Scout Led Troop

Background:
Beginning under the leadership of Dave Nagy, Troop 171 initiated the use of the Patrol Leaders Council (PLC).
The purpose of the PLC is twofold:

1. To provide the scout leaders with leadership specific training to develop their leadership skills so they can fulfill their duty as a leader in the troop.
2. The PLC is to plan the troop meetings.The general time allocation was 30 minutes of planning for meetings and 60 minutes of training.

Under Ken Teeter’s leadership, the troop set aside the first Monday of each month for the PLC meeting in order to increase attendance for the PLC meetings.   This was important since the troop now had over 100 scouts and Ken Teeter had stated one of the three goals of the troop was to grow great leaders.  This same approach has continued through the present.

Expectations:
The BSA Handbook is clear about the positions a scout could fill to meet the leadership requirement.  Basically, any position with a patch, short of Assistant Patrol Leader (APL), qualified as a leadership position.  It was the consensus of the adult leaders that simply holding a position and sewing on the patch was insufficient to meet the intent of the requirement.  The scout would need to actually show some leadership as a leader to satisfy the leadership requirement.  This was especially true as the troop leadership remained firm that Troop 171 was a boy-led troop, and if you have 100 scouts, we would need a lot of boy leaders, leading and producing results, to keep the troop performing at a high level.

For the ranks (Star and Life), at times, we have allowed the APL rank to count towards the leadership requirement, if a Scout is truly leading either with or in the absence of the PL.  This is not inconsistent with the intent of the BSA requirement because in Troop 171, the Patrol Leaders (PL) are often selected as trainers, leaving the APL to act as the PL for many meetings and outings.  The APL’s are required to attend PLC.  That combination of training and hands on leadership experience is actually more conducive to meeting the leadership requirement as opposed to being an inactive or non-leading Troop Historian, which can require almost no effort, and no leadership.

Specifically, these are the actions we want to see as proof a Scout met the leadership objective.
The expectation of effort and responsibility increases with the rank.

1. Attend the PLC Training – We don’t expect a Tenderfoot to learn knots without training.   It is unrealistic to expect a recently elected PL to know leadership without training.  Attendance demonstrates a commitment to their position of responsibility and responsibility, and to the troop.  A PLC training topic will mean one thing to a new APL.  That same topic, presented 18 months later when the same scout is a PL, will have an entirely different meaning. PLC attendance is expected throughout their leadership experience.  Senior scout leaders are defacto PLC trainers as they are able to contribute to the leadership training discussions with real life experiences.  And, in the near future, Scouts working on Life Rank will need to show that they have taught other leaders, using the EDGE method (a new requirement).
2. Attend the PLC After Action Reviews (AAR) – This is a very critical part of leader development process.  It is a self-assessment of an event led by the boy leaders to identify what is working, what is not working, and how they can improve.  This imbeds the self-improvement process into the lifestyle of the scout.
3. Lead –​​
   1. The primary leadership positions such as Troop Guide, Den Chief, APL, PL, ASPL, & SPL are easily evaluated in that if a scout is doing their job, they get to remain in that position.  If they consistently fail to fulfill their duty, they are removed from the position.  We have removed several PLs over the years.
   2. If a scout holds a staff troop position (Quartermaster, Scribe, Historian, Chaplain) they must demonstrate some real initiative to lead something.
      1. If the Quartermaster just helps load the trailer before summer camp, that activity is service, not leadership, therefore the requirement is not met.
      2. If the quartermaster organizes other quartermasters to clean equipment, or to load the trailers in advance of an outing, then he is leading, and the requirement is met.
      3. If the Scribe writes a newsletter, that is service, and the leadership requirement is not met.
      4. If the Scribe assigns other Scribes to write stories, edits the stories, then he assembles that work into a newsletter, then that is considered leadership.
      5. If the Chaplain says grace before meals, that is not leadership, that is service.
      6. If the Chaplain works with the PLC to make sure prayers and religious services are planned into all outings, that is leadership.
   3. If a scout has no official leadership position, but he routinely leads training sessions on Monday nights, organizes outings, serves on Camporee staff, plus attends PLC training and PLC AAR’s, then the cumulative effort…….cumulative effort……may be considered leadership if leadership was involved for six months’ worth of effort.
      1. A Scout that continually leads troop meetings, attends PLC, and helps at almost all troop functions as a leader may have met 6 mo. in a row as a troop leader.
      2. ii. A Scout that participates in District Camporee planning meetings and then serves as on the Camporee Staff, may have "earned" one or two months toward his 6 mo. Requirement.
      3. A Scout that served as a leader prepping for and participating in a BSA High Adventure trip may have "earned" two months toward his 6-month requirement.
   4. Lead by example – Leaders lead by example.  If a scout is routinely disruptive, uncooperative, or resists the intent of the scout program, they are violating the first rule of leadership.  Scouts who wear their full uniform and solve problems are leaders.  Scouts who do not wear their uniform, and cause problems are not leaders and are not meeting their higher rank requirements.

Intent of the leadership requirement:

1. Expose scouts to formal leadership training that includes presentations combined with real life examples contributed by the instructor, supporting adult leaders, and the other scouts who now have leadership experiences both good and bad.
2. Place scouts in leadership positions so they can learn that leadership requires extra work, special skills, and preparation to be successful.  Scouts who fulfill the leadership requirement develop a sense of pride and accomplishment seldom experienced by youth outside the scouting program.
3. To contribute to the smooth functioning of the troop.
4. To make some progress as a leader.  All scouts begin the leadership program at different levels of natural leadership abilities.  The PLC experience is designed to move them along, so they are a significantly better leader when they exit the scouting program, than when they began.  It is their progression that we want to see, not some final end state of perfection.
5. To prepare the scouts to lead outside of Troop 171.

Meeting a leadership requirement while not in an official position:

• Meeting a rank advancement leadership requirement may require a Scout to put in writing, before the leadership work, a written plan about what he expects to do to meet the 6-month requirement.
• Meeting this leadership requirement may require a Scout to put in writing, after the leadership work, a written summary about what he did (so the SM or PLC Advisor

NOT meeting a leadership requirement:
Scouts not meeting a rank advancement requirement have 2 options:

1. keep working to meet the leadership requirement (but note that time can run out for completing these time-affiliated requirements)
2. fail to advance in rank