The Patrol Method
Lessons and questions of Scout leadership and operating troop program
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LATEST POSTS
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It wasn’t covered in the roll out of the unit metrics, but those are rooted in research. A Scouter in my district was literally the guy who came up with them. Units that score 4 or 5 have a very high (90%+) likelihood to recharter. Units with 0 or 1 have a very high likelihood to fail and not recharter. Data was gathered, by hand, for about 4 years and in the 4th year he could predict units they wouldn’t recharter very well. -
Any time membership drop is discussed there are always qualifiers; well it was this, it was that, it was letting females in, it was not letting females in soon enough, it was the Mormon Church leaving, it was letting in 5 year old Lions, it was COVID, Scouting cost too much. it's the way too long Cub program, it was the bankruptcy, we need to wait for this date to normalize, the new registration system messed up stuff, etc etc. All very good assumptions, but an best anecdotal. There are no facts and no real understanding of why membership continues to drop. There are never any facts (from districts / councils / national / executive board) to support and figure a path forward. What SA (formerly BSA) is NOT doing is root cause analysis; for youth leaving / not joining OR for successful units. Where are the actual exit interviews, where is the research, who is benchmarking successful units with floundering units. Yes there is universal leader / volunteer training but what works and what doesn't? IMHO National and Councils are mainly looking at dollars raised. I got a survey recently about my perception (attitude??) about Scouting America. In summary it was mainly about donations and financially supporting Scouting. In my council there is no emphasis on adding members. DE's focus on raising funds, so the council can hire staff to raise money. All events are monetized. Goal of Scouts is to raise money, that is the bar. Until the BSA comes to really understand underlying issues, what needs and perceptions are not being met, and what needs to be changed, nothing will change. Bottom line, 815,000 youth in 230 (or so) councils means 3,500 youth per council. If a Council Executive (average) pay is $200K (all in) that means just for the local CE there is a burden of $57 per member. Data suggest 3,100 or so SA employees, so that may indicate (with benefits) just labor overhead burden of +/- $190,000,000 or $233 PER YOUTH member. That is before any other overhead costs such as IT, liability insurance. SA (formerly BSA) needs to reduce the costs, focus on growth, and get rid of what doesn't add value. -
While I can understand your perspective on the use of the "perversion files", I feel that is not constructive to "fixing" things. The IV files were more than mos groups or organizations attempted, and even with this additional untenable episode, YP is still better than most other groups and I have read is a guide for others that finally choose to do something. Most of the people in the IV files were not deviants, or so it appears. The sad fact is that we have sick people in the larger society that are always trying to get around any protections and prey on the weak and less mature. And we still have far too many government agencies that are worse, in some respects, than the predators, since they take payoffs or whatever or simply do not want to make the efforts for some reason. So, we that continue towork at it must be vigilant and pray that we keep most of them out and away. Zero tolerance is wonderful, but it also will NOT stop a few sick people. -
Agreed. Though often I do not want their "help" as they do not understand the program hence their complaints. -
Agree with staking to the ground. Making tent pegs is a great way to use the saw, axe, knife skills on a regular basis. Often we complain about one&done, or advancement reqs as separate from program. This is how to incorporate it. If the books&magazines don't show it, the adult patrol can certainly model it. Scout: wow mister, how did you set up your guys tarp without any tent stakes or line-locs. ASM Smith: look here, we made a couple pegs with our hatchet & knife. Tied the tarp to them with a taut-line hitch. Each of us made one peg, so it only took a few minutes. Mister Peabody never made one, so I showed him how. Scout: Neat Mister Smith, can you show me? ASM: I could, but better yet how about Mr. Peabody shows you while I watch. Then you can show the rest of your patrol while Mr. Peabody watches. Scout: Swell. Can I get my assistant patrol leader to come watch too? ASM: certainly. We willbe right here.
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