Troop Election rules and requirements

[toddo1962]

Who should set the rules and requirements for the Troop elections and SPL?

 

The SM and ASM or committee?

[Bob White]

"Never do anything for a boy that the boy can do for himself."

 

Lord Baden-Powell

founder of the Boy Scout movement

[FScouter]

The Scoutmaster could encourage the Patrol Leaders' Council consider the pros & cons of establishing restrictions. They may conclude that restrictions are restrictive. Whatever they decide, the SM should report at the committee meeting what the PLC decided.

 

The committee can then fulfill their role by supporting the decision. For example, if the PLC wants to do a secret ballot, someone on the committee could volunteer to make up ballots.

 

That BP guy was pretty smart.

[toddo1962]

I guess I was not clear. It is not the SPL that we are talking about making the rules.

 

I mean we thought the SM and ASM's should set the requirements and guidelines of the elections and the requirements for the SPL not the committee.

[mich632]

Committee does not, nor should they be involved in the decision on the rules on elections of leader positions.

 

Is that what you wanted to hear?

 

The boys make that decision.

[FScouter]

Why don't you think the boys are capable of deciding how they should elect their own boy leaders?

[toddo1962]

Let's put it this way, the boys tried come up with a class B shirt for the troop. That took forever. I don't really think they know what is needed for a leader. My son is SPL at the moment. 13 and 1st class. I have to ride him to get him to do his meeting planing. I am not knocking my son. I just think he does not have the organizational skills at this age to handle it.

 

So I really don't want the boys to say you have to be a tenderfoot and come to 30% of the meetings.

 

We currently have an issue with one person in the committee that thinks they should make the call. We think not.

 

We currently have 3 patrols to give you an idea of or makeup. The top 2 patrols have merged to one so we have some boys that this is their 4th year.

[FScouter]

Setting up a system of rules and restrictions such that only the best boys are permitted to be elected may indeed result in the best leaders holding the positions of responsibility. That may result in a more efficiently run troop. There may be fewer frustrations and headaches for the adults. And for the other boys too. But if an efficiently run troop was one of the objectives of Scouting, maybe we shouldnt have boy leaders at all.

 

Adults can run things much more efficiently, because we have much more experience. How did we get that experience? As a manager in the corporate world for most my entire adult life, Im a whole lot better at managing than when I started out. The learning process involves a whole lot of mistakes and a lot of trying new approaches. Isnt Scouting a good place for boys to get their feet wet and make a lot of mistakes, in a safe environment?

 

Boys cant learn from their mistakes if we dont allow them to make mistakes. If they elect a Tenderfoot with 30% attendance they may learn something. The elected boy may learn something too. And the Scoutmaster may learn that the boys arent as dumb as he thinks. Give it a shot!

 

[Fat Old Guy]

Sometimes letting the Scouts lead themselves can be painful to watch and sometimes they need the guidance of a size 12 in the butt.

 

I've sat in on PLCs when they were doing the annual calendar.

 

"What do you want to do this year?"

 

"Dunno"

 

"Do you want to do the same stuff as last year?"

 

"Nah, that's boring."

 

"Do you have any ideas of what you'd like to do?"

 

"No."

 

Downright painful.

 

 

 

[Bob White]

There are tools that you can use to help scouts learn to make decisions. For instance on the shirts. Lets say you have 8 boys in the PLC and each want a different color shirt. You have the SPL list the 8 colors, and each scout member of the PLC votes for three different colors. The SPL then keeps the top 6 vote getters. Then they vote again each for their 2 favorite colors, keep the top 3 vote getters. Then each votes for their favorite color. Keep the top vote getter.

 

The lesson they learn? If you can't make one big choice make a series of small ones.

 

Use the same method for what the design of the shirt will be.

 

Use the same method for where to camp next.

 

Scouts can do anything you teach them to do.

 

[EagleInKY]

I learned years ago that, when managing a team, it is best to give them as much decision making power as possible, especially when it effects them and not you. Case in point, our teams rotate on-call responsibility. There are many ways this could be handled. I set the parameters (they must have one on call and one backup, they must have a cell phone or pager, etc.). The team then creates the procedures as they see fit (rotate weekly, rotate monthly, etc.)

 

As a SM, I set some parameters and then let the PLC make the call. If your PLC is having trouble doing that, give them some options to start the ball rolling. They may choose one of the options you laid out, or they may come up with one of their own.

[FScouter]

bump