What Are Some Of The Implications For Programme Delivery ?

The main areas of support to the adult leader are to help him or her to:

• Understand how this association of teams is meant to function as a democratic system of self-government. The adult leader needs to be able to help the teams to build a consensus on what they want to achieve (making sure that the needs and interests of all are taken equally into account), and to help them to organise themselves;
• Be able to enrich the young people’s ideas of what they want to do so as to provide opportunities for the young people to progress towards their educational objectives;
• Observe and understand group dynamics and guide it in a constructive direction;
• Be able to better judge what the young people are really capable of taking on by themselves. This means ensuring physical and emotional security (of the young people and others); being able to overcome the temptation to make life easier by organising everything oneself; not pushing the young people beyond what they can be reasonably be expected to undertake, etc.; 
• Judge if and when to intervene, for example, in a conflict, or when to point out major obstacles, etc.

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A Limited Range Of Ages

The team system offers the greatest educational benefits when it:
• enables the teams to operate with a degree of autonomy appropriate to the age group; and
• stimulates close relationships between the members of the teams.

The major consideration in this respect is the range of ages within the teams.

Generally, the team system works best when there is approximately three to four years age difference between the youngest and the oldest in a team.

This is due to the fact that the more mature members of the teams will stimulate the less mature to develop. At the same time, the less mature members stimulate the sense of responsibility in the senior members and give them opportunities to exercise responsibility in helping the younger members to progress, to integrate the code of living, to gain skills, to learn how to work as a team, etc. The presence of younger members also helps the senior members to realize the changes in themselves since they were that age.

However, when the age range is greater than this, the educational impact of the team system becomes greatly reduced. This is because the difference in the level of maturity will be so great that the young people at either end of the age range will feel that they have little in common with those at the other end – and thus will informally regroup according to their natural tendency to be with others of approximately the same age!

For the national association, the fact of limiting the age range so as to enable the team system to fulfil its educational function evidently has implications on the number of age sections that the association offers and/or on the overall range of ages that it addresses.

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Opportunities To Experience Teamwork

-With Other Members Of The Scout Unit

In addition to the need to belong to a small permanent team, by early to mid-adolescence young people tend to seek opportunities to expand their social horizons and to work with other young people on the more complex aspects of their projects. Concretely, this simply involves incorporating into the design of the programme opportunities for the young people to form temporary task forces.

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Cohesion Between All Members Of The Scout Unit

In addition to the organisation of life within the teams, there is also the life of the Scout unit to take into account! Summer camps, service projects, etc., involving the whole of the Scout unit need to be built into the design, while still providing time and space for the teams to be together.

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A Scout Unit Assembly

Meetings as a Scout unit need to be built into the design of the operating structure so as to enable all of the young people and the adult leader to discuss and evaluate the success of the activities, but also to evaluate the life of the group, to build a consensus on what could be modified and, of course, to celebrate achievements.

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A Coordinating Council

The team system involves a council which needs to meet on a regular basis. The council is composed of the team leaders and the adult leader. It is an opportunity for the team leaders and the adult leader to make decisions concerning the planning and organisation of activities, discuss difficulties, coordinate the affairs of the Scout unit, etc.

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Roles For Each Person – With Real Responsibility!

In the Scout unit, democracy starts in the teams – as they learn to dialogue and cooperate. The design of the team system needs to ensure that each person has an active role to play. These roles need to involve practical responsibilities – related to the needs and welfare of the teams. The roles need to be conceived so as to appeal to the young people and offer challenge. The responsibilities must also be adapted to the level of development and experience of the young people – i.e. less complex for the newcomers.

One of the roles is that of team leader. This young person’s responsibility is to coordinate the team, help the team members to reach a consensus on what they want to do and carry out their roles, represent them at the team leaders’ council, help coordinate activities involving the whole Scout unit, etc. As it requires maturity and experience of how the Scout unit functions, this is a role designed for senior youth members of the Scout unit.

The appointment of the team leaders is also part of the democratic process, based on who the team members and the adult leaders consider is most capable of doing the job. It is important, however, that the role of team leader is not the only challenging role for senior members. 

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A Democratic System

The team system is intended to help young people to understand the concept of democracy through experiencing it in action. 

Democracy in the Scout unit is based on:
• ensuring that the needs and interests of all are taken into account. This implies always striving to reach a consensus. If every decision were to be subject to a majority vote, the needs and interests of the minority would be ignored;
• adherence to a commonly agreed set of rules, based on the Scout law;
• the fact that the Scout unit supports each individual, and each individual has a share of responsibility for ensuring that the Scout unit functions efficiently, and contributes towards improving it for the benefit of all.

Democracy in the Scout unit is thus a truly participatory form of government. It does not involve establishing mini political parties, lobbies, campaigning to win elections for positions of power, or anything else of that nature.

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Progressive Self-Government

The principle of young people’s participation in the government of their mini-society applies throughout the age range that Scouting serves. Evidently, the sphere of matters on which the young people make decisions and the kinds of responsibilities that they undertake in the management of their teams and Scout unit as a whole will be linked to:

• their level of maturity. The level of involvement will therefore be different in a group of 8-10 year-olds than in a group of 15-18 year olds.
• their experience of this form of operation. A Scout unit of 12-14 year-olds that has been  operating for a year or two may be able to have a greater degree of involvement in running their group than a newly constituted group of older young people.

 

This means, therefore, that the design of the Youth Programme needs to reflect a progression in terms of self-government in the operating structure across the age sections. It will also require some flexibility in terms of the extent of responsibilities for youth members in newly constituted groups.

 

Generally, in the youngest age section the nature of the decisions to be taken by the young people would be in the choice between several activities, for example. Responsibilities might be to remember to bring refreshments, or materials needed for an activity. In the subsequent age section, decision-making could extend to the theme of the summer camp, for example, and responsibilities could include looking after the team budget, being responsible for catering arrangements, compiling a diary of the team’s adventures, etc.

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A Partnership Between Young People And Their Adult Leaders

The team system is not intended as a way for adult leaders to pass down their orders for the young people to execute. It is not intended, either, as a way for young people to simply express their wishes and expect their adult leader to prepare everything for them.

It is intended as a partnership between the young people and their adult leader, based on dialogue and cooperation. The adult leader (and his or her adult assistants) are part of the Scout unit but they are not members of the teams. The adults are part of the Scout unit in order to fulfil a specific role, i.e. to help the young people to exercise and develop their capacity for autonomy, solidarity, responsibility and commitment, while guiding each young person towards his or her educational objectives.

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