Tell Me About Your PLC, Who, When, Where, How Long, Minutes..

[Its Me]

 

I know what the book says should occur. I have read Kudo's Court of Honor Patrol. I know what we did in Woodbadge.

 

But our PLC looked nothing like those. The PLC meeting is set to take place 30 minutes before the troop meeting, once a month. It took 15 minutes to track down all those believed to be on the PLC. Then the Scout master chided all the scouts for not having pencils. No meeting minutes were read let alone signed.

 

What happened next was that all the scouts were given a blank paper by the scout master and told to make a two column 4 row chart to create a set-up amd clean-up duty roster. All while this is occuring boys and parents kept entering and leaving the small room. After 20 minutes it was over. No votes, no reports, no opening, no closing.

 

 

[TheScout]

I am a young man and was an SPL just a few years ago. I actually ended up doing it for 3 years so I can tell you how we did it.

 

We always had the scouts play games for the last half hour of the meeting. We didn't have regularly scheduled meetings. The weeks when I, as the SPL felt we needed to plan something, we called the PLC out of the game and had the meeting in a room by ourselves.

 

It was very informal. I would lead the meeting and we would discuss what we needed to get done. Not votes were taken. We worked by consensus. We ddn't do an opening, closing, or kept minutes.

 

As the SPL I would keep simple notes and report to the Scoutmaster what we decided.

 

The meetings would last as long as it took to finish the business.

 

Each summer, we would have a "planning conference." We would meet at the house of one of the PLC members, the troop would buy us pizza, and we would sit down with the calender and draw up the plan for the year.

 

In my opinion, our troop was quite boy run. I thought our leaders did an excellant job with that.

 

So I guess the point is, it seems to me that the form of the meeting is not important, its the substance. If you have talented scouts who want to lead and are willing to do it, they will get the job done.

 

Just my two cents.

[scottteng]

We do the half hour b4 meeting thing with a monthly meeting and use a preprinted sheet for meeting plans for the month. Some blocks just logically fill themselves ie menu planning for next weeks trip. The SPL assigns a patrol to do opening and closing each week and comes up with a troop game or activity. The patrol leader is given his block of time to fill. The only patrol that we more closely monitor is the NSP the guide or the ASM will plan their instruction. Ideally the guide would do all of this but he has baseball commitments. We expect all our scouts to be prepared for the meeting with a notebook, scout book, and pencil. Our PLC members are easy to spot they are all scouts star and above, all patrol leaders, and SPL. The other scouts with POR are welcome to come but their presence is not required.

[GernBlansten]

One hour, once a month, before the troop meeting.

Very similar to Its Me's experience, IE 15 minutes to get them grouped/focused, no pencils or note pads, parents/scouts traversing meeting room. Lots of distractions.

The PLC plans the following month's meetings and any upcoming campouts and can rarely get it done before the troop meeting.

 

I talked to another SM last night at an OA ceremony and he said his troop replaced one meeting night per month with the PLC meeting. Said it increased participation in the PLC and gave him 90 minutes for planning with no distractions. I might just suggest that to our SM.

[Its Me]

 

Quote:

I talked to another SM last night at an OA ceremony and he said his troop replaced one meeting night per month with the PLC meeting. Said it increased participation in the PLC and gave him 90 minutes for planning with no distractions. I might just suggest that to our SM.

 

 

That is exactly what I have proposed to our scoutmaster.

[Beavah]

Yah, I think da units that do it best tend to hold monthly PLC meetings away from distractions for a longer period than half an hour. The norm seems to be a separate night once per month, rather than canceling one troop meeting. Especially when you're teaching kids how to handle meetings for the first time, you need a longer stretch.

 

The half-hour-before-meeting (or after meeting) times are a good thing to do each week to handle the last-minute prep/planning for that night's meeting or the next week's. But it doesn't usually work for doin' longer-term stuff.

 

No youth-run troops ever do the Roberts Rules/read the minutes stuff, any more than small adult organizations do. Best is informal, by consensus operation the way TheScout describes.

 

Beavah

 

[EagleInKY]

Our PLC meets casually several times a month (before/after meetings, on a campout, etc.). I think they're even starting to do more online collaboration of ideas (e-mails, etc.).

 

Our formal meeting is held once a month. It's scheduled for 30 minutes prior to our regular meeting time. It usually goes a little longer, so it bumps into the regular meeting time. However, on that month we don't do a regular troop meeting, but more informal patrol-based meetings. The patrol leaders, fresh with information from the PLC, take time to review what is going on and make plans for the coming month. Also, while the patrols are doing this, the committee meets. This gives me and the other adult leaders the chance to go in and report what is going on to the committee.

 

This setup has worked fairly well. The only problem is that we really need a little more time. We've talked about stretching it out ot an hour, and starting the other meeting 30 minutes later. That may cause a bunch of confusion, but it may be worth trying.

[Eagledad]

>>What happened next was that all the scouts were given a blank paper by the scout master and told to make a two column 4 row chart to create a set-up amd clean-up duty roster. All while this is occuring boys and parents kept entering and leaving the small room. After 20 minutes it was over. No votes, no reports, no opening, no closing.

[TheScout]

Eagledad,

 

I think you make good points. Adult involvement in the PLC only leads to problems. It does not let the boys make decisions on their own which is presumably the goal of the PLC.

 

I must confess I have never read the SPL Handbook. However with nobody from our PLC reading it when I was a scout, I think we ran successful PLC meetings for many years.

 

Running a meeting is not hard. If you have a troop of say 30 boys with 4 Patrol Leaders and an SPL. Between those 5 and the ASPL, there should be at least enough talent, initiative, and leadership ability to run a simple meeting!

 

I do not know what is expected of the PLC in other troops, but as a Scout our meetings were nothing fancy. We sat down for a few minutes and talked about what we wanted to do for at the camping trip the upcoming month and how we would d food. Or we would get a bunch of brochures from summer camps and throw them on the table and talk about where we wanted to go next year. Other times we would plan COHs so we would dig out our big "Woods Wisdom" Book and page through the COH scripts and pick one and assign people to get the supplies.

 

None of these tasks are that hard. The most capable 6 out of any group of 30 should be able to figure this out.

 

The problem I see is deeper. As I scout, the core of junior leaders were older. 14, 15, 16. We all had several years of experience in scouting and cared enough about it to stick with it as we got older.

 

It seems that many troops lose these older scouts, which I think is the real key to junior leadership. Scouts are not kept interest, they are rushed to Eagle and quit, or they are moved to Venturing Crews. All of which takes leadership away from the troop.

 

From my experience the 12 and 13 year old PLs and SPLs don't have it. The difference in maturity between a 13 year old and a 16 year old is quite big.

 

And then there is the problem of boys not elected the most capable to lead them. But that is a different story for a different day . . .

[Eagledad]

>>From my experience the 12 and 13 year old PLs and SPLs don't have it. The difference in maturity between a 13 year old and a 16 year old is quite big.

[MarkS]

Who... SPL, ASPL, PLs, and TGs plus the scribe. The boys let the scribe vote even though by the book, he's not supposed to be a voting member of the PLC. Our PLC currently usually consists of six boys (three patrols, one TG) so letting the scribe vote provides an odd number for tie-breakers (although they make most decisions based on a consensus). At least two adults attend. Officially the SM and at least one SA attend to provide adult supervision and advice but we're not so rigid to prevent an MC from attending and offering input. If the SPL and SM can not both attend the meeting, it's a show-stopper and the meeting is rescheduled.

 

When... Monthly, prior to the first troop meeting of the month--a different day of the week than the troop meeting.

 

Where... A convenient place. Usually the SM's house or church.

 

How Long... About two hours.

 

Minutes... The Scribe doesn't take minutes as much as fill out the details on the BSA Troop Meeting Plan forms (http://www.scouting.org/forms/34425.pdf) for the next month or so. If they're doing a campfire, they fill out that form too. Filling out the right forms seems to provide all of the documentation they need and/or will use. They fill out the forms electronically on a laptop and the scribe usually can upload them to our web site that night. Figure about 60 to 80 minutes to plan a month of troop meetings, another 15-20 minutes to discuss the upcoming outing, and another 15-20 minutes for other issues/changing existing plans.

 

In their monthly PLC meetings, the boys assess the troop meetings, activities, and outings for the prior month and conduct the detailed planning for the upcoming month or two (i.e., when they meet in October, they're reviewing the plans they've made for October, making changes as needed, and planning the meetings in November). The meeting may also include training for youth leaders elected to a position for the first time, as needed.

 

The PLC also has a five or ten minute stand up meeting following each Troop meeting to assess the Troop meeting plan and figure out if they have any follow up actions to do (such as call their patrols with an announcement they forgot to make during the meeting). It used to be a rather long 20 minute meeting where they sat at a table but I suggested they stand up and form a circle when they assess their plan. The suggestion eliminited about five to ten minutes of unrelated chatter and the boys really liked that they could do just as much business in half the time so they kept it.

 

In case you're wondering... Yes, our SPL and ASPL tend to be older boys in the unit. The boys have imposed bylaws on the SPL and ASPL requiring them to have at least attained Star rank and have completed NYLT. PLs must have attained First Class rank and APLs Second Class. One of the scribe's tasks is to manage the Troop web site, so he tends to be an older boy too. Our unit had a tradition of well run PLC meetings before my son crossed over and I became an SA. Their agenda is pretty much a cook-booked recipe for each month (i.e., check their meeting plans for this month, make meeting plans for next month, are they ready for the campout, what are they going to start, stop, and continue doing...).(This message has been edited by MarkS)

[Its Me]

 

 

Wow! such great and useful replies.

 

 

[gwd-scouter]

We are still struggling with PLCs. Our troop is about 10 years old and only since last year have the boys actually held monthly PLCs - forget monthly, they never held them at all in the past. Boys tried to have their PLC before regular Scout meetings, but that never worked and they accomplished nothing. So, they decided to have their meeting on the first Monday each month instead of a regular Troop meeting. This has been working out well and at least they manage to come up with agendas for the three weeks leading up to whatever outing we're having that month.

 

We are a very small troop consisting of only one patrol, so our leaders are the SPL (really the PL, but the boys like the title SPL better), ASPL, Troop Guide and JASM. The JASM is the former SPL and the first leader in our troop to initiate the PLC. In the past our SPLs never held the job for more than six months. Basically, had the title so POR could be signed off. This guy had the job for a year and was instrumental in turning our troop around. He has been an enormous help in keeping the new leaders focused on their task during the PLC. He is 17, our current SPL is 15, ASPL and Troop Guide are 14. We also have a Quartermaster but he does not regularly attend the PLC.

[jambo]

I assume you are a SPL, who is running this PLC meeting.? I am glad that you are searhing for the answers, in order to better your unit . I read here many suggestions that are realy good and very constructive, and others are just stupid ...I am not going to repeat them. But, the fault here is with the out dated training agenda,and not you !( which the adults get at their basic/woodbage courses ).

The problem, the way I see it , is the lack of proper experienced SM guidence, and etc. You, " its me ' are learning the hard way. I have comented on this, in the other previous forums sites. SPL leader seem's to run the Troop ? , but he must have the proper guidence from an ' EXPERIENCED IN SCOUTING ' Scoutmaster , who can educate, teach and let you run the unit properly. You never know, some times in the future you also might be a Scoutmaster, like 'Paden Powell ', ha,ha,...I got to go...good Scouting to you !...jambo.

[Gonzo1]

It's Me,

No comment here or any other thread is "stupid"

 

A scout is kind, courteous, cheerful.

 

Ask questions, get answers. Use the skills you've learned. Read and apply the responses here you like.

 

Do you know an SM nearby who's PLC does it they way you'd like to see it done? Ask him if you can bring your SPL to observe a PLC meeting. No harm, no foul. You won't know if you don't ask.

 

You can use Woods Wisdom or Troop Program Planning guide (or whatever the current title is) as a guide.

 

Gonzo

 

(This message has been edited by Gonzo1)