The cog that turns the wheels of Boy Scouting is the patrol method, and the grease that lubes the axle is something nebulously called patrol spirit.
Just what is patrol spirit? It’s the sense of friendship and cooperation that exists between members of a patrol. It’s the competitive nature and persistence that propels a patrol toward higher performance in fun, adventure, service and advancement (and winning those games of Capture the Flag).
Troops that don’t have standing patrols, where Scouts belong to – and do everything as – a patrol, are missing out on the major attraction of Scouting. Continue reading “Where does patrol spirit start?”
A few weeks ago I 
As the Christian world prepares to celebrate Christmas, I thought I’d devote this week’s article to a few reflections on our founder, Sir Robert Baden-Powell, and his wife on the subject of Christmas. 
You have likely heard the fable about the blind men and the elephant. It’s a tale that’s told in many of the world’s religions as a means of explaining how everyone views the diety differently. One version of the story is told:
While helping a couple Cub Scout packs in my district with their rechartering this fall, we were trying to figure out how to juggle the few adult volunteers so that all the positions are filled. The Cubmaster doubles as the den leader for his son’s den (definitely not a recommended practice). They still needed an official den leader to satisfy the requirement to have at least one, so one of the den’s parents was “drafted” to be a DINO – Denleader In Name Only. The chartered organization representative doubled up as a committee member so there would be the minimum of three.