Troop Meeting Night

[Eagle732]

Our troop meets every Wednesday from 7 - 8:30. We go through spells when attendance is poor due to sports but especially take a beating during baseball season since many of the boys play. Several months ago I (the SM) went to the committee with a recommendation that we go to Sunday 7 -8:30 meetings with a short meeting after returning from our monthly camping trip on those Sundays. The majority of the parents did not want to change, but I see attendance during sports seasons as a continuing problem. Also, except during the summer, homework can be a problem. I can't tell you how many times I've heard that a Scout couldn't make the meeting because of homework. I know of only one unit in our district that meets on Sundays. I think changing to Sundays is a good idea. My question is how common is it to meet on Sundays?

[GernBlansten]

Our unit faced similar pressures. Ours came from our CO. We meet Tuesday nights. But the church also gives space to the AA and Women for Sobriety the same night. Then they wanted to the church band to practice in the sanctuary that night. We still had our meeting room, but Tuesdays were a busy night for the church. So it was recommended we move to Thursdays. We could have full run of the church. Nobody wanted to change. Tradition, I guess. Now we have to hold our COHs at another church because the sanctuary isn't available on Tuesday nights.

Never heard of a unit meeting on Sundays though. might work, but most families view Sunday's as their family day.

[SctDad]

I guess this would be apples to oranges, but I have heard about dens meeting on sunday afternoons. The DL stated that it convienant. They met about 2:30 (after church and after sunday lunch) and they ended before 4:00. So the boys could go home and eat before sunday night church activities. Works for them. I also tell my DL's that I do not care what night they have the den meetings, as long as we know about it and it is in a safe place.

[Eagle92]

One unit I was with met on Sundays, and attendance was good. Very active program and we did have older scouts and young scouters attend meetings as we were near the state university most went to.

 

Another suggestion is Fridays. Grant you football season may hurt a little, especially if you are in a small town, but in a major urban area, like New Orleans where I grew up, the Friday nites were perfect: no HW to deal with and except for football players, bandsmen, and cheerleaders (we had all three in my troop) there wasn't a big drop off in attendance. And alot ot games were saturday games, so even those involved with the season could attend. every now and then.

[Twocubdad]

Parents don't like Friday night meetings because they think of Friday as being date night. Once they realize that they haven't been on a date in 14 years, they realize that Fridays are a pretty good meeting night. Like you say, not being a school night is pretty convenient.

 

We have a bunch of dens that meet on Sunday, they go back to back in hour-long meetings for several hours.

[Hal_Crawford]

I doubt that Sundays would work in our area. Scouts, especially high schoolers are often concerned if a camp out runs late into Sunday afternoon as they always seem to have a lot of homework, projects etc. due on Monday. Friday may not be date night for mom and dad but it eventually may be date night for older scouts.

 

Our troop meets on Thursdays, few sports conflicts except JV football. Thursday was chosen because when the troop and church were young the church would only turn on the heat for Sunday services and Wednesday choir practice. The building would still be warm on Thursday from the Wednesday choir practice.

 

Thursdays are a little problematic. Seems too close to weekend camp outs. We're the only troop in our district that meets on Thursdays so that night is when the district roundtables are held. Vast majority of scouts and parents favor keeping Thursdays and changing would be problematic with the CO as the room is booked for other uses.

 

We also have an AA/NA chapter that meets two flights up at the same time as our meetings. No real problem with it though it sometimes means that at the end of our meeting the scouts will have to run a gauntlet of smokers in the parking lot. Occasionally one of the friends of Bill will get the wrong room and look really confused when he walks into a room full of Boy Scouts.

[Eagle92]

Actually the friday nites and datying for the older scouts didn't pose a problem. It was when we did something special, usually a COH or ECOH on a saturday that caused problems. One example was my friend's ECOH the same saturday as my HS ring ceremony and dance. It was as my gf wne tot the ceremony with me, and then we hightailed it to the ECOH where I changed from a coat and tie to full uniform. Did the ECOH, had some food, and then changed againg into coat and tie and went straight to the dance form the COH.

[rkfrance]

Our Troop meets on 6:30 - 8pm. It's night of least competition with other activities. Been doing it for 3 years.

 

The Pack moved from Tuesdays to Sundays earlier this year for the same reason.

[rkfrance]

Sorry, Sunday got dropped there.

[Eagle732]

Well for us Mondays are out, that's Roundtable, District or Troop Parent/Leader Meeting night. In this area sports of one type or another take up just about every week night. Probably one third of our Scouts miss meetings during baseball season. The only night that is not taken is Sundays. I've heard from some of the parents that that is their family day and they wouldn't attend if we changed, others liked the idea. I hate to make a change and loose Scouts though.

[moxieman]

As I am not currently active at the unit level, I can't state when my unit meets as I don't have one. As I'm active at the district level, I know that the majority of our units meet on a weeknight.

 

There is one unit that is unique among them. They don't meet during basketball season at all (most of the winter) because most of the troop *IS* the school basketball team for that town. It's a small town of 700 people on the Canadian border. The troop has roughly 24 youth or almost every eligible-age boy in town.

 

This year's high school graduation class had 14 students. Their combined elementary-through-high school is smaller than the high school I went to here "down state". They are so remote that the nearest McDonald's is roughly one hour north of them in St. George, Quebec, Canada. Yes, if you live there and want a Big Mac, don't forget your passport! The nearest ChinaMart...er...WalMart is 2 hours south. The town is mostly self-sufficient as going for services anywhere is an all-day affair. Everyone helps everyone else.

 

The troop meets the rest of the year including throughout the summer. They must be doing something right. Two months ago, I attended a quad-Eagle ceremony up there for the second time in the past 4 years. Roughly one quarter of the town turned-out for those two ceremonies. There has also been a double-Eagle ceremony in between those two quad ceremonies.

 

I wouldn't suggest your unit stop meeting during sports season as this particular troop has a unique situation.

[Eagle732]

So the decision has been made that our troop will remain on our current schedule of Wednesday evening meetings. I (the SM) believe Sunday meetings would increase attendance because it limits scheduling conflict with sports and homework. It also happens to be the meeting night for the pack that we draw most of our new Scouts from. The committee, or at least the 3 who were present at the last committee meeting disagree.