Patrol Method

A virtual question and answer session with Green Bar Bill about the patrol method from the December 1943 Edition of Scouting magazine. If you aren’t familiar with Bill “Green Bar Bill” Hillcourt check out these articles to learn more. Download this article as a PDF document below. The Boys Ask Green Bar Bill About the Patrol Method GENTLEMEN, we’ve been pushed entirely out of the picture this month. We invited a bunch of Patrol Leaders to this Round Table, because we wanted to find out what questions boys ask about the Patrol....

I’ve struggled to understand the role of a junior assistant Scoutmaster. It’s right there on the organizational chart, it has a (kind of fuzzy) job description, but (like many of you) I never found a way to apply this role to my complete satisfaction. When our older Scouts became junior assistant Scoutmasters they seemed to enter some kind of limbo and slowly fade away. My troop has never had a serious problem retaining older Scouts....

How do I know what frustrates a youth leader? I have been guilty of each of these ten things at one time or another. People who volunteer to work with Scouts are generally good-hearted, well-meaning folks who want to do their best to guide Scouts towards growing into useful, good hearted people themselves. But this goodwill is not enough, we have to strive to develop our skills as adult volunteers. We develop character in individual Scouts; there is no formulaic, step-by-step approach....

Anyone who takes on a position of responsibility as a leader will feel pretty self-important at first. After all, you have been chosen, or you stepped in when no one else did. It’s a big ego boost to have a title, to have people follow your directions. That’s a pretty heady feeling isn’t it… all that power? Power scratches an itch, and some leaders never quite lose their addiction to power....

We tend to focus only on directive leadership roles when we are thinking about engaging our Scouts in leadership, but every Scout can (and ought to) be a leader. Here’s some thoughts you can use to encourage all of your Scouts to engage in leadership. **Leadership is much more than standing in front of the group giving directions.**There are four ways every Scout is a leader – First you lead yourself, second you follow cooperatively, third you help your fellow Scouts, and fourth you shape the directions and plans for your patrol and troop....

Like most three-year-olds my granddaughter is a expert learner – she soaks up everything around her like a sponge. There’s a new discovery every hour of the day, it’s a challenge keeping up. How do three-year-olds learn? Through a process of discovery. They get curious, they watch other people, get their hands on things; what is it for, how does it work? They watch other people do things, and try them out....

Podcast Episode (00:44:42): Listen on Apple Podcasts This encore presentation features an interview with the authors of Working the Patrol Method, a Scout leader’s guide to youth leadership training. I think this isthe best work on the patrol method since ‘Green Bar’ Bill Hillcourt’s Handbook for Patrol Leaders last published in 1965 or Baden Powell’s Aids to Scoutmastership originally published in 1920. It’s about time! Working the Patrol Method a Scout leader’s guide to youth leadership training is the best work on the patrol method since ‘Green Bar’ Bill Hillcourt’s Handbook for Patrol Leaders last published in 1965 or Baden Powell’s Aids to Scoutmastership originally published in 1920....

I want to encourage you to stop training youth leaders and start developing their leadership skills – two very different things. Scouts learn best experimentally, “ready, fire, aim” is an apt description of the process. Directing the archery and rifle range at our camp many years ago I learned some important lessons about how to help Scouts develop skills. Most Scouts that showed up at the range weren’t receptive to formal instruction because they had that jumpy “beginner energy”, assumptions about their own skill, and they were excited to try things out....

Vilhelm Hans Bjerregaard Jensen was a Danish Scout who became a Scoutmaster during the early years of the Scouting Movement. He decided to see something of Scouting around the world, worked his way through Europe and England, arrived in the United States in February 1926 and took a job with the national headquarters of the Boy Scouts of America. James West (the BSA’s first National Executive) solicited Vilhelm’s thoughts on Scouting....

Scouts Canada has created a clear, uncluttered, engaging process in the “Plan-Do-Review” component of the Canadian Path. Scouting is made up of intuitive principles that are intended to be taken at face value. Simplicity can be elusive; we tend to prefer complications. At first blush there’s nothing groundbreaking or new about this approach. It’s so intuitive and simple I think most of us would pass it over with a “sure, I get that” and start looking for a ‘Plan-Do-Review” training syllabus or PowerPoint presentation, but you won’t find one – it’s just that simple!...

I taught my step-son to drive from the passenger seat of a beat-up, old, standard transmission Honda Civic. I am pretty sure the best way to learn how to start from a stop with a clutch is sitting behind the wheel, feeling the clutch engage, pressing the gas pedal, and stalling the car a couple of times. “Push the clutch in all the way with your left foot.” “Okay” “Start the car”...

1. Promote Ownership If youth leadership is actually responsible for the running the program, (meetings, outings, the whole megillah), they must have sense of ownership. Without ownership they will not have a sense of responsibility. 2. Praise publicly, criticize privately Critique and advice are tempered by a sense of care and support and quietly offered. Praise is frequent, always overheard, and shared with others. 3. Supply direction and boundaries. Focus on what Scouting promises Scouts without making demands or issuing orders....

Get a PDF version of this infographic below. I’ve written extensively about developing youth leadership but this article focuses on how our youth leaders are selected. Before we delve into specifics let’s agree that there’s a danger of losing the distinction between suggestions, rules and regulations, and mandated practices. Any “how to” instructions should be built on understanding of the ”‘why” behind the “how”. When it comes to selecting youth leaders most of us perpetuate inherited practices, or draw conclusions based on assumptions....

CompelForce or oblige someone to do something. DelegateTo give or commit (duties, powers, etc) to another as agent or representative. Empowered Give someone the authority or power to do something. The authority of youth leadership is not based in compelling young people to do something. The authority in youth leadership is not delegated (One abiding myth of Scouting is that the adults are the source of all authority and delegate responsibility to youth leadership....

I received this email from a new Scoutmaster a day or two ago: I was presented with the opportunity to take over as our new Scoutmaster some months ago and asked your advice. I had some concerns about the level of adult involvement in what should be a boy-led troop. In your response you suggested I define my vision of the patrol method clearly, present that vision and (if the other adults involved didn’t agree with that vision) be prepared to walk away....

The Patrol System was published by the General Council Boy Scouts of Canada in 1960 and is available in PDF format here (do make sure to check out The Dump). The principles of the Patrol System were first introduced by the Founder, Baden-Powell, when he was with the British Army in India. The system he devised enabled soldiers to operate in small groups and use their own initiative within the overall plan of campaign … the Patrol System became one of the basic elements of Scouting....

Saw this comment today: “He’s got a bunch of older Scouts who run his troop for him, he’s lucky!” Lucky? Not at all, that’s how Scouting works. “He’s got a bunch of older Scouts…” Yes, we have a bunch of older Scouts, when I think “older” I think about any Scout over thirteen. Younger Scouts are often just as capable, they just need someone to believe in them. “… who run his troop for him …” There’s a couple of problems with that....

It’s not possible to train leaders in the classic sense by teaching theoretical information in a theoretical environment. We can’t sweep a big crowd of Scouts or Scouters together, put them in one end of the training machine, and have leaders come out the other. Developing actual leadership skill is a complex, individualized, process that only happens in real time in real situations. There’s no way of accurately mapping a step-by-step path to leadership development that everyone follows, but there are familiar landmarks....

Printed edition cover. I set up this logbook for my Scouts to keep records of meetings, camping trips plans, adventures and memorable moments. They use the information to help their patrol understand what they should start doing, keep on doing or, perhaps, stop doing. By reflecting on things that worked well and things that don’t go as planned they can avoid past mistakes and make better plans in the future. By recording their thoughts they also create a memorable record of their Scouting adventures....

Working the patrol system is a challenge no matter where you are. I think that the scenes with Scouts huddled together in a dim room and feeling hopeless speak volumes! I laughed out loud when the Scouter says “A written test?!? Of course!”. Thanks to Mike Beck and David Smith for letting me know about this video from Scouts Australia. I’ve posted this video before, but it’s worth mentioning it again....