Growing the patrol Method in a new Troop

[mdlscouting]

I'm currently active in a relatively New Den, that so far has only had 1 group of Webelos cross over. Our affiliated Troop is of course, very small, and very young.

 

In most troops, the Patrol method is used in ways that let the older scouts take some leadership responsibilities, and they have been working toward this for a while.

 

In a situation with a small, young Troop, where at most you have 1/2 a year's worth of experience as Boy Scouts, what can be done to encourage the boy-led behavior?

 

I can see where we are now, and what the eventual goal is a few years from now, but I'm not entirely sure what are the best steps to get from here to there.

[diogenes]

If you dig through the forums, you'll see plenty of good advice has been given on this topic. You need to look at this as a long range goal, and get the boys to buy in from the beginning. Work with them to lay out a plan with goals and expectations, step by step, and work it. If an established troop that currently uses the kind of leadership you want is operational, perhaps they can send over some Troop Guides to help for the first little bit, or let you come visit and learn from them a few times.

 

Keep the goals reasonable for the age and capabilities of the boys, but don't underestimate them. Once you train them, step back and let them go.

[Beavah]

Yah, in that setup, yeh have to imagine what's good "leadership" for a new 11-year-old, eh?

 

It ain't goin' to be planning a backpack expedition from scratch.

 

More likely, it's goin' to actually make it through cooking a good hearty pasta meal on their own. So think in terms of "leadership" for simple camp tasks in the Tenderfoot / 2nd Class skill set. Doin' flags on their own. Treatin' each other's tick bite on their own. Just gettin' a group of guys that age to clean up after a meal as an efficient team is a big "youth leadership" victory, eh? In the meantime, you stay the example of a good bigger picture leader.

 

A big change is goin' to happen then in year two, when yeh have new boys joining and your current lads become the experienced hands. That's da natural point where those older guys start to step up, eh? Now they have someone who knows less than they do to help out, and as they see that and feel confident, they'll start to step into other leadership roles. Yeh move 'em up to First Class and yeh start to treat 'em as assistant leaders. Still not planning whole outings, but perhaps planning and leadin' the hiking portion.

 

Year three, when yeh get another round of new guys in, is when those first guys are startin' to get ready to stand up as full fledged PL's. Startin' to plan & lead whole outings, at least the ones they've done before, usin' their second-year-guys as assistants. You're still goin' to be providin' some structure to the overall year planning and PLC.

 

Year four is when you'll have guys really movin' into the SPL/PLC/yearly planning calendar type stuff on their own.

 

So for right now, your goal should be to get 'em comfortable and confident with their basic camping skills and "leading" startin' the fire and cookin' breakfast and figurin' out where they are on a map and what turn to take. Those are big victories for a group of kids who have never done 'em before.

 

Beavah

 

[nyvp]

I feel for you. I just started a troop in south florida with 8-10 scouts ranging in age of 11-13. Not one of them have any scout exp and neither do the parents or myself (SM) other then online and some meetings. What we did last week was go over to another local troop and it helped out a lot. They split them up and had 6 older scouts work with them and really drove home a lot of things.