Should Troops Limit the Number of New Scouts?

[BadenP 93]

Yah Beavah I see where you are coming from however the fact remains that too many troop programs have erroded to an opening and then playing B-Ball for the rest of the meeting and that is a MAIN reason we continue to lose scouts and troop numbers. I really think it is a rare exception than a general rule that a troop will have 30 new scouts trying to get in their troop every year. If the troop is already too big then that darn DE better get off his big arse and get some more formed or lose his job. The trouble with putting limits on numbers is one bad year and you find yourself with only 5-10 active scouts instead of thirty. To those rare handful of troops who are already too big, it is not that hard to incorporate a few more. As a SM I started with a troop of fifteen boys and 2 ASM's by the end of the fifth year the troop grew to over 60 boys and six ASM's.

 

Each year you gear up for higher numbers by REQUIRING every parent to make a committment for the year, signing an agreement to that effect, and if they did not follow up on that committment it was understood their boy would not be in the program the next year. In over six years only one parent did not come through. Our PLC was just awesome and they took their responsibility very seriously in developing a new and exciting program each year. Bottom line, if you do not hold every boy, leader, and parent accountable you will quickly wind up running a one man show with a poorly run program, and maybe 5-6 boys if they are lucky.

[MattR 2667]

I had just become SM and we were talking about limiting scouts (we were over 50). A dad called me asking if his son could join my troop and I was going back and forth about whether to tell him to bring his son in. The dad was kind and so I finally told him yes. The boy is great, as is his little brother. The father died of ALS a few years ago. While talking to the boy about getting Eagle I asked him why he was letting things not get done and he said his dad used to kick him in the butt. I asked him if he wanted me to kick him in the butt once in awhile and he said yes. He'll be an Eagle this Spring (he'll be 17). His little brother is next in line for some adult guidance.

 

The result of this is that it's really hard for me to say no. I'll tell people to look at other troops but I'll never say no. We could easily have 85 scouts in March and I don't know how we're going to do it.

 

As for helping other troops, a group of SMs and I just started getting together to compare notes, trying to help each other out. I'm not doing this so I can impart my wisdom on the smaller troops that need help. We're all doing this because we all recognize we all need help.