Troop Meetings
WEEKLY TROOP MEETINGS
The weekly Troop meeting is the glue that holds a Boy Scout Troop together. These meetings, planned and run by the troop’s youth leaders, can be full of excitement, learning-by-doing, and satisfaction. Meeting time devoted to learning new skills and organizing future campouts, service projects, and other activities help keep interest levels and enthusiasm high. They serve many purposes:
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Motivating Scouts. From Scouts’ points of view, troop meetings are chances for them to get together with their Patrol friends for fun and adventure. For the Scoutmaster, meetings offer opportunities for Scouts to learn, advance, learn new leadership skills, and improve themselves.
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Strengthening Patrols. Patrols have opportunities at troop meetings to meet together, to learn as a team, and to share what they know. Whether they serve as the honor guard for the meeting’s opening ceremony, or as presenters of a Scouting skill, or as the organizers of the weekly inter-patrol game or activity, every patrol can contribute to every troop meeting.
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Learning & Practicing Scouting Skills. A portion of every Troop meeting is focused on the demonstration and practice of skills that will enhance Scouts’ ability to hike and camp, and to meet advancement requirements.
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Exercising Leadership. Every week, the Troop’s youth leaders take charge of planning, carrying out, and then assessing the success of their troop meetings. Leadership can be learned only by experience, and troop meetings are the venue for this to happen.
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Promoting Scout spirit. Troop meetings offer ideal settings for Patrols to take part in contests and competitions that test their expertise and their abilities to cooperate with one another. And meetings always end with the Scoutmaster’s Minute.
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WEEKLY TROOP MEETINGS – THE COMMITTEE’S PERSPECTIVE
The committee uses Troop meetings to further its own purposes and goals, including conducting boards of review for Scouts who have completed rank requirements for advancement, and reaching out to new Troop parents, getting to know them, and inviting them to attend committee meetings – This is essential to maintaining the vitality of the Troop.
WEEKLY TROOP MEETINGS – THE SCOUTMASTER’S PERSPECTIVE
In Troop meetings, the Scoutmaster can observe the youth leaders in action so that, in separate conferences with them, they can be coached on how to improve and refine their leadership skills. Troop meetings are also a time and place for conferencing with Scouts who are advancing, and those who aren’t. Finally, each week the Scoutmaster has the opportunity to “teach a new lesson” in Scout Spirit via the Scoutmaster’s Minute.
Planning a Troop Meeting
Responsibility for the conduct and content of a Troop meeting falls to the Scouts themselves. Troop meetings are planned well in advance by the Senior Patrol Leader and the PLC.
Each Troop meeting will have been planned the previous month at the meeting of the PLC. The Senior Patrol Leader will have assigned Patrols and individuals to take care of portions of a meeting, giving as many Scouts as possible the chance to contribute. The seven-part Troop meeting plan provides the framework for efficient, well-run troop meetings.
The Seven Parts of a troop Meeting
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Pre-opening
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Opening
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Skills Instruction
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Patrol Meetings
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Inter-patrol Activity
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Closing–Scoutmaster’s Minute
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After the Meeting - Standup PLC meeting