BoyScout Meeting Ideas

[Schnefler]

Now, I'm in BoyScouts and tonight is my PLC (Patrol Leader Council) meeting. And we are trying to get new, Fun ideas and activities we can do for our meetings in the future, And I'm really not that creative and am at a brick wall here. If you guys have any ideas, Please share. I just have one requirement and that is, It has to be relevant to scouting, And what i mean by that is that it can't be something like Macaroni Art, Exaggeration I know, It just has to have a theoretical place where it could be used in the future for scouting. We have gone through about half the year already and have done the primary things that you'd usaully do for meeting such as wilderness survival, First Aid, Backpacking, Fitness, Ect... I'll tell you if we have done it if we have, Thanks!

[qwazse]

Welcome to the forums @Schneffler! I think your PLC might be over. But for future reference, you never have to be creative again! I happen to know of a list of 136 possible topics that scouters have found to be of interest to young boys. For each of those topics, you all could probably find an adult to come talk to your troop about it. (In fact, your scoutmaster might already have a list of names of people you all could call for each topic.) but what's more, for each topic there's a list of things that you could "explain", "discuss", or "do". You could spend your entire career as a scout going down this list!

 

It used to be that this list of topics could be had for the price of a handbook, and the things to do for each topic could be had for the price of a pamphlet. But since you seem to have a working browser, you can have that list of cool topics here:

 

http://www.scouting.org/meritbadges.aspx

 

The best part? If you or one of your scouts play your cards (as in blue cards) right, there's a patch you can earn!

[KenD500]

Google BSA Troop Program Features.  There are 3 volumes with monthly themes and suggested Troop meeting plans.

[Stosh]

First of all welcome to the forums!  I'm glad you have spoken up.

 

One of the first things you'll notice on this forum is one guy never learned to play well with others and is always coming up with some really off-the-wall ideas.  Someday you'll figure out who that is.

 

So, my suggestion for you is.  Have your Patrol Leaders (PL's) come up with things that will be of interest to their patrol members.  Then if they come up with something everyone in the patrol thinks is really cool to do, that PL goes to the PLC and lets all the other PL's know what they did to have fun and maybe then the other PL's can try it for their patrol. 

 

This way you have an never ending supply of creativity coming your way and all you do is provide a forum (PLC) to air those ideas with the rest of the PL's.  Of course if you want to be the hero to your PL's who may not be all that creative, you can suggest what @@KenD500 and @@qwazse suggest and supply them with idea materials to consider.

 

So, the PL's have their information to try, if it works out for their patrol they come back to the PLC and report it, share it and others try it as having proved it fun.  Wow and what has the SPL done?  Provided support material and a place for the leadership to air their successes and maybe point out the bummer activities too.  And so everyone says the SPL really didn't do anything?  Well, not much, but he does have time for a cup of hot chocolate and the satisfaction that he has helped his leadership be successful with their patrols. the boys are having fun, PL's are seen as heros and everyone's happy.  You're on your way to becoming a good SM that runs a boy-led program. 

[Krampus]

Google BSA Troop Program Features.  There are 3 volumes with monthly themes and suggested Troop meeting plans.

Or simply click here.

 

I had the time...first cup of coffee.

[Sentinel947]

Or simply click here.

 

I had the time...first cup of coffee.

@@Krampus is on it this AM. 

[Krampus]

@@Krampus is on it this AM. 

 

Well, truth be told I have an email template that goes out automatically to the PLC that has these links embedded in the bottom. They are also on our website. That way no one can give me the excuse they don't have any ideas. Here's a link to Troop Program Resources. Essentially a game guide and idea book.

 

The troop meeting plan template is a GREAT tool!

[blw2]

Hey, great to see a scout here.  It will be great to get a scout's opinion on the discussion threads sometimes.

 

I have some food for thought, not really a specific activity idea, but food for thought.

I would try to look at some of the things you've already done from a different angle

 

For example, you mentioned you have already done first aid.

Well first aid is really a very broad subject, but most first aid classes I have attended through the years, both scouting related and non-scouting, have been pretty much hands off demonstration.

If they are hands on, it's really basic stuff, regurgitated from a book.  Last year at our WEBELOS/AKELA weekend, they were having troops set up at stations demonstrating different topics.  First aid, pioneering, etc.

For first aid, it was fairly basic stuff.  Probably some of the same type of thing you have done.  They demonstrated how to make a stretcher from sticks and a blanket.  They showed the webelos how to wrap an ankle with a necker, and then the webelos actually tried it.  Stuff like that.  Good stuff, but I doubt if my son would be very confident or proficient if he really had to do it for real. So practicing some skills in a different way might be helpful.

So, maybe you could hit some of that in a different way that might be fun and help everyone to be more proficient at the same time, like splint and stretcher races.

Or maybe you could find a real and experienced paramedic to come in and help you guys understand real world practices and situations better.

 

You mentioned wilderness survival.

What sorts of things have you done for that?

I'm an old guy, so what do I know... but it has always seemed to me that doing some real world wilderness survival experiences would have been a blast when I was a scout.

For example, I saw once on one of those tv programs, where the situation was stranded in a swamp and night was coming.

He needs fire and shelter right?

hard to do those things if you're standing in ankle or knee deep water

so he found a forked tree and built a little platform bed up out of the water.

then he built his firepit out of mud, right there on the platform.

So he was high and dry with fire, completely out of the water.

Seems like that could be fun to do, even if simulated on dry land, and then spend the night on it!

 

So my point is this

- try to think outside the box

- and try to think of practical uses for the skills

- and strive for proficiency...don't just go through the motions, such as a necker loosely wrapped around a sprained ankle, but really figure out how to correctly and tightly wrap it. then wear it for a mile or two or more to simulate the actual rescue hike out of the woods...so that you learn what too tight is, what works, what doesn't work, and so on... 

[Stosh]

@@blw2  LOL, I pull this stunt on the boys all the time.  Last time was when the boys were hosting the Webelos boys at winter camp.  We were about 4 miles out from the cabin and I turned to one of the Webelos boys, I picked a little one so as to not be mean, and said, "You just fell and broke your leg.  Make sure everyone around here knows it.  That way you can get  free ride back to the cabin."  It's interesting what the boys come up with when they have to.  It was at that point that many of them understood my recommendation to use 6' walking sticks and have a full uniform with necker and belt. 

 

The best one was the winter hike at a place that the boys had never hiked before.  I had and I knew it was a rabbit warren of trails.  I let the boys take the lead and they were hiking along and after we got looped back to within a 1/4 mile of the parking lot, I said I was cold and we should be getting back to the parking lot.  Did anyone bring a map and compass?  No one offered up one.  So the boys all realized they would need to back track to the parking lot.  There were enough adults so when they headed back, I slipped on over to the parking lot, waited for them and got the cars warmed up.  They were a bit miffed but I reminded them that I shouldn't have been the one asking for a compass and map.  Had they been the ones asking, I would have shared mine.  Instead they all just took off backtracking the trail.  The PL's generally carry a compass and other necessary equipment as a routine after that.

 

Controlled failure is a powerful teaching tool.

Edited January 29, 2016 by Stosh

[qwazse]

So, I think what these old guys are saying: have your PL's take what the boys are interested in, and take it to the next level. You don't have to figure out what that next level is, you just have to get them to brainstorm about what it could be.

 

Backpacking? Get a trail map of your state unfold it at the hiking patrol's table and ask "Where to next guys?"

Fishing? Get a chart of local game fish to the fishing patrol's table and ask "What are you gonna try to catch next?"

Swimming? Get that state map and say "Which pool is next?"

Baseball? Ask "Who wants to see if they can throw the first pitch at a home opener?"

 

Part of the trick of being an SPL is seeing the talent and nudging the boys to build on it. I call it vision-casting. Now, not all visions are fulfilled. (Some just plain shouldn't be.) But, in the process of casting a vision, a few ideas bubble to the top that, in the process of going for them ... better and better ideas form.

 

The point of going over the list of merit badges isn't to limit you to that list. But to start talking about a topic, then start getting an idea in everyone's head, then start seeing if you can really do that idea.

[blw2]

I was offline and thinking about this question.  qwazse's last post that sort of sums all this up, pretty much almost addresses the first thought I had.

 

The OP stipulated that the activity must be relevant to scouting.

What does that even mean?

macaroni art?  why not?  there is an art merit badge after all.....

so along the lines of what others have suggested, go with what the scouts want...

as long as it doesn't conflict with the scout oath AND its fun, I'd say go for it

movie night?  Personally, i would say why not.... once in a while anyway.

 

My second thought was building on what another poster wrote earlier....

It seems to me that it's a good idea to encourage more patrol meetings/activities rather than whole troop meetings.  That way, if your patrols are segregated at all they can choose what's most fun to them...  as in the leadership corps patrol is likely to have a different idea of fun than a new scout patrol would.

[Krampus]

@@blw2, we try to run meetings that are fun and "scout-relevant". Many times that means working on core skills (e.g., camping, cooking, orienteering, etc.) but even that can get old. Doing fun stuff like climbing, archery, shooting sports, rockets, building stuff (STEM projects) and things like that are also related to the program but not necessarily related to the core skills.

 

It has to be a balance....and it HAS TO BE FUN!!!