The role of the PLC

[greenSM]

How about this? Run the Troop and Patrols according to the materials derived and distilled over the last 100 years until ALL of the adults and boys KNOW what is supposed to happen. Then, if there is something that doesn't fit/work (eg: most Troops in my area are 10 or less Scouts so traditional PLC-Troop-Patrol method morphs), tweak that instead of reinventing the wheel continuously.

 

Maybe there's too many chiefs and not enough trained leaders?

[Beavah]

Yah, greenSM, yeh do have a point. If you follow the postings of Kudu, he's really quite vociferous about the matter of stickin' with traditional BP/Bill Hillcourt Scouting, eh? There is somethin' to be said for the notion that the program had been pretty fined tuned after its first 50 years. Da "adjustments" over the last 35 years or so designed to make Scoutin' more "relevant" and whatnot may have done more harm than good.

 

NSP, FCFY, and age-based patrols were part of the 1990 revision, which also did away with youth on BOR's (another 80 year old feature). Combination of makin' the materials more friendly for our LDS colleagues' age-based program, and some efforts to deal with first-year scout attrition.

 

Beavah

 

 

[Kudu]

The New Scout Patrol has two votes in the PLC: the Patrol Leader and the Troop Guide. When we tried New Scout Patrols for a couple of years I appointed an Eagle Scout as their Patrol Leader.

 

"I could point out that the language of Scouting says not to capitalize the terms "patrol leader" or "patrol" and that there is nothing officially called the "Troop Leader Council". :-)"

 

I wasn't aware that "the language of Scouting says not to" :-/

 

The elements of Scouting such as "Troop," "Patrol," and "Troop Leaders' Council;" and titles such as "Patrol Leader" were first capitalized during the much belated rise of the Patrol Method in the BSA in the 1930s under William Hillcourt. Perhaps Hillcourt brought the practice with him from Europe because the Boy Scouts Association's "Policy, Organisation, and Rules" of that period (edited under Baden-Powell) used the same convention.

 

The BSA reversed its capitalization policy again with the 5th edition of the Scoutmaster's Handbook in 1959. This btw was when the term "patrol leaders' council" was introduced. I associate the neutering of capitalization with the neutering of the Patrol Method itself which began (soon after Hillcourt's retirement) with the introduction of Positions of Responsibility requirements (which discouraged Patrols from always being run by their best available leader), and the later demolition of Patrol Leader Training in 1972 to make way for "Leadership Development" theory.

 

I use William Hillcourt's capitalization to honor the rise of the Patrol Method in the United States under him, and I will continue until such time as the Guide to Safe Scouting prohibits it in the anti-laser-tag tradition of safety

 

I believe that youth on BORs was a 1970s invention. Boards of Review (along with Scoutmaster Conferences, Scout Spirit requirements, etc.) were a legacy of the adult-run era before the BSA discovered the Patrol Method. Having grown up in Baden-Powell's Patrol System, Hillcourt would have been well aware that maintaining the integrity of a Troop's Scoutcraft instruction was a function of the Court of Honor (the Patrol Leaders in Council) not the Board of Review.

 

Also missing from the BSA's understanding of entrusting the Patrol Leaders with the integrity of Scoutcraft is the practice of retesting and the policy of current proficiency. In the Patrol System "Public Service" Proficiency Badges (such as First Aid) must be re-certified annually or even a King's Scout (the equivalent of Eagle Scout) must surrender his badge.

 

Kudu