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| Home > Online Library > Scouting Guides & Information > Leadership in Scouting > Patrol Size |
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Planning and Administration (Serious Side of Scouting) Patrol Size 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: Sun, 3 Dec 1995 22:53:56 -0600 Don Tolin wrote: >We are in the process of setting up new scout patrol(s) and
would like to Well, let's see what the books say. The BSA's Patrol and Troop Leadership books all say that eight is the most "ideal number". Why eight? With eight members: you can divide the patrol into two teams with four members each Many management books state that eight is also an ideal number for something called a "span of control". This is the largest number of people that someone can exercise leadership over effectively. Finally, the eight members to a patrol is how Baden-Powell envisioned and "designed" the patrol to operate under. This is what "Green Bar Bill" Hillcourt stated in the 1929 Handbook for Patrol Leaders: "Eight boys is usaully considered *the* number for a patrol. A Patrol Leader, his Assistant, and six other Scouts who take care of the rest of the Patrol's duties is very often believed to be the best. But this doesn't neccessarily have to be so. It doesn't exactly that a Patrol is incomplete, if it has less than eight members. What is neccessary, is that the Patrol shall have the right gang-formation. Six might be just the figure for your Patrol. In fact, if you look around, you will see that there are possibily more successful Patrols with a membership of six than there are with eight. It sometimes seems true that that it is easier for the average Patrol Leader to handle five rather than seven boys. No hard and fast rule can be laid down as to size, but as a general rule it can be said that the best number is from six to eight. Fewer than six will often mean inconvience because there aren't enough boys to fill the places in Patrol competitions, on camp trips and so forth, while a number bigger than eight often will prove impossible for the Patrol Leader to handle." Use your best judgement, Don, but anything from six to eight members in a Patrol is the best bet. Settummanque! (MAJ) Mike L. Walton (Settummanque, the blackeagle) ( co-Owner, Blackeagle Servics of Kentucky __)_ 174 Chapelwood Drive, Henderson, Kentucky 42420-5036 | ** |] (H) 502.827.9201 (F) 502.826.7046 (W) 800.816.6746 coffee? anytime! also via Blackeagle Services 502.826.7046 or 800.816.6746 /BlkeagleS@AOL.COM (Email) blackeagle@hcc-uky.campus.mci.net/kyblkeagle@AOL.COM /mikewalton@GNN.COM "Ask about Geoworks, Leaders' Online & visiting *your* place to talk Scouting!!! Date: Sun, 3 Dec 1995 22:37:36 -0700 Don Tolin asked about the proper size for a Patrol. "Green Bar Bill says 'Get up to Eight'". That was the title of an article that appeared in Boy's Life magazine, in the feature "Tips for Patrol Leaders" from the Sep., 1985 issue. 8 X 1 = One patrol of 8 boys, each with a job to do to make the
patrol work. The copy that I am reading came from the notebook that I was given when I took ALD, (later renamed to Scoutmastership Fundamentals). YiS, Chuck Bramlet, ASM Troop 323 I "used to be" an Antelope! (and a good ol' Antelope,
too...) WEM-10-95 Last edited: March 20, 1999
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