I'd like to "piggyback" onto this thread:
Our troop has only in the past year and a half or so really started using the patrol method.
We get only 2-3 Webelos crossing over each year, and so we do not use the "New Scout Patrol" idea.
The past two years, we've put the incoming boys into one patrol together, with the newer boys, for the most part, being two grades away from the majority of the patrols they entered. So now,our patrols currently look like this:
Patrol A: Very active, 10th and 8th graders (7 members)
Patrol B: Very active, 9th, 7th and 6th graders (8