Lone Scouts an alternatives to a new troop?

[moosetracker]

Heres a thought that Nike raised.. You can't start a troop because of not enough kids, but seems you have 5 perfectly good ghost troops already started.. Could you possibly contact the CO of a ghost troop and see if they might like some live bodies in it? Are any in a convient spot and with a CO you would not have problems with serving under?

[Basementdweller]

I think moose hit it on the head.....contact one of those ghost troops CO.

 

 

Moose....I could see a Patrol of 16 year old scouts joining a troop and acting independently without significant adult intervention. A group of 10-11 years cannot do it...So Dad would end up acting as a Troop guide/SM for his sons patrol.

 

 

 

Far as that goes.....why not just meet as a troop even though the council won't let you register as one yet????? The only thing you couldn't do is use council camps and register your advancement......I which case I would hold it and turn it in a couple of weeks after the boys and troop gets registered.

 

 

So I have to ask....The area is Urban, but what kind of urban????? Rich or poor, mixed ethnicity????? Do they own cars or rely on public transportation????? Rent their homes or own them?????? Are these kids that have any, both or one parent at home and involved?

[NJCubScouter]

Sorry to stumble upon this so late. But let me get this straight: You have a district with ONE active troop in it. Your council has a rule requiring 10 boys to charter a unit, and they won't waive that to get a second troop? I find that mind-boggling. Every Scout professional I have ever met would move heaven and earth to get a new unit in his/her area, and this in in an area that has at least a couple dozen troops per district. The idea that your council would let the rulebook stand in the way of a SECOND troop seems very odd. Maybe this decision isn't coming from the top, and someone needs to go to the SE and ask whether this is really what the council wants.

[eaglescout1996]

I am sorry as well, especially dropping on to this thread so late.

 

AAC is in a pilot program (of about 20 councils...it always seems like we're in some sort of pilot program) which requires a minimum of 10 youth to start a unit and will have a "New Unit Commissioner" assigned to it for a minimum of 3 years. That "NUC" will only have responsibilities of that one unit for the three years. Which means, everytime we want to charter a new unit, we have a find a new commissioner, and in my district we have only about 30% of the commissioners we need.

 

Depending on where in the district you live, there are also a few Troops in the Decatur/Oakhurst area which is basically on the district border. Also, contact the OA Chapter Advisor (East, West, and South Atlanta Districts make up one Chapter), he is a really good guy and will help any way he can to get a young man matched up with a troop. Oh, and as you know, the District Commissioner is another great resource, he has worked with the public library system to put resource boxes of all the training and program materials in all the libraries in the district so folks can check them out and make copies of stuff.

 

As you know, that area of the council (about 5 or 6 districts) has a lot of Scoutreach units, and it can sometimes be hard to find a good traditional unit. There is tons of need and no shortage of youth who want to join. The problem is that there is no adult leadership. One of the units I work with didn't renew their charter because of that. It was chartered to a large church with three elementry schools within a mile, but the same two people couldn't keep running the pack.

 

Good luck. The council actualy just had an event last night, called the Next 100 at the VSC. Someone from the multicultural markets office in TX came out to speak, the council is really trying to take this pilot program and produce sustainable units. If you want to charter a unit, find those other young men and get started. I'm sure that these "next 100" units are going to get a lot of help and support.(This message has been edited by eaglescout1996)

[dfscott]

Thanks for all the feedback and I apologize for the delays in replying.

 

As an update, after a couple of recruiting meetings, we're up to 6-8 scouts, so with some help from our DE, we are very close to our chartering goal.

 

We have put together our troop committee, made up of 4 adults (COR/CC, Chaplain, and two others). I have myself as SM and 2 ASM's on-board.

 

Thanks for the info on the pilot program ES1996 -- I wasn't aware of that so that explains a lot. We have signed our Unit Commissioner (under the 3-year rule, you mentioned). He's been out of a scouting for a year or two, but is an eagle scout and former SM, so he should be an excellent resource. We also have a very good relationship with the South Fulton Council, and they are helping as well.

 

And yes, we wanted to attend the Next 100 event, but we didn't find out about it until after we'd already sent out invites to our Troop Open House, so we couldn't make it (although we're supposed to be getting some info later).

 

Thanks for the good wishes, and I'll keep you posted on how it goes.