Mom & Pop Troop... wont grow, won't invite new leaders in....

[Tampa Turtle]

I think most of us can see the value of a small unit but the question is when is a Troop too small to be viable. In this Troop I wonder what mechanisms are in place to keep things accountable, balanced, and fair. I know in our Troop the Committee keeps the big picture planning and lets the SM concentrate on the boys.

[walk in the woods]

DC - I won't knock a "small" troop, but one that is too small to be considered just one patrol is really doing a disservice to the scouts. It really does very little to build a lads leadership skills when the SPL is really just a glorified PL position. If there are less than 10 youth in the unit, how does a older scout have enough younger scouts to lead? Conversely, what happens if you have a gap in membership... you can easily end up with all scouts less than 13 years of age and no one above 1st class rank. Who is going to the be youth leadership in such a troop? You pretty much would be forced into an adult led model due to a lack of age/rank diversification, would you not? A small unit does make logistics much easier. Maybe there is more accountability b/c a lad can't slide under the radar like some do in a 100+ member unit. So, there are pluses and minuses in my view.

 

Now, the troop described above concerns me for a couple reasons. The first is too much authority / control in one families hands. The second is if they are not recruiting at all... the DE might hang on to his unit numbers in the short term, but the unit will eventually fold... there are no stagnant troops, you are either growing or you are shrinking. Once the 4-5 youth either Eagle or age out, the unit will close up.

 

Dean

All true. We never used the SPL position because it was an unnecessary administrative burden . If you end up with all scouts less than 13 (we started with all scouts less than or equal to 12) it's basically a NSP, you elect a patrol leader and everybody learns at the same time. We were probably more adult-led than we should have been at times, but, I know some larger troops that suffer the same problem. The default troop models didn't fit us very well so we made our own way. Totally high risk but totally worth it.

[NeverAnEagle]

Is there a minimum number of boys as a Troop?

I think you an be a troop of 1.

 

We have a troop here that was down to 2 before crossing over some Weblos in May.