Tasks

Here are some suggested tasks that you can do as a Young Leader. Talk to your section leadership team if there’s anything you’d like to do that you’re currently not doing.

When the young people come in

• Welcome at the door. Saying hi and being a welcoming face for your young people and their grown-ups can start their meeting off in a great way. This develops your communication and customer service skills.
• Taking the register. Take a lead in helping to mark everyone into the meeting. It’s an important job, especially for using in an emergency, such as a fire alarm. This develops your responsibility, communication and administration skills.
• Leading the welcome ceremony. Get everyone started and ready for the meeting by leading the opening ceremony for your meeting, such as a song or flag break. This develops your confidence.
• Set up. Before the activities get started, there's often things that need to be set up. Jump right in and help to get things prepared for the session. This develops your planning and teamwork skills.

During the meeting

• Introduce an activity. Being able to give clear, concise instructions that everyone can follow and understand is a great skill to have. Introducing an activity is a great next step for you when you’re thinking about running a whole activity. This develops your communication, teamwork and leadership skills.
• Run a game. Be prepared with a quick filler game to run before the next activity? You could run a game that you enjoyed as a child. Look at our activities for inspiration. This develops your planning, leadership, adaptability, confidence and risk assessing skills.
• Help to make your section youth led. Lead a session and ask young people what they want to be doing in the future. It's important that we continue to be a youth-led organisation, and a session like this helps to make that happen. Try to think about what's fun, deliverable and affordable in the section, too. This develops your confidence, diplomacy, strategy, leadership and communication skills.
• Read a story. Storytelling is a key part of the Squirrels programme, whether it's reading a book from the library or watching a video of the story. You could make it interactive too, such as by having your young members do actions when they hear certain words! The more you make them feel involved, the more they'll enjoy it. This develops your creativity, engagement and interaction skills.
• Run an activity. Maybe you're ready to take a lead on running a whole activity? You'll need the correct resources and a plan for what's happening. This develops your organisation, planning, communication and teaching skills.
• Share a skill. One of the most rewarding aspects of being a leader is being able to share the things you’ve learned with others. Is there something you learned in Scouts, a skill or hobby you love, or something you did as a part of your Duke of Edinburgh Award you could teach to your section? This develops your confidence, teaching and communication skills.
• Support a young person. Sometimes individuals might need a little extra help and support in the meeting. You could be there to assist them. This develops your communication, interaction and leadership skills.
• Run a follow-up activity. Are the young people doing an activity they'll all finish at different times? You could run a quick activity that they can join in with when they've finished. This develops your organisation, planning, communication and teaching skills.

At the end of the meeting

• Clean up. Tidying up is an important task to make sure the space is ready for the next user. It helps us to keep our Scouts value of respect, too. Try to keep everyone involved in this task, as teamwork makes the dream work. People could be responsible for their own area, or there could be a prize for the most helpful or tidiest Scout at the end of the term. This develops your attention to detail, responsibility and teamwork skills.
• Say goodbye. Sadly, all sessions come to an end. Greet grown-ups, pass on any queries to the leadership team, let parents and guardians know how well their young people did and let them know what to expect in the next session. This develops your planning, leadership and communication skills.
• Plan a session. Think about what you'd want to run in a session and start getting a plan together for what you’d like to do. Don't forget the to use the sessions you've been a part of while in Scouts as inspiration, too. There are lots of great ideas on our activities finder, and we've added some games other Young Leaders planned too. This develops your planning, leadership, strategy and communication skills.
• Present awards. Presenting awards is a big responsibility. If you were in Scouts, then you may remember the excitement of receiving your next badge or award. Remember to smile and congratulate the young member. Don’t forget to give yourself a pat on the back too, as you've helped the young person to get the award. This develops your responsibility, leadership and communication skills.
• Deliver a theme. Go a step further and develop a plan that takes more than one session to complete the task. Perhaps there's a staged badge you'd like to deliver or a theme that you'd like to have for that term. Let your leadership team know your ideas, before you start planning for and delivering the sessions. The leadership team could help you get together the resources you need, too. This develops your delivery, strategy, leadership and planning skills.