Plan for Ideal Troop

Currently, I am working on a written plan (along with others in the troop) for the vision of what we would like the troop look like ideally. Are there other troops who have written similar types of plans? I'm not talking anything broad like a mission statement or as nitpicky as a set of rules and regulations, but a written picture of what you would like the troop to become. If any one has ideas about what areas should be covered, please post them here. If anyone has a copy of one their troop has developed, please send me a private message and I'll be happy to provide my email so you can mail a copy.

I've had a picture of where I've wanted the troop to go for years, but getting it written down has proven to be difficult. Thank you in advance for any help you may be able to provide.

Two of my scouts just returned from a week of NYLTC. I haven't seen such enthusiasm in a long time. It is refreshing.

I suggest that you ask the boys what THEY want the troop to look like. Do they want to be a backpacking troop? A high-adventure troop? Dutch oven cooking experts? How big do they want to be?

I mentioned NYLTC because one of the things that is stressed in the new syllabus is creating your own vision of what you want your own troop/patrol to be.

It's the boys' troop. Let them create the vision. Then be their cheerleader and help them realize their dreams.

Ideal Troop?

That sounds like a very tall order.

I'm OK with the Vision Statement of the BSA:

The Boy Scouts of America is the nation's foremost youth program of character development and values-based leadership training.

In the future Scouting will continue to

Offer young people responsible fun and adventure;

Instill in young people lifetime values and develop in them ethical character as expressed in the Scout Oath and Law;

Train young people in citizenship, service, and leadership;

Serve America's communities and families with its quality, values-based program.

But...

I do think different groups or different people within a unit may bring their own vision to the table.

When we started the Sea Scout Ship last year I really wanted to make sure we had a strong foundation.

I wanted to make sure that we had a real working committee and a strong relationship with our CO.

To this end I have really pushed more and more stuff on the committee, even though it might have been a lot less work for me to do the stuff myself.

I have regular meetings with our COR and provide him with a written monthly report about what the Ship is doing and hopes to do. The Scouts keep a notice board in the club so that everyone can see photos and notes about the ship.

At our first Quarterdeck meeting, we sat down and put down on paper some goals that we wanted to reach before the end of 2006, mainly membership, uniform, advancement and finance goals.

After attending the Nygard Regatta and not doing very well the Petty Officers (Quarterdeck) decided that we needed to come up with a plan to do better next year.

Because of my family situation, I have set a new goal to recruit more active leaders into the Ship.

I think my vision for the Ship is and always will be Fun, Adventure and challenge.

If I can help them achieve that all the other good stuff will fall into place.

You need to use fairly broad strokes or you will end up tying yourself in knots.

Eamonn.

These two forms are what commissioners use to sum up the health of a unit.

http://www.scouting.org/forms/34126.pdf

http://www.scouting.org/forms/33618/33618-27.pdf

I would also suggest bringing in your unit commissioner, district commissioner if you don't have a UC. Their job is unit health and will be able to help you with some ideas.

Sorry there is no such thing as a "perfect or ideal" troop.

You can have the best troop you can have with the boys you have. But remember that this is the BOYS troop. But it will change from year to year with who is in your troop leadership positions. One of our best trainers always starts his SM training with a question. "What does the lable above the pocket on the uniform say? BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA. He then reminds the class that it does not say ADULT SCOUTS OF AMERICA." Boys are going to make mistakes and we should let them. My dad was very wise and he always said that kids learn more from their failures than they do from their successes. When a boy fails at something if he has the right adult support he can take that failure and learn what went wrong and how to correct it.

So trying to plan an ideal troop is IMHO setting yourself up for failure. Helping your boys plan the best troop they can have it giving them the chance to learn how to become leaders.

Eammon-

I agree that trying to put together an ideal troop is a tall order. However, I think that is something we (as in my troop) need to strive for. The BSA's Aims and Methods provide a wonderful framework from which to draw our values. However, within that framework, there are many different ways to build up a unit. For example, we have a troop in our distict with about 100-110 Scouts. Everywhere they go, they move like an army and develop a temporary city. Another troop in our district has about fifteen Scouts (they have said they don't ever want to go over 20) and follows LNT principles as well as any unit I've ever seen.

Both are very good troops with long histories and good reputations. Both are very good at following the Aims and Methods. However, with the exception of the Aims and Methods, they are very different troops. I also know that both of those troops are the way they are by design.

When the big troop was founded back in the early 70's, they wanted to be a huge troop like they are today. Their SM was a Scout in the troop in the early years and remembers when they had "only" 35-40 members and the leaders talking about how the troop was going to be the biggest and best troop around.

Another large troop in our district was founded back in 1993. A former district chairman formed the trooped and had seven trained ASM before they had a single Scout. They laid out a plan and the troop had over 60 Scouts within three years. Today, they have about 80 Scouts and are very well respected in our area.

The smaller troop, on the other hand, has been around since the 1950's. Obviously, they didn't start off following LNT principles. Their size floated up and down over the years (they actually had 30+ Scouts in the late 80's). In the early 90's, they had about 25-30 Scouts but were really floundering as a troop (little advancement, low attendance at events, discipline issues, etc.) At that time, their current SM took over and had a plan. They felt they could better serve the Scouts of their troop with a smaller unit and more individual attention. Over the next few years, they purposely let their unit shrink a little bit and changed the way they did things (including adopting LNT principles). Amazingly, while their membership dropped, their attendance at meetings and campouts increased, advancement increased, and the number of problems they had decreased. They met their goal of better serving the youth because they developed a workable plan and created what was an ideal troop for them.

I'd like to see my troop formulate a plan that will create the ideal troop for us. I think our progress as a troop has stalled because we don't have plan of what we really want to do. By the way, we are a Quality Unit every year, we follow the patrol method, over 50% of the registered adults are trained, we camp twelve months a year, and have a yearly planning conference led by the Scouts to put together these events.

I believe that in order for us to progress as a unit, we need that roadmap that goes beyond the Aims and Methods. If anyone has suggestions on what areas we need to cover, I'd be more than happy to hear them. Or, better yet, if your troop has some kind of written plan, I'd love to read it and get ideas.

I think getting your Troop's vision on paper is a great idea. I guess you won't know if you have met your goal until you know what the goal is.

I think what Lynda has to say is important. Over the years our Troop has been up and down. We have ranged from 9 to 42 boys (currently 25). We have had groups of boys that wanted High Adventure. We've had boys that could care less. It depends on what they want to do. The hardest thing for me as Scoutmaster is getting them to decide what to do. We have program planning conference and I get the blank stares. It isn't long until I get the famous question, "What'd we do last year? Let's do that." Boys are very much like people in that they are lazy and hate to think. My job is to make them.

I was lounging in camp and the Scouts decided to be active on their own. After about thirty minutes one Scout runs back in to camp and says, Mr. FB, Mike got hit in the head with a rock. I said, Well what are you going to do about it? while coming out of my reverie. In a couple of minutes, here comes Mike flanked by two Scouts and with a slight gash to the head. I simply said, Set down here. The Scouts will be right with you. The Scouts jumped into action and had doctored Mikes wounds in no time. We didnt discuss this incident too much because they knew what they had done was wrong. Mike was not hurt badly but it could have been worse. I called Mikes Mother and told her what had happened and that I felt that Mike would be alright. She agreed and so did Mike.

Of course, I knew what individual activities that the Scouts had decided on. They wanted to play Rock Throwing. It is a time honored tradition with most kids but there is the down side and that is someone can get injured. I suppose we were lucky that it was not worse.

Here is the upside to the Rock Throwing incident. I had not planned on making anyone responsible for their actions but that is what I did. I was upset by what happened and without thinking I put it all in the hands of the guilty parties. The thing that I did not expect was that they took responsibility and acted. From that day forward, I asked the Scouts what they wanted to do. First it became a habit to ask and then it became an expectation to say what they wanted to do.

I had a few rules. We were Scouts and we would do Scout things, which means there is a great amount of latitude but it did not include throwing rocks at each other.

Somehow this incident translated itself to the parents as well. They began to understand that I would accept certain responsibilities like orientation of new Scouts and parents and SM conferences. ASMs would assist in the background while the JLs would run the Troop. This meant that we would have problems with quality but then we also evaluated all programs. Growth was the expectation.

These programs were based on yearly evaluations and planning. We would have a large campout with the PLC and JLs going on some kind of an excursion and the rest of the Troop would take hikes or whatever they had planned. These planning sessions were supported by lots of parents. We would return after having loads of fun and with a rough plan. It would then be refined first by the PLC returning to the Scouts and then later coming together at a session for their final draft. The draft would then be sent to the TC for review and support and then be finalized. That copy published and sent to everyone. Hopefully, it was place on refrigerators with magnets and it was also handed out like advertisements.

Our program became a vision and an expectation of what the Scouts wanted for their Troop.

Thanks Mike for taking the hit. FB

(This message has been edited by Fuzzy Bear)