Scouting, Volume 62, Number 6, September 1974 Page: 22
112 p. : ill. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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PATROL METHOD
MAGIC
BY JOHN A. SCOTT, JR.
It had become a painful ritual. Moth-
ers of my Scouts called in their
complaints about bullying and torn
clothes to me right after meetings, and
Dee Rowe, athletic director at Worces-
ter Academy, called the following
mornings to express dissatisfaction
with broken clocks, rifled lockers, stol-
en gym equipment and so on. As a
new teacher at the boys' private col-
lege preparatory school and new
Scoutmaster of Troop 200, I was be-
ginning to lose confidence. Still, I
thought, I never asked for the job as
Scoutmaster. Headmaster William Pi-
per had "volunteered" me that fall
when he had announced in the first
faculty meeting the formation of an
academy-sponsored troop, not for
Worcester students but for the very-
low-income neighborhood boys who
would meet in the gym.
"Sorry, Dee, but I guess I need a
magic wand to control the chaos and
damage," I said as I apologized again
one morning.
And then I met Les Vielle, Scout-
master of Troop 98, at a Quinsigamond
District Roundtable. "Patrol Method,"
he insisted, "is the answer. Boys love
contests, so in our troop we use a con-
test among patrols to make the meth-
od work. The patrols compete in skill
areas, on camp-outs and in other
areas that adult leaders, the commit-
tee and the troop leaders' council
specify. At our quarterly courts of
honor, the patrol with the most points
is named the honor patrol. The win-
ning patrol leader is presented with a
special honor patrol flag, and the pa-
trol gets a special trip."
Here's the essence of Les' system:
at weekly meetings, each patrol is giv-
en three points if the boys have the
patrol-designed/made flag, one point
per boy in full uniform, and 10 points if
the patrol had a meeting outside the
troop meeting with at least 60 percent
of the members present. The PL must
show written minutes to the SPL. Also
on a weekly basis, there is a skill con-
test. At the close of the previous
week's meeting, the SPL has an-
nounced that the contest would be
based on lashing, compass, knots,
first aid, or whatever encouraging the
patrols to practice the skill as a part of
their separate weekly meetings. The
next week the contest is run with 10
points going to the winner, 6 to the
next, 4, 2, and so on.
On a monthly basis (camping at
least once a month), patrols are
judged in terms of their overall func-
tion during each camp-out. The em-
phasis is on preparation, cooperation
within patrol and troop, spirit, ad-
vancement and patrol leadership. The
SPL and the council decide on the
winning patrol and how the other pa-
trols placed. The SPL awards points —
10 times the amount of the weekly skill
contest. A possible innovation is the
selection of an honor camper whose
patrol gets 50 points. Advancement
also figures in. Scout earns 5, Tender-
foot 10, and so on up to 150 for Eagle.
A boy can thus help himself and his
patrol at the same time.
Finally, to emphasize character and
citizenship, any patrol can earn 100
points if the patrol has at least 60 per-
cent of the patrol take part in a signifi-
cant community service project. Good
for the boys, and great PR for a troop.
And boy, does it work! Within a few
months of trying Les' system in Troop
200, chaos and damage were under
control, patrols were really working
and having fun, and I was getting a dif-
ferent kind of phone call from Scout
mothers and academy officials. One
mother, Joan McElroy, sent another
son, and her husband Ken joined us as
an assistant Scoutmaster. Several
mothers formed a Mothers' Auxiliary.
Mitch Mateiko joined us as committee
chairman, and his son Steve became a
super SPL.
Complaints turned gradually into
enthusiastic support. By the spring of
our second year, the academy was
talking about selecting some of our
members for scholarship attendance.
Dee Rowe was one of the first and
strongest supporters of this.
The first to be selected was Steve
Gully, who then spent four years at the
academy, graduated and went on to
enroll at Worcester State College. The
following year SPL Steve Mateiko,
Troop 200's first Eagle Scout, was
selected. Steve has maintained a high
honors average and served as a varsity
club officer in his senior year.
In the early days of pre-magic
chaos, Rob McElroy had almost quit
because he had been constantly
picked on as a chubby little redhead
with a sensitive disposition and
glasses. Patrol method had estab-
lished order, and Rob had stayed to
become the scribe and a den chief. In
a recent letter, Rob joked about the
troop newsletter he used to publish.
He has since won awards as the
editor-in-chief of his high school
newspaper, and now he is at Assump-
tion College majoring in English and
journalism. Rob has expressed his de-
termination to be a Scoutmaster, wav-
ing his own wand when he finishes
college.
I've been down the trail a ways since
first squirming as a new Scoutmaster.
As a Wood Badge trainee and as a dis-
trict training chairman, I have shared
Les' magic with many Scouters and
have seen it work in their troops. I
even got to use it a second time as
Scoutmaster of Troop 10 in Lake Plac-
id, N.Y. It worked again in a much dif-
ferent neighborhood situation. I'm
hooked.
It takes several strong arms to wave
the patrol method wand. But then all
Scoutmasters carry the biggest packs,
tell the best stories and are mostly
magicians anyway. ■
22
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Boy Scouts of America. Scouting, Volume 62, Number 6, September 1974, periodical, September 1974; New Brunswick, New Jersey. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth353624/m1/22/: accessed May 5, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Boy Scouts of America National Scouting Museum.