Be Prepared - Ready to Lead
| Category: | Preparedness |
|---|---|
| Notes: | For any troop meeting, especially for assistant patrol leaders and other Scouts who are next in line for a leadership role. Part of a series - see also be-prepared-when-someone-gets-hurt and be-prepared-when-the-weather-turns. |
It's Friday night. The patrol is loading up for the campout, and your patrol leader just texted. They're sick. They're not coming.
Every head in the patrol turns around. And they're looking at you.
Are you ready?
We usually think of "Be Prepared" as packing a first aid kit or bringing rain gear. But it also means being ready to lead when it's your turn, even when you didn't expect it to be your turn today.
How do you get ready to lead before you're in charge? Pay attention. When your patrol leader plans the menu, watch how they do it. When they assign duties, notice how they keep it fair. When something goes wrong, see how they handle it. Ask them questions. Offer to help with the plan. Know where the patrol box is, what's in it, and what the schedule looks like.
The Scouts who handle a surprise like this well usually aren't the loudest or the oldest. They're the ones who were already paying attention, so when the moment came, they knew what to do.
You won't get to choose when your turn comes. It might be at a campout, or a meeting, or someday in a job or a family emergency. But you can choose to be ready for it.