JoeBob

Come on y'all; leadership is KP with people, instead of dirty dishes.

You need a POR, you get elected PL, and you clean up your patrol.

Or don't, and say you did.

 

• Know the GTSS.
• Know the GTA.
• Know the age appropriate guidelines matrix.
• Read the SM guide.
• Read the Field Book.
• Be able to demonstrate the trail to First Class skills.
• Read up on the patrol method.
• Know the troop roles and what they do.
• Know the advancement path.
• Wear the uniform correctly and at the right times.
• Step in and volunteer at camp to cook, clean, set-up. Show them what a leader is.
• First one up, last one to bed.
• Follow the rules even when you don't want to.
• Set the example. This may mean there's a Scoutmaster You and Real You. 
• Accept help.
• Delegate.
• Know when too much is too much.
• GET TRAINED....take every course you can. You will always learn something.
• Have fun...when it stops being fun it is time to leave.

 

Too much...

Or you could buy the popcorn to help the boys go to camp and then give it to someone you don't like.

The scout hut has BSA popcorn from 3 years ago that the boys won't even eat.

This is from a group that invented the 'pizza bagel'!

GS Cookies are $4.00 a box.  They taste good.

BS popcorn has a higher buy-in, and tastes like flavored cardboard.

JoeBob, perhaps you could give an example (or several) of what is nebulous about the Patrol Method.

Nope, I'm not that invested in saving the 'Patrol Method'.  

If Tahawk has given 4 different answers to the question on the first page of discussion, it's probably quite clear.

If you have a patrol culture that is working, good.  Nurture it.  I've learned that it is very hard to ween boys from adult led to anything beyond lip service.  

After one 6 month cycle of holding PLs responsible for their troops, none of my older boys wanted to be elected to PL anymore.  Work was involved.  It was way too easy to ask the adults to take care of things, and just enjoy the trips.

Participation levels on trips are so erratic so that ad hoc patrols are required for meals and tenting.

If your patrols are age based (which is the choice the boys will make), the older boys don't teach anything to the younger boys.  If you mix the age groups, the older boys get bored and disappear.  

Boy led meetings are quite chaotic, and take adjustment.  I got tired of trying to explain that to rising parents and scouts.  I wasn't worried about the parents so much, but when the new scouts started to complain about not getting anything done in meetings, I had to wonder if it was worth it.

My boy led troop had three instances this past year of a patrol having no food on a multi-day trip.  Menus were made, duties assigned, and no one went to the store.  Now we have an adult check.

I keep trying, but the Koolaid is beginning to lose its flavor.  It may well be that our digitally dependent children do not want to be responsible for themselves. 

The difficulty in answering your simple request has exposed the weakness in the patrol method.  It's too complicated, nebulous and lofty for mere boys to understand.  Or adults.

You have to be (have been) immersed in a patrol situation to appreciate the dynamics.  So I'd put your 1000 students into some patrol situations, and have them solve problems/challenges while rotating jobs between each challenge.  Divide into patrols of 12 to 15 that will spend the whole day together. Challenges can be things like:

1- Stacking chairs to a certain height;

2- Picking a patrol name and yell;

3- Teaching all patrol members to tie a square knot;

4- Conduct a flag ceremony;

5- Create and play a game that uses a Scout Skill;

6- Follow a land-nav map through the building; or

7- Complete an obstacle course that is age appropriate for your audience (Crawl over chairs and under tables while always holding your buddy's hand.)

8- Go to lunch.

9- Prepare gear for a trip;

10- Clean and check in gear returning from a trip.

etc.

No person can repeat a job, PL, APL, etc.  Start with the basics, PL, APL, and secretary/historian (to document challenge completions, etc.)  Add a QM when the challenge requires gear.

Have all the jobs pre-assigned, so it moves quickly.  For the last challenge of the day, the patrol elects their own leaders.

Secretly introduce adverse elements to the challenges as they progress.  ie: During Challenge 4, you can have one player who plays the part of a trouble-maker who recruits others to help him thwart the patrol objective.  Have a player be lazy and not participate.  Hold a PLC to decide punishment/corrective action.  Have a bullying scenario.  Have a whole patrol revolt...

Your core objectives should be to teach that

Effective patrols have a leadership structure;

Good followers are what make any leader a good leader;

Being a good leader is work, and that effort deserves support; 

Delegation is not a dirty word, unless you don't follow up;

Leading by example is the most effective;

Co-operation is always the best way.

You may need a 'facilitator' for each group or each challenge to nudge the lesson in the direction that you want it go; and keep things on schedule.

Sounds kinda fun.  Can I come?

"An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life."

Robert A. Heinlein

And while I was in the site:

"Being right too soon is socially unacceptable."
 

"Don't handicap your children by making their lives easy."

"Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors... and miss.'

1- Only the law abiding will follow gun laws.  Old law or new law, it still has no deterrent effect on bad guys.

2- 'Gun Free Zones' are about the stupidest thing humans have ever conceived. If I'm a bad person looking for a place to kill a bunch of folks, I am going to go to a 'Gun Free Zone'!!!  Nobody will be shooting back until the police arrive.

3- Limiting access to guns will not stop mass killings.  San Bernadino had pipe bombs, Columbine had propane tanks, 911 had airliners, army vets have been decapitated on British streets, OKC used fertilizer and diesel fuel.  A weak argument can be made that giving perps access to guns, and civilians access to concealed carry might actually reduce the number of fatalities.

4- As argued in posts above, the odds of a trained legally carrying individual being on hand to stop a mass shooting are very small.  But if that individual is at the scene of a mass shooting, without his weapon, and lives are lost because he succumbed to political correctness; the odds of that individual being haunted by his failure are 100%.  

Be prepared, men.  Be prepared.

That brings to mind the old saying: "What is the safest place to be during a gun fight? Somewhere else!"

If I know I'm going to a gunfight, I'll bring a rifle.  A scoped Ruger Number 1 in .270 will effectively put me somewhere else!  (by about 300 yards...)

 

  The (boys) asked the officer if he were attached what he would do.  He said he would pull his baton to defend himself. .  

That's an interesting take on being married......

 I'm leaning toward something like a lightweight 9mm with +P Hornady Critical Duty? Sound about right?

Any 9mm with a hollow point or pre-fragmented bullet should serve you well.  Nines are fast and small.  Wanna be sure that all of that energy gets spent inside your target, not sliding through and out the backside.

What's the number one rule in a gunfight?

Have a gun.

If your weapon is big and cumbersome, you won't carry it as often.  That applies to the double stack (wide) high capacity magazines.

I carry a full size 1911 style pistol (large but thin) because I'm big:

1) I can conceal it along the lines of my body, 

2) Small guns are not as comfortable in my big hands, and

3) Little people don't mess with me anyway.

Nonetheless, I'm considering a small Keltec pocket pistol in .40S&W for summer carry.

Pay attention to what tool you use to deliver, and how it functions.  Practice with that weapon.  I got rid of my pistols that had 'forward to fire' safeties and kept only the 'thumb it down, knock it down' types.  That way I can be focusing on target acquisition and background, not trying to remember which way the safety on this gun goes...

And hope that wild dogs and pigs are all you'll ever have to shoot.

What to carry?  Something large enough to kill, and small enough to conceal.  

For me that eliminates revolvers; that cylinder is too bulky to hide, and downright uncomfortable poking into my side.  Semi-autos in 9mm or larger will suffice.  Double stack magazines get bulky, so I lean towards single stack.  I've got 2 Colt Delta Elites that take seasonal shifts around my person.  Stainless steel for summer when I sweat, and parkerized/tricked out (tritium sights, polished throat ramp, competition trigger, etc) for cold weather.

If the weather allows wearing a vest, I prefer a shoulder rig with 2 magazines balancing the weight on the other side. I've got my barrel angled up 45 degrees to keep the end of the muzzle from printing out the back.  Warmer weather sees a 'Small of Back' holster inside my jeans, or a special butt pack around my waist.  The SOB requires a bit of discretion when squatting (it pokes out under your shirt) or sitting.  Once I plopped down into a church pew, and everyone wondered who had a hammer in their coat pocket...

To those with wadded pantaloons: I hereby deny ever carrying a firearm on any BSA function or trip. 

A group of boys armed with tomahawks will represent well against anything you may encounter in the back country, except men with guns.

What I don't understand is the attitude that carrying concealed is bad.

If the weapon is never needed, good.  You'll never know it was there.

If the weapon is needed, and it's not there...

BSA background checks can't be that thorough.

I passed...

Agree with your motives; mixed age patrols enable young ones to learn from experienced scouts.

But older scout patrols do a better job of keeping the older scouts involved.

As long as he's doing the work, the SPL should have final say on troop matters.

So, who has to fire the SPL when he's not doing his job?  (Looking for SM)

And then who has to fire that person if he's not doing his job?  (CC)

So the answer to your question depends on the definition of "top".

So a UC does the work that a DE should, but for no pay?

Sounds like BS    A.

 

The commissioner corps is what it is because senior scouters across the nation have abdicated their responsibilities. 

ie: Choked on hollow promises, lied to, and undermined.

The new youth are more malleable to Irving BS.

Ha!

Your topo has more info for me than this:

https://www.bing.com/mapspreview?encType=1&where1=Watanga%20Mountain%2c%20Colorado&cp=40.1683387756348~-105.714263916016&qpvt=watanga+mountain&FORM=MIRE

The '2 deep leadership' principle is for emergencies.  You still have neighbors, right?

The 'no 1 on 1 contact' principle can be satisfied by 2 kids and one adult.  Just avoid being in a room alone with one child not your own.

The 'Perfect Bound' wind up as a collection of sections in a ziplock bag.

I don't see a problem.  They can still work with their son in their area of expertise; they just can't sign off on the requirements.  

  Now, if there was a lawsuit over local option, I think the religious organization involved (for example, the Catholic Church) would have a much STRONGER case than the BSA had in the Dale case.

I hate to say this, but...

Is the judge going to look at Catholic policy or Catholic practice?  I know several gay priests, and we just starting recovering from the pedophile scandal.

I'm just waiting for someone to take issue with @@JoeBob and his picture. I mean, shades and a cowboy hat? C'mon, what's not to hate there.

It's me from my days of Cowboy Action Shooting.  

http://sassnet.com/

Back when I had spare time; before kids, before scouts; clouds of black powder smoke on a humid morning; the Darkside!

The sunshades and facial shadow are for your protection.  If you were to see my face clearly, you would have only two choices: a) Run screaming from the room before your heart stopped, b) Bow down and worship.

1- The eMail function for Troopmaster has never recovered its full functionality after the crash last year.

2- Once upon a time a 'scout' who had long been absent returned to the troop.  His book did not reconcile with Troopmaster by 2 ranks.  Troopmaster was correct.