Making Up Patrols

We've seen any number of schemes for setting up patrols but were never
completely thrilled with any of them. This past season we experimented with
a plan which we've never seen described before, and achieved favorable
results- so we'd like to share it with all.
Various testimonials notwithstanding, we've never had very good results with
mixed ages in patrols. The boys simply clique together by age. Patrol
solidarity was important to us, so we decided to group patrols by school
grade, reasoning that boys who went to school together would tend to spend
time together outside of school. We were starting completely from scratch,
so we grouped the boys by grade on paper and then selected the most able
leaders from each group to be temporary patrol leaders. We then asked each
scout to list a few of his best friends in the troop on a slip of paper.
Having seen that two scouts will often support each other through the
program, we then played mix and match with the names to come up with pairs of
friends. Each pair of scouts was listed on a slip of paper, and then the
slips were grouped by grade. We then called in the patrol leaders. Each
received his best buddy as APL, and then picked pairs of scouts in rotation
for their patrols much as you would "choose up" sports teams.
About 4 months later, when the patrols had jelled, we held troop elections,
as the appointed leaders had fulfilled their need.
The results to date have been gratifying. We have seen excellent harmony in
the patrols, and have had no cause to move scouts between patrols. The
patrol leaders have had good cooperation from their members, and
interestingly, patrol personalities have emerged. One patrol, very ably led
by a seventh grader, has consistently excelled at troop activities and
campouts, and is going to summer camp as a natural patrol. Conversely,
another patrol has no summer camp attendees, and has had erratic attendance
and performance at troop activities. Our other four patrols fall between
these two extremes.
A perfect system? Not really. But we're very pleased with it after this
trial year, and intend to keep the patrols as they are next season and use
the system to make up new ones until something better comes along.

Yours In Scouting,

Cliff Egel
Scoutmaster, Troop 39
LaGrange, IL

"Remember Jack Benny"

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