New Scout Patrol SA

>I would like to begin with this new group coming in the spring the =
concept of a new >scout patrol as it is supposed to be according to =
national, that is, they stay together for >a year and then join the =
established patrols.

Pete, your one of those SM that has a good sense about these things and =
I have faith that your experience will give us the guidelines for =
successful Patrols and Troops.=20

In subjects like this I am one that tends to look at what we are trying =
to acheive.. The main objectives for us as Troops leaders is to give =
older Scouts more responsibility and leadership experience by guiding =
them to teach the younger Scouts the skills required to feel like Boy =
Scouts and members of the Troop. If all the Scouts are maturing in the =
Troop and Patrol activities, Scout skills, and leadership, and having =
fun, then you have probably have a successful program. Jim Sleezer once =
pointed out that it's not so much the Patrol structure as it is the =
amount of time you invest into the that new Patrols that determines the =
success or failure of new Scouts and new Patrols.

Our SM tried something last year with some limited success. I don't know =
where he got the idea but we assigned an older patrol to mentor the new =
Patrol. The older Patrol was responsible to make sure that the younger =
Patrol learned Scout skills and how a Patrol functions at Troop meetings =
and camp outs.=20

We found it works great with good mentor Patrols but we lost a whole new =
patrol because of a bad mentor Patrol. So we are trying some new things =
this year. We are assigning an adult SA and Troop Guide to each new =
Patrol. This may seem obvious to many of you but as a young Troop, we =
didn't have the resources for these positions before.=20

We liked the way the mentoring Patrol worked so we are using the APL as =
the Troop guide. The SA is there to make sure the new boys are =
progressing and a person to talk to if they have complaints or concerns. =
I am planning a training session where we train the SA and the APL to =
work together and what each duties are. I got a lot of good stuff from =
this thread already. Keep it coming guys.

Also something else we will try this year is after the new Scouts have =
been in the Troop for about a year, we will let them choose whether to =
start a new Patrol or join an existing one.=20

For our Troop, new Patrols is still a big challenge, so am glad to see =
this thread.

Barry Runnels

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