Getting Troop to Use Patrol Method

[Eagledad]

Hi All

 

Anarchist writes a very good post. I have also been involved in turning units around and I agree pretty much with everything except the 9 to 10 years. My experience is more five years to turn a program around because thats what it takes to replace 95% of your scouts. I do agree that it takes more than five years to entrench your program, whatever that program is.

 

This is why the suggestion of training a lot of adults all at once is a good start toward the change. I am watching a very entrench program of 150 scouts in our district changing because their new class of newly trained adults are applying a lot of pressure on the old leadership.

 

Onehour is right about older scouts. I have never seen scouts 14 or older except dramatic changes in program. I learned its best to leave them working the program they are use too, or you will loose them. You have to use the younger scouts to develop the new program.

 

Good discussion

 

Barry

 

[Eagledad]

>>Now if anyone has any idea on how we could speed up the process of conversion, I would love to hear as well.

[CNYScouter]

WOW! Thanks for all the responses.

I want to reply to some of the comments.

 

Other adults see problems but it seems like they are not trying to solve them.

 

I asked at last committee meeting (only have 2 a year) why older scouts are not teaching younger scouts. I was told that if the Troop did that no one would get Eagle. The person who made this comment added that the reason he did not get make Eagle when he was a youth in the troop was that he spent all his time teaching other scouts. I got no response and the subject was changed when I added that part of becoming Eagle and learning leadership was teaching others. I did not add the fact that I earned my Eagle badge without ever taking a merit badge at a Troop meeting.

 

I feel I did make some headway. In dealing with the issue getting our boys to wear uniforms I suggested that the PLC, which means in our troop the older higher rank scouts, set a written uniform policy and it be distributed to the troop. I said that us (meaning the adults) telling kids that they had to wear their uniform would not work and this needed to come form our older scouts. This novel idea seemed to go over well.

 

It just happens that the SM, CC and I will be at a Packs Blue and Gold Dinner for a crossing over ceremony and I can ask some of these questions then over dinner.

 

I have never met our unit commissioner and in the past have found them to be not much help.

 

SM is on the District Committee and Roundtable staff so I am not sure I will see much help there.

 

The Troop conducts its own JLT. Im not sure what to think of this, as we have no trained adult leaders. I am also not sure what to think of the Quality Unit patch I just received as I do not see the troop meeting all the requirements

 

I am taking the SM training because the troop registered me as an ASM. To attend Woodbadge I need to be trained in my position.

It seems like the only place that the Aims and Methods of scouting are discussed are in the basic training. I have the Roundtable schedule thru 2006 and no topics about these are scheduled. They all deal with camping and outdoor activities.

 

Actually, I do have 9 or 10 years to make this happen. I currently have a younger boy who is not 3 yet and do plan on being around scouting for a while which is why I am taking training now.

 

Another concern I have is the Troops future. This troop has been around for over 90 years. However, in the last few years all the Cub Packs the troop recruited from have folded. I stayed on with the pack my son was in as CC due to a lack of leaders. Four years ago, the pack had 81 cubs in it. I just recharted the pack with 8 boys, 5 of them are crossing over to a troop this year. The only reason we are keeping it together is that 2 of the cubs left will be 10 this summer and can get their AOL and want to move up to the Troop.

 

The pack used to do very little in the way of recruiting and always got 20 to 25 new cubs a year. 2 years ago we saw a slip to 14 new cubs with only 4 being Tigers. We stepped up recruiting this year by doing a raingutter regatta at 3 different schools during their open houses in September. We also had posters in the schools and sent multiple flyers home with scout age boys. This year we only got 1 Tiger and 1 Wolf to join. I ended up sending the tiger to another near by pack. On top of this, we had 4 den leaders quit and their whole den went with them. 3 of them stated that they were too busy and Cub Scouts was taking up too much time. the last one got into soem leagl problems and pulled all three of her sons out of the troop. The CM and I have been working with our DE but he seems stumped as why we are having so many problems after many years of success.

 

From all of the posts it looks like I will have to switch troops or face a long uphill battle to change things.

 

CNY Scouter

 

[CNYScouter]

Over the weekend I decided to quietly contact some of the other troops in my district and talk with the SM their program. This district is located in a mid-size NE city and its eastern and southern suburbs. Troops range from poverty level to very effluent neighborhoods. There are about 45 Troops in this district of which 15 are ScoutReach and located in high-crime, gang-infested areas with most of the kids living below the poverty level.

I narrowed my list down to the ones that were within a 15 min. drive and came up with 10 (including the Troop my son and I are currently in).

 

3 of the 10 Troops have less than 10 kids and have not had a new scout in 2 years or more. This due to all the cub packs in the eastern parts of the city have folded. I live in the eastern suburbs and 2 of the 3 packs in my school district are on the verge of folding. This is all due to the lack of adults willing to become leaders.

 

All 10 troops teach merit badges during Troops meetings in one-way or another. This ranges from one meeting a month being devoted to working on required MB to offering merit badges weekly but limited to 4 or 5 of the tougher required MB. None of these troops offered non-required MB at Troop meetings (unlike my sons current Troop).

 

When asked about a typical troop meeting none had patrol competitions and none had older scouts teaching the younger scouts, all instruction was done by adults.

 

All offered a very good outdoor program.

 

I did not ask how many of their leaders were trained and how their committee functions.

 

I would like to try to visit some of these troops but of the 6 other Troops I would consider 4 of them meet on the same night as my sons current troop.

 

I am discouraged at the choices and I am not sure what I am going to do.

 

I do know that his current troop is not providing the things I was hoping he would get out of scouting. None of the other leaders are willing to do training and even if his current Troop started to move in the direction to start delivering these missing scouting ideals he would be just about finished with scouts by the time we make this happen.

 

[NIscouter]

I have just reread the thread to fortify myself for what I face with my troop. Our old SM left a year ago and he had in place what I thought was a strong boy run troop. The new SM was a ASM and I felt that we were going to continue down the same path. Was I ever wrong! The new SM has not had one COH in over 9 months, is not interested in either boy or adult training, and runs the troop like it is a Pack. PLC meetings are run by the SM. The troop appears to be losing boys already. We had a discussion during a committee mtg a few months ago on the "importance" of the Patrol Method! We have asked the SM to implement some changes during our committee meetings, but nothing has happened. Our SM last week lectured the boys on "wanting to be at the Troop Meetings" and told them the ADULTS had worked hard to make these meetings happen, and if they didn't enjoy them it was better not to come back and waste the adults time. I, along with a few others, are understandably concerned. Now is the time for me to get ready for the struggle to return the troop back to the aims and methods of scouts. Not the way I thought my place/role in the troop was going to go.

[FScouter]

"The new SM has not had one COH in over 9 months, is not interested in either boy or adult training ..."

 

The committee can get adults signed up for training. The committee can also plan a court of honor. No need to wait for the SM on these two items.

[NIscouter]

FScouter - I meant the SM is not interested in training. Our committee does support training by paying half of the Wood Badge costs for 2 adults per year. We are fortunate that it has been less than a year that this situation has been going on and a number of the scouters are not comfortable with the situation.