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I am often asked …
“How do I get my troop’s adult volunteers to use the patrol method?”
I’ll answer that question with a one sentence Scouter job description. Over the past decade of writing the blog at Scoutmastercg.com I’ve been looking for a one sentence definition of Scouting. Something we can tell ourselves that focuses us on what’s important about our work as Scouters.
I think I may have found it, listen in and see if you agree.
I’ll also answer questions about merit bade sashes, getting Scouts to wear the uniform correctly, and commiserate with a new Scoutmaster who is feeling that it all may be too much.
Clouds [0:20]
Intro [1:12]
A daunted new Scoutmaster asks for help [9:17]
A den leader asks about encouraging uniforms. [12:46]
One Mom’s question about sewing on merit badges. [18:02]
Influencing Scouters to use the patrol method, the one sentence job description. [19:29]
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I’m tracking now. I misunderstood the original premise. I thought you were saying that the scouters should have a patrol that is a model for the scouts. We sort of operate that way but duties rotate among the adults.
Now you are catching on, but I do not recommend adult patrols as an example to the Scouts. I discourage that idea altogether, patrols are for Scouts, not adults.
I have always heard it as an Old Norwegian Proverb:
Det fins ikke dårlig vær, bare dårlige klær.
“There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing.”
I’m lost. If your adults are not using the patrol method, how are they operating? I’m using camp outs as a reference. I’ve belonged to two different troops as an adult leader and both had adult patrols that operated very similar to the Scout patrols. How do these adults leaders that do not use the patrol method operate? Are they “every man (woman) for themselves”? I cannot ever remember visiting another troop that operated this way.
It’s not that the adults are not using the patrol method on camping trips for themselves, they are not using or promoting it with the Scouts.
There;s a great deal more to the patrol method than the logistics of breaking a troop into patrols.
Please expound on how these committees/ASMs are operating if not using the patrol method. I think our troop has a very robust and effective group of adult leaders, but maybe their are things we could be doing better.
When folks aren’t using the patrol method it means that the youth leaders are appointed rather than elected by the Scouts, positions of responsibility are more honorific titles than actual responsibilities, adults are planning and running troop meetings and camping trips, and Scouts are mostly listening to adults rather than being led by their fellow Scouts.