Mega-Troops

[Eamonn]

"he wasn't a good scoutmaster, but he was a great marketer."

 

Kinda have to think this was me!!

Back when I first became a Scout Leader (It was in the UK and we didn't have SM's.)

I was very young.

I had a very big ego!!

Looking back I think more than anything I just wanted to prove something.

I really wanted to get the kids that normally didn't join Scouts into Scouts.

We got the membership up to 90 Scouts.

60% Were non-white.

I of course wasn't married and the Troop was my life.

At that time I put Scouts and Scouting before everything.

Just about everything I did was in someway connected to Scouting.

After about nine years of building the Troop up, it just became too much!

The Troop was meeting three times a week (Games on Wednesday, Swimming on Thursday, Troop Meeting on Friday and away to some sort of Camping trip after the meeting)

We (The Group Committee and myself) decided that we would split the Troop.

About this time I became Executive Chef for the BBC and had to take my work a little more seriously! I was also spending a lot of time flying across the pond to spend time with my future bride.

Things just didn't work out well with two Troops.

We lost a lot of Scouts, so we went back to just having one with the sixty or so Scouts we had left.

Big Troops can be good.

But if I had to do it again?

I think the Troop I was in as a Scout with 35 -45 Scouts is about the right size.

Without wanting to put anyone down.

I think tiny Troops who remain tiny!! Must have a heck of a time trying to deliver a quality program.

Eamonn.

[MarkS]

Seems to me that a program can suffer because of the size of the unit--either too large or too small. Wouldn't be kind of tough to have a safe rappelling outing with 50 or 60 boys running amok?

[Mike F]

There's another possible down-side to mega-troops that hasn't been discussed: retention rates.

 

Visiting Webelos parents almost always ask (in one way or another) about the troop's Eagle count, but I've never heard them ask how many incoming scouts are still in scouting after a year or two.

 

I recently got the numbers from our DE which showed clearly all the mega-troops in our district were routinely losing over 25% of their scouts per year. When you break down the numbers, over 60% of the new guys have dropped out within 2 years. I've talked to many of those parents and heard the usual "scouting wasn't for Billy; he decided to concentrate on sports/school/band; etc.," but I've also heard from many who said their son was lost in the chaos and never felt like he fit in. I agonize over the belief that most of those boys would have been better served in a smaller troop.

 

Again, per DE's records, many of our small/medium-sized troops had losses in the single digits and all were significantly better than the megas.

 

Parents look at the mega-troop and automatically believe it must have a great program because it's so big. (I know - I made this assumption with #1 son. As he was in process of dropping out after a year, we found another troop which was a better fit.) There are advantages, like lots of program opportunities, but it's not all better and definitely not the best fit for every boy.

 

In the current 35-member troop I serve, we do limit the number of incoming scouts each year to keep us around that number. For Horizon, yes - we will make room for one more boy, but we cannot make room for 3 complete WebII dens who want to join together late in the game. It has caused some hard feelings, but there are plenty of other troops hungry for new members, so they have lots of options.

 

I think these numbers I referenced above should be discussed at Roundtable so we can all gain some insights, but there seems to be a reluctance. I'll keep working on that.

 

As usual, your mileage may vary.

[Horizon]

Here is how we were able to handle BP camping as a Mega-Troop:

 

We were in the MidWest, and there are some great large campsites out there. We hit farmer's fallow fields, took over the entire council camp (the council had 3-4 camps as I recall), and a few other areas. I am remembering this from the eyes of a boy looking back - not as the leader. It was almost a contest among some patrols to see how far away you could get!

 

Looking back at my earlier post - we may have missed the exact mark on 100 yards / 300 feet with some of the patrols admittedly. However, I remember we were always far enough away from each other that you did not really hear the other patrols, and we really felt like it was patrol camping.

 

I just returned from my current troop campout (now as SM). I am in Southern California, which makes it a little harder to get patrol campsites separate (without blowing the budget). I was able to get the 4 patrols who camped to act as separate patrols - for the first time in over a year according to some of the older scouts. One patrol was even willing to haul their patrol box 250 feet so that they could have a nice private site.

[fgoodwin]

My son and I recently transferred from a mega-troop sponsored by our church to a much smaller troop that is actually slightly closer to us.

 

We made the switch because, despite the fact that we go to the church sponsoring the big troop, my son didn't know any of the boys in the troop, because the church and the troop are located in a different school district. My son knows several of the boys in the smaller troop, because it (and the church) are located in our school district.

 

I was happy to make the switch if it meant my son (a Life Scout) staying in Scouting -- things got so bad in the mega-troop, he threatened to quit several times. And I've posted here about many of the issues in the larger troop, almost all of them a result of it being an adult-led troop (despite loud and vocal protests to the contrary). One of the first things my son noticed at the smaller troop was how the boys seem to be running everything (that's as it should be).

 

One irony of leaving the bigger troop where my son apparently had no friends: they voted him into OA this year after not voting him last year.

 

Make no mistake: just because a troop is big and "successful" doesn't mean everything is rosy and problem-free. And sometimes a smaller troop just makes a better fit for certain boys.

[Eagle732]

Mike,thanks for the stats from you district, they seem to confirm my beliefs. Scouts can get lost in big troops and the SM has a tough time getting to know each scout. I have SM conferences at least twice a year with each scout and quarterly with troop officers. I would rather be a friend and mentor than a CEO to the scouts.

I have had parents state that the reason they went to another troop was because the troop creates lots of Eagle Scouts. I wonder what the actual percentage is though. Interestingly enough out of 30 total scouts we have 5 working on Eagle projects. Our last Eagle stayed on after turning 18 and is now an ASM. That what I call retention!