Become a Leader
Are you self-motivated?
Are you interested in helping train the leaders of tomorrow?
If you are, then we need you!
Being a leader is a tough but rewarding job. There's no money, but you get paid in a different way. Along the way you'll meet new people, learn new skills and have fun. If you like being with children this job is especially good and if you have kids in scouting you'll get to spent quality time with them. In fact, over fifty percent of Australian scout leaders are parents and they only have to put in a few hours a week (except for camps). You must be between 18 and 55 years of age. Uniform and training costs are provided by the group so if you live locally, why not give it a go?
To learn more about becoming a leader, parents who have a child in the group can become Parent Helpers. Being a parent helper gives a prospective leader an introduction to the operation of a section (Ie. Cub section, Scout section, Etc.) and allows them to work with the leaders and learn some of the basics of becoming a leader.
Here is a short article from husband and wife team, Ian and Sharon Mills, who are both leaders....
A few years ago, we heard that Helensburgh Scouts were considering closing down - we wanted to help out in some way so that it wouldn’t fold. We had both been involved in Scouts and Guides as young kids and had fond memories of going on Camps, Activities, etc. At first we didn’t know in what capacity we would be able to help but thought we would enquire nevertheless.
Ian Counsell (Cub Scouts Leader) invited us to a meeting to discuss what was required to keep the Scouts operational. We quickly found out that they required more leaders. We both decided to throw ourselves into completing the Training and we started to attend pack meetings.
I have to say that it has been the best thing for our family. Both our girls attend and we can do things as a family. In this era, doing things as a family is something we have really cherished. The scout movement places a lot of emphasis on family involvement and we have had many outings with other’s within the group and its been great to get to know more people in our local area. The best thing about being a leader is the pleasure that the kids have and in return give us. It’s nice to see kids in the street and they stop to say hi and say things like, we had a really great time at the camp.
We have a lot of fun and try to incorporate a lot of variety in our programming. We started with 15 cubs a couple of years ago and have grown to 36 Cubs and 9 Scouts, with a waiting list for Cubs, so I guess we (and all the other leaders) must be doing something right. Our next aim is to build Scouts up to be a strong group, we need to do this so that all these enthusiastic kids from Cubs have somewhere to go in the next few years.
Helensburgh is one of the oldest Scout Groups in the region and it feels great to be part of that rich heritage.