To learn more about leadership and leadership training, start with your fellow Scoutmasters. Sit down with them and talk about leadership. They will have lots to offer you.

We also recommend that you participate in your District or Council’s Scoutmaster Leader Specific Training and Introduction to Outdoor Leadership Skills training programs. Then, sign up for Wood Badge training with your local council. Wood Badge can be a life-changing experience. It can make you passionate about the Patrol Method and passionate about your mission in Scouting.

Official BSA Publications Available atwww.scoutstuff.org:

• Scoutmaster Handbook

• Patrol Leader Handbook

• Senior Patrol Leader Handbook

Boy Scout Scoutmaster Training Syllabus

Introduction to Outdoor Leadership Skills

• Boy Scout Troop Leadership Training Book & Troop Leadership Training Cards

• National Youth Leadership Training Guide & Memory Tip Cards

• National Youth Leadership Training Staff Guide

• Troop Program Resources (Games)

• Stages of Team Development chart

• Communicating Well DVD, No. AV-02DVD20

• Larson, John W., Youth’s Frontier: Making Ethical Decisions: A Manual for Parents and Youth Leaders A Guide to Help Youth Meeting Today’s Challenges (Boy Scouts of America 1985).

• Information on BSA National Website concerning “Youth Leadership Training Continuum”

This 1972 BSA Filmstrip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01Ui_reskEU

Patrol and Troop Leadership (BSA 1972, out of print) (this excellent short guide to patrol leadership written for Scouts is still very useful even though it is a bit dated)

The History of Wood Badge in the United States (BSA 1990, out of print) 

Additional Publications and Resources:

For great games and traditional Scouting tips including a wealth of information on the Patrol Method, see Rick Seymour’s excellent website: www.inquiry.net

Robert Baden-Powell, Scouting For Boys Reprint, available from the BSA.

Robert Baden-Powell, Aids to Scoutmastership 

John Graham, Outdoor Leadership: Technique, Common Sense & Self-Confidence (The Mountaineers, 1997) This book discusses leadership in the context of high adventure outdoor activities such as rock climbing but what it has to say about how to lead applies to all situations including Scouting. 

Various Publications of The National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS). http://www.nols.edu/

Various excellent publications from Project Adventure including QuickSilver, Silver Bullets, Cowstails & Cobras II (all available from www.pa.org)

“Green Bar” Bill Hillcourt, Two Lives of a Hero (Putnam 1964) 

Jeal, Baden-Powell (Yale Univ. Press 2001)

Green Bar Bill Hillcourt’s other writings about Scouting are pure gold — see, for example, the Handbook for Patrol Leaders (1950 Ed.), The Handbook for Scoutmasters: A Manual of Troop Leadership (BSA 1947) and the many essays in Boys’ Life about Scout Leadership that Mr. Hillcourt wrote over the years.

Phelps, Resources for Leadership: Sourcebook for Managers of Learning (2001), available at www.whitestag.org (this sourcebook provides an extremely comprehensive textbook treatment of Bela Banathy’s “White Stag” youth leadership development program that was the basis for many decades of Wood Badge & BSA Junior Leadership Training).

For an impressive and comprehensive discussion of the first camp at Brownsea, see Colin “Johnny” Walker’s wonderful web page at http://www.Scouting.milestones.btinternet.co.uk/brownsea.htm and his book on Brownsea: B-P’s Acorn, The World’s First Scout Camp.

Have another link you think would help others?  Please email us at scoutleadership@gmail.com or post on our discussion board.