How to create patrols?

[Cardinal]

We have about 45 scouts. For the past few years we have realigned the patrols each year. The SM assigns patrol members and patrol leaders; the scouts elect the SPL and ASPL, each for one year terms. The patrols are rarely used intact.

 

For campouts they are often completely changed.

 

I've been reading the various handbooks for SM, SPL, PL and want to change to align moreso with the patrol method.

 

How should we form the patrols? Since we would be starting from scratch, do we somehow let the boys select their own patrols? Seems a bit like picking teams. Someone always gets left out, or picked last, or not on the team they want to be on.

 

Can we have them each write down the names of their closest friends? Then let the SPL and older boys arrange them?

 

What is the right combination of "boy led" for this?

 

Also, should we have shorter terms for the offices?

[Gold Winger]

SM assigns PLs, wow!

 

One method that I've read about that has worked fairly well is that each Scout writes down the names of four other Scouts which includes at least one who is older than the Scout and one who is younger. Now, you start going through the lists and finding the intersections. Where the intersections are largest, you have a patrol.

 

Why have one older and one younger? One is the voice of experience and the other is one who needs guidance.

[OldGreyEagle]

When we re-align, the PLC determines the number of scouts allowed per patrol, usually around 10. Then the meeting room is broken up into sections, A, B, C patrol area. Then the youth gather with the the youth they want to be with. They select a name, a yell and design a flag.

 

If youth are not present, they may have a friend claim them and put them in their patrol. Then there is the stealth patrol that gets the youth not likely to show up much and we move on

[Cardinal]

Eagle? How often do you realign? It seemed from the PL handbook that once created patrols would stay together, picking up members as openings were created?

 

Gold Winger,

 

So you do try to actively mix ages rather than stick with "buddies"?

 

Thanks for the advice.

[OldGreyEagle]

Most of the time the patrols stay together, or the nucleus does, other times youth find that they arent so near as compatible with others as they thought they would be. Its done once a year. They have a chance to change, or stay together, its their choice

[Stosh]

When we first set up patrols, each boy was allowed to find his best buddy. Once that occured, all the "left-over" boys were allowed to buddy with each other or stay as singles. Then by hat drawing of numbers, selected the order in which they would pick their patrols. The hat draw was 1 number for each pair or one number for each single. "#1 which patrol do you want to be in?", "#2 which...", etc. The original number of patrols was designated by the number of scouts and a senior scout was assigned PL. Once they knew who was in each patrol, then they picked their secondary buddies when their chance opened up to pick a patrol.

 

This year there will be 3 new patrols to supplement the original 3 from last year so the new cross-overs will have the opportunity to pick an established patrol or one of the new ones. The patrols with an odd number of openings will be restricted at the end. This will occur when a single scout picks and or attrition from last year left the numbers uneven. If the patrol has only one available slot and a pair of boys is up for selection, they cannot both join that patrol and will need to decide on a different patrol with 2 available slots.

 

There's a little luck of the draw, but the onus of decisions is not based on a PL's picking leaving a loner at the end. The drawing made everyone equal and their decision, not the PL's got them their patrols.

 

This system is how the original boys decided would be the most fair and it seemed to have worked out rather well.

 

Before this years cross-overs are given a chance to pick patrols, the scouts already in the patrols may, at their request, move to a different patrol.

 

Once the selections are made, the patrols will stay together for one year and the "reevaluation" process will occur once more.

 

Stosh

[Bob White]

First, Good for You! Rearranging patrols each year is a horrible practive.

 

The BSA recommends that patrols work best when they are natural groups of scouts of similar ages and interests. To that end is to best to let Scouts select their own patrol group.

 

Here is a method that has worked well for many years.

 

Lets say you were making 5 patrols of 7 or 8 scouts leaving room then for the troop leadership positions.

 

First hold your election for SPL and him select his junior leaders.

 

Then, wiith the remaininging scouts have each one take an index card and write their name on the top and the names of 4 other scouts they would like to be in a patrol with under their name.

 

Take a large sheet of paper and write all the scouts names across the top creating columns and all the names in the same order don the side to create intersecting rows.

 

Taking Tom T.'s index card go across his row and put an X in his colunm and in the column of each scout he wants in his patrol. Do this with each scout.

 

When the chart is complete you will be able to look at the columns and see definite patterns of scouts who want to be together.

 

You and the SPL using the chart create the patrol groups recommended by the scout's choices on the chart. I would then bring in the scout who was the most selected in each patrol and show them the results and get their input.

 

Used correctly this method results in the scouts being in a patrol with scouts who they selected or who selected them. These groups tend to form bonds very quickly and work well together.

 

Good Luck. Change is never easy, but cases such as this it is surely needed and the right thing to do.

BW

[Stosh]

I have found that the continual mixing and matching of scouts amongst different patrols does more damage than good in building any commradarie amongst the boys. Unless there is conflict, it is better to keep the same pards together for as long as they want without adult interference. If the boys want to perpetuate their patrol beyond their scouting experience, they had better train up new blood just like any other organization by taking on the occasional new Webelos crossover. If they figure it out, if they take on one new Webelos every year they will perpetuate their patrol over the span of 7 years of scouting.

 

There is no way I would ever ask a boy to realign himself with a different patrol, nor would I ever suggest that patrols design themselves in any manner other than what they as a group want.

 

The competetive nature of the patrols I have now go a long way to develop the B-P's "gang" mentality necessary for good teamwork and loyalty to their patrols. Like WB patrols, they maintain that bond well beyond normal relationships. How many boys can say that after 7 years of scouting they were a member of the _________ patrol, and how many say they were in 7 different patrols? Where does the commradarie come from when loyalty gets set back to zero every year and who's going to put any heart into the patrol when it's only going to last for a year? Or how much team loyalty is there when I'm in with a bunch of other guys at camporees and outings and not with my pards? Kinda reminds me of the situation last camporee where the patrol that won overall competition was from my former troop. Only one boy out the 6 that competed was from the patrol, everyone else was a ringer. The patrol that won second overall was from that troop too, but their PL was a "member" for the weekend of the patrol that got 1st place. Kinda makes one wonder where B-P's "gang" concept goes in a situation like that.

 

Stosh

[Beavah]

Yah, jblake makes good points, Cardinal. Once yeh have a developed patrol structure, the boys can continue it.

 

I think yeh do have to consider BobWhite's and others' more directive style in the short run, though, because yeh have to get 'em going on the patrol method to start. Provide 'em a structure to get goin', then they can figure it out from there.

 

Da big question in some ways is whether you see your older boys as bein' mentors and instructors to your younger ones within a patrol, and whether patrols should be "permanent" like school houses in Hogwarts. Or whether patrols should come out of da webelos den model of same-age friends, and be more transient.

 

The former, yeh grab your older boys who are the stronger leaders and rascals, and yeh have them select the guys they enjoy bein' around and working with. If yeh think it's necessary, you can have the younger lads write down who their friends and best buddies are, though mostly I expect the older boys know this kind of thing already. If yeh think it's necessary, also call their attention to each boy's participation rate so yeh make sure every patrol is always "viable" on campouts. Now your more experienced scouts have real responsibility for all the lads in their patrol, and your patrols are fairly evenly balanced for patrol competitions and such. New boys get "sorted" into these existing patrols either right away or after a brief period in a New Scouts Patrol. Just like da Hogwarts Sorting Hat, the choice of the lad matters .

 

The latter, yeh grab the one or two boys in each age cohort who are natural leader types and make 'em PLs (or encourage 'em to run for the job). Then yeh let 'em form up with roughly same-age group friends, shepherdin' the "unpopular" lads into one patrol or another. Yeh can formalize this process as BobWhite suggests, or be a bit more loose, but yeh want to have a good handle on it either way. Because this will result in unbalanced patrols, patrol competition won't be a big thing in your troop, and you're goin' to want to be committed to a high-adventure sort of program for your older boy patrols since they won't have as much challenge and responsibility for teachin' the younger guys. New groups will come in as webelos dens together as a New Scout Patrol, and often remain as that patrol until attrition forces 'em to consolidate in high school.

 

If yeh just let 'em self-select, you'll likely get the second type of patrol setup, because in all da rest of their life they stay just with their same-age peers, eh? School, sports, etc. Kids are conservative types, they stick with what they know. As middle schoolers especially, they prefer to blend in with da crowd, not be singled out. So if yeh want the first type, yeh have to be a bit more explicit settin' that up.

 

One thing I wouldn't necessarily do is start by pullin' out SPL, ASPL, and troop positions (QM, etc.). I think yeh want to build your patrol structure first, because it's the foundation of good Scoutin'. Then, as they feel the need, the boys can step forward and be voluntarily demoted from their patrol to troop service jobs. PL's are da team captain. SPL is the guy who organizes the league schedule, QM brings the balls out, etc. Get 'em to recognize the PL's as the real team captains first, eh?

 

Beavah

 

[Gold Winger]

"Gold Winger,

 

So you do try to actively mix ages rather than stick with "buddies"?"

 

I don't do anything but the system I explained allows buddies to stick together but also pulls in kids of other ages.

 

I view the single age patrol to be one of the worst things that can happen to the patrol method. I know that BP said that patrols were groups of friends but he lived in an era when boys of different ages interacted on a regular basis.

[Stosh]

The age thing is purely arbitrary and unnecessary. I run my units with no regards to ages and the boys pretty much act and react in similar manner.

 

In my Crew I have 14 year-olds on the same level as adults of the CO doing like things with no differentiation except by military rank of the hobby. I have NCO boys of the Crew that hold leadership over the privates of the CO with no problem, dissention or discussion. As a matter of fact, it was suggested at the last major national event, that if I couldn't command the company at the event, the leadership would fall to the senior Crew officer to lead the combined group of CO and Crew. It didn't work out, so the senior Crew officer was second in command of a 30 man company on the field. He held a functional leadership position over all the others in the CO and no one had a problem with it.

 

In my troop, 11 year-olds and 16 year-olds all fall into the same category -- Scouts. They tend to gather as rank levels because of the program needs but once they are FC, they are all pretty much at the same level and interact together. My Life Scout PL's are on the same playing field level as my Tenderfoot PL's. They all work together to make the unit function. It took about 3 months to erase the "New guys" distinction from the Webelos crossovers and hasn't been addressed since. I base the POR's on functionality and not personality and so if a TF PL functions as PL he is respected by the other scouts equally as a Life PL who functions as a PL.

 

If one doesn't draw attention to the age differences, the differences aren't always considered by the boys. Those that constantly remind the boys that there are older boys and younger boys, then the boys will adopt that mindset as well.

 

Stosh

[Bob White]

Evidently we have another urban legend to add to the list. The belief that older scouts will not have opportunities to train, or mentor, or to socialize with younger scouts if you follow the BSA Troop structure is just a myth.

 

Through their work as Troop Guides, instructors, troop junior leaders, they will have ample contact with younger scouts. more importantly though they will be able to set an example to younger scouts as to the activities and adventures that await them as they grow and develop in strength experience and skills.

 

 

[Beavah]

Yah, exactly BobWhite. I agree with yeh.

 

Older boys in same-age/Venture patrols become an example of what's possible when/if a younger lad makes it to that level. To interact with younger lads, they come down from da mountaintop to do a special job or service, eh? That can be great.

 

That's a very different feel from sharin' a campsite and campsite chores as a fellow patrol-mate on an ongoin' basis. Of bein' a fellow Gryffindor, and workin' alongside older and younger lads for the honor of our patrol.

 

In da former, the older boys are responsible for teachin' and assisting. In the latter, they're responsible for leading. In da former, the younger scouts see da older boys on the mountaintop. In the latter, they see 'em in the common room.

 

Which yeh choose depends on what your goals are, eh? I do believe, though, that ends up bein' an adult choice, or at least an adult-guided choice. Just because da goals are program goals, adult goals. Whether it's be good re-enactors or teach servant leadership or promote high adventure, patrol method is central to achievin' those goals, and should be used thoughtfully.

 

Had a parent in one program tell me over da weekend how interestin' it was that her younger boy had become a real friend to older boys in his patrol - to the point where they call him to invite him to go bikin' or to da rock gym or their birthday or whatnot - without his older brother. While in all da rest of the world the younger boy would just have been "their older son's little brother" to those older boys. I reckon jblake is right, eh? If we care about it as part of our goals, we adults can make the age thing irrelevant. Left to themselves, though, the boys would choose what they're familiar with from the rest of da world.

 

Beavah

(This message has been edited by Beavah)

[Cardinal]

Hi,

 

Thanks for everyone for your suggestions.

 

We had each boy give the names of two closest friends. The group split into three obvious groups. Now the SPL (with my assistance) is working to place the handful of others, either as a patrol of their own or with the stronger (more bonded) groups).

[Eagle1982]

I like the idea of having patrols of boys with like interests and not too dissimilar in ages.

 

I've never had the opportunity to try, but the idea of a sheet each boy would fill out on their own. Questions like:

 

I would rather:

Work on a new merit badge at home or go camping

Work on Hiking Merit Badge or Reading Merit Badge

 

I think I'd rather try

Backpacking over camp-o-rees

Summer camp Cope program or Leatherworking merit badge

 

I think you could find out which boys are wired more for the outdoor activities and high-adventure, and which ones prefer the field trips and merit badge homework. Make patrols from there.