Patrol Leader's Handbook

[LeCastor]

I'm in the process of mentoring a 12-year old PL who was recently elected by his patrol. He's a great kid, very driven. So I purchased a copy of the current Patrol Leader's Handbook and read it while I waited a the Jiffy Lube last night. You know, it's not half bad. All of the basics of Patrol Identity and Spirit are in there. It's a far cry from GBB's original but it still has the basics.

 

What what I've been reading lately on different threads, folks tend to think that BSA national isn't reinforcing the Patrol Method. I can totally see that. However, it's still one of the Methods of Scouting and the official literature still spells it out there in black and white. It every Scouter were issued a copy of the PLH along with the SM Handbook at basic training I don't think we'd have the mess we do now.

 

In this day and age of digital books and such, why couldn't we have a digital copy ready to go for our PL's who only operate on iPads? How about those new Scouters who don't read "paper books" anymore? Give 'em the dang Patrol Leader's Handbook on digital format.

 

Bottom line, Scoutmasters shouldn't walk away from basic training without a copy of this handbook and a solid grasp of the Patrol Method.

[Eagledad]

I've suggested many times over the years in this forum that Troops purchase the PL Handbook and SPL Handbook for their scouts and adults. When I was the District Scoutmaster Specific teacher, I personally gave all the Scoutmasters a copy of each book. There is very little missing from those two handbooks that a Scoutmaster needs for developing a quality boy run program. The best part about them is they can both be read in an hour. The SM Handbook is the best sleeping pill money can buy. Barry

[TAHAWK]

1. Patrol Identity: the patrol comes first.

 

The patrol is the "team" in the game of Scouting. The troop is a league in which some of the teams play. Sometime the patrol plays with other teams in the league or other leagues..

 

2. A patrol is a “small group of . . . friends.†They pick the membership according to their wishes.

 

3. A patrol has an indefinite life span. It is NOT an ad-hoc or temporary grouping.

 

4. Scouts lead: Youth leadership is not optional.

 

5. Scouts elect the key leaders and those leaders appoint the rest of the leaders.

 

6. Adults train leaders, teach, coach, mentor, and gather resources. Adults do not plan the program or lead it.

 

DISCUSSION DRAFT

 

 

[Stosh]

1. Patrol Identity: the patrol comes first.

 

The patrol is the "team" in the game of Scouting. The troop is a league in which some of the teams play. Sometime the patrol plays with other teams in the league or other leagues..

 

2. A patrol is a “small group of . . . friends.†They pick the membership according to their wishes.

 

3. A patrol has an indefinite life span. It is NOT an ad-hoc or temporary grouping.

 

4. Scouts lead: Youth leadership is not optional.

 

5. Scouts elect the key leaders and those leaders appoint the rest of the leaders.

 

6. Adults train leaders, teach, coach, mentor, and gather resources. Adults do not plan the program or lead it.

 

DISCUSSION DRAFT

 

 

I have often viewed the patrols as "troops" and the PL's "SM's" and the troop is the "district". Those are concepts that adults understand and when I say the "SM" from one "troop" doesn't interfere with other "troops", they know what I'm talking about. Then the question what's the PLC? Well that's the "roundtable". I tell the adults to play in the adult world and leave the boys to their own. The SPL is like the "DE" and the QM, Scribe etc. are "district" level support for the "troops".

 

Just a little different wording but exactly what TAHAWK describes. The one major sticking point is the PLC ("roundtable"). The SM's at roundtable do not decide what every troop has to do. Attendance at a Camporee is optional and every troop can decide where they wish to spend their time at summer camp. This dynamic really empowers the boys to be truly independent with their activities and it's up to the adults to make sure they really don't plan the program or lead it. It is quite rare to hear SM's talking about some of their patrols doing one activity and other patrols doing something else, which is a surefire way of keeping interest in the older boys. SM #1: "I see your young boys here at the climbing tower, but no older boys." SM #2: "That's because the other ASM's went with them because they wanted to do a service project instead today."

 

Once the patrol method is in place, these dynamics being mentioned here naturally flow into boy-led. There are too many variables for the adults to control everything. AND THAT IS A GOOD THING!

 

Stosh

[Eagledad]

When I was given the title of Council JLT Chairman, one of the first task we took on was to rewrite (or write-in) references from Patrol Leaders Handbooks and SPL Handbooks in the BSA published youth leadership training syllabuses of that time. It gave give the JLT syllabuses integrity and a link for the scouts to use the handbooks as practical tools their program. As far as I know, we were the only council in the county to do so.

 

20 years later I am still astounded that the BSA doesn’t encourage the use of these handbooks in their youth and adult course as well as in unit activities. The forum is a wonderful resource of information, but there is also a barrage of ignorance and narcissism that clouds the simplicity of dialoged on this forum.

 

I generally do all my own maintenance on cars, motorcycles, lawn equipment and so on, and when a “how to fix…†question is asked in those specific forums, the answer is usually, “start with manual and then…..â€Â. So why are questions specific to the Troop program not approached in the same manner? Why does National not encourage handbooks to basic common how-to questions? I challenge any of the adults on this forum to read those handbooks and find what is lacking for a group of scouts to use with minimal guidance to have a positive scouting experience.

 

It has been discussed before that only around 25% (give or take) of BSA troop level volunteers today had a scouting experience as a youth. That behooves a national program like the BSA to encourage a simplistic guide where both the scouts and adults have the same expectations of the Troop program. In a boy run program, the adults don’t have to be the only members of the program that have a clue.

 

Imagine if references to the Patrol Leaders Handbook and SPL Handbook started the replies to questions asked on this forum, there would be a lot less debate and self-posturing for providing ideas and solutions to common situations. Of course experience can always enhance performance to the basic guidelines of handbooks, but printed guidelines in any organization provide a common starting place and consistency to insure confidence of the subject.

 

I am thankful that National is still publishing the PLHB and SPLHB because they help me so much in how I work with the youth and adults, but I wonder why they even bothers since they don’t encourage a reference to them. They are a great way to bring the adults and scout to one mind in working the program.

 

Barry

[MattR]

Barry, I'll bite. I agree that the PL and SPL handbooks contain all the parts (and also that the SM handbook is a real snorer). But it didn't help me move my troop forward. What I mean is, in hindsight, it's all there, but before hand I couldn't see how to get there. It's very vague. I didn't see the end result.

 

Here's one example. The biggest complaint I heard from PLs for a long time was that they ask their patrol to do something and it just doesn't happen. They have to constantly nag and heard cats. Bad teamwork. So, we created duty rosters and flag competitions and team building exercises. And nothing worked. By pure luck a month ago I tried a leadership training thing for the older scouts and who knows why but I just said there will be no patrol leaders. Help out or suffer together. It worked fantastically well. The scouts said things ran so smooth, they had plenty of time, and they had a lot of fun. They told me to do it for the whole troop and I did and the whole troop said the same thing.

 

What happened is that the scouts finally learned what teamwork really means. I can talk about it. I can even show it in how the adults work together. I'm also guilty of assuming the scouts should understand what teamwork means. But the bottom line is the scouts had no idea because they've never done anything like this before. Even the scouts that play sports have no idea what team work means. They are told what to do by their parents, teachers, coaches, and all adults and they've never had to figure out how to work together and encourage each other. They've never had to solve problems together either.

 

​If you have a troop that already has this culture built in, and I really hope my troop will soon join that crowd, it's easy and maybe the PL handbook is good enough. But if you came from where I started, the PL handbook is not much help. While I agree this forum has it's weird family behavior, it has helped a lot. And some of your ideas I use verbatim in trying to describe to parents what's going on. So thank you.

[LeCastor]

 

​If you have a troop that already has this culture built in, and I really hope my troop will soon join that crowd, it's easy and maybe the PL handbook is good enough. But if you came from where I started, the PL handbook is not much help. While I agree this forum has it's weird family behavior, it has helped a lot. And some of your ideas I use verbatim in trying to describe to parents what's going on. So thank you.

 

Matt, I totally get you. I "inherited" a Troop that was extremely lost in its ways vis-a-vis the Patrol Method. Though, I think if you read the Patrol Leader Handbook (current one) you should get a solid grasp of what the Patrol Method is--in theory. Then, commit yourself to making it happen, as young Sentinel is doing now in his Troop. Rome wasn't built in a day and neither is a Patrol Method Troop that finds itself over-run by adults.

 

Once you digest the current handbook you should dive into the original Handbook for Patrol Leaders by William Hillcourt. Sure the writing sounds a little dated (1929) but the message still rings loud and clear.

[Stosh]

I find that the more material one gives the boys the less likely they are to read and retain that information. So I don't use the handbooks other than for reference material.

 

I teach my leadership to the boys in the form of just a couple of phrases that they can easily remember. The first lesson pertains to leader as leading and that phrase is "Take care of your boys." It encompasses servant leadership (which is is in the PL HB and it gives an overview of "whatever it takes" to get it done. The second lesson the boys get pertains to the leader as following. This is really what teamwork is all about, relinquishing one's leadership temporarily to another leader. That phrase is, "What can I do to help." The third lesson... well, there isn't one. The first two do just fine.

 

Last night my 12 year old boys did a service project for their CO. The CO was having a lefse/meatball dinner. We all showed up 15 minutes early, everyone all in full uniform. The Church Lady in charge saw us coming and said it was nice of the boys to offer to help. She then looked at the adults, but before she could say anything more, my PL piped up, introduced himself, and asked, "What can we do to help?" After being instructed on doing the table busing, he went to each boy and made sure that some were assigned to clearing and others were to put out clean silverware and napkins.

 

Over the course of the evening other youth from the church were there to work, but at the end when cleanup was being done, chairs were being stacked away, table cloths folded and tables taken down, the only people under 18 that were helping were in scout uniforms.

 

The boys did get in a wee bit of trouble, however. The boys all agreed that this would be a service project and that everyone came to work. They all brought their $10 and paid for their meals. It would seem that the workers were supposed to eat free. When the president of the congregation mentioned this to the PL, the PL responded, "If we get something in return, then we can't count this as our Good Turn for the day."

 

After three hours into a four hour activity, I finally went over to my PL and told him to take a break and have his meal. He said he was too busy to eat right then, but I said I would fill in for him while he ate. He looked at me and I said, "That's how I take care of my boys." He smiled and went off to buy his food ticket.

 

Oh, by the way. We had 100% scout attendance at this service project activity. But the boys also invited their parents and siblings to come and help, which increased our number of helpers quite a bit.

 

The boys stayed until the Church Lady in charge told the boys, there is nothing more that needed to be done, because they kept asking "What can I do to help."

 

Stosh

[LeCastor]

I find that the more material one gives the boys the less likely they are to read and retain that information. So I don't use the handbooks other than for reference material.

 

 

 

The boys stayed until the Church Lady in charge told the boys, there is nothing more that needed to be done, because they kept asking "What can I do to help."

 

Stosh

 

Yeah, I don't think the Scouts read their handbooks either...

 

As for the last part...

[MattR]

I agree that the PL handbook doesn't need more, for the boys. If anything it needs less. But the OP was about using it for the adults.

[Fehler]

I bought a PL Handbook for my son. It seems a waste for a position he is unlikely to hold for more than 6 months (our Troop doesn't keep anything but Merit Badge Pamphlets in its library).

[LeCastor]

I bought a PL Handbook for my son. It seems a waste for a position he is unlikely to hold for more than 6 months (our Troop doesn't keep anything but Merit Badge Pamphlets in its library).

 

 

When your son becomes a Scoutmaster in 15 years, he'll be able to look back and remember the time his parent bought him a PL handbook. And he'll be ready to implement the Patrol Method in his Troop.

[Stosh]

If your son is ever going to be a DC, SPL, ASPL, TG, PL or APL, the book will come in handy. If he's only going to hold the PL position for 6 month for rank advancement and never do organizational leadership for the troop, then, yes, the purchase was probably a waste.

 

Stosh

[SR540Beaver]

I'm going to show my age here, but remember the Disney educational films you would see at school. You know, the ones where they roll a film projector into the room and mount a film and show it on a projector screen? Of all the educational films I ever watched, they were the best and most informative. They were humorous and featured well known and loved characters which made them appealing. But the real key was taking the information and breaking it down into bite size pieces and presenting it in very easy to understand terms.

 

Sadly, I don't think the BSA could get Disney to make a cartoon with Donald, Mickey and Goofy showing the right way and the wrong way to use the patrol method, but what a gold mine it would be. In our tablet and youtube world today, a simple, yet funny animation that teaches the principles of the boy led patrol method would be a great way to reach our youth without them sitting thru boring classroom presentations for hours on end.