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When does your PLC meet?


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Time for the Scouts to prepare for the 'skills instruction' or to contact someone who will help them.

Time to gather necessary equipment & consumables for the skills instruction and interpatrol activity.

Really? Your troop spends a hour preparing? Do you have a big troop?

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We meet once a month - the Sunday before the campout.  We run our skills so that a new skill starts the meeting after a campout and runs through the next campout (in theory the campout is the culmination).  The PLC being a week before the campout gives Scouts a chance to plan out the next month with a week to make phone calls etc as necessary.

 

BTW - a shout out to ItsBrian.  I enjoy the right now, first hand experience you contribute to the discussions.  Thank you for all that you do to improve your Troop.

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Our PLC meets monthly on the last Monday of the month. We plan out the next month and make troop meeting plan assignments and other stuff. We do a thorns and roses about the recent camp out. Some times we have them during camp outs. We post the notes online for everyone to read.

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Granted, I have only one patrol at the present time, but they do plan out their meeting based on the guidance given by their PL.  He will say we are doing First Aid training next week, and we're having a Campout on the 20th.  The QM of the patrol gets the materials together, the GrubMaster starts putting together a menu, etc. all on their own.  They know what to do, if not someone is given the responsibility.  If not, they are replaced with someone else.  Lots of failures, lots of frustration, lots of learning!  This is a good thing!

 

Next year when a newbie crop comes in, we further that learning curve, and keep the newbies in their own NSP to basically duplicate the failures, frustrations, and learning done by the previous NSP, but now they have a TG who's gone through it once before and knows the pitfalls they will be facing.

 

So how much interaction is there between the two patrols?  None, the NSP does their own planning, and runs it according to their needs.  PL's will talk to each other and maybe event he older PL mentor the new PL a bit along with the TG.  I guess that occasional interaction could technically be called an ad-hoc PLC.

 

Throwing the boys together, newbies and struggling scouts just now getting things under control, is like throwing gasoline on a fire.  Sure the new boys will learn, but the older boys will start over from scratch.  I think it is better for my situation to keep the older boys progressing and the NSP will figure it out as they go, but they will have other boys in the other patrol who can ad-hoc mentor their experiences along the way giving the newbies a faster learning curve.

 

By the time one reaches 4 patrols, one will have one well run patrol, and three others in varying places on the learning curve and a permanent PLC can be put in place to facilitate interaction between the patrols speeding up each to reach functionality.  Do the younger boys receive tutelage from the older scouts, most certainly they do.  With the minor problems they can go to any other patrol for mentoring and for the big problems they have the oldest patrol for assistance.

 

So how does one define a PLC?  The formal structure of top leadership directing the efforts of all the patrols, or a source of mentoring for independent patrols as needed?  How is the activities designed?  Each patrol working on activities that are of pertinent interest to the patrol or one-size-fits-all activities that generically fits everyone the same?  If NSP wants to work on S->FC and the oldest patrol wants to get to Philmont, those goals don't even come close to matching very well.

 

I have let the boys define the function of the PLC and they quickly adapted to that which works for them.  Very seldom did I ever see all four patrols doing the same thing.  Instead, on occasion one or maybe two patrols would work with a third patrol on something important to the third patrol, but otherwise, each patrol ran their own activities designed by the members and coordinated by their PL.

 

This may not work for every troop, but it is a viable option for those who might be struggling otherwise.  It works for me so I stand back and keep my mouth shut, except to drink a bit more coffee.

Edited by Stosh
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This fall, we started with them meeting 15-30 minutes after each meeting.

The crew also meets during this half-hour slot, but so far that hasn't caused any conflicts.

Most of the PLC aren't interested in Venturing ... may not bode well for my crew, but I'm okay with that.

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Once a month (normally a Saturday or Sunday afternoon) for about a hour to plan the Troop meetings for the upcoming month.  SPL runs this.  I get ~5min at the end for basic leadership thoughts.

 

After every Troop meeting (<5min), to review/discuss any issues from current Troop meeting and to make sure they're ready for the next meeting (supplies, who's doing what).  SPL runs this.  I normally say nothing.

The first part of this statement is how we definitely do things, the second half os how we do things when we're doing them really well.

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4th Monday of month. No troop meeting that night. Only PLC. Otherwise, same place and time as troop meeting. Consistency.

 

Same here, except with us it's the first Monday of the month. The spl, aspl, 3 pls,QM, and scribe are expected to attend. I would say they make it 90% of the time. The two or three adults sit at another table and stay out of it. Mostly we are there to provide answers to questions like " what would the troop need to do to comply with G2SS?" Edited by Oldscout448
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Our PLC (has always) met for 60-90 minutes the same night as the meeting immediately after a campout (we do not meet the following meeting day after a campout). It is a good time to review the throrns and roses from the last event. 

 

In addition the PLC may meet once or twice after summer camp and before school starts to plan out the year. Lately there has been an effort to do a 'mid course' correction meeting if needed around the holiday lull.

 

Since we have access to our church that night 'PLC night' has kind of morphed into a sort of utility night at times for those who needed an additional BOR, one on one MB sessions, and catching up on book keeping for some of the committee members.

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When we switched to weekly PLC meetings, we allotted one hour before the Troop meeting started. But those meetings shortened to 20 minutes within few months because they become more efficient at each meeting. And they got a lot more done. Our SPL gets so good at running meetings that I would match many of them with my company managers.  And it's not just an advantage for PLC meetings. Scouts learn by watching other scouts in action, the PLs learn how to run better patrol meetings from their experiences in the PLC meetings. The scouts in the patrols learn good meeting habits simply by watching the PLs. 

 

Like many here, we don't allow any adults in the PLC meetings without permission from the SPL. But I found that even the SM rarely needs to attend. Typically I only attended if the PLC needed to ask a question. The SPL calls me the night before to brief me on his agenda, so my attendance was rarely required.

 

Barry

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