Transitioning new Webelos scouts into the boy scouting program to integrate with the troop and set the path for Scout rank.
Show Notes:
- Since January 2016, there are new scout rank requirements. This documents is a comparison of the current and former requirements.
Transcript:
Our troop has been running with the concept of the new scout patrol for a few years now and as we have moved forward we have tweaked it a bit along the way.
When we first started a new scout patrol we treated the scouts joining the troop as their own patrol and treated them like any other patrol, except we had one of our more experienced assistant scoutmasters mentor them a bit along the way.
This worked out ok, but what we quickly discovered is that they needed a bit more hand holding that this setup required.
Our next attempt was to embed the den chief that they were with as cubs as part of their patrol. This worked out about the same. There were a lot of growing pains with the new scouts, and it was difficult for the new scouts to adjust.
In any system where the boys are not familiar there are going to be growing pains.
The system we have now is that I, as ScoutMaster, take an active part in their assimilation to the program, their Den Chief also takes part in their patrol meetings and their development for the first 5 months, until we break for the summer.
This process begins the first week they attend as boy scouts where we pull them aside from the other boys and explain how the patrol system works. The only thing better than explaining it, is actually letting them vote for their patrol leader for the month.
Since they are bridging between our normal cycles of twice yearly to switch out patrol leaders for the first 5 months we have 5 different elections, one per month. This gives at least 3-5 of the boys a chance to be patrol leader.
To help this along we give them the Patrol Leader and Assistant Patrol Leader patches, but use the little plastic holder, so they can easily switch it monthly.
During these first few months we take time to try and work through the new requirements for Scout.
I won’t lie to you, this past year was the first one with the new requirements, and it was tough to get them to scout, as there are a lot more moving parts than in the old set of requirements. In the future we may need to adjust this, but for now we’re going to try at it again.
By pulling the new scouts aside during part of the meeting, it allows us to tailor the program to them to bring them up to speed, and so far, has worked out pretty well. But this is what works for us.
Take what you like and leave the rest, and as we say in Woodbadge, feedback is a gift, leave yours below in the comments, with the hope we can all learn together.
I’m Scoutmaster Dave, and this was the new scout patrol.
