Adult Leadership to Help Troop Advance

[Sentinel947]

Thanks for all the reading material and feedback. It'll probably be a few days to digest everything you've sent my way, a LOT to chew on.. Thanks for all the help!

 

 

But that's not the decision facing the CO boys in the W2 Den. They aren't considering other Troops. Their choice will either be: Join the current Troop, or Drop out of Scouting. The parents have option 3, which is take over the CO's troop, because the CO only nominally knows they have a BS Troop as opposed to a CS Pack.

 

Sorry, we love to bombard people with information. One of the things I love about Scouting is the resources available. I love being able to sit, read, challenge what I think I know, get new perspective.

 

As for the second paragraph I quoted, can you explain that? I read your other posts and don't quite get what you meant by that.

 

In regards to your original post. Scouting is Boy led, Adult guided/coached/advised/trained.(pick your buzzword) Being boy led his a continuum, not a light switch. Where your unit falls on the continuum depends on where the Scouts are at in their experience and training. A mature patrol/troop gets latitude and freedoms that would be irresponsible to give to a brand new, inexperienced group of Scouts.

 

Another good resource here: http://www.troop414bsa.org/Documents...ided_Troop.pdf

 

I found it useful in my own battles to bring my troop back to a more boy led patrol method approach. So far, so good.

 

Yours in Scouting,

Sentinel947

[Eagledad]

Another good resource here: http://www.troop414bsa.org/Documents...ided_Troop.pdf

 

I found it useful in my own battles to bring my troop back to a more boy led patrol method approach. So far, so good.

 

Yours in Scouting,

Sentinel947

 

Wow, this is almost identical to what I taught to Troop leaders during our Council Junior Leadership Training Course and Council Adult Leadership Courses. It is well laid out and basically supports what most experienced boy run leaders on this forum suggest. And excellent resource and checklist for a troop trying to become more boy run and patrol method. Thanks Sentinel.

 

Barry

[Sentinel947]

 

Wow, this is almost identical to what I taught to Troop leaders during our Council Junior Leadership Training Course and Council Adult Leadership Courses. It is well laid out and basically supports what most experienced boy run leaders on this forum suggest. And excellent resource and checklist for a troop trying to become more boy run and patrol method. Thanks Sentinel.

 

Barry

 

I can't take credit for it. Koolaidman sent it to me. Give him the credit! =P

[Pack18Alex]

As for the second paragraph I quoted, can you explain that? I read your other posts and don't quite get what you meant by that.

 

The W2 Den is filled with boys that are Sabbath-observant Jews. Therefore, joining a Church based Troop that will do Saturday day events, is a non-starter. The Troop has a few Sabbath-observant Jews, but is primarily not. There is the disconnect.

 

So we're in an odd situation where the Troop is overly Boy Led for their level of experience. But obviously, converting to an Adult Led W3 Troop would be lame, but strongly possible. When I get a chance to read through all these links and resources (thanks again everyone!), that will be helpful.

 

I know that putting together the Pack Calendar the first time was REALLY complicated, took my over educated Pack Committee 6 hours to get right. The next year, it took two hours, and next year, I hope it can be done without my involvement in 1 hour, then I know I've built something to last.

 

I think that a lot of these areas where the troop is floundering are areas where building from nothing is REALLY hard, while maintaining is easier. I also think that learning to maintain and improve on a foundation is a more reasonable skill to impart on 14 year olds than building the foundation is.

 

I see a lot of topics of "moving the troop to be more boy led" and then the comments of "I wish we did this years ago."

 

If your struggling troop never had more than 2 boys, canceled half their meetings for lack of two deep leadership, and struggling to do 1 campout a year, you wouldn't be like "well, it's boy led so that's great" you'd suggest it's a flop. It's REALLY hard for adults to step back and transition to the boys, I get that, but at the same time, you need to have some level of infrastructure for them.

 

I used the wrong word Advance, it's less about 1st Class Scouts (but it's a problem that the troop is working on), and more the Troop getting better on an annual basis.

 

One of our goals in a Jewish Unit is to get Jews of all denominations and backgrounds working together and taking pride in their accomplishments as Scouts and Jews. If your Unit sucks, the only people that stick around are those that NEED to be in a Jewish unit, so we don't get the different backgrounds. When you have a top performing Unit, you get Scouts of all backgrounds because they WANT to be in the Unit, not HAVE to be in the Unit.

 

Boy Led and leadership development are absolutely critical. And I don't want to deny that and turn the Unit into an Eagle factory. But I also don't want to only be able to retain a small portion because the program is weak and anyone that wants a solid program transfers out (happened to Troop 2 years ago and Pack 4 years ago).