Patrol Alienation???

[baschram645]

Our troop recently experienced a 25% increase with 7 Webelos crossing over from our local Cub Pack. The NSP is a really Gungho group of scouts who like most young guys want to fit in with the older guys. The older scouts have taken to the younger guys and are helping them along the way. Things here are great we have a boy lead program (organized chaos), active youth, an excellent C.O., a well run committee, and really supportive parents. I dont really see any problems yet, but I am getting a feeling that the older scouts need a boost to maintain their interest in the program. At our last meeting I asked the scouts 14 and up to think about starting a venture patrol. This group compromises about half of the troop. At our next meeting they are going to give me their opinions on the topic. My quandry (I really like that word) is this, if they decide to start the Venture patrol, how do we keep their events (High adventure outings and such) from being turned into troop outings? Would they be called a "Patrol Activity"? Also how do you keep the younger boys from feeling left out? I dont want to alienate them nor do I want to use the carrot "When you are older you too can join the Venture Patrol and do fun things". I just need some sound advice from the collective brain trust out there so I can avoid any pitfalls and be able to answer any questions that might come up. Thanks for the help.

YIS,

Bryan

[Bob White]

Bryan,

I think you are doing the right thing. Give the 14 older scouts an ASM of their own to help get them started. Make them into two patrols and allow each patrol to determine their own separate patrol activities. Remember with your permission and the riht plan these patrols can go on activities including overnight camping, on their own without adult leadership. This is where the greatest growth in a Scout's personal growth can take place.

 

Keep the new scouts busy with their Tenderfoot, 2nd Class and 1st Class skills and their own activities and they will understand that the higher skill activities are waiting for them leater in their scouting.

 

Now you just have the middle group called "Regular patrols", from what you described you should have two of those as well. These should be the middle age, middle skill level group. Find activities for them that will give them the opportunity to apply the skills they learned so far and begin introducing merit badge opportunities that they can choose to pursue individually.

 

You have all the ingredients you need for a complete scouting program. 3 separate but interwoven programs with you as the ringmaster keeping everyone in motion.

 

It's a great place to be! Happy Scouting!

BW(This message has been edited by Bob White)

[Eagledad]

Hi all

 

My question is why do you feel they need a boost. What are they missing in the program, did you ask? I have found the adults are to quick to propose a solution to a problem they don't understand. In short, most older scouts start to get bored when the program doesn't challenge their maturity. I have yet to see a program with these same problems solved with High Adventure activities.

 

Adding more adventure to the program is always good, but I find giving the older scout more mature responsibilities over the Troop program is what gives them more satifaction. One way of doing this is handing over some of the adult responsibilities to the scouts and turning the adults into their advisers. We started this with our Troop Web Page and then to the news letter. But we moved on to advancement as well. Eventally we had JASMs for advising Grub Masters and Cheer Masters. Small responsibilites really, but in most troops, it's usually adults who advise those positions. Give it to the older scouts.

 

Those are only suggestions toward raising the maturity of your scout responsibilities, but you can think of better ideas, I'm sure.

 

Next, we found that when you dink with the older scouts, there is a ripple effect all the way down to the new scout. Older Scouts are your most effective role models. The more you take them away from the younger scouts, the more you will slow the scouts growth in behavior and leadership development. In most cases, the troop adults usually get more involved, which takes away even more from boy run. So think about that as you develop the older scout program.

 

Finally, I'm one that doesn't like to use age and rank as a method of planning activities. That may work in most cases, but be careful for that gifted 12 year old who has the ability to go hiking with the 15 year olds and so on. In many cases BSA sponsered activities will have a age restriction like Northern Tier or Philmont. But for your troop backpacking trip, have three levels of hikes so that the more mature experinced scouts take the most challenging route while the least experienced scouts go on the easier trail. That way if you get an eleven year old who has hiked the Appalachain trail every year since he was seven, you aren't restricting his experience in your troop. This happen to us with a scout who raced bikes. He was by far the most experienced biker in our Troop and it would have been silly to not let him ride with our older scouts.

 

Your program sounds really goood. Now that your scouts are going through their puberty age, they think differently. That means more like an adult, so your adults needs need to start thinking in that direction. Think less about age and more about maturity. That way you won't restrict your scouts as they grow. Some grow faster than others, don't hold them back.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Barry

[dsteele]

I have to preface this with a confession: I haven't been involved with a troop since Troop Program Features came out and haven't really looked them over.

 

However, I suspect they are simply an enhanced version of Woods Wisdom -- which I used religiously as a Scoutmaster.

 

The PLC should chose the program from the menu of "stuff" offered in Troop Program Features. If it's anything like Woods Wisdom, there are troop meeting plans in there. In the troop meeting plans, there is a layout for weekly programs for New Scout Patrols, Patrols, and Venture Patrols. Follow those and it sounds like a lot of your problem can be solved.

 

Congrats on having a properly functioning troop! I think that's great, but I also find that a lot of the stronger troops don't use the written resources available from the BSA. It's often a matter of doing without them for so long that they don't know what's there.

 

Unc.