How Do You Guide Scouts in Choosing Patrols?

[qwazse]

@swilliams, you’re in for a wild ride.

Since you mentioned cross-country, look up your local orienteering club and see if your troop can find time to attend their events. Lots of American youth have the discipline for running or for navigation, but few have both. You might be the person to change that.

[swilliams]

3 hours ago, qwazse said:

@swilliams, you’re in for a wild ride.

Since you mentioned cross-country, look up your local orienteering club and see if your troop can find time to attend their events. Lots of American youth have the discipline for running or for navigation, but few have both. You might be the person to change that.

I don't remember who it was, but I sent an orienteering map I made to someone on this site.  Always wanted to try it "for real".  We do an orienteering event that I create every March, before the woods get too overgrown.  This past March, one group got lost.  They happily blamed my map-making skills, haha.

[swilliams]

So... last night was a mess, lol.  Unbeknownst to me, Confirmation classes are in full swing, and they happen every-other Tuesday night - same time as our Troop meetings.  This resulted in about a dozen of our scouts being absent - roughly a quarter of our troop.  On top of that, we had a visiting scout checking out the Troop - not the best activity for him!  

Followed by three scouts surprising me with, "I need a SM conference."  Then the mom of the SPL asking me to 'pick Patrol Leaders based on who was there last night' so we don't have to postpone the training date because it will be inconvenient for her son.  This is going to be an interesting year.  😂