hmscouting

So, I guess we found out that they're going to start "Varsity Scouting" programs in our district, and apparently planning to recruit from currently existing troops. I'm pretty new at the SM game, our second year began this past August, and most of the Scouts in our troop are younger. But what I'm worried about is that as we develop as a troop, if our older Scouts disappear off to these Varsity programs, how are we going to develop? And what experiences are the older boys going to miss out on? -CL

Interesting thread, oddly timed. I'm an SM for a newer troop (August was the beginning of our 2nd years). We're mostly a younger troop, about half are 11, the other half spread pretty evenly in the 12-15 range (well, maybe the older group is weighted younger a bit, but we do have two fifteen year olds). So, we've been asked if we're going to provide two Scouts for the OA "ordeal" in Nov. I myself was only a Scout for about year, in a very rural area, so never heard of OA or any of that stuff back then, don't know much about it now. For the record, as David said, they do self-describe as being "the best of the best" and the "scouting honor society." Knowing some of the Scouts in the group, I try to keep my expression a bit guarded. So, if the OA group is not really all that impressive, is it worth seeing if the Troop wants to present some Scouts for membership? Or not worth bothering with? The OA reps (Scouts) have been telling us for ten months or so that they'd be sending reps to our Troop meeting to introduce OA to our Scouts, but never happened. Instead they presented to the Scouters in a RT mtg. Thank you for your time, -CL

I am a new SM for a new troop. We are a small troop, about 16-17 scouts, about eight or nine of which are new-ish (just came up from Webelos), and seven or eight who have anywhere from six months to three years of scouting, but none with leadership experience. We've been trying to follow what we interpreted the Scoutmaster Handbook was saying, with six or so of the older seven or eight boys in a "regular" patrol, and the younger boys in a "newbie patrol" with the PL & APL being selected from the older scouts (and by older, we're talking twelve vs. ten, right), assigned by the PL of the "regular" patrol. But the PL for the regular patrol is struggling trying to keep track of his patrol, planning the troop meeting, and so far planning both patrols part of that meeting (the assigned PL doesn't know what to do yet, they're all new to this leadership thing, and we're pretty much just following the format outlined as we understand it, though maybe we're misunderstanding it). So, misc. Q's come up. The older patrol wants to stay together, and want to bring the older scouts back from the newbie patrol. Does it make sense to just evolve that newbie patrol into it's own patrol, let them take over their own management? As new boys trickle in, do we put together a new newbie patrol, and get that going, or do we add them to the current patrols? I have no idea, and the PLs/APLs have brought up arguments in both directions. -Charles