Snave001

Thank you very much for the replies. As I was writing the question I started thinking about how merit badges were not tied to the troop specifically. Boys earn lots of merit badges outside our troop activities with councelors from other areas as well as a couple local museums. I was a little worried about the blue card but that sounds like it can be easily resolved as well. Thanks again for putting my mind at ease. I want to make sure the boy gets credit for what he did.

I have a multipart question. We have a large growing troop and I recently become an ASM. We have a scout who moved from his old troop to ours due to his parents divorce. His mother was an active committee member of the old troop and joined our committee as well, registering with dual membership of both troops. She is still active on the old troop committee because she didn't want to leave them short a committee member for the time being. They are still friends with many of the boys and leaders of the old troop and participate in activities with them, mostly service projects. This year my treasurer came to me asking about paying for merit badges he just earned while at summer camp with the other troop. My understanding is that a boy can have dual membership in a troop and crew but not in two troops. Here's my questions: Can the boy be a member of two troops at the same time? If yes, should our troop be paying for badges he earns while he is participating in the other troop activities? If no and the other SM signed off on the cards but the boy is not a member of that troop, does the SM signature count in BSA advancement's eyes? THANKS!!

From day 1 the idea behind the parent patrol was that they would be registered and YPT just to be part of the patrol, then SM trained in order to help the boys. I have learned a lot in my quest to solve this parent patrol thing and think we are almost on the same page, just with bad terminology. I think assumptions were made because I called them parents. I don't know where the term Parent Patrol came from other than the adult to came back from WB called it that and it stuck. If I were to ask this question again I would call them an adult leader patrol, not a parent patrol. They were to be committed adults that we trained in every way needed to be active leaders. They weren't going to be called ASMs because they were most likely only temporary to get the troop to where the SM felt it needed to be for the boys to lead and then a few would continue on as ASM. I can see from this discussion that there are different leadership styles and all any of us can do is take from it what we can and form what works for us within proper BSA guidelines. I have talked to the SM quite a bit about the meaning of a boy-led troop I think he gets it. He just isn't totally sure how to get there from where we are and that is why other parents are offering suggestions.

Ok, I think I need to give a little back story as this conversation has gone a little awry. Before we joined this troop there were only 7 boys. They claimed to be boy-led but it turns out their definition was to let the boys decided what to do and the SM did all of the footwork to get them there. I don't think the words "go ask your SPL or PL" had ever been said, it was usually "go ask the SM". A new SM took over and is pushing to get us into a true boy-led troop. We have grown to over 30 boys in the last 2 years which has brought in a wonderful group of parents who want to help. Unfortunately the SM is running into the "this is how we always did it" mentality from many of the original parents which is creating obstacles. The original 7 boys have very little leadership experience so it is hard to tell all the younger boys to go ask them. The idea behind the parent patrol was not to create a competition between parents and boys, it was to create the image of how it is supposed to work. We need a way to give the older boys the concept and get the younger boys ready for when it is their turn to lead. The "mentors" will be there to help all of the boys through this transistion and give them the guidance they need to be able to become leaders. All parents in our troop that interact with the boys or go on camp outs need to have YPT. The new mentors will also all be registered and go through basic training as well as SM training. I envision the mentors will only be around for a year or so and then slim down to a couple ASMs.

Thank you everyone for the awesome feedback. There was a meeting last night with the SM and decided to remove the patrol part and focus only on mentoring.

I was Cubmaster of my son's pack and now we are in Boy Scouts. For the first couple years I chose to "just" be an active parent and not a leader. I am getting back into the committee side and am seeing that we are going through some growing pains. One of the parents went to Wood Badge and he brought back an idea called Parent Patrol. This is where a small group of parents would form their own patrol, stand in formation during flag, organize their patrol's food on camp outs, wear full uniform, etc. Much of what the boys do without the advancements and awards. The concept to this is to show a form of leading by example. We would show the boys first hand what we expect as well as form Parent Advisors who would mentor. Parents will make mistakes and they can take that experience to mentor the boys with it, or maybe even the boys will catch the mistake and teach the parents. We are having very strong feelings on both sides of the fence from the parents. For every problem it seems to help, it creates another. The parent that introduced it is very black and white...they taught it to him in WB and it was explained as a win win, therefore it must happen. I was initially totally for it but now I am not sure. Here's my questions: Has anyone done this before? Success? Failure? Tips?