what books and materials do we need?

[Proud Eagle 13]

What books, manuals, and materials would you say a troop needs to keep current copies of?

 

I don't really know for certain what we have on hand, but my best guess is not very much. Most of the things have always belonged to individual leaders, but this seems to be a less than optimal approach since often no one has the latest edition, or the resources are lost when leaders move away from the troop or Scouting in general.

 

I am most particularly interested in the program related materials since we are preparing to plan out the next year, and preparing to select new youth leaders who will need training.

 

However, the committee, and its sub-committees are likely working with out of date materials and in need of up to date items, so a list of what they should have would also be useful.

 

I will likely make a recommendation about this matter to the troop committee this week so that we can find what we need and start putting these resources to use.

[Laurie 10]

First, I should tell you that I'm only slightly involved on a troop committee and my husband is a new SA, so our experience is very limited. Here are resourses that we personally have used:

 

For planning...

* The Scoutmaster Handbook provides pages that may be copied and filled in, so it's useful that way *and* in that it has plenty of info too. Our copy was getting a little ragged, so we put it in a 3-ring binder (1" is perfect and leaves just enough room to add a little notebook paper).

* My husbands always has a copy of the Scout Handbook with him--has found it very useful and it's quite ragged too.

* Small easy-to-carry or pack 3-ring notebook with extra paper and pens (someone always forgets these items).

 

For planning trips, outings, events:

* Guide To Safe Scouting

* Health and Safety

* Merit badge booklets relating to the event

 

For BOR and advancement related items:

* Advancement Policies and Procedures

* Insignia Guide (the Scouts called our home to ask about insignia when they realized we had this )

 

* The book we have that we use the least (and I thought I'd use the most) is the Troop Committee Guidebook.

 

Our son, though not a patrol leader and not an active den chief, has often read through--with interest--the Patrol Leader, Senior Patrol Leader, and Den Chief handbooks. Each has been useful to my husband as well in understanding the youth leadership role.

 

For the pack, and I understand that troops have this too, I keep a copy of Fast Start handy to share.

 

A 3-ring binder can hold several of the above books easily, and it helps to protect them if handled a lot. I'm coming at this from a pack perspective trying to understand a troop, so I hope something here is helpful.(This message has been edited by Laurie)

[Bob White 20]

I guess I see it as things you will need and things you might want.

 

Different people will need different things.

SM and Assistants

Training

Scoutmaster Handbook

The Boy Scout Handbook

Patrol Leader Handbook

Senior Patrol Leader Handbook

1st Class Tracking Sheets

Troop Program Resources book

Troop Progam Features (3 books)

Merit Badge Counselor list

Merit Badge Blue Cards

BSA Field Book

Cooking for Small Groups

Scout Song Book

Charter organization Calendar

District/Council Calendar

Scoutmaster Junior Leader Training Syllabus & video

Merit Badge Library

Merit Bagde poster

Religious Awards poster

Out Door Code poster

Medical Forms (completed)

Patrol rosters

Tote n' chip cards

Fire n' chit cards

 

 

Troop Committee

Training

Troop Committee Guide

Boy Scout Handbook

Advancement Commitee Policies and Procedures Manual

Insignia Guide

Scout Catalog

Charter organization Calendar

District/Council Calendar

Troop Finance Book/Troop Record Book OR Troopmaster software

Selecting and Recruiting Quality Leaders pamphlet

Historic Trails brochure

A good book on campgrounds in your region

Adult ApplicationsYouth Applications

Advancement Wall Chart

Troop Roster

Medical Forms (blank)

Camp Use forms

Tour Permits

Advancement report forms

Merit Badge Counselor Applications

 

 

The list of non-BSA program materials I could recommend is nearly endless.

 

 

BW:)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Proud Eagle 13]

Thanks for the feedback thus far. That seems like a reasonably good list. There are a few items on the list I either am totally unfamiliar with, or have very limmited knowledge of.

 

Chances are I will need to be able to offer an explanation of why we need these items, and since I am unfamiliar with some of them, perhaps someone could give me a very brief discription of these items:

cooking for small groups

selecting and recruiting quality leaders

historic trails brochure

 

Also, is the merit badge counselor application a national or council produced form? My council has what may best be described as very loose policies for merit badge counselors, so this isn't an item I have run across (even though I am a registered councilor for every merit badge offered at camp this past year).

 

Finally, any suggestions on how to best use and display posters and charts? We don't really have a dedicated room to permanently display such items in, nor is that likely to change. (We do always have meeting space available, but sometimes the room changes, and the rooms are always used by other groups on other days.)

 

If anyone else has suggestions or ideas, feel free to provide them.

[ozemu 10]

Scouting for Boys

 

I have a few copies (various editions) and re-read sections every year or so.

 

I also recommend a few non Scouting books that work for me.

 

Silver Bullets, The Bottomless Bag, Cows Tails and Cobras (games books)

Canoe Games

Effective Leadership in Adventure Programming

Bushwalking and Mountaincraft Leadership

 

 

 

[Overtrained 10]

There are a lot of books, obviously. Since you mentioned about planning your program I think you will be best served by the Troop Program Features books (3 of them) and the Troop Program Resources.

 

As to your charts, I have seen units that make a stand, like a pole in a flag stand. They then have a line between two of them that they hang the charts up with clothes pins.

 

Good Luck

[OldGreyEagle 5]

It may be a good idea to surf the web a bit and see if you can download a song book and a skit idea book. Not all of scouting has to be as ponderous as how mnay scouts comprise a perfect patrol or just what the rules on advancement are !

[Proud Eagle 13]

Thank you all for the information.

 

There is one item that would seem to be just the sort of thing we need given our current circumstances, but that I am unable to find in the catalog or on the scout stuff web site.

 

That item is the Selecting and Recruiting Leaders pamphlet.

 

If anyone has any idea if perhaps this has a new name, or where it could be found, I would appreciate it.

 

Thanks again.

[EagleInKY 14]

ProudEagle - Do a Google search. It's out there in pdf format, so you can just print it off.