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Personal schedules are just one of the things that affect a Scout patrol …
… and we can’t do things as if it were 10 years ago, much less 100. One of our challenges as Scouters (and human beings) is adapting to change while maintaining our goals and principles. It’s not impossible, but it can be hard work.
In this podcast I’ll discuss transition and change in a few different contexts focused on maintaining Scout patrols, the patrol system, and youth leadership.
In This Podcast
[0:20] Canoeber?
[1:22] Intro
[6:50] Combining patrols on camping trips?
[12:32] Older Scouts and youth leadership transition.
[18:24] The Quarterly Plan
[26:30] Junior assistant Scoutmasters
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Podcast Notes
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We’ve been talking about shifting toward this quarterly plan, and I think it’ll have a lot of good effects. But a question that came to mind was how do you do ILST ? Do you offer an ILST course 4 times per year, or what?
We never do ILST, event-oriented training, or anything similar. We do OJT (on the job) training that really doesn’t come across as training. We just get going and our youth leaders learn what they need to know experientially.
This works because they have watched other Scouts take on the role. If we were starting from scratch things would be different.
The question about patrol mass, and the so-called “provisional patrol” is something I have been pondering for a long while. You mentioned that you don’t see that boys are as “tribal” as they once where. I might offer something…..and this is just me “thinking out loud”, that perhaps this touches on that sense of belonging that is so much a part of the patrol method…and if the guys aren’t getting it in normal life, this might very well be another area where scouts can give them something they don’t get anyplace else.
Personally, I don’t think it a problem if a patrol camps as a patrol of two (or maybe even one), if this is an exception. If the norm is say your “5” or fewer, then perhaps the scouts may very well decide to recruit into this patrol or to restructure…. but as a one-off exception I think keep the patrol intact. Again, just thinking out-loud here….
Combing patrols? Scouts rarely comb themselves. Getting them to comb the patrols definitely will be a challenge. 😉
It just takes discipline and a patrol comb. (seriously, though, I fixed my spelling, thanks!)