Scouting History

Until we fix the legal system in the United States, as if that is even likely, much of what made Scouting so beneficial to youth growth into citizenship and focused lives has become basically impossible.  The swarms of black birds continue to circle overhead, not just over Scouting, but over anything that could lead to public outrage and legal settlements that make the lawyers rich, and incrementally destroy the positive elements of society.

Depends on the SM and availability of  trained adult leaders. Our senior patrol still plans and execute 1 or 2 outdoor patrol activities a year.  Back in my day, patrols hiked locally without adults  provided their SM approved.  I would say even then, councils did not recognize patrols.  Council events and camps required troop registration even the patrol competition Klondike Derby required troop registration.  IMHO, skilled, experienced patrols should be allowed to trek Philmont without adults. As an alternative to an Eagle service project,  I favor allowing Eagle Scout candidates to plan and lead a patrol trek without adults in attendance or a "project handbook".  We once trained scouts to reach a level (First Class) of outdoor competency such that they could "scout run" themselves without adults present.  My $0.02,

I've been reading the 1941 Handbook for Scoutmasters and it reminded me of something I read as a kid in my first Boy Scout Handbook, 9th edition.  To make sure I wasn't misremembering, I pulled it off the shelf and on page 17, it discusses Patrol Hikes and Camps.  It says "Good patrols go overnight camping by themselves."  The 10th edition dilutes the encouragement and makes it more of a possibility.  By the 12th edition, the notion of a Patrol doing something without the rest of the troop isn't even an idea.  Just to make sure it wasn't a Green Bar Bill anomaly, I went back to the 7th edition and found a similar idea as the 9th.  Even as a youth, I always thought it would be fun to have a patrol campout, but we were pretty limited due to transportation.  Even the SA website says, "Patrol Activities - A Scout patrol may camp or hike with other patrols in the unit."  This sounds suspiciously like "Only troop camping is allowed", which is a bit like Cub Scouts, with the exception of the Webelos and AOL dens.  Even the G2SS has eliminated any mention of patrol outings.   If a troop is supposed to be made up of patrols and not split into patrols, then shouldn't the focus be on patrol-level activities?

We had started off with intent to keep units separate, then when numbers fell and recruitment just wasn't bringing in new girls, for practical purposes we had to do everything jointly. The pilot just made sense- especially as we were told from our Field Service Director that National did not want councils to keep letting units re-charter with 3-4 youth year-over-year anymore- that it was survival for us. Too many girls in our pack have brothers, and to lose pairings each year would kill us, and eventually begin to make parents question why they are even registering their kids in our pack when they'll have to move to the town over in 3 years like their BFF's kids had to do.

Long before the co-ed pilot, our troop operated as a co-ed unit. We had to register separate girls and boys troops and have adult leaders cross-registered (technically with two scoutmasters), but we ran a single program (with co-ed supervision at all times).