The Life of the Patrol
By William "Green Bar Bill" Hillcourt
THE TRAINING YOU GIVE your Patrol Leaders through the Green Bar Patrol is intended to teach them to
turn their gangs into real Scout Patrols.
And a real Scout Patrol is a group of boys who enjoy being together, doing Scouting
together, learning from each other, helping each other in the spirit of the Three
Musketeers: "All for one, one for all!"
The spirit of such a gang is not built overnight. It is nursed along in a lot of
ways-some small, like winning or losing a game; some large, like working hard On a Patrol
Good Turn; some obvious, like giving an ear-splitting Patrol yell; some hidden, like the
voice that whispers: "Keep on! Don't let the gang down!"
A true Patrol spirit will do much to shape the character of the boys in the gang.
Developing Patrol Spirit
A good Patrol Leader and the right make-up of the gang are the two biggest factors in
developing Patrol spirit.
Once a boy becomes a member of a Patrol he ordinarily remains in that Patrol until he
leaves the Troop or becomes a leader. A boy needs this feeling of knowing that he is
"there to stay." That is why there is little chance for Patrol spirit in a
Troop where the Scoutmaster shuffles the boys together at frequent intervals and deals
them out into new Patrols. Under such a system they have no sense of belonging
anywhere.
The Patrol Name is important. Instead of being merely a boy, the new Scout on
entering his Patrol becomes a Buffalo, a Beaver, or a Falcon. He learns to give his
Patrol Call and sets out to learn the habits of his Patrol animal or bird. He uses
the Patrol Signature whenever he signs his name. He wears the Patrol's totem in the
Patrol Medallion on his sleeve. His Patrol Flag, carried on the hike and planted in
front of the Patrol tents in camp, comes to mean something to him (see Handbook
for Patrol Leaders, Chapter Two).
Encourage your Patrol Leader to develop Patrol Spirit by all means available. Challenge
each Patrol to produce the best possible homemade Patrol Flag, then call for its use at
all Troop and Patrol functions. Make certain that a boy secures his Patrol Medallion
as soon as he joins a Patrol.
Use these features of a good Patrol whenever you can. At Troop meetings, let
Patrol Leaders report "Beavers all present, sir," instead of "All present,
sir. " Have a Patrol indicate that it has finished in relay game by giving its
call. Ask for the Patrol Signature on the hike report. Give the Patrol Flag a
prominent place at Troop meetings and in camp.
Each Patrol should, as far as possible, have a corner of the Troop meeting room to call
its own. Let the boys decorate the Patrol Corners themselves with knot boards,
nature exhibits, pictures, hike souvenirs and the hike. If the Troop does not have
its own quarters but meets in a church or school room, Patrol Screens that can be folded
up and put away between meetings will do the trick. Besides, encourage the Patrols
to find Patrol Dens of their own for their Patrol meetings, and to make their own Patrol
Equipment.
All these things help to build Patrol spirit. But when everything is said and
done, it is DOING THINGS TOGETHER that counts the most. It is the Patrol's own
meetings, hikes and camps and special activities that make up the life of the Patrol.
Patrol Meetings
When we speak of Patrol meetings, we mean meetings of the Patrol with no adult present;
where the Patrol Leader gets his chance to use leadership ability and the training you
have given him.
A Patrol meeting once a week seems to get the best results. Many up-and-coming
Patrols with boys of the same neighborhood or school get together almost daily to train in
Scoutcraft.
A new Patrol often meets at the home of one of the members--usually a different home
each week. While some mothers may like to serve refreshments, others. will welcome
Patrol meetings more readily if it is made clear that "eats" are not expected.
As a Patrol grows older, it should aim to have its own regular meeting place.
The ingredients of good Patrol meetings are the 3 C's:
 | short and impressive ceremonies, |
| checking on attendance, dues and advancement, |
| coaching in Scoutcraft requirements; |
and the 3 P's:
| planning future activities, |
| working on service, money-earning and other projects, |
| and play: games, songs and stunts. (See Chapter 5 of the Handbook
for Patrol Leaders.) |
How will you know that your Patrols have successful meetings? Certainly not by a
formal inspection. Certainly not by sitting in the corner listening while an
embarrassed Patrol Leader tries to carry on.
A better way is to watch what happens.
| If a Patrol has a rousing good stunt ready for Troop meeting, you can be pretty sure
that it had a busy Patrol meeting. |
| If a Patrol brings a carefully made knot board or a number of exhibits for its corner,
you know it has been working. |
| Also, the spirit of the Patrol is reflected in the way the boys react--whether they
volunteer when there's a job to be done--whether they are full of ideas of things to do
when you ask for suggestions. |
Patrol Hikes and Camps
When the weather is good, a Patrol meeting can take the form of a hike.
Patrols are ready to go hiking and camping on their own just as soon as the Patrol
Leader has been trained, and the Scouts have learned to take care of themselves, have
learned to respect growing crops and live trees, to avoid unnecessary danger, and in all
ways conduct themselves as Scouts. Until they arrive at this point, a responsible
Troop leader should accompany the Patrol.
Trained Patrol Leaders mean profitable Patrol meetings. The time you spend in
training your boy leaders bears rich fruit.
Or a Patrol dad may go along to provide the maturity of judgment the Patrol Leader may
lack.
It should be your goal to get your Patrol Leaders qualified for hike and camp
leadership at an early stage. So let's see what should be expected of a Patrol
Leader before he can be considered ready to take his Patrol hiking or camping.
Something along these lines serves as a good basis for judgment:
PATROL HIKE LEADERSHIP
The Patrol Leader should be a First Class Scout. He should have experienced at
least three Troop hikes and one hike of the Leaders' Patrol. He should have the
written consent of the parents of each boy (some Troops arrange to get a written consent
which does for a whole season). He must be reasonably familiar with the country to
be covered on the hike, and he must have permission of the property owner to build fires
and cook.
PATROL CAMP LEADERSHIP
The Patrol Leader should, in addition to the above, have taken part in at least two
Troop overnight camps and one Green Bar Patrol
Overnight Camp. He must be familiar with the camp site and must have
secured the necessary permission to make camp.
These are not hard and fast "requirements," but rather a measuring stick for
the Scoutmaster's use. One of your Patrol Leaders, not yet a First Class Scout, may
have enough judgment to be trusted to make a Patrol hike a success, while another needs
still stricter requirements before he is allowed to take his Scouts out alone. Use
these "requirements" with a grain of salt for the good of the Troop--and the boy
leaders themselves.
You should be the one to approve all plans for Patrol hikes and camps, since, in the
last analysis, parents look to you for the safety of their boys.
Patrol hikes are built around such Scout activities as orientation, mapping, exploring,
use of knife and hatchet, fire building, cooking, signaling, tracking, nature lore,
pioneering.
On Patrol overnight camps the Scouts have the opportunity to practice what they have
learned on hikes and to become good all-round campers.
It's when hiking and camping that the Patrol Leader has his best chance to train his
boys in Scoutcraft and to help them advance in Scout Rank. The details of Patrol
hikes and camps are described in the Handbook for Patrol Leaders, Chapters Six
and Seven.
Patrol Advancement
The good Patrol Leader will strive to have his boys step ahead through the Second Class
and First Class Scout Ranks as fast as is consistent with thoroughness. This
naturally means that he must be stepping, too!
It is customary to have the Patrol Leader examine his boys toward a rank which he has
already reached himself.
Patrol Good Turns
Many Patrols have become a closer knit team by taking on a continuous job of
helpfulness-such as caring for an elderly cripple or a blind person, directing traffic at
a school corner, running games in a children's playground, helping to train the boys in a
newly organized Troop.
Patrols that meet in churches and schools can give very practical help to these
institutions. Keeping the church lawn cut, painting the basement, distributing posters for
church affairs, are only a few of the many useful services that Scouts can render.
Patrol Specialization
Sometimes a Patrol decides to concentrate on a particular specialty.
| First aid, pioneering and signaling are popular, but there are a number of other
activities: |
| A group of good swimmers may train themselves as a life savings corps. |
| A Patrol interested in nature may work together to make a nature collection. |
| Or a Patrol may specialize in long-distance hikes, primitive camping, or some similar
outdoor hobby. |
| All your Patrols may work for Standard Patrol rating (HPL, p. 362). |
The Patrol and the Troop
In placing so much emphasis on Patrols, the idea is not that each Patrol should run off
in a different direction, independent of the others. On the contrary. A Patrol
is a gang living its own life and at the same time the life of a larger group, the Troop:
just as a family lives its own life and also the life of the community. If boys
understand this there will be little chance of Patrols developing into cliques.
It is only natural for each Patrol to want to be top Patrol in the Troop, but the best
relation between Patrols seems to be the result of mixing cooperation and competition in
about equal parts.
There is nothing contradictory in this.
The sound of one lone tuba, cornet, saxophone, or bass drum may not in itself be very
pleasing, yet in an orchestra, the combined result is good music--which certainly doesn't
prevent the cornet player, for example, from trying to become the best musician in the
outfit. In the Troop orchestra the aim is to make each Patrol player as nearly
perfect as possible.
At Troop meetings let each Patrol have its regular place in the Troop line-up, each
Patrol its own sessions during the meeting in its own corner. Games and contests are
conducted on a Patrol basis, with the Patrol the team. Each Patrol has a chance to
bring in a new game and lead the others in playing it, or put on a demonstration of its
specialty, or challenge the others in a competition.
On Troop hikes each Patrol takes care of its own commissary. The Patrols outdo
each other in hunts for hidden "treasures," they compete with each other in
cross-country games, test each other's ability in signaling, axemanship, cooking and other
Scout accomplishments.
In Troop camp each Patrol has its share of the work. Tents are grouped by Patrols,
cooking is done by Patrols, games and activities are run by Patrol teams.
Let Them Lead!
Again and again we come back to the important point that you can't expect a gang of
boys to build a good Patrol without a boy leader who has been trained to lead. And,
as Baden-Powell says, "To get the best results, you must give the leader real
freehanded responsibility. If you only give partial responsibility, you will only
get partial results."
Let Patrol Leaders take over in practically everything. Let them work out their
own problems, with the boys in their Patrols. Interfere as little as possible but
always be there to give guidance when they ask for it. Mistakes are bound to be
made-therefore, be ready in a friendly spirit to urge the boy leader and his gang to try
again.
"'Train'em, trust'em, and let'em Lead!" That
is the formula for success in using Patrol Leaders and for building strong Patrols.
HB4SM-4th ed.
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