SLC Self Reflection #2
Girl Scouts was both the best and worst thing that ever happened to me. It was the worst because my troop didn’t do anything. We had three-hour long meetings once a month, earned a couple badges, but never did any trips or activities worth remembering. Paradoxically, Girl Scouts was the best thing that ever happened to me because its quintessential crappiness led me to Venture Crew. At the time, there was a minimum age requirement of fourteen or graduation from eighth grade. I have a July birthday, so graduation came first, then I was all set to join.
I was a member of Venture Crew 316 for four years. I dedicated roughly two hours to it every week. Venture Crew is a co-ed division of Boy Scouts. We planned, organized, and participated in many outdoor trips. Our motto was “Lead the Adventure.” For the past two years, I held the position as Vice President of Administration. I oversaw rank advancement and recruiting. I helped to plan trips and ensured the crew meetings and activities ran smoothly when the President was not available. Prior to coming to college, I held the position of Vice President of Communication. I took meeting notes to ensure that everyone stayed informed. All the while, I still helped to plan and execute trips.
Besides giving me a very nice resume builder, Venture Crew taught me many things about leadership. A cool aspect of Venture Crew was that youth led truly meant youth led. Each of the executive and chair positions were held by the youth. For safety purposes and counsel, adult advisors were in the building, but most of the meetings were just a group of teenagers going through the agenda, planning trips, and service events.
I think that Venture Crew 316 unknowingly embodied some relational leadership components and lacked in others. For example, similar to my own leadership experience, no one ever told us that leadership had five components. We did, however, have leadership training of our own where we learned about teamwork and different phases of group development: forming, storming, norming, performing (Stein para. 2). Our organization focused on the group, not so much a singular leader. I do think that Venture Crew was very much part of the being phase of relational leadership (KL&M 74). Venture Crew is a BSA (Boy Scouts of America) scouting organization, therefore there is already a set of values and ethics worked into the program. The Scout Oath and Law are two very important pieces that shape scouting values that are important to the organization and list a plethora of characteristics and goals that scouts strive to embody in their everyday lives. Of these, the part that always stood out to me was “to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight” (The Boy Scout Handbook). I think scouting programs in general do their best to make something out of kids and to teach them strong values. After that point, whether youth follow a path of moral high ground, it’s on them.
As mentioned above, scouting taught me and many of the other participants how to work as a group and how to be a leader that includes everyone. We never officially had a doing phase using the relational leadership model (KL&M 74). There was no formal how to be a leader with these five specific skills, it was very much on the go. A last-minute hiccup on trip planning, a missing tent, or when someone forgot the stove all taught me how to work through tough situations as a group. Venture Crew was a prime example of learning by doing, by messing up, by being a kid. Through the good and the bad, I feel I learned so much. I enjoyed the activities we went on, and I liked having the responsibility. I go to do so many cool and equally helpful things for the community. I completed many service commitments like trail clean-ups around North Carolina and other outdoor restoration events. This included replanting bushes and weeding the gardens of the historic lighthouse on St. Helena Island in Lake Huron and building trails throughout Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico. I got to go backpacking in New Mexico for two weeks. There may not have been a formal skills session, no model, but boy I learned things. Venture Crew was not by the book relational leadership, but I feel it meets the requirements, because it taught me to be aware, to incorporate my values into what I do and to learn life skills. I would not change this experience for the world. I considered running for President, but I didn’t want my busy life to get in the way of the group’s success. Instead, I settled for Vice President and I am content with that.
Being a scout, I was always told to be prepared. With that in mind, I hope to incorporate some fail safes to make sure that the project gets executed. For example, I am planning on contacting more than one senior living home to maximize my chances of connecting. My work in the community outreach committee will hopefully help me to make more connections. Additionally, my experience with Venture Crew taught me that ongoing service to an organization is helpful and builds great relationships for who is involved. I am planning on making my service action and ongoing event and something that can provide continuous service. I realize this goal may be too ambitious since I am still working out who will be involved with providing the service to the senior living community. However, I know that I want to provide a service to them to help reduce their boredom and make them happy to still be around.
Works Cited
Komives, Susan R, Nance Lucas, and Timothy R. McMahon. Exploring Leadership: For College Students Who Want to Make a Difference. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 2007. Print.
Stein, Judith. “Using the Stages of Team Development.” Human Resources MIT, https://hr.mit.edu/learning-topics/teams/articles/stages-development.
The Boy Scout Handbook. 13th ed., Boy Scouts of America, 2016.