I was going to reply earlier in the day to this post, but I withheld my thoughts until Jerry weighed in…

I don't think that Jerry is trying to be a smart aleck, but BP said it best…

"Never do for a boy what he can do for himself…"

Scouts are able to do anything in the troop…anything. Are they proficient? Probably not. Are they nervous and scared? You betcha.

That is where the SPL and the PLC comes into play…they make the decisions, and they are in charge of executing the plan…the same as what the adults did as Cub Leaders.

I will mention something that worked for me…my scouts never planned a meeting, nor did they want to…I did it, every week. I showed them what I did to put it together, but they still weren't interested. So every week, we did the same thing…opening, the Boy Scout Skills game, knot-tying and then we closed the meeting…yup, we did that every week for 4 weeks. After the 4 weeks, I got groans when I pulled out the box of ropes. "Knots again?"…

So we stopped the meeting right there, and all sat down at the table…"OK, here is what we are going to do…we are all going to plan out the next couple of meetings, and I would like you guys to pick what we are going to do, and stick to it." And we have never looked back.

Last week, one of the patrol leaders came unprepared for his patrol meeting…he had no materials. I handed him a packet of skits, jokes and run-ons, and left the meeting for about 40 minutes to attend a Cub Scout meeting. When I came back, that patrol and the new boy patrol were doing skits as an inter-patrol activity…so be patient, it does work.