Patrol Draft / Moving Boys from NSP to Existing Patrols

[Horizon]

Update: I just sent the following message to my troop (spot the Beavah translated lines!):

 

At last night's troop meeting we announced that on Monday, April 21st the troop meeting will focus on patrol organization. I wanted to reiterate the plans and reasoning.

 

Boy Scouting works best when the boys lead, and the adults provide guidance. On recent campouts I have observed that the most successful camping occurs when older, experienced Scouts are actively engaged in helping younger Scouts develop skills and good habits. When this occurs, the older Scouts learn to lead and teach, and the younger Scouts benefit from a youth mentor. Unfortunately, unless the older Scouts are actively assigned to a particular Patrol, some of the younger Scouts get missed. During Camporee we saw how well the Stag Patrol (our recently-bridged Webelos Scouts) did under the guidance of xxx and yyy. Last weekend we could observe the same positive camping with zzz and the boys that camped with him, and with the "senior scout" led hike.

 

The current troop roster can be factored into 4 groups:

- Active Senior (Star and above) Scouts

- Semi-Active older Scouts (typically Life)

- Active Scouts close to or at First Class who have been with the Troop for 13+ months

- Active New Scouts who bridged over this year.

 

The rules are simple:

* No Scout will be left out, no feeling of "last one picked," and a "good fit" for each patrol (friends, personalities, interests, etc.).

* A reasonable effort to make sure each patrol is "viable" - has enough guys who participate regularly, and has enough range of experience to have both growing leaders and younger guys for them to lead.

* The optimal patrol size is 8. I do not want to see a patrol with less than 6 active, committed Scouts, or more than 10.

 

How we will manage this (it WILL be chaotic):

First - I would like to know which of the older Scouts will commit to actively being involved in a mixed-age patrol. Those Scouts will be the backbones of the new patrols. They can use existing Patrol names and traditions, or create new ones. These Scouts will serve as Patrol Leaders, Instructors and Guides for their Patrol. They will be responsible for the training, advancement and development of the Scouts in their Patrol. Over time, the Scouts they train will become the new Patrol Leaders, Instructors and Guides - continuing the tradition.

 

Second - I would like to know which of the older Scouts would prefer to be part of a Venture Patrol that will NOT have younger Scouts assigned directly to it. This Patrol will be seen as the model on campouts and at Camporee, and will be where we will draw individual Instructors or Guides from during certain situations. This is NOT the only group that will engage in Venture activities, those will still be open to all eligible. However, it is admitting that some Scouts are not interested in being a member of a mixed-age Patrol.

 

From there I will ask the Venture Patrol (to be formally named at the meeting) to meet with the younger Scouts and work on some Scout Skills, while the remaining older Scouts stay with me to set up the room. Each group of older Scouts that are going to be either creating a new Patrol or continuing an existing one will have a station in the room. They will then get to talk to all of the younger Scouts as they make their way around the room, getting to know you as well.

 

At the end of this the Active Senior Scouts will sit down and hold a private discussion and draft, run by the SPL and with only the ScoutMaster in attendance. No notes will be kept, and all comments will be strictly in accordance with the Scout Oath and Law. The Patrols will discuss the Scouts and where they best fit, and build out a Patrol roster. The Patrol rosters should have a mix of boys from the 3 active brackets - not all First Class, and the our newly bridged Scouts spread out over the Troop. Any Scouts not in attendance will be placed as well, where appropriate.

 

We will then invite the Scouts back in to join their new Patrols. The Troop will be purchasing flag stands for the Patrol Flags for during meetings, and Patrol competition will kick off with the May Campout.

 

I invite comments or feedback, and I know that this will be an interesting meeting.

 

Regards,

 

[Horizon]

[MarkS]

Sorry to be a critic but looking at that message from the perspective of a parent that might not have attended the meeting and did not hear the announcement, I don't see the boys leading with the adults providing guidance in that message. It sounds like the Scoutmaster has decided how best to run the unit and has decided to reorganize to implement his vision. Maybe "we" includes the SPL and PLC but it's not obvious to me.

[Horizon]

No offense taken, and I have no issue with the critique.

 

The message was for both boys and parents, and 85% of the boys were at the meeting. Much of this had already been discussed with the senior scouts, and was actually triggered by me being approached by the older scouts, including the SPL (some content is earlier in the thread in regards to that).

 

My vision is that of Scouting - functional patrols with boys leading - something that is missing from the troop in its current form. Several of the boys have asked for help fixing it, and had asked to start recruiting. Deeper discussions with the SPL and Scouts helped develop the framework of this plan.

 

I will update again after execution.

[MarkS]

That's great and please do let us know if you think it works better.

[Horizon]

The draft was last night. I ended up with 6 patrols of mixed ages. Not a single Scout chose to go the "venture only" route, they ALL wanted to in a mixed age patrol.

 

We started with our standard opening ceremonies. All Scouts First Class and below went outside to decorate the church for an upcoming fundraiser, while I met with the older Scouts. The older Scouts then separated into either their existing Patrols or created new ones. Each patrol then took a table and set-up the room like a job fair.

 

The rest of the Troop then returned to the room and walked around the room meeting the Patrols. After around 20 minutes the younger Scouts went back outside for some Scout skills while we held the draft.

 

One patrol started with one pick, and they went around the room grabbing slips of paper with a photo and name of every Scout in the troop. Once all Scouts had been picked, I gave them 10 minutes for trades. They swapped a few around based on their knowledge of friendship and activity interests. The smallest patrol is 7, the largest is 9.

 

All Scouts then came back into the room. I held SM minute FIRST, discussing the 12 points of the Law and how they apply to Patrols and Troop operations. Each Patrol leader then read off the names of the boys in his Patrol. We then had 10 minutes for Patrol meetings to discuss names and to get to know each other.

 

One boy thought he was going into another Patrol (English is not his first language, and communication with him is sometimes misunderstood), but that was the only possible hiccup. We discussed the Patrol Leader's responsibility for advancement, and I announced that Patrol Leaders would give out their Patrol's advancements at the next Court of Honor.

 

I admit to being concerned, but it looks like the troop has new life in it, older Scouts appear to be much more engaged, and we are back on the path to the Patrol Method.

 

NOW I just have to figure out how to get 6 patrol boxes to the next campout! Our trailer only holds 4, and based on all of this I expect to see 6 Patrols camping on future outings.

[Its Me]

 

Horizon, how did you handle any conditional associations? For example bothers can't be in the same patrol, or these two must be in the same patrol or that child cannot be in the same patrol with that child. Did you get any of this from the parents or youths?

 

 

 

 

 

[Horizon]

After the draft, when I gave them time for trades, the boys handled that themselves with zero input from me (I was actually staying away from the table). In the end they did their own shuffling to ensure that some obvious friendships, etc. were kept in the same patrol.

 

It was pretty impressive how well the boys handled that as well.

[Stosh]

Unfortunately with every "draft" system, the one choice that is never offered is to have the NSP remain together having bonded for their first year. Unless all options are offered, I would suspect a problem in the boy-led department. It is a big choice to choose from staying together or breaking up into the older patrols. Too bad the NSP boys will learn quickly that they don't always have a choice.

 

Stosh

[Horizon]

You are correct about the NSP issue, which is also why I personally think that the NSP model is not always a good one UNLESS you have truly committed Troop Guides and Instructors assigned to the Patrol. Out of 3 Patrols of young boys, ONE had the fortune of the good Guide and the other two were sitting with boys still at the Rank of Scout 13 months later. The aforementioned Guide started a patrol and drafted the majority of the boys that he had been working with over the last 2 campouts.

 

What choice were the boys given when they were put into their NSP after all?

[ThunderFox]

We started a new troop at a new Church with 15 Webelos and one Eagle Scout who had just moved to the area and his family joined the Church. Due to this Eagle's care and concern with the new Scouts, the boys remembered their first year struggles and told me they did not want New Scout Patrols in their troop; they wished to spread out among all the new Scouts so they would have "big brothers" in the troop to buddy-up one on one with new Scouts to make them welcome, teach them and make their troop stronger than troops they had seen in our district with NSPs.

 

The troop is now 11 years old, does not have NSPs and maintains a membership of over 80 Scouts who feel they belong and run their own troop. Being a 40 year+ Scouter I think the NSP is a Band-Aid with no adhesive; it was designed for adult run troops that had hazing problems. They had hazing problems because the adults usurped the older boys jobs and the older boys were not really taught Scouting as it is supposed to be.

[Eagledad]

>>Being a 40 year+ Scouter I think the NSP is a Band-Aid with no adhesive; it was designed for adult run troops that had hazing problems.

[evmori]

What Barry posted about the NSP is a good summation. I'm not a big fan of this method either. Sure it keeps all the new Scout together but it usually functions like a 3rd year Webelos den instead of a Boy Scout Patrol. And, if Barry's info is correct, which I think it would be, the NSP hasn't helped very much.

 

Ed Mori

1 Peter 4:10

[Bob White]

Patrols function best when scouts are grouped with other scouts whom they share common interests and skills. In other words "friends".

 

Whether you use the new scout patrol or not scouts should choose their own patrols. No one picked your friends for you when you were a teenager.

 

If brothers want to be kept together then do not interfere. If two scouts don't want to be in the same patrol then let them select different ones.

 

If you use the NSP then as scouts achieve the First Class rank let them stay in the same patrol or enter another based on the choice of the scout, and not the decision of the adult leader.

 

 

[Beavah]

Patrols function best when scouts are grouped with other scouts whom they share common interests and skills.

 

Yah, I agree with this, eh?

 

But I don't think that has to translate into "friends," at least not up front. Tight friends who form their own patrol can even feel a bit like a clique rather than a patrol, eh? In fact, haven't we all seen older scout patrols get cliquish?

 

I think we can learn from other youth activities. Kids do great and learn a lot from playin' soccer, or hockey, or in the band. They join those things because they share a common interest. The friendships often come later, after they've shared experiences on the team. And not everybody on the team is always a good friend. Some can just be good teammates.

 

In good patrol method, yeh come together as a group because you have a shared interest in the patrol. In competition, adventure, doin' a good job, helpin' younger lads grow, lookin' up to older lads in starry-eyed awe. Yeh become friends, and in fact you make friends that you never would have chosen otherwise.

 

And that's how yeh grow in character.

 

Beavah

 

[Bob White]

Since when is being a tight team or clique harmful to the Patrol Method? A clique is more likely to do things together and stay together as a group, both sound like characteristics of a good patrol. Communications within a clique are usually very frequent. Cliques normally have shared goals and purpose. There is nothing wrong with patrols having those characteristics.

 

To say letting scouts choose their own patrol is bad becuse the members might get to be too good of friends, or might work too well together, is odd indeed and goes against the very elements of the Patrol method.(This message has been edited by Bob White)