The young men in the church have a wonderful chance to become leaders. The scouting program is designed to help each young man become a leader. As the young man advances through the ranks, it is required that he spends part of that time as a leader in order to achieve Eagle. Additionally young men are called upon to act as quorum presidents and take on a leadership role in the quorums as well. It is important that you allow and encourage the young men to do this. Here are five tips to help:
1) It is important that you teach your quorum president the responsibility of conducting an effective meeting. In order to do this you may want to meet briefly with him, to explain how to properly conduct a meeting. Then you should step back and allow him to conduct. After that you may want to just check the agenda before the meeting and add any other issues.
2) Another important step is to encourage the quorum president to take over the planning of specific Priesthood duties. This means the president would be in charge of assigning who passes the Sacrament, fast offering routes and so on. The president can either call to remind the boys himself or dedicate the task to his counselors.
3) It is also important to allow the boys to help plan the activities. If you are operating both the scouting and Young Men program, this may seem difficult. In fact it is not. The Scouting organization has built in planning meetings for the boys. The troop patrol leaders (meaning the boys) should be participating in the planning and executing of meetings. In addition the quorum presidencies should be planning the combined young men and young women activities.
4) You should also have your quorum president be thinking about reaching out to the less active and new members of the quorum. You may suggest a presidency visit to the boys in the quorum or to assign someone to call and invite them to activities.
5) Finally it is important that the boys learn to report the status of their work. This can happen at Bishop youth council meetings, as well as presidency meetings. Learning accountability is an important part of becoming an effective leader.
Related Articles:
Young Men: Missionary Preparation
Young Men: Preparing Your Son for Future Responsibilities
Helping Your Son Honor His Priesthood