Re: Boy Scout Patrols
Alan Houser (troop24@EMF.NET)
Thu, 6 Nov 1997 23:02:25 -0800
Janet-Claire Deschanel <janet-claire@ROCKETMAIL.COM> wrote:
>Now, here's my question: Our Webelos den (7 boys)
>visited a Boy Scout troop a few nights ago which
>could be prepared to accept all of the boys into the
>troop come next February. I had expected that the
>boys would be integrated into existing patrols, but
>the Scoutmaster takes the view that the Webelos den
>would enter as its own patrol and keep that patrol
>(forever).
>I'm not questioning whether or not the Scoutmaster is
>right to do that (I'll assume that it is a valid
>option, as well as, for him, a tried-and-true
>approach), but I would like to know how that has
>worked out for other Scouts in the past. How should
>families view this issue when deciding which troop to
>join?
As others have noted, this is the New Scout patrol concept, and
we use that in Troop 24. Whether the patrol will continue after
the first year depends on the Scouts. Some years, especially
if they have all come in from the same Webelos den, things really
click and the patrol survives more or less intact. Other years
(more often when the Scouts have come in from more than one pack
to form a single den), the patrol may not quite gel and the Scouts
may prefer to join one of the other patrols.
>By the way, all of the boys LOVED the troop visit!
Sounds like a winner to me.
YiS,
Alan R. Houser ** troop24@emf.net
** Scoutmaster, Troop 24, Berkeley, California **
** WWW page ** http://www.emf.net/~troop24/t24.html **
Scoutmaster, Mt. Diablo Silverado Council Jamboree Troop #637
** http://www.geocities.com/Yosemite/Trails/9637/ **
Terry Howerton Sakima Group, Inc. SCOUTER Magazine Kansas City | 
