The outpost junior leadership training cycle is a two-step process that involves Junior Leadership Foundations and a series of Junior Leadership Merits.
Junior Leadership Foundations is the first step in developing leadership skills in boys. It is repeated each time a boy assumes a new leadership position in the patrol or outpost. (Guidelines are available through the Leaders Track of TRaCclub.) This patch may be worn once the Ranger completes the following:
Leadership Merits are a key training tool for Discovery, Adventure, and Expedition Rangers. Leadership merits are intended to be taught every six months by the group commander in one of two ways: in five weekly meetings, or in a one-day/weekend format. Merit lesson plans will be available thru TRaCclub. Each Merit includes lessons on the following universal skills:
These leadership merits must be taught at the local level and never become part of the district junior camps. This is so important, for if our men send boys to the district to earn the leadership merits, then the boys will return to their leaders, who because of lack of knowledge of the leadership merits, may be incapable of helping the boys put into practice what they have learned. If the leaders themselves teach these servant leadership skills to the boys, the men are not only learning, but also obligating themselves to model and implement what they are teaching. The leadership merits profit the local adult leaders as much as the junior leaders.