New Troop charter rules

[carconcad]

What is the official BSA rule for starting a new BS Troop?

 

Our Troop was started two years ago when we needed a place for our single Webelos to move up to. He was joined by two more boys from school, which made three total. Since then those two boys have dropped out, but were replaced by two more rising Webelos (still three total).

 

Our feeder Pack is only three years old and has not supplied a large number of Webelos for transition to the Troop yet.

 

Now our council is laying down the law that we can not recharter the Troop without at least five boys on the roster.

 

Where is this written? and why?

 

They even suggested that we add some of the boys who dropped out back to the roster, even though they are not attending, just to get the number up until there are more Webelos to transition in a couple of months. I was trying to follow the "Scout is trustworthy" law and be honest about the situation. Who is getting harmed if a Troop, especially one that is only two years old, is very small?

 

This is very frustrating as a leader when we are just trying to help the boys and getting roadblocked by seemingly arbitrary red-tape.

 

 

[moosetracker]

I frown on someone asking you to cook the books.. They definately do not want to loose a statistical number.. Council sometimes cooks their own books, but they are now asking the unit volunteers to do it for them. Wrong..

 

Sorry, but "Yes" the rules do state you need 5 scouts, 3 people on committee (CC and two others) a Committee Organization and a Committee ORganization Representative and a Scoutmaster in order to recharter.

 

They may let you float a year, if they think the numbers will change but shouldn't for several years. Looks like your grace period has ended.. One scout does not make even a single healthy patrol. The scout is better off in a program that has him working with other scouts.. Even two, three of four is not a healthy size for a patrol.

 

 

2. Every unit must have listed:

 

⃞ A unit leader (Cubmaster, Scoutmaster, Varsity Coach, Venturing Advisor, Skipper or Exploring Advisor).

⃞ A committee chairman

⃞ A minimum of two committee members

⃞ A chartered organization representative (may multiple register as Institutional Head, Committee Chairman or committee member).

⃞ An Executive Officer / Institutional Head (may multiple register as charter organization representative, committee chairman or committee member; if new, write date of birth on face of recharter printout near the name).

⃞ At least one registered den leader for Cub Scout packs. We strongly recommend at least one registered den leader if Cubs (Wolf & Bear dens) are registered, one registered Tiger den leader if Tiger Cubs are registered, and one registered Webelos leader if Webelos are registered. (To assure proper supervision, the Scout Executive or designee must approve recharters with less than one den leader per approximately 10 youth or without at least one den leader for each part of the Cub Scouting program - Tigers, Cubs, and Webelos - in use by the pack.)

⃞ A minimum of 5 youth members must pay their registration fees through this unit - primary membership. (The Scout Executive or designee must approve unit with 2-4 paid youth, but with 5 or more youth total counting those paid in another unit.)

 

 

 

Now, it sounds like you are only relying on a very small feeder pack to populate your troop. That is not very good. If you want your troop to grow, you need to offer a good program, and try to attract other boys inside and outside the pack. I do not know why they let you start with only one scout.. You should wait for the pack to have 5 webloes crossover and start up, and then go out in the community and promote.. Or go out in the community and promote, get at least 5 interested scouts, then start a troop.. AND CONTINUE TO PROMOTE... the floating should be when your 5 scouts dips to 4, but you know of 2 crossovers soon, or are planning a recruitment night soon.

 

With a troop your size if I was in the pack I would go to the troop down the street, to allow my son to have a healthy scouting program.

[Eagle92]

As pointed out, the minimum of 5 youth has been around a long time. Scout Executives can give out waivers for very few reasons, and only three come to mind at the moment. One reason is a new unit, and it is expected that the unit will grow to 5 or more youth within 1-2 years. A second reason is a unit that is struggling to stay alive, and again they expect growth within a year or two. The third reason is LDS units as the LDS Church mandates scout participation.

 

I would try to develop relationships with all the packs in your area, and recruit from them. If your CO is a church, try recruiting youth and leaders from the church.

 

Only other options that come to mind are merging with another unit, esp if their is another that is struggling as you can pool your resources, or Lone Scouts.

[carconcad]

Thank you for the reply.

 

I understand the guideline of a minimum number of Scouts and leaders for the sake of logistics and effectiveness. In a perfect world, and a larger community (our town has 1880 people), that would be great.

 

However, our mini-Troop is one of the most active in the district, if not council. We participate in mulitiple events, are active in the community, and work with the Pack to support their training (i.e. first aid for Webelos, etc). Our Pack has doubled in size every year (we are just waiting for the time when the Troop will do the same). In fact we should be going from three to six Scouts by the first of June.

 

I guess I will just have to cook our own books to satisfy the beauracracy so we can keep our boys signed up and covered by BSA insurance.

 

 

[Eagle92]

The challenge is if you double your size, why are the scouts leaving? Usually active troops, doing activities that the Scouts select will retain and grow. I know my troop for 5 of my 6 years with them did not have a feeder pack. We essentially recruited by word of mouth. We would get transfers from other troops, a few who dropped out of Scouting and decided to join their friends (not many of those but one or 2), and of course by using DCs and inviting packs to our activities.

 

But retention seems to be the bigger problem.

[nolesrule]

You may be active, but it is near impossible to provide an effective Boy Scout program with only 3 youth.

[moosetracker]

Ahh.. shame on me for skimming.. I read started with 1 added 2, then 2 dropped out.. Missed you were still at 3.. So I had you at the count of 1 scout..

 

The crossover normally happens in March.. Why are they waiting until June? It makes it hard for those new boys to feel comfortable going to summer camp with a unit they have not yet settled into.

 

If it is only for a few months, not so bad.. If you had 3 due to the recent crossover and were planning to limp for another year.. Not so good..

 

But, you should start motivating your pack to do crossover on time. You also shouldn't simply depend on the Pack to be your "feeder"..

[SeattlePioneer]

Spring is the best time to recruit new Boy Scouts who have not gone through Cub Scouts.

 

In particular, contactuing 5th and sixth graders and inviting them to a recruiting night and outing is a good strategy.

 

Recruiting at churches that have significant numbers of boys of Scouting age might be practical.

 

What kind of community events do you have that attract young people of Scouting age? I like to do a stationary bicycle race at such events. I time people to see how long it takes the to "race" a mile on the odometer, and of course I need to get the name, age and phone number of participants to post their times and such. Handing boys of Scouting age an invitation to a troop bicycle ride might be attractive after com,pleting the event.

 

In a small town, it might be practical to identify all the youth of Scouting age and invite them to suitable Troop activities.

[Twocubdad]

Ask your district executive (probably the guy telling you you have to have five scouts) for a list of all the boys who have dropped out of Cub Scouts in the past 2 or 3 years. Look for the ones who are now over age 11 and give them a call.

 

Sometimes boys who are really into outdoors stuff drop out of Cubs because what the really want is a Boy Scout program. Maybe you can convince a couple boys to give Boy Scouts a try.

[moosetracker]

Fooey! TwoCub!

 

I have our district Roster in excel. I "should" be getting a new one soon. Which will only have those registered..

 

Now you have me rethinking what I am saving of the info on the old scouts that don't re-register.. I was just saving membership ID, name, last rank earned and Birthdate.. I was only going to hold it for about a year after they aged out of whatever program they dropped out of..

 

Now I am thinking to save the Cub Scouts information for about 3 years after aging out, and saving their contact information..

[carconcad]

Thanks to everyone for their opinions.

 

True.....an effective Troop should have many more boys (just look at the BSA literature that shows nearly 30 boys in a "small" Troop). Nevertheless, we have what we have and I am not willing to call it quits for lack of numbers.

 

The next Pack or Troop "down the street" is 20 miles away. What we have in our town is it.

 

I can't argue against poor retention other than to say that if you have three boys to start and one leaves, that is a 33% drop (as opposed to 10 and one = 10%). As a new troop with new boys (11 and 12 years old) with new leaders, we are all learning at the same time and developing the program as we go along.

 

We have not had a viable District or Unit Commissioner program for years until just a couple of months ago. I am waiting to see if that will pan out. Therefore, we really have created the troop (and Pack) on our own bootstraps. The Pack went from five boys to thirty in three years.

 

Our Pack schedule is based on the school year (don't get me started on why we have to do rechartering in February instead of June or September). This gives the Webelos time to complete Arrow of Light requirements (especially if a boy joins in the 5th grade). We have our AOL ceremony in early May, the Spring/Summer recruiting night at the end of May (end of school year), and the crossover ceremony and campout the first of June to kick off the summer activities. Other units may "normally" follow a different schedule, but this is what we are doing.

 

Our recruiting consists of the Summer recruiting night in May, another school night in September and a booth at the town Spring festival in April. Any other suggestions are appreciated. Like other units, I assume, we are always competing for boys with sports (football, baseball, etc) and the "fumes" (gasoline and perfume) at that age.

 

I will look at the former Cub Scout list for prospects. Again, any good idea is welcome.

 

 

 

 

[BadenP]

carcondad

 

Thats why the rules are what they are, even a troop of five is not really viable and will die in the first year unless new boys are found. Sounds to me like you are running a one scout troop with your son, no other adults or youth and that just isn't kosher in any youth organization for obvious reasons. First step get your adult leadership in place and develop a recruitment strategy with them and approach the local schools to put up posters, etc. As a DE I started a pack and a troop in a little town of 850 the pack had ten kids and the troop seven to start, so it can be done. I was in the area on vacation last fall and both units are still there, the pack has 35 and the troop 25 scouts twenty years later. So don't shortchange your boy, lone scout is only a last resort.

[carconcad]

Again, we have three boys now and are moving up three more in June.

 

I am the ASM (yes, my son is in the Troop). The SM is an Eagle Scout from way back and his son is one of the three also. Youth Protection is not the issue here.

 

My frustration is not that I think that I am in a dying unit. The issue is that it takes more time than some would think to create a fully-formed Troop. I guess I don't appreciate the council telling me that they are willing to pull the plug when we have just begun to get things rolling.

 

Anyway, lest this turn into a gripe session, I am looking for alternatives and solutions that result in having a working Troop here, rather than pulling up stakes and going somewhere else.

 

[carconcad]

Seattle: obviously we are not doing enough things, or the right things, to encourage more boys to join.

 

Give me some ideas of good recruiting tools!

[John-in-KC]

My comments:

 

Yes, 5 is the magic number, each year, when you drop your signed recharter packet at council.

 

Now, let's get away from paperwork, and ask about program:

 

- You have 1 Patrol. So you have Patrol Leader. The Patrol needs a Quartermaster to keep the equipment, so if he's 1st Class or above, make him a Troop QM for POR time. You also need a scribe to help with the paperwork. Beyond that, let's not worry about leadership right now.

 

- Do you have PROGRAM? Are the boys selecting a place where they want to camp each month? Are they selecting a theme for that campout (we want to bicycle to work on Cycling MB, we want to swim, we want to hike in and out)? If they are selecting a theme, are they then each taking responsibility for a subject area and training each other in skills (hike ... shoes and sox, managing weight of the backpack, cooking tasty food yet with minimum weight and earth impact)?

 

- Is the PROGRAM year round? At the Boy Scout level, it should be.

 

- You're almost certainly rural. Are you working to do things boys like (while Scouts cannot hunt, doing a range weekend camp and improving their skills on rifle and shotgun is probably way cool)?

 

- Is the SM working to mentor the PL, and the rest of the adults back away, or are the adults doing the teaching etc?

 

It's far easier to keep an interested boy than it is to bring a new one off the street. If your program is varied and interesting, the recruiting will take care of itself.