Fresh perspective Troop Guidelines

[Lisabob]

I think items B and E should be left to the PLC to determine. If you want to encourage this outcome, you may want to have a sit-down with your SPL first and talk through WHY you think this is a good policy. Get his feedback and buy-in and then let HIM present it to the PLC. Once the PLC makes a decision, have THEM put it in writing (scribe) and distribute it via the patrols (PLs). Make THEM responsible for setting the policy for the year.

 

(For that matter one could argue that the whole list should be left to the PLC, but to my mind, B and E are the most likely examples of power that should remain in the hands of the boys.)

--------------

 

Having said this, my son's troop (also a full uniform troop) has very similar sorts of things about uniforming in their policy book.

 

Question for you: What will you do with the scout who arrives at the departure point for a campout and who is not in class A? I ask because this is what happened in our troop. Somebody shows up w/o the official socks, or their necker, or hat, or whatever. If you're going to have policies, you have to be clear about what you are prepared to do when a boy (or adult!) doesn't abide by the policy.

 

My son's troop (adults) took the decision to enact a travel ban - if you aren't in class A, you can't go. Go home and change, and get your parent to drive you if you want, but beyond that, tough luck. Of course, this was not uniformly applied, either among the boys or between the boys/adults, and so it becomes problematic.

 

 

[Eagledad]

Why are you describing the uniform when all the boys only need to do is look at their Boy Scout Handbook. Why rewrite what the BSA has already stated. I think you will find it to be about the same and it is a lot easier for the Scoutmaster to justify using the BSA policies instead of his own.

 

TROOP UNIFORM: Refer To Scout Handbook.

 

If they want to modify the BSA policies, well then that is something different and the scoutmaster can work with them on that if needed, However, I always start by asking if their changes are within the Scout Law and Oath. That is a tough question for them on uniforming.

 

As for the uniforming to and from camp, Why? I mean once the scouts get to camp, they get dirty and sweaty setting up camp, so why the need? My point is not to suggest you shouldnt uniform while traveling, but have a good understandable justification that scouts can understand and that doesnt sound like something the adults just want. You are working with young adults here, so work with them like adults.

 

I had a policy with all my PLCs that they could change any rule or policy (BSA or other) if I could not justify how they applied to the good of building character, citizenship and service to others. The only uniform rule I asked the PLC to consider over the Handbook was full uniform while traveling because we found that store and restaurant operators get very nervous with 50 teenage boys running around. The uniform conects the store clerks which adults who are responsible for them. When I proposed that to the PLC, not only did they agree, but the justification was also easy for them to explain to the other scouts.

 

My point is give good explanations for all your policies and rules that the scouts understand and agree. And dont make your job harder by duplicating what the BSA has already done. You certainly shouldnt be describing a Class A or B uniform when the book already does that. If your concern is explaining the uniform to the parents, suggest they ask their sons, which is more practice in reading the book. By the way, the Handbook calls it a dress uniform and field uniform. Make the scouts read their book. Personally the only policies I think you need to add over the Scout Handbook are B, E and F. I would likely just tak F onto the "TROOP UNIFORM:" LIne.

 

Barry

 

[Twocubdad]

More editing that substance:

 

For sake of simplicity, my senior guys refer to the "six parts of the uniform": hat, necker, shirt, belt, pants, and socks. As in, "remember all six parts of your uniform for dinner tonight." Recently they've started calling the handbook the "seventh" part of the uniform.

 

This is more personal preference/pet peeve, but I try not to use Class A and Class B as they arent't really part of the BSA lexicon. I always use Field Uniform and Activity Uniform, but usually define what I mean, and most of the time have to follow up with , "you know, class B."

 

Similarly, I would label the section Uniform Expectations instead of policy or guideline. That better fits the philosophy of what you're saying.(This message has been edited by Twocubdad)

[emb021]

"Why are you describing the uniform when all the boys only need to do is look at their Boy Scout Handbook. Why rewrite what the BSA has already stated. I think you will find it to be about the same and it is a lot easier for the Scoutmaster to justify using the BSA policies instead of his own."

 

well, yeah, that's the problem with many 'troop guidelines': they go from putting do sensible procedures in writting to trying to re-write BSA policies (which leads to many threads here).

 

keep in mind that many of your parents DON'T know what BSA policies are, and probably AREN'T going to be interested in find those policies, so putting them all together in a conventient form sounds nice. Its when it gets out of control where the problem lies.

 

And you'd like to think that you just need to make sure the boys understand things and you'll be ok, but you forget that many times it must go from the adult leader to the scout to the parent, and often it gets altered along that path. I'll always remember the problem with I was counseling some scouts for the Citizenship in the World Merit badge, and I told them for one requirement, they need to get a passport application, fill it out, and bring it to me, and this got garbled to 'get a passport', which upset some parents because of the cost of getting a passport.

 

You know, maybe the BSA should develop their own booklet for parents with a lot of this info, negating the need for units to do this themselves...

[Eagledad]

>>And you'd like to think that you just need to make sure the boys understand things and you'll be ok, but you forget that many times it must go from the adult leader to the scout to the parent,>>

 

No, I didnt forget that, we just didnt do it that way. The way I looked at it was would you call your 25 year old sons boss to find out more details about his company benefits?

 

I directed our program to steer the scouts to be the experts of their program, not the adults. I wanted the scouts to learn how to become self dependent. That is why I tried not to let the program get too far away from what was in the Scouts handbooks. If a parent wants to know something, they learned pretty quickly that we expected them to ask their son. If their son didnt give the answer they wanted to hear, we expected their son to contact their patrol leader or SPL or whoever was the expert of their question. If after all that they still needed more information, then the adults were the last step in that process, but it was rare that questions reached an adult. I felt the scouts should become the expert of their program, whether that is advancement, scouts skills or uniforms.

 

I overheard more than once scouts discussing a question and saying we better look first in the book first before we ask the scoutmaster because he is going to tell us to look there first. I personally felt that was a good habit for them to learn. The PLC also had a copy of the G2SS so that they could determine if their activities were approved by the BSA. It was rare that we had to say something.

 

I found that our troop program tended to get more complicated when the adults added more great ideas like a cool new program to track scout advancement. When our new Advancement Chair inherited the previous chairs nightmare monster tracking system, I knew that the best most simple system comes from scouts.

 

I have a story to follow this, our scouts teach the Totn Chit or Woods Tools class to all new scouts and adult leaders when they first join. No adults are involved in the training. A new ASM approached me after that training and said he felt the scout taught the knife sharpening technique incorrectly. I asked him to get a Boy Scout Handbook and check it against the book because that is where the scout is suppose to be teaching from. He came back with a big happy smile and admitted the scout trained him correctly. What he found was the books have changed since he was a scout. The Scout was the expert.

 

By the way, we had this same attitude with MBs. Our Troop did some of the district training for MB counselors and we taught them to work strictly from the books and to encourage the scout to become experts from that book.

 

I know this really comes down to different philosophies toward scout growth. I dont believe mine is the best, it actually is what I developed over the years of what worked and didnt work. But it is one style that did work.

 

I will say we did have a Troop Parents Guide that was really more designed for visiting Webelos parents that may have some policies in writing, I dont remember. But it was intended and used for marketing, not troop guidelines. It may have stated a more detail uniform policy, I honestly dont remember, but that is not how we worked with the scouts. The whole intent of the guide was to give the parents something to compare with other troop programs.

 

I love this scouting stuff.

 

Barry