jeff-o

I like what mn-scout has done. This was our troop's first year and experience with this requirement. We got a few copies of a topographic map of an area where we were going camping and had a leader get there early. I used the map and marked 10 spots on the map with dots and placed small orange flags in the ground at each location. Each flag had a letter on it. The scouts were given the map, shown where our campsite was, and told to find the orange flags. Some were quite easy, near the road, but others were tougher. All scout teams had radios and kept in communication with the base station so when the "I'm lost" call came, we knew what direction they had been headed in. Whistles were also quite useful in locating lost scouts. After the exercise, we went back to retrieve all the flags and showed scouts how to find them. They had a lot of fun.

I stick with the wording of the requirement and let the Scouts decide how to meet them. The requirement says identify or show evidence. Some scouts have asked to be able to identify by sight, like pointing out a type of animal and identifying the exact breed. Pictures are allowable, and I've had scouts bring a photo gallery in to show 10 different animals. And yes, Scat, tracks, sounds, even the smell of a skunk counts as I read the requirement!

Thanks for the additional comments. Yes, we need our committee more trained. Right now we have one person plus a couple other half of a persons -- not much of a committee yet. As for the food, indeed, the adults are eating completely separately. We bring our own food and utensils, and so far that area has been one where the scouts have learned the most. We eat different things all the time to show them examples of what can be done, and we show them how we ensure that we're not missing things when we get to the camp site. They don't quite get it, but they're getting closer!

Thank you all for the comments and suggestions. As a note, the scouts are not at all bored. In fact, the one thing I love hearing, and I hear it nearly every week, is, "What? Its time to go already? But we just got started!" Of course, I will be the first to admit, the troop meetings are being planned by me. Its not so much that the scouts can't do it, they don't know what to do because they've never seen it before. I'm working on slowly moving towards them running a lot more. For example, the PL now has the troop meeting openings and is responsible for that every meeting. The game is determined by different scouts, based on volunteers, and I throw in a new game every so often, just so they get more ideas. This year the scouts wanted to go on a climbing outing, so one scout volunteered to set that up. Yeah, at 11? Well, its his job and if it doesn't get done, we'll do something else that weekend (and yes, I'm assisting him, but I'm not DOING it for him, he volunteered!). Recently, we've started having the patrol meeting section be for camp out planning and advancement. Sure, they need lots of help and guidance with that, but we let them try and sort it out themselves, at least to start. Most are not afraid to try something, anything, and are absolutely not afraid to fail. The camp out with hamburgers on the menu with no frying pan or spatula will attest to that! I do appreciate the comments on when to split into patrols. My current plan, of course subject to change, especially if scouts want to change it: Keep this one patrol until next fall (2010). We only anticipate 1-2 more scouts coming in February from the Cub Pack. That will make the official troop roster up to 10 or 11. Troop meetings will have likely that 10-11, but I don't see a big increase in camp out attendance. I think if we start seeing 8+ regulars on the camp outs, I might suggest a split at that point. For summer camp, we'll just stick together as the one patrol. I think we'll get no more than 8 to that. Then in the fall, hopefully we'll get a couple more from round-ups, and then have 12 or 13. We have elections scheduled for that time, and then I can see a split. After that, in February 2011, there is an entire group of Cubs that are lined up to join us. If at least 5 of them make it, at that point we might have enough for three patrols, and at that point the most senior scouts will be about twelve and a half and I think up to Star Rank (wow, at 12? yes, at least 3 of them are near first class right now), and THEN I would expect to add a SPL. At that point, the one older scout will be 14 or 15, but I'm not sure he will be the highest ranking at that point...we'll see! Again, thanks for the ideas and comments, its good to hear from others and how things work in this great world of scouting.

I read another post about sizes of patrols, but I can't find it now. Let me explain our troop's background before I ask the question: We have a new troop, almost a year old. As the SM, I do have a long-term view, hoping to expand, learning as we go, and not really get everything fully working for a number of years. At the start, we had just 5 scouts who came over from Cubs together. Since that time, we've added 4 more scouts. 1 is a year or two older than the rest, the others are all new. End result, we have about 9 scouts, almost all the same age. We have no older scouts. Right now, we have four that regularly go on camp outs. The others show up on occasion, but not regularly, for different reasons, usually schedule conflicts. Right now, they are all in one patrol and they have elected the older scout for their patrol leader. They haven't come together as a patrol, however. For example, they've been working on their patrol flag for 8 months and just can't seem to finish it. I read in another thread, that with a group this size, we should consider making two patrols and have a SPL. My first response is that I should ask the scouts. But again, they're brand-new, so they don't have any idea, and most of the times I ask them, they ask me how things are usually done. But my next concern is that if we split them into two patrols then on camp outs we will end up with two patrols of two more often than not. The counter-argument is that the peer pressure might get more of them to show up more often. We don't have access to any sort of troop guide. In fact, right now we're struggling with just two adult leaders. We're trying hard to recruit more adult leaders, but that's not going places with the current group. For the most part, we let the scouts determine the direction of the troop, but they have zero for older youth examples, so we try and set the example as the adults -- but that only works so much. So what say you, members of this forum? Should we stay with the extra-large patrol for now, knowing that we're only getting 4-5 on a camp out (with an estimated 1-2 incoming in February from the Cubs; but 7-8 the next year); or should we go ahead and split into two patrols, not knowing exactly what we'd be getting into on campouts? Or perhaps something else? And does anyone really think we would need a 13-year old SPL if we do split? Thanks for your opinions!

I'm working with a very young troop (oldest scout is 12) with less than a year's experience. I'll admit, the troop isn't boy-led yet, but that's a 3-4-year goal for us. In the meantime, the adults (me) are doing most of the meeting planning, with input from the scouts. The scouts selected ideas/themes for the months last August. The way I'm doing merit badges is to occasionally introduce things that are parts of merit badges -- for example, we invited a public official for a 10-minute talk one meeting. Afterwords I mentioned that there was a requirement for the citizenship in the community merit badge related to what we had just done. So we don't devote a meeting to a merit badge, but since our Scouts are all young and inexperienced, I use the meeting time as a way to introduce the Scouts to a merit badge. If they are interested in the idea, then they get the merit badge counselor's phone number and a blue card.

To the original question, "What changes would have to be made?" I think the organization would have to find a lot of new leaders because our troop would start its own organization because we, and our chartered organization, want a Scouting program for boys, plain and simple. Perhaps we'd even start a new international program called "Scouting for Boys" that's focused on the outdoor program for boys (much like the American Heritage Girls has formed in opposition to the Girl Scouts).

Try getting a copy of the 1911 Boy Scout Handbook. I'm reading from it each night for my Scoutmaster Minute. I THINK they're starting to get it...

Huh. Powerpoint and official stuff. I'm new at this, with a new troop. The only youth training I have so far is when a new patrol leader is elected. I've just taken the modules from the Scoutmaster's handbook and basically pulled the new leader aside three meetings in a row and talked to him for about 5-10 minutes about one module per week. Maybe I'll need more when the troop expands a bit...

As you can see, our troop doesn't spend a lot of money. At least half of the troop's parents are unemployed at the moment. To keep campout costs down, we use troop funds (from fundraisers and generous donations from our CO) to pay for gas. We usually camp in national forests where there's no cost for the campsite. The only costs for the scouts are for the food. The grubmaster gets costs from the store and we divide it up -- its been as high as $10 per Scout when they've gone with expensive food, and as low as $4 when its a Saturday-Sunday campout (no Friday night).

If you have the uniform items, just take 'em to the paint shop and ask for paint in that color. They can match in seconds.

Wow. I feel a bit small... Dues: $0 Campouts: $6 per scout x 11/year = $66 Summer Camp: $200 (Usually offset by scholarships and popcorn sales by about $100-$150) Special Trips: $40-$80 (Whitewater, Climbing, etc.) Total out of pocket cost per year for scouts: Approx $125-$175.

Having just started a new Troop (March of this year), I've had nothing but a great relationship with the CO. Our CO is a church of the United Methodist variety, and the United Methodist Men's group has it in their charter that they support the Boy Scouts, so they were very excited that we were forming (again). Also, we work hard to keep up relations. After each court of honor, I am given a few minutes in the next church service to bring the boys up in front of the church where I very briefly mention all the awards that were given out at the last Court of Honor. I always take the time to thank them for having us there. I also continue to refer to the Troop as the Church's troop. Just this past Sunday, the pastor gave over about 45 minutes of the church service over to us to hold our Eagle Court of Honor with the congregation!

Not having been on the planning committee, I'm not 100% sure how it was done. I'm pretty sure, from what I've heard, that the general theme was "Scouting Around the World." Then the scouts, divided up into groups, determined countries from around the world and games or competitions that could be applied to those countries. Some were basic, like Switzerland and First Aid, while others were more exotic, like Korea and some stick hitting game. We had the use of a grass runway, so the entire event was set up there. One end was the Northern Hemisphere, and the other was the Southern Hemisphere. Patrols were divided up at the start and were given passports telling them where to start the day. After a certain period of time, they moved to the next event, and after lunch they headed to the other hemisphere. There were 10 countries and 10 events spread throughout the day, including a day-long scavenger hunt. Oh, and each station has bonus questions that included questions about that country, the capital of that country, etc. That had some scouts studying for days ahead of time! Again, I think one of the best parts is that the entire thing was planned and run by scouts. At the Klondike Derby last February, they were recruiting Scouts to be staff for the fall event. That kept them going all summer.

Sorry to hear about so many disappointments this year. I'm going to throw a wet blanket on that party, if you don't mind. Our district had camporee about the same weekend. We had 20 troops there and over 500 people total. And my troop, with just three first-year scouts (two second class and one tenderfoot) actually got first place in the orienteering course, beating out 25 other patrols (yeah, I'm quite proud of them, I did not assist one bit). One of the keys, I think, to the success? It was well-promoted and completely, 100% planned and run by scouts. Every station had an adult there for safety, but the events were created, designed, and run completely by scouts, starting in February. I guess if it were the same every year, it might get boring. But the way our troop approached it during the annual planning session was, "Okay, this month is camporee, so that's our camping event that month, let's move on to November."

Hello all! I'm Jeff, from Mooresville, NC. I'm a new scoutmaster with a new troop, working and trying to figure out which way is up. We formed a new troop in March of this year with a group of 5 graduating Webelos. We're trying to keep things going, but the lack of older scout leadership is quite noticeable! I was a Den Leader in Cub Scouts for 4 years and was in Scouting for about 8-10 years when a youth and earned the Eagle badge back in 1983 or so. But anyways, hello, good to read you.