Scouting, Volume 25, Number 4, April 1937 Page: 11
34, [2] p. : ill. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Handbook for Scoutmasters
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CHAT 10
THE TROOP COMMITTEE
Foot Notes
By STUART WALSH
"T
'HIS new Handbook for Scout-
masters is a dandy, but I think
there is one chapter in it that
might have been lengthened a little,"
said a Troop Committee Chairman to
me the other day. "I'd like to add a
couple of pages to 'Chat 10' on the
Troop Committee."
"The new Handbook says some-
thing about it being proper for Com-
mitteemen to call on parents to con-
vince them that their boys need Scout-
ing. What I say is that the Commit-
teemen should call on all parents fre-
quently, to help them understand what
Scouting is doing for their boys after
they join the Troop.
"I'd like to suggest that a Troop
Committee will get a lot of pleasure
and satisfaction—in short, a tremen-
dous kick—out of dividing up the boys'
parents so that each man has about
eight to call on, and beginning a con-
versation on each call, after the weath-
er has been appropriately mentioned,
with a question something like this:
'How does Jimmy like the Patrol
he's in ?'
'Which of his Second Class tests has
he seemed to enjoy most?'
'What do you think will be the
hardest requirement for him to meet
for his Eagle rank?'
"If one of these questions doesn't
start a mighty interesting and profit-
able conversation in any home, then
Joan Crawford is camera-shy. Of
course I'm assuming that a Committee-
man has taken the trouble to learn
just a little about Scouting before he
starts out to ring door-bells on this
kind of a survey—but just a little
knowledge will be enough. I'm willing
to bet that half the parents he calls on
won't know what a Patrol is—not to
mention being familiar with the re-
quirements for Eagle Rank.
"How could they know—unless they
read the Scout Handbook themselves,
or unless their son is more coherent in
his table conversation than most
twelve-year-olds are? Yet how much
more will they respect their son's
Scout engagements and activities and
much more intelligent encouragement
they can give him, if they do know
something about it all!
"So I say, let the Troop Commit-
tee members do a little work of this
kind—which no one else can do—and
they will find all sorts of points where
they can be helpful. Certainly the
Scoutmaster hasn't time to call on all
the parents, much as he would like to,
but if every parent knows at least one
member of the Troop Committee and
has had a good talk with him about
Scouting, how much smoother every-
thing will go!
"The results of a calling bee like
this will make a very interesting sub-
ject of discussion at a Troop Commit-
tee meeting afterwards, leading to
some very helpful suggestions for im-
provements in even the best of Troop
programs. The next step would be for
the Troop Committee Chairman to
meet with the Troop Leaders' Coun-
cil and tell them what the Scouts' par-
ents seem to know and think about
Scouting and the Troop. This would
lead naturally to having the Patrol
Leaders call on the parents of the boys
in their respective Patrols to explain
more about certain points on Scout ac-
tivities, as a logical and very helpful
follow-up to the committeemen's vis-
its."
Having passed this very interesting
idea along to the Scoutmasters and
Troop Committee Chairmen of our
Council, it occurred to me that a vet-
eran Scoutmaster's idea about the use-
fulness of a Troop Committee might
be worth finding out. With the Com-
mittee Chairman's notion about defi-
nite questions in my mind I asked a
pretty high-class Scoutmaster what he
thought of the chapter in the new
Scoutmasters' Handbook about Troop
Committees.
"It's fine as far as it goes," he said,
"but it doesn't make any mention of
what I consider t\yo of the most valu-
able ways a Committee can help the
Scoutmaster—at least my Committee
certainly has been of great help in
these two ways, which might be hard
to explain briefly in a book.
"My committee, in the first place,
has enabled me to teach my boys to
feel at ease with men. Most boys, un-
til they get well along into high school,
know only one or two men intimately
—their own dads, perhaps; a friendly
uncle; the Scoutmaster of their Troop.
With other men they are shy and ill
(Continued $n page 30)
APRIL, 1937
Important Information! See Inside Bach Cover Page
Page Eleven
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Boy Scouts of America. Scouting, Volume 25, Number 4, April 1937, periodical, April 1937; New York, New York. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth313026/m1/11/: accessed April 30, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Boy Scouts of America National Scouting Museum.