Calion

“Regimented” does not not equal fun. Good lord, Drill & Ceremony is one of the most fun parts of basic training, once you get the hang of it. Too many people think that, though. Sad.

Any hints on how to find this would be helpful. Which comic? Pee Wee Harris?

Does anyone have any scripts for troop or patrol roll calls? @HashTagScouts provided the following one: Which is great! But I was wondering if other troops that did roll calls did them differently, or if anyone was aware of some old Scouting resource that described a format. Thanks in advance!

What's really interesting about this, is that even though it’s so obvious no one needs to say it, the answer you gave (although it was in fact an attempt at an answer to my question, which I appreciate) was pretty terrible. I don’t believe for a second that your troop actually does it that way. Which just reveals the reason I asked the question to begin with: This is not easy or obvious. It requires thought to come up with something potentially workable, and trial-and-error to find out if it’s actually workable. It’s pretty obvious to me that none of you, with the exception of @HashTagScouts, do this in your troops. You think it’s easy and obvious, because you haven’t actually done it. So what I’ve discovered here is that Scouters (at least on this site) will give insistent, superior advice on things they have absolutely no idea about, but just assume, based on their lack of experience, is easy and obvious. And that is a valuable lesson.

Hey! You finally gave an answer!!!! Was that really so hard? "SPL says “PL’s, assemble in patrol lines. Patrol A PL, please confirm everyone is here and give your patrol yell.”” Is that how it’s done in your troop? Personally, I think that’s kind of awkward, but who cares! It’s an answer, only the second one that has been given (Tron’s answer has nothing to do with opening ceremonies, of course). To show that it is extremely easy to give an actual answer to this question, here’s @HashTagScouts' answer, the first and until now the only genuine answer that has been given:

Since “how?” was literally the only question to begin with, answers that do not answer “how?” are, obviously, not answers.

Possibly. I’ve gotten one answer, and I suppose it’s hopeless to believe that any of these other folks will ever give me another one. Yes. I will remember that this forum downvotes people who ask questions and don’t accept unresponsive answers. Very “Helpful."

Except "Oh my heavens, sometimes its necessary to look into your own imagination and turn to your own ideas and close the books,” which is certainly talking down to me, and “Its just that simple, introduce the concept and stand back and watch,” when I have said multiple times that I’ve repeatedly done precisely that, with no results. But I’m not talking just about you, but about the many people here, who all know the answer to the question, “How does your SPL cause the patrols to give their patrol yells during opening ceremonies?” but instead of answering me, insult me and downvote me to oblivion—anything except answering the question. Except the honorable Mr. HashTagScouts, who actually answered the question. I was hoping other people had other examples, but apparently all they offer is obfuscation and implications that I’m stupid or unimaginative for not knowing the answer to a question that they know the answer to but refuse to tell me. No you haven’t. Here’s what an answer looks like: Anyone who actually knows an answer to this question has the obvious ability to answer the question in this way, except for however their troop does it. So everyone (except HashTagScouts) either knows an answer to the question and aren’t divulging it for some reason, or do not know the answer, and are misleadingly implying that they do. I have absolutely no idea why anyone would do this.

Well, no, neither of those answer the question, which specifies "during opening ceremony." I agree! That’s a neat idea! Do you have any suggestions? What works for your troop?

Obviously that wasn’t sufficient, or I wouldn’t have wasted my time posting. How do your Scouts do it? Well, no. If that was the case, they wouldn’t be required. They’re to build esprit de corps, and are an important part of the Scouting program. I did that. As I said from the beginning, I introduced the concept, stood back and watched absolutely nothing happen. Which is why I asked a question here. Why is that such a difficult concept? Why am I being denigrated for asking a simple question that everyone here already knows the answer to?? I mean, obviously, your Scouts are already doing this, or you wouldn’t be berating me for not already knowing the answer to this question I don’t know the answer to. So you are withholding the answer for some perverse reason—to teach me a lesson? Why? I meant “What that I said is trolling?” Which was, I think, obvious in context, making this trolling.

Could you quote anywhere, in any of those books, where it is covered in sufficient detail? Such that someone could actually do it? I’ll give an example. Say the SPL wants his troop to line up in formation by patrol, without saying a word. How would he do that? Would he just know, without being told, what a good, efficient way to do that would be? Do we expect SPLs to figure out these things? No, we direct them to resources like https://troopresources.scouting.org/silent-scout-signals/, which describes, in detail, actually how to perform the action in question. If I’ve missed such a description in all of those books you list, I am apparently incredibly incompetent, so your help would be appreciated to point it out to me.

Indeed! And just when do the patrols give their yells during this assembly? All at once? Spontaneously, when no one has told them to do so? While the SPL is giving the announcements? But of course you’re not going to actually quote it for me, because that might be actually helpful.

And when the one asking is the SPL? And when the information isn’t in the Handbook? And so, because it’s a big country, and there’s no set way, no one is allowed to tell me how their SPLs do it?? And if they have no idea, and ask me? Or just don’t do it because they don’t know how? That’s a neat resource! I’d never heard of it before. Unfortunately, it doesn’t answer this question.

You’re right; I missed “Troop Leader Guidebook” in that list. I’ve now searched for “yell” in all four, and none of them even mention giving the yell during opening ceremonies, except "Use the patrol yell to announce to the other patrols that your patrol is ready to go, is present during a troop assembly, or has done well during a patrol game.”.

Where? None of those resources even mention giving the yell in opening ceremonies, unless I’m missing something.