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| Home > Online Library > Scouting Guides & Information > Leadership in Scouting > Troop Planning |
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Planning and Administration (Serious Side of Scouting) Troop Planning and Scout Participation Woes This is a discussion brought up in an archived Scouting Discussion Thread. All views expressed do not necessarily represent the troop's position and stand. Date: Wed, 12 Jul 1995 07:40:42 -0400 How can I get my PLC to plan troop activities? It is time for an annual planning conference, but the SPL and the rest of the PLC aren't interested in planning. I suppose they think the SM will plan a calendar, like he has in years past. Only, the SM isn't going to do so. They may figure it out, or they may just play basketball during troop meeting time. Along similar lines, what can be done to encourage the PLC to schedule some patrol activities, or inter-patrol competition, during troop meeting time? The PLC acts as though patrols don't exist: only the troop exists, with the SPL leading the meetings and the SM biting his lip to keep quiet. Uniform wear is sporadic. Opening ceremonies are invariably a recitation of the pledge, law, and oath. (I've nothing against the pledge, law, or oath, but I've nothing against some variety or creativity, either.) The troop just completed the team building exercises and training in the SM troop training materials, so the scouts know what is expected (at least in theory). All advice cheerfully considered. All opinions not "borrowed" from unattributed sources
are my own. Date: Wed, 12 Jul 1995 15:54:22 -0500 >How can I get my PLC to plan troop activities? I don't know what will work for you, but let me describe what we are doing. It works for us. We set aside an entire weekend in January for the yearly planning session (actually we plan about 18 mos) the PLC and the SM and ASM's arrive on Friday evening for an indoor sleepover. The first evening is set aside for brainstorming. The troop buys pizza for all the participants. The adults bring in literature for the boys with camps, activities, etc. We don't start to narrow down ideas till the next day. We list things we like to do and things we might like to try. Boys come up with the ideas. Leaders are moderators and can provided idea sources. Then the next day we start to actually work out the schedule. We list themes we'd like that the ideas listed the night before can fit into. We then begin to match themes with months. There is some adult interaction (for instance the boys wanted to schedule canoeing in February (it doesn't work even here in Houston)) Once the themes and major activities are matched up, the remaining weekly planning becomes a cinch. We break it up every so often with games and team building exercises. At the end of Saturday we have it outlined. The Scoutmaster takes the notes and presents it to the committee the next week for approval. It becomes a great team building exercise for the boy leaders as well as a great and fun way to get the boys to plan the year. >Along similar lines, what can be done to encourage the PLC to
schedule Do you mean intrapatrol activities or interpatrol activities? Our meetings typically include a patrol corner where each patrol can work on the upcoming campout planning or any other activity such as advancement, etc. The meeting usually has some non competitive game time or a scoutcraft game. >Uniform wear is sporadic. Opening ceremonies are invariably a Uniform wear has been a constant theme. It is the responsibility of the SM and the committee to establish uniforming standards for the unit. We don't have any significant troubles with uniforming. All boys are in full uniform (except we go class B in summer mos because it's so hot in Houston) We have a written uniforming policy. All new parents are informed of the policy before joining. (If it's a financial burden, we have a uniform pool to help out) If a boy shows up without a uniform piece, he is politely asked to get it. Boys must show up at BOR in full Class A uniform. There is a book of ideas on openings and closings. Get some ideas from your Roundtable staff. (Someone help me out here with a book title?) We don't have much originality in our openings either, but closings tend to have a little more variety because they get assigned to individual patrols. Try buying the book for the Troop, put it in the SPL's hands and ask him to try some of the ideas in the book over a few weeks. Then get some feedback from the Troop during your Scoutmaster's minute to see what they think about the different openings and closings. If you get positive feedback, the SPL should hear it and be encouraged to continue with a little variety. >The troop just completed the team building exercises and
training in the I think the key to planning is making it fun. I think the key to uniforming is having a policy and expecting and enforcing that policy to be maintained. rwromig@ppco.com Date: Thu, 13 Jul 1995 06:58:16 -0500 Paul, You have a tough problem. First, have the Scouts in your Troop ever seen and been involved in a functioning patrol method patrol? If not, your task is twice as hard. Here are some ideas: 1. Conduct your 6 month planning on a PLC campout at a special location. Throw in plenty of fun leisure activities so that they will want to participate in future planning sessions. 2. Download the games archive and select 5 - 10 games that relate to program topics for them to choose from. If they don't like what you pick this time, you can bet they will ask for the list to create their own pool next time. 3. Determine what the monthly theme will be, i.e. Woods Wisdom is a great guide. This lets them focus on the nuts and bolts of the program. 4. Let the PLC know what you expect. If they don't deliver, be ready to step in and help them stay on track both in the planning and the meetings. This is not running the program. This is developing leadership. Your Scouts will fail if they do not know what is expected of them or how to achieve it. Scouting offers the Scouts the opportunity to experience leadership, make mistakes and learn from them. Yours is no easy task and I hope these suggestions help. Yis Greg Gough Date: Thu, 13 Jul 1995 12:46:05 CST Paul, Some of what you describe is typical of many of the units I see, particularly the idea that activities are troop-based rather than patrol-based. How many of your patrols have patrol flags or patrol yells? I saw one SM bring back a lot of patrol orientation by alerting the scouts one week that the next week he would be asking them to give their patrol yell as part of the SM minute. Only one patrol was prepared the next week. He recognized their accomplishment and asked everyone else to be ready the next week. He kept at it until patrol yells became a natural part of the SM minute, usually given in recognition of something that a patrol member had accomplished at the meeting or in the preceding week. Then he started on patrol flags. . . . Without yells and flags, a new scout will have trouble giving his patrol yell and describing his patrol flag. They won't be able to meet the requirement for advancement. I never let them off with "we don't have one." As for uniforms, I conduct inspections from time to time and award a patch to the most properly uniformed scout. It only takes a few times before uniforms become more of a norm. As for planning. Have you used the troop planning kit? The SM needs to do some homework up front. I have yet to see a PLC that can just pickup and do planning for a year. Most can hardly handle more than one meeting at a time! But, if you provide the proper guidance, they will fill in more and more of the blanks as you go along. They have to be trained to plan. And, every year the makeup is different so you have to plan every year. I always like to start of the planning period by making sure that patrols have an opportunity to discuss things before the PLC meets. This usually means taking time at a troop meeting. I like to start with a list of themes and get the patrol members to make suggested changes through their PLs. I encourage PLs to talk to their patrols about program ideas and I usually mention (as part of SM minute or announcements) that the patrol members should be prepared with an idea or two--not a lot, just one or two things they would like to see the troop do. We often settled on themes a few weeks before the planning weekend so there was time to get feedback from the patrols. I also like to make use of Woods Wisdom as the basis for troop meetings. PLC chooses to use as is or modify. If they don't modify, I usually insisted that they follow exactly. After one theme, they are usually ready to make some modifications to better meet their program needs. jim Sleezer Roundtable Commissioner, Pawnee Bill District, Date: Thu, 13 Jul 1995 19:42:05 -0400 Have you worked through the Troop Program Planning Kit. It is exactly on this subject and will lead you, your SPL and PLC step-by-step thru the annual conference and each other planning step. Give the Scouts the resources and let them run with it. It may not be perfect or even up to adult standards, but it will be theirs. Let them learn with it and redo as needed. Yours in Scouting Lew Orans Sam Houston Area Council 1/20/96
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