Troop Visitation- Arrow of Light

[anarchist]

Darn it, stop for a second!

 

Why is everyone so ready to Jump on this poor SM...or "go over his head" to the commissioner... He is following proceedure...the Patrol Leaders Council (PLC) has a program to run. In all likelihood they have meetings and training planned for weeks if not months in advance. The PLC should be advised that a whole den and parents and leader(s) want to decend on their meeting so they can decide which meetings can handle disruptions better than others.

 

One Webelo and parents, even two are fairly easy to handle...six eight, ten Webelos, plus parents, plus leaders can swamp the best planned meeting.

 

or maybe you think the Boy Scouts just sit around playing texas hold 'em? They might have skills classes or klondike derby station competitions to train for... or even a district camporee to plan and arrange (like our boys are presently doing) Is it too much to ask to allow them the courtesy planning when is best for their schedule... Currently our troop has been asked by the District to plan and run both the winter camporee (klondike) and the District Webelos I camporee we call Woodsmoke...it is quite and honor but a lot of work for our scouts (not adults but scouts) to do.

 

Can't you give the troop the benefit of the doubt?... as to visiting troop outdoor activities...its hard to know what they might be doing or even where they might be going...

 

Example: our next outing is three hours from home, the one following that is the Klondike where we will busier than fleas at a dog show, then we have a ski trip in another state and that is followed a "lock-in" at a local sports complex...not much for Webelos to visit...until the lock in and that is questionable.

 

KoreaScouter nails it...WEBELOS leader should be up close and personal with the troop in September or earlier. Our troop actively recruits from three local packs. Next week we start pack visitations aimed at the Webelos I (not II)dens, station demonstrations and gear touchy feely stuff.

 

Last month we had a campout in a local setting dedicated to teaching scout skills (five rotating stations) to Webelos II dens from the different packs. They got to tour an active scout camp setting, see cooks getting ready for dinner etc. Parent got to "see and ask" and drink hot coffee...In September we had a semi-local camp that was dedicated to flat water canoeing and small boat sailing so visiting webelos could have watched but little else participation wise... October we also took part in a district camporee with cubs doing a day visits...but all this takes plenty of advance planning and if the Pack and troop are not coordinated "just dropping in" is a hit or miss proposition...and not necessarily the troops fault...

It might be that you should plan on, at least on boys who "miss" the group visit, trying to do a solo visit or visit other troops...and why is that awkward? They don't have to know anyone in the troops they visit, in fact when we started stretching out to other packs we "reeled in" several boys who knew absolutely no one in the troop... but they told their parents that the older boys in our troop made them feel welcome and not like dweebs!

 

We hand out contact phone numbers and locations for the three other "local" troops to our Webelos visitors so the Webelos can shop around...Why do we do this? Competition is good and we do well enough, but finding the right troop for the boy in question is more important. We would rather help match a boy with the program and boys he feels best with than just "win" the competition. Also having three or four strong troops in the area (which is growing rapidly)is far healthier and more fun than being the single "power" troop in an area with weak or struggling troops nearby.

for goodness sake give them a break and a chance.

anarchist

 

ciderscout,

you know your options,(knew them before you posted) so use them if needed but don't "see" hostility or deception where it is not really present...try to keep some perspective...there are two programs operating here... the scouts and the webelos and if there is "blame", seems to me there is plenty for the den leader to share. He certainly knew the requirements for AoL, I assume...(This message has been edited by anarchist)

[eagle90]

Anarchist - Excellent post. I agree. All meetings planned by the PLC are not winners. There are some dogs in there, but that is how you learn. And if the Webelos visit on one of those nights that can unfairly influence their decision on where to go. And I don't think it's fair to the PLC to have 18 Webeloes and 18 parents show up unannounced to a meeting. That would intimidate me and I've been doing this for 100 years! Also as stated, there are some outdoor campouts that, again, are not conducive to Webelo visits, depending on what the program is for that campout.

 

In discussing this situation with some Committee members this week, I said I, at times, feel like the collge football coach trying to recruit the star high school athlete. Maybe each troop should have a professional recruiter on staff.......

 

 

 

 

[anarchist]

eagle90,

 

The "professional recruiter" is a good idea.

For many years now our troop has "sweet talked" three scouters, usually fairly new to the troop to act as coordinators with their son's old packs...In our case this works particularly well as we seem to get more than our fair share of Webelos II leaders and Cubmasters following their sons to our "gang". These men have lasting ties to their old packs. Their job is to set up pack visitations for a patrol from our troop to go say "howdy" and do demos and then to coordinate Web II visits and activity observations. BTW we would rather have Webs visit the troop meetings in small groups of two and three. In this way we do not have to alter our program, we simply insert the Webs into our NSPs and let them follow that patrol through its patrol activities that night. Parentsa get to watch and nothing is staged...having 8 or more boys and parents can simply crush a meeting.

 

For years now we have combined a service project campout where we help "close down" a church outreach summercamp by doing clean up, taking down wall tents and huts, painting metal work, etc., with a "camp along" for any webelos dens who would like to participate. The web dens are invited to set camp in the next campers village (or just do day visits)and see some of what we do. If they camp, (and the campground lets them do it for no cost on this occaision), they are in a separate site with their parents and leaders but close by our troop and Web IIs get to interact all weekend with our guys...some where in there we usually find time to teach a few knots and feed them a meal...

 

The coordinators are literally "worth their weight" in keeping problems like those faced by ciderscouts unit from happening...Is it perfect? Nope, but it sure beats the heck out of waiting until late October to try to insert your unit into an active schedule.

of course we are assumming that the boy scouts are NOT sitting around playing "texas hold em"... ;>)

Anarchist

[EagleInKY]

Anarchist, I agree wholeheartedly with your post. The PLC is responsible for planning troop meetings. We target one "special" meeting for Webelos recruitment. We had 11 of 12 visit this past week. They had some fun activities and interesting things to do. Next week, however, they're primarily working on planning a campout (duty rosters, menus, etc.) and working on some First Aid review. Not near as interesting, but just as important to the troop. I tell the Webelos leaders and parents that they are always welcome to visit the troop, but it's best that they call ahead to find out if it's a meeting they'll want to visit.

 

On a sidenote, the age appropriate guidelines says "Camporees", not "Klondikes". I've never seen in writing that Webelos cannot participate/visit a Klondike. I guess you could extrapolate that if a Camporee is forbidden, then so should a Klondike. We invite 2nd year Webelos to participate in Klondike (yes, I said "participate"). Every year a few of them will brave the cold and come out and participate on the sleds. Some will even camp out. We ask them (the parents, really) to make their own decision about whether they think their son is mature enough to handle the event and whether they are mature enough to camp out. We justify it based upon 2 points. First, the age-appropriate guidelines are just that, "guidelines". They are not absolute, although certainly something we should follow as much as possible. Second, the 2nd year Webelos have completed their AoL, reached the age that they can join scouting, and are frankly just waiting for B&G (a month later) to cross over. If they chose to go ahead and cross over, they would meet all of the qualifications to do so. So, we're not letting them participate because of the patch on their pocket??? Sorry, that's too legalistic for me. By the time Klondike rolls around, these guys have visited a couple of troop meetings, gone camping with us, gone to Webelos camp, done a couple of service projects with us,.... I'm not going to tell a boy that's excited about Boy Scouts that he's got to wait a year because of a ceremony he hasn't gone through. Sorry, rant off.