PLC meetings and Adults

[evmori]

FScouter makes a valid point! It seems parents want to be overly involved in everything their boys are doing! A little over the top if you ask me!

[FScouter]

Eds view is not the point I wanted to make at all.

 

Boys tend to come up with ideas and plans that fit in with the desires of the adults sitting at the table. I see the unstated agenda of other adults in attendance as solely to guide the proceedings to the ends they desire, or to steer away from activities they dont want to get involved in. Adults are intimidating. They can communicate their disapproval without uttering a word. A simple harrumph, folded arms across the chest, rolling of the eyes, staring down at the lap, exchanged glances with the other adults. Worst is the Look. When my son was young, I could cause him to burst into tears by simply giving him The Look.

 

Boys want approval from their adult leaders and will seek it even if it means keeping quiet about what they really want to do. Adults, stay out of the room!

[MarkS]

Gold Winger said, "Someplace buried in all of my literature is a statement that Committe doesn't have to have a say. The CC should operate based on concensus but that isn't required. The committee members jobs are to do their assigned tasks, not vote or approve."

 

You don't need to dig in all your literature to find what I am refering to, it's in the roles and responsibilities outline in the Troop Committee Guidebook.

 

While they may not vote, they have responsibilities that could prevent a PLC plan from being implemented (e.g, providing advise based on BSA and CO policies, cognizance over financing and dispersement). Like or not, people who control the money have a say in how it's spent.

 

The primary responsibility of the CC is to organize and delegate. He/she is the committee builder, not the committee. However, I recognize that not all units go by-the-book. They do that so we have something to talk about in these forums.

[anarchist]

d2smith,

 

members of the PLC should "shoot" all adults trying to enter the PLC outside of the SM or assigned ASM. (just kidding)

 

One adult is plenty to keep the scouts on track. PLC is for the patrol leaders to advise the SPL as to the status of their programs and to seek assistance when needed to further their goals. It is not a place for parent to make suggestions or direct the planning of the troop program.

 

SPL parents, in particular, should be tied to a coffee table in a room way down the hall. Boys need to grow and all too often we parents "hover" too much.

 

The SM should be quite capable to lead the program he wants the boys to experience and help them plan scouting activities they feel are appropiate to take advantage of the BSA program.

 

Early on with new families, we rope them in to adult support programs to keep them out of their kids hair as much as possible.

 

And the parents who demand to be at the PLC??? Roberts Rules of Order are used and they (parents) are reminded that they are observers and not participants and are frankly never "in order".

 

An Agenda is set before the meeting and if a parent has a suggestion they "just must make" they are asked to submit it to their PL son and after he works it through in this patrol-Then if he wants it on the next agenda he can bring it to the SPL for inclusion....Or they (the parents)can bring it to the SM outside of the meeting (the usual suggested course of action as well as the most likely to truely be heard)...All of this is done with a lot of tact and not as brutal as it sounds here.

 

In over eleven years of working with this troop we have had very few problems (and almost all of them have been with new SPL parents) due to driving distances, Almost all of the parents sit in one of the church meeting rooms rather than go home. We discuss up-coming events, sometimes show canoeing, hiking or caving tapes/DVDs or just generally complain about the weather.

 

Boys can not find the "leader hidden deep within" their young bodies if they keep having to act like they think their parents want them to act or "do" what they think mom or dad wants them to "do". Parent can do the parent thing at home...Scouting is for the Scouts. Given a chance and the SMs gentle guidance it is truely surprising what they can accompish over time.

[Kudu]

FScouter's two excellent posts show great insight into the subtleties of the Adult Association Method.

 

Two lines especially merit printing on a T-shirt:

 

In fact, if the SPL is sufficiently skilled in keeping a meeting on track, even the SM is superfluous.

 

and

 

Adults, stay out of the room!

 

I learned that lesson late in life from my last SPL. Someone had mistakenly told him at NYLT that Scouters are not allowed in PLC meetings, so rather than get into a conflict with the adults over Troop traditions he simply scheduled his own private PLC meetings with the Patrol Leaders!

 

Their first adult-free PLC did more in one session than years of me telling them that "You Scouts run the Troop!"

 

Sure it was more clunky without me in the room, but whenever I brought to the SPL's attention some neglected detail they simply held an ad hoc five-minute meeting in the hall to fix it.

 

My priorities (such as keeping the Patrols 300 feet apart) became requested favors.

 

Kudu

[Gold Winger]

I don't think that we ever went to a campground where it would have been possible to put the patrols 300 feet apart. With six patrols, you'd need to have campsite about 400 x 500 feet.

[MarkS]

Yeah... 300 feet is tough. Until the last campout, we had one fly for the patrols to share and one for the adults. After four years of changing the culture established by previous leadership, we finaly got each patrol their own fly. What a difference that made. We were at a spring camporee and the patrols even cooked, ate, and cleaned up in the alloted time even though their flys were only separated by the width of a couple tents plus walking around room. In the past, they were lucky if they could settle an argument in that amount of time. Amazing.