How should we lead our Group? How should we interact with each other?  Naturally we all have different styles and preferences.  I could tell you all about my style and how I would like to do it.  But I thought it would be much more appropriate to just share with you a few words written by our Founder, Lord Baden Powell, on this matter.  They are taken from an old book in my collection entitled B.-P.’s Outlook, published in 1941.

1.      Playing the Game: In making our young citizens…it is essential to try to get into them the habit of cheery co-operation, of forgetting their personal wishes and feelings in bringing about the good of the whole business in which they are engaged—whether it be work or play.  One can teach the boy that it is exactly like football. You must play in your place and play the game; don’t try to be referee when you are playing half-back; don’t stop playing because you have had enough of the game, but shove along, cheerily and hopefully, with an eye on the goal in order that your side may win, even though you may yourself get a kick on the shins or a muddy fall…[E]very Scoutmaster…should examine himself very closely, suppress any of the minor faults which he may—in fact, is bound to—possess…find out…whether he…can fit himself into the place assigned to him, and loyally carry out instructions, though they may not be exactly what he would like; whether he can, in a word, play in his place and play the game for the good of the whole.  (from the Scouter, July 1910.)

2.      The Other Fellow’s Point of View: The fact is, justice and fair play do not always form part of our school curriculum.  If our lads were trained as a regular habit to see the other fellow’s point of view before passing their own judgment on a dispute, what a difference it would at once make…!  Such lads would not be carried away…by the first orator who catches their ear on any subject, but they would also go and hear what the other side has to say about it, and would then think about the question and make up their own minds… (from The Scouter, June 1912)

3.      Brotherhood: …the Scouts…were a movement rather than an organization.  That is, they came into it of their own desire to do something for their kind without thought of reward. So long as that spirit is there the Brotherhood is all right.  But, mind you, self slips in unexpectedly sometimes…What we need is not merely the spirit of good-natured tolerance but of watchful sympathy and readiness to help one another.  We not only need it but we’ve “got to have it” if we are going to teach our boys by the only sound way, that is through our own example, that greatest of principles—goodwill and co-operation. (from The Scouter, March, 1926)

4.      Leadership: Leadership is the keynote to success—but leadership is difficult to define, and leaders are difficult to find.  I have frequently stated that “any ass can be a commander, and a trained man may often make an instructor; but a leader is more like a poet—born, not manufactured.” The essentials of leadership might…be summed up as “comradeship and competence.” (from The Scouter, November, 1936)

 Group Scout Leader, 2003