Troop Calendar and Lack of interest

[Basementdweller]

I desire our Troop to be boy led, BUT, what do you do when during the planning process the boys don't participate???? We tried planning with a blank calendar and no events and no help. We tried planning with lists of things to do and program goals.

 

Heck we even tried a dinner meeting and that didn't work.

 

Still the boys do not participate, so the SM does it.

 

Have you experienced it????? What did you do to fix it???

[oldisnewagain1]

So many things come to mind...

 

How about putting out a couple of poster boards and markers to write on the board. Have the SPL make an announcement to the boys to put down on the poster board any kind of activity they would like to do. Many times, what will happen is for every idea put down will spur other ideas from other boys. Don't limit it to only the boys because sometimes an adult might put down an idea that spurs other ideas. Collect the boards at the end of the meeting and bring them to the next PLC meeting for the PLC to review. Now here is where, as an adult leader, you come in.

 

There are activities that will need to be vetoed (i.e. paintball, skydiving,...etc) because they are not allowed by BSA.

You will need to challenge the boys on other activities...(What will the trip involve? How is the troop going to get there? How are you going to raise the money for this trip.) Sometimes a trip that seems outlandish becomes a goal of the boys just to prove they could do it!

There are outside influences that might change the plans (i.e. bad idea to plan a camp out on Mother's Day)

 

BUT, I would bet you could have a very full calendar by the end of the PLC meeting

 

 

[Eagledad]

How old are your scouts?

[CalicoPenn]

Do you have a calendar with the council/district events that could be used as a discusson jumping off point? Have a couple of calendars with previous years activities on it? That could be a good start.

 

Do you have the PLC doing the planning or is the whole Troop involved? Are you giving the SPL and PLC ownership of the planning or is it being presented as "give us your ideas of what you want to do and we'll consider it?". Are you allowing time for just plain old brainstorming before getting down to the details of putting things on a calendar, or are you trying to pigeonhole things into a calendar as you're brainstorming. Are you even brainstorming?

 

The big question is what motivation is there for the Scouts to do the planning if they know that the Scoutmaster will just do it for them if they don't?

 

Here's my suggestions:

 

Have the SPL call a planning meeting of the PLC to plan for the year - give him a blank calendar in advance, and a calendar of district/council events. Also, if the unit traditionally goes to camp on specific weeks of summer, block that out in the calendar right away - the PLC can still decide where to go, but if everyone is used to going th 2nd week of July, I wouldn't change that unless absolutely neccessary.

 

At the regular Troop meeting before the PLC planning meeting, have the SPL conduct a 15 minute or so brainstorming session with the entire Troop - all you're doing is generating ideas - and the SPL and PLC will be able to see which ideas seem to really excite the Troop and which don't. It's important not to mock any idea. No matter how off the wall the idea, write it down. Even if you know the idea will violate G2SS, write it down (you can always take it off the list at the PLC with an explanation as to why it can't be done). The goal is to generate ideas, not to shut ideas down. If a Scout comes up with an idea that violates G2SS and you shut it off immediately, you may shut the Scout down completely and miss out on a fantastic idea he may have later.

 

Now, with a calendar with Summer Camp dates blocked off, and a calendar with district events in hand, the PLC should first decide which District/Council events it wants to do - put them in the calendar. If your district has a spring and fall camporee, and a Klondike - and the PLC says do them all, you've now gone from having to plan 12 months to planning 4 months. You've just made the job easier - the calendar is no longer blank, progress is being made, and some pressure is taken off. The PLC may decide that no outings will be done in December - one more month down, only 7 to go - makes things look much easier now, doesn't it? Maybe the PLC decides that the Troop won't do an outing in August (because of Summer Camp the month before) but want the Patrols to do their own thing - one more month down, only 6 to go. Not too hard to plan for 6 months, right? So now the PLC goes through the brainstorming ideas, whittles them down - maybe get's to 7 or 8, then starts plugging them in to the calendar, with a couple as spares just in case one or two chosen ones can't be done. Viola - big picture planning is done.

 

Now I think the key to making this successful is the statement the Scoutmaster should make right at the beginning of the PLC planning session meeting. That announcement should be "You folks are in charge of coming up with the calendar of activities for the year. I will not plan a single activity. Any month without an activity planned at the end of the meeting will simply not have an activity done. We will not plan activities on the spur of the moment - we will not plan an activity for September in September. No exception. If we leave tonight without any activities put on that calendar, then we will simply have no activities outside of Troop meetings for the entire year" - then stick to it. If the Scouts think you're bluffing, call them on it - let the calendar sit - and on that first month, when they don't do anything and ask why not, tell them they didn't plan anything and offer to let them hold their planning meeting again.

 

 

[Eagle92]

One thing I saw work to get a reluctant PLC to plan for the year was a cookout/pool party. NO ONE (caps for emph)was allowed in the pool or to eat the hamburgers, until the work was done. SPL's mom had access to a pool and cooked for us.

 

We had a decent calender made within an hour.

 

Another thing that helps, especially if dealign with multiple school/school district calanders, is to use previous years dates that to schedule. When you know X weekend in April is Jr.-Sr. prom every year, and X weekend in March is exams, it does make scheduling easier.

[boomerscout]

can you obtain copies of calendars from other troops to show as examples?

[shortridge]

One thing I've seen work with brainstorming has been to order a bunch of free tourism publications from all sorts of places around the country that might strike your Scouts' interest. Bring in a couple back issues of Backpacker magazine to toss around. Let them spark some imagination and creativity. Yeah, the troop probably can't make every trek a cross-country one. But selecting a big trek as the goal, and devising a plan to have the others build up to it ... that might work.

 

Recommend that every Scout come to his Patrol's brainstorming meeting with at least five ideas written down. This'll help get you input from the folks who self-censor during group sessions, and are reluctant to toss out ideas in public. The patrols can then engage in whittling down the ideas or selecting their favorites, which the PL can then present to the PLC.

 

Don't forget to look at your OA lodge's calendar and include that, too. It might be counterproductive to plan a trek when your SPL-chapter chief and two PL-ceremonialists have other obligations.

 

The adults can help clear the way by combining their availability calendars beforehand, not during the process. It's disheartening to have a trip scheduled and preliminarily planned, and then find out that the SM and two ASMs can't go because of family or business obligations. Far better to have those dates starred or blocked out to begin with.

[desertrat77]

Ah, the tyranny of a blank sheet of paper!

 

The previous suggestions are all spot on. Fill in what you know for sure, like summer camp, and then reduce those blank spaces one at a time.

 

Eagle 92, your post brought back a classic scout memory! Our SM took the TLC (troop leadership council as it was then called) camping in the mountains, public camp site, to plan for the next year. Pine forest, lots of trails to hike, etc. But we scouts stalled out on planning the next year. Just no spark.

 

So the SM restricted us to the two picnic tables in the campsite till we finished planning the next year. The whole year, including each troop meeting. Couldn't get up from the table, even for the call of nature. In about an hour, we had our "homework" done and we were free again.

 

Random second tier memory from that trip: public campsite, with a water spigot. We didn't bring our normal 5 gallon water cans--why bother?

 

That weekend, the park service was doing maintenance on the water system, and nary a drop of water came from that spigot. So who had KP after Saturday night's dinner--fried ham and pineapple? Me, the newest patrol leader. And those bozo cooks used every utensil and pot in the patrol box. One big charred mess.

 

What to do? We had a three gallon jug of kool-aid, about half full. I sat for two hours, washing all of those dishes with kool-aid, using a knife to scrap off the burnt-on mess those cooks left. Lovely.

 

Now that I'm done chasing that rabbit, best wishes with the troop calendar. The scouts probably have never planned anything before in their life--this generation generally has everything planned for them, from preschool to college. They are smart and can handle it, it's just a skill set they've never had to exercise before. Crawl, walk, run.

[Lisabob]

A lot of times the blank stares are a result of the fact that the kids don't know what options exist. They are familiar with what they have already done, and that's it. They don't know their broader communities beyond their neighborhood and school, so probably aren't familiar with local resources. They're used to being passengers, not drivers. So they may need some help getting going on brainstorming, before the meeting happens. And telling them "go look on the internet!" is probably going to be too vague.

 

If you have boys in OA or other district or council-level activities where they might get to know boys in other troops, encourage them to contact their buddies from a couple of other troops and ask "what is the best campout you guys have had?"

 

This would be a good RT discussion (or topic on this board), too. Come back to your troop armed with a bunch of calendars & cool ideas from other troops. Put them on the table and tell the kids to take a look, think about these ideas, and come back the following week to do the planning for their troop.

 

Another approach might be to ask the boys to think in terms of general classification of activities. Not: "what are you going to do in May next year?" (blank stares - May is a long way away, and they have no idea what they'll want to do) But instead: "Do you want to have any aquatic activities next year?" (yes?) "OK, so does that mean you want to swim, or go canoeing, or..." (canoeing?) "When do you think you should schedule that?"

 

Another approach is to pull out the list of merit badges - NOT because you expect to run MB classes during camp outs, but instead, because there are a lot of cool activities that have MBs associated with them. (Here's a link to a list, organized by "field of activity" - scroll to the bottom of the page to see what I'm talking about: http://www.usscouts.org/meritbadges.asp ). For example, look at the "sports" category and I bet there are several activities there that many boys would jump on.

 

 

 

 

[Basementdweller]

Thx for all of the responses. We have tried most of the suggestions.

 

There are two patrols we knick named the coggers and young guns. The coggers are 14-16 and are not very enthusiastic about scouting any more. Young guns are new with a max age of 12.

 

We tried the big board with lists of events. We tried pizza night planning. We have tried PLC, which the SPL didn't show.

 

 

Just keep plugging away at it.

[LIBob]

Lisabob said some great things above.

 

In addition boomerscout asked

>>"can you obtain copies of calendars from other troops to show as examples?

 

Here is my son's troop calendar (complete) from 2009

http://troop229bsa.com/jan_dec_2009%20rev29.pdf

 

here is his troops calendar for 2010 (complete thru august:

http://troop229bsa.com/jan_dec_2010%20rev17.pdf

 

 

Yes BSA is scout led, but the adults have to provide the framework. It can be a tough challenge at times, but I suggest you can still put one or more of the following "bugs in their ears."

 

- we should have a major outdoor activity every month

- we should have a major outdoor activity every month and work toward getting very kid ready for Philmont.

- we should have a major outdoor activity every month and work toward getting every kid ready for a week-long backpacking tek

- we should have a major outdoor activity every month and work toward getting every kid ready to earn his 50-miler

- we should have a major outdoor activity every month and it should include two swim tests one canoe training and one canoe event each year

- we should have a major outdoor activity every month and work toward getting each kid within spitting distance of the Hornsday award

- we should have a major outdoor activity every month and etc.

[Basementdweller]

Money is an issue. We are a near inner city troop and not very wealthy. So cost on outings is a huge and perpetual problem.

 

I think that is a little bit of our problem.

[Lisabob]

Some questions:

 

1. Do you have a CO that helps with the cost of events?

 

2. Do you have access to local camping/outdoor-oriented resources, or is it difficult to get kids to places without hauling long distances? Along with that, is equipment an issue (like, say, canoes)?

 

3. Do your boys in the troop have much experience getting out of the city so that they are familiar with what else is "out there?"

 

4. Do you know anybody in troops in other parts of your district or council (or out of council for that matter), with whom you could team up? Maybe you can do a couple of joint camp outs - one on "their" turf that gives you free access to places and equipment you don't normally have, and one on "your" turf that highlights some resources of your city, that they normally wouldn't be exposed to.

 

I'm curious to learn which city you live in? Not that you're under an obligation to say, of course.

 

[LIBob]

Awwww money.

Well hiking trips are cheap, so are fishing trips

 

 

In my first troop each patrol had

- a patrol axe

- a patrol saw

- patrol stove

- patrol lantern

- folding table

- etc.

We even had some very old (and very heavy) canvas tents.

 

To go camping each kid needed very little money.

- shares in a tent

- shares in a ground cloth

- sleeping bag

- sleeping pad (I never used one)

- pocket knife

- canteen

- flashlight

- first aid kit

- battery lantern.

- mess kit.

 

I can and did cram all my personal gear for a weekend campout into or onto a standard issue two-strap school book bag.

 

If a kid doesn't think he needs a $75 sleeping bag and a $150 internal-frame backpack he get all the gear he needs of weekend camping for under $100 at Wal-mart.

 

 

 

More later

 

 

 

 

 

[boomerscout]

Hi Basement:

What are the two biggest camping expenses that stops your troop from camping?

It's summer time! Don't need no stinkin' sleeping bag! Grab an old blanket, ground cloth -- an old shower curtain liner or plastic table cloth lying around. Don't really need a mess kit; find an old plastic plate, kfs. Don't need official camping knives, some old kitchen knives from the thrift will do. For canteen learn how to tie the bottle knot onto a pop bottle. Someone in your church must have a tent you could borrow

When I was younger, my patrol wanted to go camping, but we couldn't obtain an adult to drive us. We took the city bus to the Greyhound, took the Greyhound to the stop nearest the campsite, hitched (OMG!) part of the rest of the way & hiked the rest. Made for a long day, but we became legendary in our troop

Hit those fundraisers!