By-Laws

[OldGreyEagle]

Packwife, I have a suggestion and it may take some time up front and you may need some help.

 

Now that 9 pages of rules are written, be sure each one is enforced. This requires a knowledge of the rules. At the next committee meeting lay out all the transgressions and ask what the results will be? Betting the rules will quickly be forgotten

[Greying Beaver]

Our troop has a set of by-laws tht we keep filed away " . . . just in case.". In eight years now I've see a copy of them only at the meeting after we joined and at the annual parents' meeting for summer camp.

 

The meat of these by-laws is the troop's right to put a boy on a bus home if he is a constant discipline problem going to, at, or on the way home from summer camp. An in those same eight years, the troop has had to enforce them one time. It's a "cads and puoltroon" sort of thing.

 

They work because the boys know that they do exist and have been enforced in the now-fading past.

[eagle90]

Well 9 pages is better than the one I have seen while surfing the net. It was a combination by-laws and parent's information sheet - 37 pages long! If I were a new parent and was handed that document, I would be out the door and never to return!

[packwife]

My next question is what happens when a parent doesn't like one of the "bylaws"? Do we make an exception for that one parent or tell them to find another troop? Hopefully, when we get together for the next meeting and I mention this fact, they will reconsider about 8 pages of the bylaws.

[Trevorum]

It sounds like this troop is being run BY adults and FOR adults.

[Prairie_Scouter]

I agree with Trev on this one. Seems like the adults are doing too much "adulting". Our troop's been around for 25 years (not as long as many but still pretty good), and we've never had the need for bylaws. Our Committee takes care of things in the background. As the Scoutmaster, while I do good deal of mentoring behind the scenes, I consider a successful troop meeting one where I'm able to limit myself to quietly reminding the SPL that it's "time to start your meeting" at the beginning, and make a couple of announcments and a Scoutmaster Minute at the end.

 

If you think you need an information sheet, that's ok. But you don't need anything to tell Scouts or parents the right way to wear the uniform. It's covered very well in the BSA materials already.