1st Class 4E Serve as your Patrols cook

[gumbymaster]

4e.

On one campout, serve as your patrol's cook. Supervise your assistant(s) in using a stove or building a cooking fire. Prepare the breakfast, lunch, and dinner planned in requirement 4a. Lead your patrol in saying grace at the meals and supervise cleanup.

 

Expediting the requirement by stripping out the leadership from it, sounds a bit like pencil whipping with a bit of ignoring parts of the requirement to get it done.  I alway ask my boys, did you do what the requirement says?  Obviously some of the boys in this troop would have to say no and would have wasted an honest opportunity because the adults got in there and messed around with the requirement.  This is how adult-run Eagle mills get their start.  I would recommend your son earn his Eagle honestly and if that means taking his time and doing it right, it's going to be good for him in the long run.  I've been in troops that do it this way.  Notice it isn't present tense in the sentence.

 

The Leadership aspect was not stripped.  In fact, that was one of the items the SM paid the most attention to while it was going on (at least on the campout I was on).  It was important that the Scout did not do everything themselves and led the patrol in doing it.  Mistakes were definitely made, and Scouts definitely learned some lessons about food preparation and storage.

 

When I say they have a troop method as opposed to patrol method, I mean that I honestly do not know which boys are in which patrols other than most of the older boys are in one, and most of the younger boys are in the other, so with that malleable definition of a patrol, I do not think even that requirement was completely off target.  Both patrols are (formally) 10-12 boys in size, which I think is their way of accommodating sporadic attendance (a different issue).

 

In this case, it was a PLC decision to do it this way, so we can't even blame the adults for "pencil whipping" this one.  Basically, once one of the newer boys started to advance, the other newer boys and some of the older ones (the SPL is only 2nd class) decided that completing requirements for advancement might be a good thing. 

 

In my son's case, he didn't budget or price out his menu, so he'll be repeating the patrol cooking requirement when he gets his turn.

 

For the next couple of weeks, I'm still busy with my Cub Pack, and even after that, I'll work committee, but I am not planning to be a ASM or similar, and I have always been of the opinion that the one who agrees to lead, get to choose how they do so, so long as it is safe and conforms generally with GTSS, oath, scout law, and the methods and aims. 

[Scoutmaster613]

I also need to clear up, 

 

This patrol is VERY active. They have been together for 3-5 years from the Pack. I have known them all. this is the only reason i agreed to it. My older sons patrol has about 11 kids but 3-4 of them are not active every week. When we camp we usually have about 8 kids show up max, so this works for us.

 

This was a starter Troop so I have had my challenges with not having older boys to lead or teach. Excuse my French but it SUCKS! LOL

 

I just want the boys to learn as they should. How are boys going to learn to cook for large groups if they split off into smaller 3-4 boy mini patrols?

 

Its different to cook for 3 kids vs 6-8

 

I have another larger group of kids crossing over next month, about 13-14 very active scouts and one of my sons is in that group. The Weblos leader is an Eagle scout himself and we spoke about it. Before I could even finish my sentance he said "We will split these boys up into 2 groups" THANK YOU GOD! someone who gets it!

 

Thanks everyone for your feedback. 

 

Keep on Scouting

[Stosh]

Cooking for 6-8 boys is a management task.

 

Leading one's own patrol, developing a rapport with them,  working with one's buddies, taking care of your own boys. is what I'm talking about.  Leadership is stripped out and left with nothing but managing a task to get pencil whipped through the requirement and if one were to go back and read the cited article on boy-led it also indicates that the boys, just because they are boy-led, cannot change the policies and procedures of the program.  Cooking meals for one's own patrol means one dribbles the ball, they don't just run with it to get it down the court and into the basket.

 

Like I said, they are stripping the leadership out of the requirement to expedite the process. 

 

Oh, by the way, how does one fulfill this requirement when the troop isn't using the patrol-method in the first place.  I would find it very difficult to imagine how anyone gets beyond the Tenderfoot requirement that talks about identifying the name, describing the flag and giving the yell of a patrol that doesn't exist.  Gotta be pretty callus to get through that requirement honestly for a few troops out there.

Edited February 4, 2016 by Stosh

[Stosh]

@

 

This was a starter Troop so I have had my challenges with not having older boys to lead or teach. Excuse my French but it SUCKS! LOL

 

It's nice to know I'm not the only one on this forum that is in this boat.  That founder's patch and William D. Boyce knot are more important to me than even the District Award of Merit knot.  I've earned it twice in the past 15 years.  And you are correct, it really does suck!

[JasonG172]

2 Patrols