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In response to the post Patrol Method a reader asked the following about Scout patrols:
I have been an assistant scoutmaster for some time and was recently asked by the committee to be the new Scoutmaster. I have had only one
One of the things that concerns me is the patrol setup in our troop. We are setup as the Scoutmaster Handbook says – Webelos that cross over together and new boys form a “new boy patrol” – we have “regular” patrols, then we have a “venture” patrol.My question is (and we use the Troop Guide the best we can) – why does the mixing of ages in patrols not work? I have noticed that as the boys grow older they stick to themselves, the new boys are coming in lost. Wouldn’t it be nice to have them integrated into the patrols when they first come in?
When they went on a campout then they could rely on the experience of the other guys in their patrol, the ranks would be spread out across the patrol and the could help teach the younger scouts? Does anyone have any feedback for me?
Yes – integrating the patrols by age is important. Any Scoutmaster would admit that encouraging Scouts of different ages to work together is an ongoing challenge. Here are some methods that you may find effective –
- The New Scout Patrol concept has some positive aspects and was formulated (I believe) in response to the concern that the greatest attrition of new Scouts happens within the first year. The old practice used to be that incoming Webelos were divided amongst patrols and some of them would be intimidated by the older Scouts.
- I hold that keeping Webelos together is important but perhaps not all of them in a single patrol. The den leader or, ideally, den chief may have some insight on how the Webelos should be grouped together into Patrols – it is entirely possible that the Webelos would prefer being split up. Ask them what they would like to do.
- Make serving as a Den Chief the path to becoming a Patrol leader. While I understand the idea of having a Troop Guide it doesn’t seem necessary if, during their first year in the Troop, new Scouts are lead by their former Den Chief. Ideally the Den Chief should take over from his Patrol when the new Scouts join the Troop and the current Patrol leader moves on to another leadership position. That way there are a few older boys still involved with the patrol when the new Scouts arrive.
- When Webelos join the troop they don’t want a Patrol with training wheels – they want a full fledged Patrol free from the stigma of being the ‘little kids’ Patrol.
- Expect and require that older Scouts involve themselves in leading the younger by making it an inevitability. They must instruct, lead games, train and mentor the new Scouts. If adults do these jobs then it is little wonder that older Scouts gravitate to their own corner.
How do you get started? How about sitting down with your youth leadership and sharing the concerns expressed here and asking them for ideas. Sit back and listen and see what they come up with. Keep them focused on the goal of building strong patrols and you will be surprised with what they can do.
One periodic event that causes a great deal of excitement and Patrol spirit is the Inter-Patrol Scoutmaster’s Challenge.
We have “always” (in my four years of experience) created patrols grouped roughly by age. Incoming Webelos go into one or two “new boy patrols”. Their first challenge is to get a name so we don’t call them “new boys” anymore! On the other end, as boys age out at 18, we condense the remaining patrols patrols. In the middle, we flex – sometimes we keep the patrols together by age and sometimes we merge patrols across ages to keep the “critical mass” (somewhere around 8-10 members in the patrol). This has the benefit of keeping scouts gathered by common interests and maturities which helps select activities that will attract the patrol as a group. If you have a patrol with a variety of ages, it is hard to schedule more advanced outings such as those that have minimum ages (e.g., 14 for igloo building) or longer backpacking trips that expect physical endurance.
I have a standing goal for each patrol leader: to plan an outing to which they invite another patrol. This has the benefit of mixing ages. And I encourage the older patrols to host advancement-oriented outings and invite the younger guys. Finally, we do a lot of troop outings that bring all ages. So mixing remains a priority, we just don’t structure the patrols for that.
Stratifying by age seems to work for us – it builds patrols that can last. We work to solve the mixed-age goal through activities.
Creating a new scout patrol causes as many problems as it solves. If you find you loose a lot of young scouts its something to try. I doubt that it will help with the problem of loosing older scouts.
The troop I was a scout in always had a very large problem with drop-outs of high school age scouts. When I first became an ASM, after becoming an adult, I was asked to work with the older scouts in the troop to address the problem.
Most of the complaints centered around having to “baby sit” as they put it, basically being asked to lead a group much younger than them, and being board doing trips which were mostly “lowest common denominate” again their words.
The solution we came up with, was that each scout when they entered high-school left their previous patrol and became a member of one of the patrols. Four years later our troop went from ~20 scouts to 30+ with two venture patrols.
This had the unintended side effect of giving the younger scouts a bigger chance at leadership positions, and not having to wait until they were 14+ to be a patrol leader.
P.S. I’ve always felt that just the venture strips are inadaquit indication of venture patrol members. Our venture patrol members ware olvedrab bucket hats, instead of the red baseball style hats worn by the rest of the troop.
Our Troop still uses the old model (mixing boys into existing patrols). We never could convince our old scoutmaster to change because “we tried that and it doesn’t work”. I haven’t noticed younger boys being scared off (but maybe they disappear before I get to know them) but have found that we lose our older boys too soon.
We are now in a new era (new scoutmaster) and, as committee chair, I’m wondering about switching. How would one transition to this approach? What does the venture patrol do and when does an older boy move to it?
I have found that, by the time we get Webelos patrols, the pressures within the group are often near the explosion point. Boys and parents often are happy to get some breathing space from their former comrades. How do you manage this? Perhaps you get so many new boys in that you can mix and match. We typically only get about 6-10 per year, enough for one patrol.
I’d appreciate insights from others on this. Yes, I’ve had the training on it, but I’d like some real life discussion.