New Patrol Method Training Presentation

[jtswestark]

Overall, nice presentation, but needs some touchups.

 

Couple things to consider -

- You have a group of Scouters/Parents that you are talking to for two hours - you need some kind of activity or many will either start wandering around for coffee, restrooms, or fall asleep (been there... trust me!).

- You are ranging on topic from very rudimentary (new parents) to somewhat advanced (novice/lightly experienced leaders?). Maybe too large of a range to cover effectively in a two hour class.

- At 56 slides that gives you less than 2 minutes per slide. Many of which are redundant - cut out half of them for starters. Consolidate your references/bibliography onto handouts or just one slide. Much of what you have listed should be in the speaker notes, not the slides - they will be reading instead of listening to you. And you may end up reading yourself as all your thoughts may be on the slide (which drives people nuts). You do need time for discussion and questions and always allow for that one guy thats going to share every war story he's ever encountered. Thin down the show some to allow time for that.

- Simplify your master slide as they are way to busy and your bullets points will be overlooked. I hope you will have handouts of the presentation? At 6 slides per page, thats 10 pages that may not print so well as they are very congested. The beautiful pictures won't print out very well, plus will be very expensive if you want to go in color...

- Dont use complete sentences, think bullet points. You fill in the remainder of the words.

 

A couple specific points that are just suggestions based upon reading the slides. We obviously don't know the actual words you are going to use in presenting. But your audience will remember the hard words they see (and read later on handouts) and these are two areas I would caution you to soften:

- Watch the "The SPL reports to the Scoutmaster". That's not really the relationship we want to promote. A better statement would be "The SPL is guided by the SM", right? The wording seems to conflict with the distinction you are presenting in Boy vs. Adult Lead.

- "6 month terms" reference when discussing elections. Not necessarily - it's a unit decision and varies quite often. Maybe a better way of posing it is to qualify it with 'many units use a 6 month election cycle, others may go longer depending on their preferences'.

 

Do you have any idea how big this class is? Do you have some time to fine tune it? Maybe you can focus on the new leader/parent or the struggling novice leader with great advice and suggestions. The board of experts Q&A approach for the second hour is a great way to round up and pique some wiley veterans, fires up audience participation, and you can moderate.

 

Good for you for taking this on, not an easy task!

 

JTS

 

[Eagledad]

>>- "6 month terms" reference when discussing elections. Not necessarily - it's a unit decision and varies quite often. Maybe a better way of posing it is to qualify it with 'many units use a 6 month election cycle, others may go longer depending on their preferences'.

[bnelon44]

I will probably provide a break between topics. The room I will be in is very small

 

I did consolidate some slides and uploaded again

 

I have been told I have the next 2 hour block as well which only has slotted "teaching parents about the patrol method" should make for a lively discussion :/

 

 

[Beavah]

While I fully agree with JTS that election cycles are a unit decision, 6 months is what is recommened in BSA literature.

 

Yah, hmmm....

 

Where?

 

Da ScoutMaster Handbook says each troop sets its own, "though senior patrol leaders are usually chosen at six-to-twelve month intervals". For PL, it offers "most troops select patrol leaders twice a year, though a troop might want to hold elections more frequently."

 

The PL Handbook and Scout Handbook say nuthin'. The SPL handbook says the same thing as the SM handbook for the SPL position - "usually a period of six to twelve months".

 

Nowhere that I'm aware of do we actually recommend six months. Personally, I think da reason 6-months is "common" is mostly a product of units not understandin' the advancement method's role, and tying elections to the Life/Eagle advancement requirement timeframe.

 

Beavah

 

[jtswestark]

Bill

That is a fantastic parent presentation on the patrol method. I really like the way you give a side by side comparison of the Pack vs. Troop. Very clear and succinct.

It finally dawned on me after a few years of parent presentations that by frequently reminding and reinforcing them about the Aims and Methods we headed off a lot of misunderstandings about why we do things the way we do. Great advice for any new leader (probably was in the Fundamentals session I was goofing off in).

 

However one concern (sorry). You give a great list of the ways you can identify an adult lead troop, then follow with the outcome on the next slide. Great stuff. But what you dont want to do is inadvertently be giving a message that a boy lead troop doesnt care about or focus on advancement, or outings, or planning with announcements. A parent in your audience may ask themselves: why are these bad things?? and off they go to the Dark Side. A boy lead troop can do these things with proper guidance and training, and can be done very well. So be careful of how you word those last three bullets on slide 13. I would expect a parent will ask you what can I look for in a boy lead troop? And here you go: SM and adults are seen in the background and not heard; Adults are separated from the Troop activities; The SPL is the MC of the meeting; The SPL runs the PLC Patrols have meetings and outings on their own for some examples that maybe you can add to an additional slide (I know less slides the better).

 

Maybe Im a little rusty on my roles and Im certain I will get corrected if so a very minor point but to us diehards on page 17, last bullet isnt it the role of the CC to take on parent issues?

 

Great job and thanks for being open to constructive points.

 

JTS

 

[bnelon44]

CC may be responsible for taking on parent issues. But the best person to go to for information on the program is the Scoutmaser.

[jtswestark]

In my years as SM, when I had a decent CC that would take on the majority of those parent issues it was a significant load off me and I could focus on what I was really there for. A SM's best friend is an active CC!

 

JTS(This message has been edited by jtswestark)

[GKlose]

Just a couple of random thoughts --

 

Over the past year, one of my most difficult tasks has been to convince Mr. SM that he needs to stop barking out orders to everyone, virtually taking over every meeting and outing. It's tough work :-), and he still needs constant reminders. We made most progress when we had a Scout step forward that really wanted to be SPL, he was elected and trained. Then we convinced Mr. SM to relinquish control.

 

Lately, Mr. SM hasn't been to every meeting (or outing). He finds it somewhat liberating. He can sometimes come into a meeting, and be at the back of the room, with almost every other adult, and just relax a little. More often than not, we're talking "committee business" back there, and it is sometimes nice to get his input, rather than competing for his attention when he's barking out orders.

 

Another thought -- although the Trainer's EDGE training has taken a beating on this forum (and I would agree that it is deeply flawed), the curriculum has some very interesting points about putting together good PowerPoint presentations (content and visual presentation). It only would take a few minutes to review that, and then I think you might get some ideas for this presentation.

 

Guy

[Tampa Turtle]

I saw the presentation. Overall I like it. I would move a lot of the wordy parts to your comments section and say it--it will still print out on the notes. Then cull, cull, cull. Use pictures to describe activities. The difference between a good presentation and a great presentation is the great one is distilled down. IMHO.

[bnelon44]

I don't think I will print this presentation out as a handout. I will have the notes if I need to refer to anything, but I already have a number of handouts I can give out. here

http://www.bsatroop14.com/patrolmethod

 

[bnelon44]

Well the training went very well. I ended up being alotted one 1.5 hour block and one 1 hour block.

 

I ended up with 3 presentations:

Briefing parents on the patrol method (about 30 min)

The Patrol Method for Scouters and Parents (about 1 hour)

Teaching Jr. Leaders (about 45 min or so)

Used a game (helium stick) about 1/2 way through the 1.5 hour segments

 

Presentations and handouts are here:

http://www.bsatroop14.com/patrolmethod