Adult Patrols

[Eagle76]

I feel a little guilty spinning off this frivolous thread from a rather serious one discussing whether boys sleeping with their parents on campouts undermines the patrol method (it does, barring extenuating circumstances, as noted), but I'm going to do it anyway.

 

In the original thread, epalmer84 mentioned the adults in his troop operate as a patrol and call themselves the Old Vikings. I seem to remember someone else where the adults call themselves the Grumps.

 

My question is, do any other troops go so far as to have (interesting) names for their adult "patrol"?

 

We call ourselves the Gray Hares.

[SR540Beaver]

AntelopeDud and I are members of the Dud Patrol. Our custom patrol patch is a lit firecracker snapped in half. While we have many adults and occasional siblings camp as part of the Dud Patrol, the boys actually select the registered adult leadership to the Duds after they have proven themselves "worthy" and bestow their patch on them at a campfire or COH. I was around for well over a year attending every meeting and campout and serving as an ASM before I was honored.

 

This past weekend we had 40+ boys on our campout. Since we have just had 17 crossovers in the past 6 to 8 weeks, we had lots of parents along checking us out. We had 30 registered adults, parents and siblings along for a total of 70+ on the campout.

 

I recently expressed some concern to our SM about the number of adults we have along. He told me how different it was when he became SM about 6 years ago. He would have to call adults on Thursday night and literally beg someone to come along so he could have two deep leadership and spent three days at summer camp once as the only adult there. So, as long as the adults don't interfere in the boy led troop on the campouts, he is happy to accomodate as many as want to participate. We are in an enviable position of never wanting for adult assistance for anything.

[Fishsqueezer]

This is a copy of the adult ballot we used when selecting a patrol name. It also included some suggested yells and flags, etc.

 

Old goats Yell Daaaads aaaarrre greeaaat!

Old farts Yell Pull my finger and stand back

Rocking chair Yell - Back and forth, back and forth (done to a swaying motion)

Dunlops tire for a symbol?

The Empire Strikes Back Yell I am your father

Disco Ducks double knit neckerchiefs with mirrored slides? Yell Everyone blow a duck call

Toiletrees Yell rollin, rollin, rollin, keep that paper rollin.

Dinosaur Song the Barney Song. Yell Of courus, of courus, were pretendasaurus.

Barking spiders Yell The dog did it!

DRWSO (Dont Run With Sharp Objects) Yell Awe Mom!

Big Dogs Yell If you cant run with the big dogs, stay in the pup tent.

Sasquach blank patch since nobody has ever seen one! Yell You cant see me

THE patrol Yell THE, THE, THE. We are THE patrol.

Boomers Yell prairie chicken mating call

 

 

 

We ended up going with Big Dogs

 

 

[OldGreyEagle]

we have had several incarnations, they were/are

 

Vultures (so named as we never cooked for ourselves, only eating what the patrols cooked)

Yell: Dead Meat, Dead Meat, Carry on (Carrion)

 

The Eyes

Yell: We are watching you (from the movie Congo)

 

The Parents

Yell: It costs how much?

[BrentAllen]

In the Troop of my youth, the adults were in the Over The Hill Patrol - it is still going strong after some 30 odd years.

One of the local troops has the Legends Patrol for the adults.

[resqman]

The troop I just joined has the Zulu patrol. The patch is a zebra skin shield with crossed spears.

 

One of the troops we visited had the Old Goat patrol.

[orennoah]

I'm a Grump. (Classic Star Trek episode reference.)

 

Our yell: "We're old. We're tired. We're [fill in the blank.] We're GRUMPS!"

 

- Oren

[Eamonn]

I know that I'm going to sound like an old Grump.

But I have never been in favor of adults trying to play Boy Scout.

The Leadership team at different camps has different things to do depending on the theme of the camp.

I fail to see how the SM is or can model a Patrol Leader.

Yes I know it's done at Wood Badge, but that's the participants not the staff.

While parents are welcome to visit, I'm not sure how I'd manage the camp that SR540Beaver has described!

While maybe it might be unkind? I know I wouldn't be happy "Baby sitting" that many adults.

I feel when the number of adults gets to be too many, it takes away from the reason why we went in the first place.

Eamonn.

 

[SR540Beaver]

E,

 

I understand your concerns and even voiced them myself to our SM just this past week. Registered leaders are much like scouts, they come and go over time. Today's visiting parent is tomorrow's committee member, chaplain, quartermaster, ASM or SM. Heck, they have a car and a drivers license which make them very valuable to us. The adult leadership does not set up tents, cook, do KP or entertain parents and siblings. They are taught to do all of those things and expected to pitch in. They are on the duty roster along with we uniformed types. For that matter, they actually free us uniformed types up to do our real job. The Dud Patrol used to have a person who functioned like a PL. The SM was saying this past weekend how he'd like to recruit someone to accept that role so he could step out of the role of "oracle" with the adults. Just like we expect and send the boys back to their PL, we can point adults wanting to know where the toilet paper is or how do we wash a dutch oven to an experienced adult "PL" so we can do our job with the boys. Also, we make it very clear that boys do not enter the adult area without a purpose and without asking permission and voce versa. In other words, leave the boys and the program alone.

 

It certainly isn't the only way to do it and I'm not even advocating it to other troops. It is what we have evolved to since having to beg for help in years past and it works for us. My choice would be for 10 or so uniformed adult leaders to go on a campout with 40 to 50 boys. That just isn't going to happen in our environment. I will say that I expect the number of adults to drop off as new scout parents and new scouts get more comfrotable with the troop.

 

One other note. My experience has been that a boy will stay in scouting longer and advance further when he has a parent that is involved at some level with the troop.

[BrentAllen]

Eamonn,

If the adults are acting as a Patrol, you don't have to babysit them. The SM does not have to be the Patrol leader. It is probably better if he isn't, since he has other duties to the troop. One of the other adult leaders, probably an ASM, should be PL, scheduling all functions of the adult patrol.

 

The adult patrol leader would function just like a PL for the boys - he would put together a duty roster for the adult patrol, make sure a menu is planned and a cook/grubmaster is in charge of groceries. Someone has to be in charge, unless all the adults are doing their own thing, which I think would be a very bad idea.

 

Adult patrols are a great way to model the patrol method. Boys from other patrols shouldn't enter the adult patrol area unless they are given permission. Adults shouldn't enter the boy's patrol areas unless they request and are granted permission. Adults using the patrol method is also a great way to teach new parents how the patrol method is supposed to work, and it keeps they away from their sons. I see lots of positives and can't think of any negatives. Plus, it builds patrol spirit among the leaders, fostering a team spirit which should be a real asset for the troop, overall.

[Lisabob]

We're the Old Goats (Mbaaaa). But I tend to agree w/ Eamonn. Sometimes it seems like we're running two parallel programs - one for the boys, one for the adults.

[baden]

We are the FOG Patrol. Publicly this is an abbreviation of fogeys, but the Patrol members know that it stands for F'ng Old Guys.

[CrewMomma]

The adult patrol in my son's troop call themselves "The Geezer Patrol"

 

At a camporee, the powers-that-be decided that an adult patrol should run the course as well as the troop patrols, I had the wonderful opportunity to be able to participate.

 

We called ourselves "Prime Time" with an appropriate yell of "Prime Time - Aged to perfection!"

[epalmer84]

BrentAllen is correct- the adult patrol is a good method of team building. I find it especially important when a Scout ages out and registers as an adult. That young man has to rebuild his identity in some ways, and the adult patrol is a good way to do that.

 

Eamonn- Unregistered adults who come on trips do so as guests of the Old Vikings. Again, this is a method of building identity. The Scouts go do their thing, while the parents get a view of what the leaders do and don't do. This is especially important with those parents who have just crossed over from Cub Scouting.

 

If a parent camps with a patrol, they tend to take charge, and the patrol leader tends to let it happen. If something happens, the parents first instinct is to deal directly because they often do not understand the chain of leadership. They want to parent, not lead.

 

I think that those parents who do camp with us are more likely to become a registered leader. The have more fun drinking coffee and telling stories about the old days without the youth around to get bored. If we have some task such as an activity setup, they are glad to join an assistant Scoutmaster and help.

 

orennoah- I think you mean "grup" (a contraction of grownup). Is it bad that I knew off the top of my head that the Star Trek episode was "Miri"?

 

Ed

[Eamonn]

I think we will have to agree to disagree!!

I'm not sold on the idea.

A far better example is the set up used at Wood Badge -Even if one adult does "Play" a youth member role.

Back home we had 90 Scouts in the Troop. At times just getting them and the equipment to camp was a big enough headache.

I'll go back to my corner now and "Grump Away"

Ea.