Mark Ray, in his book "The Scoutmaster's Other Handbook" mentions several ideas I wonder about and would like to see some discussion on.

 

This idea is that a patrols should maybe be 10-12 boys instead of 6-8.

 

His basic reasoning is that it could help ensure that patrols can retain their identity more easily this way since it improves the odds that enough boys will show up at meetings and events to work as an actual patrol.

 

He conceeds that it might be a bit big if everyone shows, and that it might need a couple of APLS to coordinate, but otherwise it makes some sense.

 

What do others here think about it?

While we do have a lot of Forum members I would like to point out that in 10/2004 There was /is a long (8 Pages!!) Thread on Patrol size. The thread can be found at:

threadID=75455#id_76616

The discussion did get, shall we say a little heated. I hope that is not going to be the case again.

I would refer you to that thread as I have said all that I want to say on this and it wasn't that long ago.

Eamonn.

mad,

Eight Scouts per Patrol is just right for all occasions. Mark Ray may want to consider emphasizing better programming instead of crowding patrols.

FB

Eamon- thanks- I did indeed fail to do a search for this topic- which is especially odd since I thought of it while doing another search on something else.

 

I don't know why I thought this would be a relativly 'safe' topic, but I never thought it wold get 'heated'- but I see by FScouter's bumped threads that it indeed did.

 

Thanks, FScouter for bumping them for me!