SCOUT NOTES

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 21, 19 October 1938, Page 5

SCOUT NOTES

Wellington Troop Officers For Sydney Jamboree

PATROL LEADERS ALSO ELECTED IBy ItA-MA. ) A meeting of scouta and officers, forming the Wellington troop for the Sydney jamboree was held on Munday of last week. Au interesting evening was spent iu fixing up a number of necessary.details, including the formation ,ul tin- lour uatrols of- the rtoop. The ollieero- seleet-i-d to lake charge of the troop are:— Scoutmar-ter. Mr. R. R. A. Johns, Brooklyn, mid three usdis-tunt seoutmimters, Mr. A. C. Bycroft, Trinity Methodist, Mr. D. Jones. Seatoun. and Mr. J. Fairell. Basilica. The four patrol leadens appointed are Ron Smith. Island Bay Baptist, Robin Oliver. Seatoun. Jack Houston, Roseneuth, and Bob Hunter. J ohnsouville.

Thought for the Week. “What you are speaks so loud that 1 cannot hear what you e-ay.”

Visits to Troops. The Wellington commissioner for train; iug,' ■’llaiiia,” has commenced a round ol visits to troops iu the area and lias now visited three troops. In the ease ol the first vis-it it was u special one to introduce the new Dominion headquarters commissioner for sea scouts. Captai’J Spence, to Port Nichols-on troop. It was satisfactory to note an increase in numbers and also in keenness and efficiency, and the visitors felt that the prospects for tiie future of this troop are now favourable. On Tuesday evening of last week ■'Rama” visited Miramar troop, accompanied by the D.S.M.. "Wontolla.” Tliis is a small troop, but has* some keen scouts in it. and, with an increase of outdoor activities, should go ahead. Ou Friday evening "Rama,” again accompanied by "Wontolla,” visited St. Cuthbert’s troop, and found things going very satisfactorily there. Tbe use of the patrol system in this troop is very satisfactory and s-liouid ensure rapid progress.

Troop .Meetings. Scouting is an outdoor movement, with activities designed mainly for the fieldrand tbe woods. ' Yet, because of the very set-up of our present-day life, some of the activities of a scout troop are necessarily confined within the four walls of the meeting room. Here it prepares itself for its outdoor experiences at weekly get-togethers. As the years have gone by some scoutmasters have set this troop meeting upon too elevated a pedestal. They have spoken of it. reverently; they have spent hours anti hours in perfecting its programmes and have seemed to consider that the conducting of a troop meeting successfully once a week was the whole idea and purpose of the scout movement-—that by running a fine, lively meeting on Friday nights—or Tuesdays or Thursdays—their work was done for seven days. There never was a falser idol set. up than this glorification ot the weekly troop meeting to the exclusion of other forms of scout activity. W'e must keep, clearly in mind at all times that the weekly troop meeting is but a means to an end. It is not an end in itself. Its business is not to be the scouting of the troop for the week. Its business ,is to make scouting for a week—to inspire it, to pep it up. to give it purpose and activities, to make it extend ail through the week in each patrol’s and each boy’s life. We cannot accomplish much actual work in one and a half or two hours every week, but-we can use those hours to motivate every other hour of the same period. And by motivate we mean to stimulate or to induce activity by providing a motive to every boy and every patrol. Naturally, in this ease as in others, it is the balanced schedule that counts, a schedule of, preferably, weekly troop meetings, weekly patrol meetings, fortnightly patrol leaders’ council meetings, regular hikes and camps. The Patrol Period.

We may as well face tbe fact from the outset. The patrol period at the troop meeting is often a rather artificial fixture, incense offered in the name of tbe patrol method. The ever-present danger of this period on a troop meeting programme is that many scoutmasters confuse it with tlte patrol method itself. They feel that this “sacrifice” suffices to make it possible for them to say, “Certainly we are using the patrol method.” This danger can only be offset by a definite realisatiou of the fact that the patrol period at a troop meeting is primarily meant to serve the purpose of tjroviding a breathing space, during which each patrol may gather with its leader for a check on plans, personnel and projects. If, for example, announcement_s have been made at the start of the meeting relative to a troop hike or other troop undertaking, the patrol may plan during its period how it mar gear itself into the general scheme. If volunteers have been called for a troop service project, the patrol may at this time prepare its list of boys to submit to the scoutmaster. If stunts, contests or games have been planned for later periods of the meeting >j;ogrnmme, this is the time the patrol wifi have its dress rehearsal or choose its representatives. In other words, the patrol period is mostly motivated by the troop meeting itself, or bv the lendirship of the meeting, seldom by the patrol’s own intentions. And that is as it should be. At troop meetings, troop spirit, troop discipline, troop pride assert, themselves, functioning into and influencing the patrols. The important thing is that every effort should be made to have each patrol feel that the sum of the patrol’s efforts makes tbe troop meeting successful. Unless a definite line of items to be accomplished faces each patrol at the patrol period, unless it is thoroughly motivated, it would be better to dispense with it altogether. To tell the petrols, “Now go to your corners and do something!” will make the period a waste of time, and may possibly end in rough-housing. On the other hand, with scheduled things to do, the patrol period may become one of the most profitable parts of the troop meeting. Tbe necessary thought to keep in mind is that, even at. best, this period is a part of the troop meeting and therefore the troop's lifef rather than n part of the patrol’s.