scoutmasterjerry said:

Hey.. here is a start.
1st. Your Committee needs to read and understand how Scouting is supposed to work.
2nd. Your Committee does not get a vote on the PLC.
3rd. the PLC runs the Troop.. NOT the committee.
There is a great little book available through the BSA Supply group..it's called the Troop Committee Guide Book (item number 3450.
That would be a great place for your new committee to start.
Boy Scouts are Scout led, it is the job of the Scoutmaster and Assistants to teach and coach them, it is the job of the committee to provide the support that the unit needs.. not to run, guide, plan program, or run a PLC.

Thanks for listening,
Have a Great Scouting Day!

That's interesting Jerry, and you know as an Eagle myself I used to think the same way. But after taking BALOO, OWL, and IOLS, I have to wonder if the PLC running things is just a mirage. The amount of paperwork involved with the adults in the troops was a real eye opener for one. I agree that ideally you want the Boys to be self sufficient enough to be able to plan activities, and run their own meetings, a good junior leader training should be able to instill that in your Scouts, but aren't there still jobs that the Adults need to do to make sure things run smooth or am I missing a beat somewhere?

No need to mince words Jerry. Thanks for the clarification. As I said, as an Eagle myself, we did a lot as boys to plan, and took a lot of pride in it. I got to serve as a Den Chief for two years and helped a Den Leader (who happened to be my mom btw) do a lot of the planning for her meetings for the cubs. I loved it. I probably learned more about leading from that one position I held as a Youth than any others.

That having been said, I appreciate your clarification. After being out of the lop since 1996 basically, and now being a pure adult leader, its an entirely different perspective, and I'm still learning the ropes here in the Cub Ranks (which was even longer ago). I hope to eventually within the next 6-18 Months work to establish a troop for these boys to move up into, and may end up putting my focus there at that time, but for now we are just getting our feet on the ground.

I agree with the approach you are advocating, now that I understand it better. The hardest thing I think (and has been mentioned in another podcast on this site) is instilling the initiative in the boys to do a lot of things themselves. I know when I came up they only had 2 patrols, and since they had lost a lot of membership they rolled the next two groups of new scouts into existing patrols so we were able to learn from leaders who had been around for a while. Later on when most of the older boys had dropped from the program, or aged out, I can recall as the ASPL having to work with the new patrol because of that gap, but yeah I hear you. We want to instill real leadership qualities and the only real way to do that is to teach them, then let them in essence take the reins as you said.

Thanks for the comments. I greatly appreciate them, and well try to remember them as we try to build a new program here in our town.