Boy Led - Who Does The Emailing And Communications For Troop

[blw2 433]

With pure Boy Led, who takes care of emailing out meeting schedules and reminders, setting meeting schedules for troop meetings, Courts of Honor, etc...

the committee or the boys? 

[Stosh 3452]

In my troops it's been the PL's.

 

They receive all incoming notices pertaining to upcoming events and it is up to them to get the word out to their members.

 

Any inter-patrol information is passed between PL's.

 

Adults are notified of any needs such as rides, etc. after the patrols make their decisions on activities.

 

Boys know the standard meeting is always Tuesday, whenever there's a 5th Tuesday in the month it is a COH.  Other than that all other planning is done by patrols.

Edited May 15, 2015 by Stosh

[perdidochas 658]

With pure Boy Led, who takes care of emailing out meeting schedules and reminders, setting meeting schedules for troop meetings, Courts of Honor, etc...

the committee or the boys? 

 

Well, we are transitioning from troop method to patrol method.  Right now, for the most part the SM is still doing all of that. However, we are increasingly getting the boys to do it--with Troop Webhost, it's very easy to send email to whoever in the troop you want to send it to. (from one person to everybody)

[qwazse 4345]

Ditto, @@Stosh.

 

The problem: our Troop committee keeps looking for stuff to do (fundraisers, etc...). So stuff gets on the calendar, then cleared with the boys!

 

I basically outlawed the Crew committee from thinking for the youth. What a youth does not initiate, adults don't compensate.

Last week one of my youth declared, "I bet you're the only Advisor who leaves it up to us, and in other crews, the adults bail them out!"

Before I could reply "So?" Son #2 backed me up, replying "No, I've talked to other venturers. They have to suck it up too."

 

The consequence: boys who've been coasting in 'bailed-out' patrols hit the wall when they join a crew, have an idea, and get handed a phone number and told "Make it so!" Unless I have a steady influx of Girl Scouts, planning is rough.

[Eagle94-A1 2687]

Depends.

 

Since the old SPL, my son, doesn't have email, cell phone, or facebook, either he A) made phone calls, or B) wrote the message and sent it via my account, to other Scouts and/or parents. Some of the Scouts are  in the same situation as my son so the parents get the stuff.

 

Current SPL has all of the above.

 

Adults usually contact adults only.

[pargolf44067 57]

In my troops it's been the PL's.

 

They receive all incoming notices pertaining to upcoming events and it is up to them to get the word out to their members.

 

Any inter-patrol information is passed between PL's.

 

Adults are notified of any needs such as rides, etc. after the patrols make their decisions on activities.

 

Boys know the standard meeting is always Tuesday, whenever there's a 5th Tuesday in the month it is a COH.  Other than that all other planning is done by patrols.

Stosh,

 

I have to tell you, I really don't know of any troops around here that are as boy-led as your troop is.  I like to think that my troop when I was involved the first time was pretty well boy-led and patrol based (and it was compared to what it is now), but I was never to the point that you are.  And in all the discussions I have had at RT and at Klondikes and Camporees, I haven't seen or heard troops as boy-led as yours.  I hope you take that as a compliment because I think for the most part that is the way scouts is meant to be, I just don't think most troops are.

Edited May 16, 2015 by pargolf44067

[Twocubdad 665]

The actual schedule is set by the PLC.

 

The whole mass email thing is a bit of an anachronism.  The main people who are interested in receiving them are the parents, so it's a committee function to keep an online troop calendar which automatically generates email reminders.  I doubt there are 10 Scouts who have emails registered. 

 

What has changed over the past few years is the boys have built their own text-based system.  They seem to have (I say seem to, because I'm not in their loop) a number of different text groups (one for their patrol, one for the PLC members, one for the Philmont crew, another for their friends, etc.  

Edited May 16, 2015 by Twocubdad

[blw2 433]

The actual schedule is set by the PLC.

 

The whole mass email thing is a bit of an anachronism.  The main people who are interested in receiving them are the parents, so it's a committee function to keep an online troop calendar which automatically generates email reminders.  I doubt there are 10 Scouts who have emails registered. 

 

What has changed over the past few years is the boys have built their own text-based system.  They seem to have (I say seem to, because I'm not in their loop) a number of different text groups (one for their patrol, one for the PLC members, one for the Philmont crew, another for their friends, etc.  

this really touches on what I was thinking... that the email thing is really more for the parents.

By starting the thread, I was just trying to get a feel for how many committees actually do it, and to what degree.

 

I should elaborate a bit on my motivation for this thread...

As CM, I'm on the email list for the troop.

Lately, as my son nears his AOL and crossover, I have taken more of an interest in the troop.... and I have been wrapping my head tighter around patrol methods, boy led, etc....

AND, I'm trying to figure out how to best serve my son in helping him find the best troop.

 

SO our troop is bouncing back from some troubles.  It has grown a lot in the last couple years, and they are "transitioning" to boy led.  With the influx of a lot of new scouts, they have a lot of energy on the committee.  Honestly I'm wondering if they have too much energy.  From the perspective of only the emails, it seems that the committee adults are doing all of the scheduling, communicating, etc...

@@Twocubdad, I think your reply confirms what I was thinking that there very well could be the boy side of the communication that I'm just not looped in on.

My son wants me to continue as a scouter.  He has initiated that point a few times.

I would like to continue in some fashion I think too.

I'm not so sure I want to be a committee member if they run it like a 3rd year WEBELOS den....

but maybe it's not so bad as I may only be seeing the one side..... the side meant for the parents

Edited May 16, 2015 by blw2

[Eagle94-A1 2687]

As I am discovering, the kids are not telling the parents what is going on. We had a canoe day trip planned for today, and this si the first time several parents have heard of it. I can understand the ones just joined, but this is from folks who were part of the PLC that planned the weekend!.

 

'What we have here is a failure to communicate."

[Gone 435]

With pure Boy Led, who takes care of emailing out meeting schedules and reminders, setting meeting schedules for troop meetings, Courts of Honor, etc...

the committee or the boys?

 

SPL handles troop comms. PLs handle patrol comms. There's a troop list and each patrol has a list. Boys are required to have an email, parents too. They all get the emails. The historian and scribe manage the website.

[Stosh 3452]

If the boys are not notifying their parents of up-coming activities, it's too bad.  THE ADULTS ARE NOT GOING TO BAIL THEM OUT!  Adult to adult communication destroys the boy's motivation to be an adult.  Once the boys realize this is how it works, they tend to take responsibility for their lives or they miss out.  Just like what happens in the adult real world we are getting them ready for.

 

"Mom, Dad, When are you going to start treating me like an adult?"  

 

"When you start acting like one." (Of course they never show you what that is, it's supposed to just soak in over the years.)

 

Well Scouting is where we train boys to do that.  It's a combination of time and talent management, goal setting, leadership development and character building.  I expect my boys to start acting like an adult while they are working on their Scout rank because that's when I start treating them like one.

 

If your PL told you about an outing and you didn't take the responsibility to notify your parents, bummer.  Maybe next time you can take a more adult like approach and keep everyone in the loop.

 

We don't have a website, we don't have a newsletter, at this point of our new troop development, we only have our PL's working with their members and the members working with their parents.  A couple of bumps early on, but things have smoothed themselves out quite well.  When the boy-led, patrol-method thingy is used, it really does work quite well in spite of the chaos that "seems" to be the norm. 

Edited May 16, 2015 by Stosh

[fred johnson 936]

We use the approach that the web and email lists are for adult communication.  

 

All face-to-face coordination and at-troop communication is by and for the scouts. 

[Gone 435]

We use the approach that the web and email lists are for adult communication.  

 

All face-to-face coordination and at-troop communication is by and for the scouts.

 

Does not work well in large (50+) troops IMHO. The boys are more than adept at texting and other forms of electronic comms. Our PLC and patrols do quite well getting the word out via various electronic methods.

 

We won't hold the scouts to a standard adults themselves could it manage.

[fred johnson 936]

We're a large troop and it works very well.  Your mileage may vary.  

[Gone 435]

We're a large troop and it works very well.  Your mileage may vary.

 

Why expect the scouts do somethin the adults don't?