My fellow scoutmasters and I were very proud of our newly elected SPL. He is a young life scout about 14 years old, elected last night to be the troop new SPL. This young man already has a plan on how to run this troop! (This is a break-through that we adult leaders were looking for!). He promptly chose his staffs, 2 ASPLs. Another two young life scouts who (in our opinions) are very diligent scouts. During his announcement of his staffs. Two older scouts wanted know why he didn't chose some of the older scouts. This young man promptly replied, "I wanted someone who is here at all the troop meetings and campouts to help me." All of the scoutmasters almost fell over! Inside of each one of us, one can tell that we were applauding his answer.

 

This has been a problem with our troop. The "older boys" wanted to take on the leadership, but did not want to do the work. They rarely shows up to campouts which resulting in a different SPL for each campout. They missed a lot of the troop meetings and when they do come, they act as if they are the big brothers and other boys in the troop should pay homage to them. We had several conversation with them (scoutmaster conferences, coaching, you name it). They have their own "click" and one of them even told me that the younger boys are trying to get themselves into their patrol because of what its status.

 

With this young man and his staff, this is a good start for the "new" patrol method in our troop. I'm excited!

 

1Hour

 

 

Awesome. It's great when you realize that what you are teaching begins to sink in. And, this is much more effective than having you the Scoutmaster dictate it through a bogus advancement policy.

I think you will have to fly high cover for the new SPL and his staff. Find something for the older Scouts to do when they do show up so that they don't undermine your new SPL.

 

Making the older Scouts work as Instructors may be one answer.(This message has been edited by Eagle1973)

We have seen a similar group of younger SPL's and ASPL's emerge in the troop I serve over the past few years. One thing that they all seem to have in common is that they have taken part in some kind of Scout leadership development outside the troop that has motivated them to take the program to a different level. Such things as JLT, Brownsea, Order of the Arrow, and staff at summer camp, have really had an effect that has benefitted the overall performance of the troop

For my troop, spl, i make the older scouts do much of the teaching. this keeps the younger scouts entertained plus makes the older scouts feel like they are improtant and keeps them involved knowing they will be teaching something every week.

What criteria do your troops set for SPL elections?

 

We set Star and 14 years old. Next time, I'd also like to specify my expectations up front: commit to lead at least 4 of the 6 campouts, 5 PLCs, and 20 of the 25 troop meetings.

 

Has this type of thing worked (or not) for other troops?

In our troop, for a boy to run for SPL, they need to have obtained the rank of Star, served in a Greenbar position and have SM approval. The SM can waive a requirement if he so chooses. For example, as a young troop, we only had one boy reach Star before the last election. So, we waived the Star requirement. I could also see waiving the greenbar requirement if a boy had served as a Den Chief for a year and shown outstanding leadership.

 

I really don't like lots of extra rules and quotas. I would hope the boys would make the right decision based upon common sense. Unfortunately, we know that's not always the case.

What exactly is a green bar position.... In my many years of scouting i have never heard that term used before.

SPL, ASPL, PL, APL, Guide - from the Greenbars on the position badge. Many troops use this terminology as synonomous with the PLC.

green bar = PLC. Check out the patches. SPL, ASPL, PL and TG all have green bars on the patch. This goes back a long way in scouting history. Bill Hillcourt, aka "Green Bar Bill", introduced the patrol method in the BSA. He wrote several of our handbooks, PL handbooks and for Boys Life. He also wrote one of the main biographies of Baden Powell. There's a link on the right hand side of these pages that take you to a page dedicated to him. Terry, the scouter that runs this site, was a personal friend and protege.