other special requirements must be met?
4. Flow Chart it all together.
This is your final part of the planning preparation process. Once you have every detail in every task for every objective of your flow chart, you are ready to begin gathering the materials, personnel, and locations required for the execution (accomplishment) of your plan. Once your men and equipment and locations are reserved, you are ready to begin working down through your boxes of your Flow Chart. If you are really good, this planning process is part of your chart.
HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT:
Make a Planning Flow Chart for the Field Exercise which will take place during a regular Troop campout. Your objectives and some recommendations of how to accomplish them will be distributed to you in class. The flow chart is due at the beginning of next week’s meeting. We WILL be using it right away so if you do not have it, you cannot proceed to the next lesson and could be dismissed from this course.
A sample flow chart will be handed out in class.
III. Classroom III - Operations
A. Definition of an Operation
1. What is an Operation?
An Operation is an action plan for an event for a group. An operation may be grand in scale, like a Jamboree Trip. It may be small, like a campfire program. It involves more than one task to be executed in a given time sequence.
2. How does an Operation differ from a Task?
A task is a distinct set of activities that one person can be assigned to accomplish. For instance, making a fire is a task. It involves one person gathering and placing firewood of specific types in specific orders and igniting it. An operation, on the other hand, involves many different tasks to be executed over a particular time frame and/or in a particular order. A troop campout is an operation. A campout involves lots of pre-planning tasks and orders to subordinates for them to accomplish a myriad of tasks. Put simply an operation is several tasks organized in a specific manner.
B. Preparing for Operations
Before you jump into your operation, you will need to do a few things.
1. Intelligence/Information Gathering - Figure out what you need to do, HOW to do it and all relevant information. The earlier you gather all of your information about your project, the less revision work you will do as your project changes to adapt to the new information. Less time, less cost, and less effort the earlier you find out. Example: The troop is planning a garage sale fund-raiser. You are in charge of organizing it. You will need to determine where it will be held. Then you will need to find out if that location is available, if there is any cost associated with the location, what hours the place is available, how far in advance you may set up, etc. etc. etc. Any one of these data can substantially affect your plan and if you don’t find out about them ahead of time, you are in for a whale of a surprise - and surprises are almost always nasty.
2. Inventory your Assets - People, Places, Time, and Equipment required to accomplish your tasks.
3. Make your Plan - As per Classroom #2.
4. Warning Order and To-Do Lists - As per Classroom #2.
5. Put Assets in place prior to launching plan - Make sure all of your equipment, men, and required locations are ready BEFORE starting your plan. Do not waste time during your plan doing this. It also reduces surprises.
# Operations Orders - This is the master plan. You will have one complete copy of this for yourself and specific copies for each individual to whom you are giving orders, tailored to them. Op Orders can be in different formats. Attached are copies of a military Op Order format and my Op Orders for a previous Basic Leadership Challenge Field Exercise and the annual Troop Float Trip.
HOMEWORK:
Plan a specified event for the Troop for the May Campout. You will be in charge of the planning and execution of this event.
Finally, you must gather the materials and personnel to do this plan. You will then supervise the event and make sure it occurs properly, efficiently, and safely.
IV. Classroom IV. - Execution
A. The Plan
1. Delegation - Vital for a high level leader. Delegate orders to your DIRECT subordinates and hold THEM responsible for taking notes and carrying out your orders. Give them only enough detail as necessary to get the orders understood and accomplished. Give only enough instructions to keep them busy without overwhelming or overloading them. Always instruct them to report back to you when they are done for further orders or for dismissal.
2. Supervision - Visit every subordinate leader to insure that they are doing things right. DO NOT interfere with the running of an individual subordinate unit. For example, if when visiting a Patrol you discover that they are not doing what you have asked, do not tell patrol members anything. Find the person to whom you gave the instructions to pass to this patrol and have him find out why the patrol is not doing what you have asked. Use the chain of command.
3. Follow-up - When subordinates report back (and if they fail to report back, go find them and make them report), go check to quickly verify the key objectives of your orders actually have been accomplished. Brief the subordinate leader on new assignments before you leave for this visit so that he can prepare for the next task and get his people organized for it while you inspect their progress. (I personally like to give these briefings en route to wherever I am going to check.
B. Your Image
1. Professionalism - This is what distinguishes you from everyone else. How professional you appear will benefit you in three ways. First, it will look good for interviews and performance evaluations like nothing else will. Second, it makes people want to follow you instinctively. It increases your charisma. They think that if you look smart, you are smart. It may or may not be true but that is what people think. Finally, it will make you more aware of details and that is where you will actually BE a better leader.
a] Appearance - Dress sharply. Be clean cut, clean shaven, take notes when people give you information, be organized, smile, and above all, look like you are paying attention and understand what you are doing. Look confident.
b] Speaking - Speak loud enough and clear enough to be understood by everyone to whom you are speaking. Make eye contact and be friendly and speak confidently.
2. Discipline - You have to be sharp and set the example of what you expect from others. You cannot inspire others to follow orders if you do not follow them yourself. Likewise, if you do not wear a clean and tidy uniform, you cannot expect that your people will either. Your personal standard should always be higher than that which you expect from your people. It will do two things. One, it will set you apart as a leader who knows his stuff. Secondly, it shows that what you have asked your people to do actually CAN be done, and done well and will inspire them to follow. Always be willing to do anything you ask your people to do.
3. Time - Be on time and not rushed or you will look disorganized, weak, and it will appear that you do not care about your people or what you have asked them to do. Be VERY aware of the passing of time and remember that time is your enemy.
4. Degree of Detail - Use an appropriate amount of detail in your instructions. Always keep your eyes on the details. This is THE thing that differentiates good leaders from poor ones. The good leaders always seem to remember every detail and get everything done. Poor leaders usually come up with excuses like, "well I did the ‘big’ stuff" when they fail to accomplish everything you have asked. It is all in the details. Poor leaders frequently claim that they do not have enough time to accomplish everything and so they are either behind schedule or cut lots of corners.
C. Tips
1. Keep an eye on your people’s progress and give more orders to your subordinate leaders when they are close (but not quite done) with their existing orders. This will avoid a dangerous time lag where people sit around, wander off, and lose focus.
2. While rotating around to see if people are doing what you have asked them to do, take some time to help out with some of the basic grunt work. This will show the lower ranks that you are not lazy or afraid of hard work and they will be inspired by your example.
3. When touring your command, compliment people for good work publicly, especially lower level leaders. Let your people know how much you appreciate them and that they are doing a good job - especially for harder jobs. It is good to compliment patrol leaders in front of the patrol, so that the patrol knows they have a good leader and will work better for him, and in turn - for you.
4. S.O.P. stands for Standard Operating Procedure. S.O.P. can be used to speed up orders, briefings, and task accomplishment. For instance, if some task is done the same way by everyone and you want it done that same way, you do not need to spell out how to do it because the task is S.O.P. This can have huge advantages in time savings but can lead to misinterpretation and miscommunication if someone has not been trained in the current S.O.P. or misunderstands you. Whenever you tell people to do something (or just assume they will do something) via S.O.P. you must be aware that there exists the possibility of task failure. If it is important, you might want to spell it out for them rather than rely on S.O.P.
V. Classroom V. - Briefings
A briefing is a meeting at which one person (or one team sometimes) passes information to one or more people. It can be used to give general background information on a topic prior to a discussion meeting. It can be used to give orders to subordinates. It can be used to get information from subordinates. In any case, a briefing should follow this format:
A. Introduction/Overview & Positive Lists
Start off your briefing by telling people who you are and what you are covering. One of my bosses also always starts a briefing by listing positive things that are happening in the company. It is just a list of good things. This helps boost people’s confidence in the company. Not necessary, but a useful tool nonetheless. Smiles and a bit of good humor are also generally welcome to any meeting. This helps break some tension and while partially disruptive, usually adds more than it detracts. Keep this part short though as this is not the important part of your briefing. Move quickly on to the specifics of what you are talking about. Tell people you are moving on to the specifics.
B. Specifics
This is the heart of what you are there to say. Make sure you are organized and cover everything point by point. It would not hurt to number the items you are covering so when people have questions in the question portion of your briefing, you can refer to the topic quickly. Good things to have for a briefing are handouts (preferably one-page) on your topics with the items numbered the same as you have them in your notes. Remember that people learn by visual, aural, and tactile (seeing, hearing, and doing) methods so the more comprehensive your presentation, the more people will learn.
C. Questions
1. Prepared Questions - These are questions that you know about and are prepared to answer. Generally these come in the form of written questions or comments submitted ahead of time. They can also be questions that you feel will be asked for which you can prepare. Always read and respond to prepared questions first. If someone took the time to write questions or comments, respect that.
2. Impromptu Questions - These are questions asked by your audience after you have finished your specific topics and read and answered any prepared questions. Watch your clock on this or this can dwarf your discussion. If it runs too long, people will forget your information and worry about the time, and become distracted. A good rule of thumb is not to let questions run over on third to one half the total time you spent on your topics. When completed with all questions, proceed quickly with your summary.
D. Summary
This is a VERY quick recap of everything covered in the entire briefing. It is included AFTER questions so that you can remind people of the main topics of your briefing. Very important - do not forget the summary portion of your briefing.
HOMEWORK
Give a 5 minute briefing over your part of the event specified in the previous homework assignment.
VI. Classroom VI - Staff Skills
A. Purpose of Staff Officers
The purpose of Staff Officers is to allow your leader to focus on operational planning and decision making by shouldering some of the administrative tasks for him. If he looks and acts good, you look good. The more help you are to him, the better he will take care of you.
B. Duties of Staff Officers
1. Keep Leader Informed of all Relevant Information
Vital. You are the eyes and ears of your leader. When he begins planning an operation or starts to make decisions, he will begin gathering information for that plan or decision. It is up to you to find that information for him and let him know it so he can make informed decisions and thorough plans. A failure to gather information will be YOUR fault. Likewise, a failure to effectively communicate that information will be YOUR fault.
2. Act as Messenger
You will be required to pass messages from subordinates to your leader and from your leader to subordinates. You may be called upon to pass information to and from your leader to the public or to other individuals as needed. All of this mandates that you write down clear notes. You must be able to speak clearly. Failure to deliver messages and information is YOUR fault.
3. Act as Secretary
You may also be required to take notes for your leader or for your subordinates. You must be able to take notes at ANY TIME and to actually DO SO. Your notes must be clear and complete. Often times, the instructions have nothing to do with you but you must write them down anyway. You must be able to write clearly. Failure to write down instructions is YOUR FAULT.
4. Accomplish Administrative Tasks to Keep Leader Available for Decision-Making
Part of a Staff Officer’s life is doing the small things like pitching a tent, running small errands, cooking, cleaning, preparing a uniform, etc. for your leader. This is not because the leader is lazy. This is because this frees him for doing more important things like planning and decision making. As a leader, if you have free time, don’t make your staff do these things for you, but if you don’t, they are available to help - that is their job.
5. Prepare Options for Decision-Making
The U.S. Army taught me to have three possibilities prepared to brief a leader for a decision or plan. Fewer than that does not allow enough information for him to decide and act. More than three begins to cloud and confuse. You may discover several possibilities. It is your job to offer the best three to your leader with all supporting detail. He may ask you for more, and you can then inform him of possibilities you have ruled out for one reason or another. You can mention to him when briefing him on the three you have chosen that there are more, but concentrate on those three.
C. Chains of Command
The short answer is USE THEM. Do NOT skip over your assistants and subordinates to give orders to lower level persons. Doing that does three things: It tells your staff that they are unimportant and they will be useless to you from then on. Second, it tells your lower level people that they too can skip their superiors and that orders from their superiors can be changed or ignored unless they hear it directly from you. Finally, it tells everyone that there is no chain of command and that you are personally micro-managing every detail of the organization which is destructive to the organization. You have a staff or you are a staff member for a reason. Please refer to your Basic Leadership Challenge Course manual for a review of Operational and Administrative Chains of Command.
D. Making Your Staff Work for You
You may observe that Scouts who are appointed as Assistant Senior Patrol Leaders or to other Staff positions frequently do nothing for 6 months and get credit for rank advancement. This is mainly because the Senior Patrol Leader failed to utilize them. To get your Staff to work, you must first train them in what they are expected to do. A person with the position of Librarian must first know what a Librarian is supposed to do before he can be expected to act and fill that role. The SPL should take time to train each head staff member so that the department heads can train their people. Example: The Head Quartermaster should train his Quartermasters. The Head Scribe should train the Scribes. The First Assistant Senior Patrol Leader should train the other Assistant Senior Patrol Leaders. The SPL should let each staff member know what is to be expected of them so they can meet those expectations.
For instance, if I were SPL, I would have a Scribe AND an Assistant following me around WHEREVER and WHENEVER I went ANYWHERE. I would rotate them occasionally and I would use the Scribe to take notes and the Assistant to pass orders and other instructions along. At peak time periods, such as when camp is being set up or taken down, I might have ALL of my Assistants with me so I could dispatch them to resolve trouble spots and have the Scribes, Librarians, and Chaplains to deal with the staff campsite and gear.
Once trained, the staff members should be assigned specific tasks to accomplish. If running your staff and running your organization is too much, have an assistant run your staff for you while you run the organization. Follow up and supervise your staff to make sure they are accomplishing what you want them to accomplish. Thank them and encourage them on a regular basis.
Some specific things you can do to include your staff are:
1) Hold frequent meetings to keep them informed of events and plans, let them tell you information to keep you informed, and to see where each stands with his particular duties.
2) Check on your staff people to see how they are doing with their tasks.
3) Make sure your staff has plenty to do and see that they do it.
4) Make sure that your Assistants are the people you assign tasks to and NOT to their subordinates - don’t skip them.
VII. Field Exercise
There will be a Field Exercise. It will be held on a regular troop campout during the span of the class. It will evaluate the Scouts as they conduct a large-scale project that they have planned and will execute on the campout. The Scouts will plan the project, acquire necessary supplies and manpower, and supervise it as it occurs. They will be evaluated on both campouts for planning and execution. Following the Field Exercise is a Final Exam to be held at the conclusion of the course at a specified location. It will take at least 6-8 hours and the Scouts must attain a 70% or greater score on all tests and homework and participate in all activities in order to pass the course.
VIII. Wrap-Up
A. Conclusion - This is the official end of the course. Those who have passed will be so notified. Those who have not will likewise be notified. Any concluding business is taken care of at this time.
B. Commentary - This is the opportunity for the Scouts in the course to evaluate it.
C. Awards - The Scouts who passed the course will be awarded for their efforts.
Last Revision: 09 Mar 1999
