Troop Committee Question

[purcelce]

If the boys come up with a calendar of things they want to do (like campouts and suSH). Dose this calander go through the troop committee for approval or not?

[shemgren]

Since the troop committee's primary funcution is to support the program that the PLC puts together, the committee needs to be aware of the calendar when it is done. Approval is by the same standard that the SM approves it, health and safety issues. The committe must pave the way for the Scouts to run the program they want, within reason, which the SM should have had input on during the planning session.

[ScouterPaul]

Here are the five steps for the annual planning process:

 

1. Do your homework.

2. Get Patrol inupt.

3. Conduct the Annual Troop Planning Conference.

4. Obtain Troop Committee support.

5. Distribute Information.

 

After the planning conference is complete. The SM and SPL make a presentation to the Troop Committee. The Critical question the committee must resolve is: Does the troop have the resources to carry out this program? If not, can the resources be obtained, and are the troop members willing to do their share in obtaining these resources?

 

This information came from the Troop Program Features.

[AdvanceOn]

Approval may be too strong a word. Our committee does have the SPL report all their plans to us for a number of reasons:

 

1) is there enough time to get all the required paperwork done (tour permit, permission slips, etc.)

2) does it fall during a holiday that all the parents are going to grumble about?! This seems to happen a lot in our troop. The boys don't consider holidays in their planning.

3) have they considered the financial implications? I.e., they want to go to Niagra next month and it's going to cost $100/scout (these are just numbers off the top). Sometimes the boys see the parents as money bags and don't think aobut fundraising. We just try to get them thinking more about this kind of stuff. Our scouts are doing much better about planning in fundraising activities so this piece isn't as much of a problem as it had been in the past.

 

Hope this helps.

 

[eisely]

Relating to the health & safety issues, the committee has the obligation to come up with qualified adult leadership for the outings. This may mean arranging for training, or re-arranging the calendar to fit the calendars of the adults on hand.

 

The lead time issue raised in an earlier post is critical. The boys have to gain the maturity to think in lead times of months, not days or weeks. Just as with Philmont, some destinations are so popular that there is a narrow window for getting the necessary reservations. For example, a popular destination here is Pt. Reyes National Seashore. The window opens for camp site reservations 90 days ahead of the desired date. If you call in on day 88, you probably won't get in.