Share the following points with the Explorers:

• Today we’re going to look at some descriptions of feelings and some traits associated with them. Knowing these feelings and traits can help you discover your personal strengths. It can also help you identify areas you can improve in your life.
• We all believe certain things about ourselves. These beliefs help make us who we are or who we believe ourselves to be. Sometimes we feel we are great; sometimes we feel we aren’t good at anything. This outlook can make us feel better or worse. We can put ourselves down or build ourselves up.
• We learn to label ourselves and others as we learn labels from people and the world around us. If we believe the labels, we often start to act in ways that make the label true. We need to be careful of labels, especially negative ones.
• You can always change negative traits to positive ones by recognizing them, working hard, and making positive changes.

Hand out the Getting to Know Myself handout and have the Explorers complete it. Ask them to respond to the questions, including the six summary questions. Allow five to ten minutes for them to complete the activity sheet.

After Explorers have completed the handout, ask the following reflection questions:

FOCUSING QUESTIONS

·        How do your interests (what you like to do) line up with your strengths (what you are good at)?

ANALYSIS QUESTIONS

·        What do some of your personality traits tell you about what you like to do now or what you might like to do in the future?

·        How might you use this in your potential career?

GENERALIZATION QUESTIONS

·        How can you use your summary responses to plan for action moving forward?

·        How might you use this in life or in college?

·        Why is this important?

Hand out the Weakness to Strength handout to the Explorers. Tell Explorers to make a comment in each of the boxes, describing how they might turn a personal weakness into a strength.

When they are finished, ask:

• What was the hardest part of the process?
• Why is it important to first identify what your weaknesses are?
• How can these weaknesses have a negative impact in your relationship with others?
• What are some ways to turn the weaknesses into strengths?
• What can you do to start applying these changes?
• How can you become more open to constructive criticism?
• What does it take to remain motivated and work hard since change doesn’t happen overnight?

Hand out the Analyzing My Weakness handout to the Explorers. Have Explorers answer the three questions based on one of the weaknesses they identified with on the Weakness to Strength activity sheet.

When they are finished, ask:

FOCUSING QUESTIONS

• What will it take to help eliminate the weakness you identified?

ANALYSIS QUESTIONS

• What is the hardest thing about making this change?
• How might you use this in your potential career?

GENERALIZATION QUESTIONS

• How could you help other people make changes like the one you identified for yourself?
• How might you use this in life or in college?
• Why is this important?

LEADER NOTE: Before electing or assigning youth roles, review the Youth Officer Elections for Exploring online training module at My.Scouting.org for best practices on how to elect Explorers to various leadership positions.

LEADER NOTE: The iTech Plug and Play schedule references these specific roles and when each role should lead a post or club meeting. Some meetings utilize multiple leadership roles and Explorers should work together to find the right balance between these leadership positions. In other meetings, all positions will be utilized to accomplish the task at hand.

Consider the requirements of iTech Innovation Design Challenge you have selected. Is it appropriate for a large group or smaller groups? If you have a large post or club (more than 10 or 12 active Explorers) you may want to divide the unit into smaller teams of at least 5 members noted below with an (*). Explorers can also opt into any of the roles listed under “Other Roles.” Note that the Site Visit Coordinator position can be rotated to different Explorers for each site visit.

In the case of multiple teams per post/club:

1.      All teams should participate in the same iTech Innovation Design Challenge selected by the entire post/club.

After teams are selected, each team should create their team name and take team photos.

Project Manager *

Research Manager *

Design & User Feedback Manager *

Quality Assurance Manager *

Innovation Design Challenge (IDC) Event Coordinator *

Site Visit Coordinator(s)

Other Roles:

• Explorers can volunteer to become an Assistant to the any of the above roles. They will assist when that leadership position in in charge of that meeting.
• They can also choose from the following roles: Treasurer, Secretary, Time Keeper, Team Member

Say: During our iTech Exploring program, you will have the opportunity to take on leadership roles once the Innovation Design Challenge (IDC) begins. Let’s review the opportunities.

Give each Explorer a copy of the iTech Exploring Youth Leadership Role Descriptions handout. Allow the group 5-10 minutes to review the roles.

Say: On the left side of the sheet write your name next to the roles in which you would like to serve. On the right side of the sheet, write the names of your fellow Explorers (or team mates if you’ve divided a large group into smaller teams of at least 5 members) who are best suited for each role. You must nominate at least one person for each of the required (*) roles. And you can nominate more than 1 person for every role on the sheet. The adult leaders will review your nominations, including your self-nominations, and select roles for each of you.

DECIDE HOW LEADERS WILL REVIEW AND ASSIGN ROLES FROM THE FOLLOWING OPTIONS:

1. Review and assign roles immediately and move onto Activity 4.
2. Review and assign later and announce roles at the next meeting. In this case, be sure to facilitate Activity 4 at the next meeting after you announce roles.

LEADER NOTE:

Refer your newly elected/appointed IDC Event Coordinator to the iTech IDC Prep activity outline from your 4^th meeting. Share this activity outline and handouts with the IDC Event Coordinator after s/he is selected so s/he can prepare accordingly.

Announce which Explorers will be serving in each role. Make sure every Explorer has an assigned role – even if it’s as simple as a “team member”.

LEADER NOTE: At the start of each meeting, point out which Explorers are leading the meeting for the day. Explorers should display their Leadership Name Card and reference it in preparation for and during meetings. This is a reminder of the role each Explorer plays and his/her respective responsibility.

Give each Explorer:

1. A blank Leadership Name Card
2. A blank iTech Exploring Youth Leadership Role Descriptions handout (or project the descriptions on a screen)
3. A copy of your post or club’s meeting schedule. Be sure to use the provided Plug and Play Schedule as it notes which youth leadership roles should be leading various meetings on the schedule.

Allow each Explorer to fill in the blanks and answer the questions on his or her own Leadership Name Card.

Say: It is your responsibility to keep your leadership card and bring it with you to each meeting. You should place your leadership card in front of you at your seat during every meeting through the end of the year. Use this as a reference to be successful in your new role. And ask any of the leaders here questions about your role at any time, we are here to help you succeed! CONGRATULATIONS!

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Indicate whether each statement is “like me” or “unlike me” by placing an “X” in the appropriate column.

SUMMARY

1. My personal interests and strengths are:

2. My interests and strengths in school are:

3. Something I am proud of myself for being able to do well is:

4. Something I wish I could do better is:

5. Something I want to accomplish in the next year is:

6. Something I want to accomplish before I graduate from high school or college is:

Use the space provided to write what you could do to turn these weaknesses into strengths.

1. I recognize this issue as weakness in working with others:

2. The weakness could be a problem in the workplace because:

3. I can work to improve this weakness by:

In the LEFT COLUMN write your name next to the roles in which you would like to serve, if any.

·        In the RIGHT COLUMN write the names of your fellow Explorers from your team who are best suited for each role.

·        You must nominate at least one person for each of the required (*) roles.

·        Each of your team members should be nominated by you at least once.

·        You can nominate more than 1 person for every role on the sheet.

Print the below cards, cut each one out and fold on the dotted line. Explorers should always display their leadership cards at their seat during Exploring meetings as a reminder of their role and responsibilities. If an Explorer chooses a role that isn’t listed below, fill out the card before printing.