The Rover Adviser’s Vigil
Questions to help the Rover Adviser Squire prepare for their responsibilities
Note: The Vigil should only be read by Knighted Rovers and Advisers, and those Adviser Squires who have completed all other requirements for Knighthood. The Vigil is more effective and special if it is kept mostly secret.
The Vigil comes at the end of the period of Squireship. Potential Rover Advisers should not be invested until they are quite sure that they are honestly ready. They should think carefully before taking this important step and should not commit themselves to serious responsibilities until they are resolved to do their best to keep them.
The Rover Adviser is in a position of great potential influence. Advisers must be a role model for the Scout Law, a coach and a mentor for their Rover Scouts. Adviser Squires should ask themselves these questions:
- An effective leader is one who helps he group achieve its goal. Am I clear about my goals as a leader and the goals of those I lead?
- As a leader, do I like to "run the show" or do I seek to act as a guide for others?
- Do I have a personal desperate need to be a leader and to have a position of prestige and authority?
- Do I struggle to keep the leadership of a group or am I willing to share it to the point of "losing" it?
- Do I really "listen" to other people when they are speaking, or am I waiting for the opportunity to get my words in?
- Do I willingly accept the advice of others? Do I feel my leadership threatened by experts or specialists?
- In my leadership, do I have the best answer to many problems and thus attempt to lead others to see my answers?
- When I am criticized or found to be wrong, do I honestly admit to others and to myself my failings or do I attempt to save face by covering up and explaining away?
- Can I accept all others just as they are or do I judge people according to a set of standards that suits me?
- Do I have real trust and confidence in the group I lead?
- Am I convinced that the Scout Law and Promise (understood from an adult point of view) teach a way of life that I am prepared to follow, and in which I am prepared to lead others?
- Are my ideas old fashioned and do I live in a romantic past or do I appreciate and understand the thinking of today's young people?
- Am I dogmatic about "great Scouting truths" which I have learned from the past or am I flexible enough to new ideas about Scouting?
- Am I looking for a "canned" Rover program that I can make young people fit, or do I look at all young people as individuals so that I can help them develop their own program, one that best suits their own needs?
- Am I really sensitive to the needs and thoughts of the group with whom I work?
- Am I willing to study and take further leadership training to help me best understand myself as a leader and those whom I lead?
- Where I am weak in some of these things, so I resolve here and now, with God's help, to do my best to correct them?
