What Type of Troop Are You?

[Mafaking]

 

"What Type of Troop Are You?" Was the question frequently asked of us at a recent scout leader training event. "Gee, I don't know." was my reply.

 

They replied

"We are a backpacking troop."

"We canoe a lot"

 

Our troop does an annual planning calendar. The scouts pick and vote on what they want to do. Each year its different because each year the collective interests of the scouts change.

 

Don't get me wrong we have canoed and backpacked but it's not our focus. So I guess I am travel club.

 

What type of troop is your troop?

 

 

 

[Beavah]

Yah, I sometimes classify troops in my mind based on their focus on da methods.

 

Some troops are Advancement troops. That's where most of their energy is focused/spent.

Some are Uniform troops. If yeh go to a meetin' they'll spend a lot of time on uniformin'.

Some are Outdoors troops. That's where most of their energy is focused.

 

and so on, eh?

 

The one type that doesn't fit is Service troops, eh? Ones that spend a lot of their time and energy really focused on service. There are some of those out there.

 

Yeh never really find troops that focus on all 8 methods equally. Troops have to play to their values and strengths. So it's as good a way of keepin' 'em straight in my mind so as to help folks find the right troop for their son, or da right troop for them to volunteer with.

 

Beavah

 

[SR540Beaver]

We refer to ourselves as a boy-led troop as do many others. The devil is in the details.

[resqman]

We were an "outdoor focused with a water activity minor but known for our high adventure program" troop because the last SM was a dive instructor and preferred water activities. The troop has a high adventure trip each summer which usually rotates through the three national high adventure bases (Philmont, Florida Sea Base, and Norther Tier).

 

Now we have cut back to an outdoor troop with occasional water actvities and high adventure. The troop plans at least one water based outing (sea kayaking last spring and lake canoeing last fall) but we also usually have at least one climbing outing since one ASM is BSA certified. We still encourage the scouts to attend a high adventure base/activity. The SM is attending Philmont this summer while last summer the old SM ran a open water dive trip to the Bahamas for a week, and the previous year scouts went to N. Tier.

 

Several have mentioned moving more towards backpacking and away from troop trailer camping. Some of the adults would miss the opportunity to Dutch Oven. We are large enough that we send a dozen of the 14/15+ age scouts to high adventure while 3 dozen of the younger scouts participate in summer camp.

 

 

[SR540Beaver]

OK, I'll be serious this time, I'm just not sure where to start.

 

We are a troop with a roster right around 60 most years. We typically average 20 new scouts per year that come from a variety of packs in our district. We have pretty decent retention of older scouts. We currently have about 15 boys at Life who are anywhere between 14.5 to 17.5 years old. Our troop is 45 years old with 151 Eagles over the years. We are boy led. The boys do their own annual planning in deciding where they will go and what they will do. They also pick their summer camp. This year they are going out of state to Colorado. The troop does an annual high adventure trip for older scouts. We rotate between Philmont and Northern Tier and home grown treks like Pecos Wilderness. We don't do Sea Base because the cost has always killed any serious interest, but do have individual boy(s) go from time to time. In 2005 and again in 2010, we will have about a dozen boys attend Jamboree. In any given year, our monthly outings will include mountain biking, climbing/rappeling, shotgun shooting, wilderness survival, canoeing, etc. Merit badges are outside troop meetings and outings. We have a monthly service project that rotates by patrol, but anyone is welcome to participate even if it is not their patrol. We do encourage the boys to do at least one dutch oven meal per most outings. At this point, the active Arrowmen in our chapter comes from out troop. With the exception of one boys from another troop, the OA chapter positions as well as the ceremonies team is filled by our scouts.

 

I could go on, but I think you get the picture. We try to deliver the promise as fully as possible while staying out of the boys way.

[acco40]

We are a Boy Scout troop. I'm afraid we are slowly gravitating toward a "one hour of entertainment during the week plus once a month camping club" type troop.

[Eagle92]

my old troop was a "hiking and camping troop." our troop patch had a tent with two feet sticking out of it with band-aids on them to remind us of that fact.

[IM_Kathy]

my son's troop is just simply a boy scout troop... they do an outing once a month, but each month is something totally different through out the year. we hike, fish, canoe, ski, bike, some are just hanging out, and the list could go on. the boys seem to like the variety - some of that variety is solely based on living in midwest and having 4 seasons. but it's also because some boys really want to do X and others want to do Y so right there are 2 months of camping. and then there's the high adventure - our troop sends a group to Philmont or Boundry Waters (still looking into Sea Base) every 2 years.

[fleetfootedfox]

This definitely changes over the years as people come and go. I found out after we joined our troop that it was more or less a "car camping troop" and not very boy-run. One of them didn't like swimming and another didn't like walking. The latest guy is more physically active, but he's having a difficult time with another ASM and I pushing for it to be more boy-run.

[Buffalo Skipper]

We are a"young troop". I have thought about how to answer that for a day now, and that is the best I could muster. We havetwo 14 year old scouts, who are the oldest who are still active. Our 17 year olds have made no secret of the fact that they will participate in almost nothing between now and summer camp.

What activities do we do? Well, we backpack, we canoe, we camp. All but 4 of our active scouts have less than 14 months with the troop. I see this as a real opportunity to shape the troop into something good. And though I may work to expose these young scouts to a plethora of activities, I cannot make the scouts like everything we do. They are ultimately the ones who plan the activities. At this point, we will have to see the direction they go.

It will be another year or more before the idea of our being a "young troop" willevolve into something more substantial.

[OneHour]

We are a "born-again" troop. We are currently a scout-method troop; however, we are shooting for a patrol-method troop when we grow up. As for activities, we are an equal opportunity troop. We do a little bit of this and a little bit of that, from car campout, to backpacking, to canoeing, to swimming, to high adventures trip to Boundary Water, SeaBase, Philmont, Double-H, to biking, to just plain campout!

 

As for boy-led, we are going back to square one and teach the boys what this is and means! We will then be boy-led again.

 

[cyboji59]

F-Troop, but gettin' better and having fun.

Still lookin' for the Heckowie's.