Welcome Scout Parents

Troop 26 welcomes you. Scouting provides for growth of moral strength and character, teaches citizenship, and enhances the development of physical, mental and emotional fitness. This is all done in the spirit of fun and adventure.

If your child was a Cub Scout, you will find that Scouts is considerably different, some valuable information is provided below to ease your transition. Also, please take a few minutes to read Chapter 1 of your Scout’s Scout Handbook.

Meeting Place and Time

Troop 26 meets at Mount Ararat Baptist Church’s small chapel on Toluca Rd off Route 610 (Garrisonville Rd) in North Stafford on Tuesday nights from 7:00 to 8:30, except on the final Tuesday of the month, which is reserved for the Patrol Leader's Council (PLC). During this time, Scouts are informed of the details for upcoming events and activities, troop skills are taught and practiced, questions regarding advancement may be discussed, etc.

Scouts will need to bring a small notebook along with a pen or pencil to take notes for details of upcoming events. They will also need to bring their Scout Handbook to every meeting. It is the Scout’s responsibility to inform parents of times, dates, and details of scheduled events, merit badge assignments, and equipment needed for the next meeting, etc.

Sound advice from some other parents

Parents who have watched their Scouts grow into young adults with Troop 26 and have gone on before offer the following advice:  

Surviving as a Scout parent

Troop 26's goal is to help your child become a young adult of good character, with strong organizational and leadership skills. Scouts who lose interest in Scouting tend to be those who are disorganized, lose things and don’t know where they are headed. You can help your Scout avoid those traps with these proven ideas.

Scouts should keep track of their Scout materials and records throughout their membership. A three-ring notebook with some pockets will help. Plastic 8½" x 11" baseball card sheets are the perfect size for badge and rank completion cards, totem chip cards and unsewn or unworn patches. These binder pages are available at stores like Wal-Mart, the Scout shop and many office supply stores.

When your Scout earns their first rank advancement, they will receive their patch and completion card at a Court of Honor. During that ceremony, the Scout's parent will also receive a pin and we encourage parents to wear them at every Court of Honor. 

Link your personal/family calendars to the Troop Calendar in Troop Web Host to help minimize conflicts and manage time.

Attend the troop meetings and share your time and skills to strengthen the troop. You will know what is happening and how your Scout relates to your troop. You can help provide a more complete experience for your Scout if you are involved. Don’t worry about not knowing much about Scouting, all the adult volunteers had to learn, too. Please don't be bashful. It is important to remember that every adult involved in the troop is a volunteer. Your help will be appreciated by each and every one.

Teach your Scout to call or email their leader (Patrol Leader, Senior Patrol Leader or Scoutmaster) if they won't be able to attend a scheduled activity.

Outings cost different amounts depending on many factors. The adult leadership in Troop 26 determines the costs in advance of each event and communicates the costs to the troop. 

What should parents do?

Parents play an important and vital role in Scouting. You should encourage your Scout to work on advancement and to participate in Troop 26's program activities and events. If you don’t demonstrate enthusiasm for the program your Scout will follow your lead and will soon lose interest.  

Scouts should not be expected to earn their Eagle rank without some help along the way. It is a tough set of requirements, but Eagle is within every Scout's reach. You are invited, and encouraged, to attend all troop activities, from troop meetings to camp outs, from quarterly Courts of Honor to committee meetings. In fact, Troop 26 needs your active participation to keep the program alive.

Parents can not sign off any rank advancement or merit badge requirements for their own scouts. The individual tasks required for rank advancement are signed by scouts who have achieve the rank of 1st Class or higher. The Scoutmaster’s conference and the Board of Review are conducted by adult leaders. Merit Badges are “signed-off” by approved/trained merit badge counselors.

Parents need to help provide transportation to and from camp outs. You should not leave the church parking lot before a camp out until transportation for all Scouts has been secured. We're all in this together, and together we will have an awesome program.

If you have special skills, hobbies or abilities, please consider applying to be a merit badge counselor.

There is always a need for more adult leaders. Each year, as older Scouts leave the troop, the troop also loses adult leaders. These positions must be replenished from the parents of newer Scouts, or the life of the troop is threatened. The Scoutmaster simply cannot do it all; nor can the Troop Committee. It takes several adults willing to enjoy the Scouting experience to make a healthy troop.

Camping with the troop

Camping is the heart of Scouting. While parents may join us on campouts, the Scouts camp with their patrol and not with their parents and family members.

Policy Summary

What follows is a summary of our troop (and BSA) policies.

Scout Tenting & Meals -- Scouts tent with their patrol in a patrol site separate from the other patrols. Patrols plan their own menus and cook and eat together as a team. Unless health concerns dictate otherwise, Scouts share a tent with one or more other Scouts. We avoid having a Scout sleep alone. Adults do not eat or tent with a Scout patrol.

Adult Tenting & Meals -- Adults tent with the adult patrol in a patrol site separate from the other patrols. They plan their own menu, and cook and eat together as a team.

Adult/Youth Tenting -- BSA youth protection policies forbid an adult and a youth (below age 18) sharing the same tent. While youth protection policies allow a father and a son to share a tent together (if no other Scout or adult shares their tent), it is troop policy that Scouts tent with Scouts, and adults with adults. If a parent tents with a child, it has been our experience that the Scout will lose out on many opportunities to make decisions and be part of the patrol team.

Smoking/Drinking -- Drivers may not smoke while Scouts are in the car. Adults may not smoke or use tobacco products, nor drink alcoholic beverages during a Scout activity. Adults who must smoke or chew must do so discretely out of sight of the Scouts.

Scout Leadership -- Adults should not interfere with the functioning of youth leaders, even if they make mistakes (we all learn best from our mistakes). Step in only if it is a matter of immediate safety or if the mistake will be immediately costly. If at all possible, involve a uniformed adult leader first.

Scout Growth -- Never do anything for a Scout he can do for themselves. Let them make decisions without adult interference. Let them make non-injurious mistakes so they can learn from them. Be willing to help Scouts learn and teach without criticism.

Adult Training & Resources -- Scouting provides the Scoutmaster Handbook which is an outstanding handbook for all adults as well as several on-line and in-person training courses to help us understand the goals of Scouting and how to attain them. Troop 26 strongly encourages each of its adult leaders to be familiar with the Scoutmaster Handbook and requires that each completes the appropriate Scout Leader training. We encourage other adults actively involved in the troop to follow suit.

Rationale

Troop activities are based on the patrol method, where Scouts learn teamwork, leadership, and most Scout skills in their own group of peers. It is important that adults not be in the middle of patrol activities such as campsite selection, tent pitching, meal preparation, and anything else where boys get to practice decision-making.

A key difference between Scouting and Cub Scouting/Webelos is youth leadership. Look for the word "leader" in a Scout's job description, and you will begin to appreciate the difference. The responsible person for a Cub/Webelos den is the adult Den Leader. The responsible person for a Scout patrol is the youth Patrol Leader.

This isn't token leadership. A Patrol Leader has real authority and genuine responsibilities. Much of the success, safety, and happiness of six to ten other Scouts depends directly on him.

Scouting teaches leadership. And Scouts learn leadership by practicing it, not by watching adults lead.

So what do we adults do, now that we've surrendered so much direct authority to our Scouts? Well, we have a really good time and still stay busy. Here are our troop's guidelines on the indirect, advisory role you now command (no kidding, you should enjoy watching your Scout take progressively more mature and significant responsibilities as they zoom toward adulthood).

The underlying principle is worth repeating: never do anything for a scout that he can do for themselves. We allow youth to grow by practicing leadership and by learning from their mistakes. And while Scout skills are an important part of the program, what ultimately matters when our Scouts become adults is not how well they remember to use a map & compass, but whether they can know how to offer leadership to others in tough situations; and that they can live by a code of conduct that centers on honest, honorable and ethical behavior.

Being an adult advisor can be a difficult role at times, especially when we are advising kids. Several times each year, the Troop, District and/or Council offer special training on how to do this, which we expect our uniformed adults to take. And any adult is welcome and encouraged to take the training (see the Scoutmaster; dates are in the annual District calendar).

When a parent goes on a camp out, he or she is automatically included as a temporarily member in our "Old Goat" (adult) patrol. This patrol has several purposes -- really, really good food...and camaraderie (of course), but more importantly they provide an example the Scout patrols can follow without our telling them what to do (we try to teach by example when we can). Since Scouts camp as a group in patrols, the Old Goats do also. However, adults tent some distance from the youth...that way they aren't right next to a Scout patrol where our mere presence could disrupt the learning process.

Quite simply, our troop policy requires adults to cook, eat, and tent separately from the Scouts. If you go camping with us, we hope you will visit the patrol sites, talk to your Scout and the other Scouts, ask what's going on and how things are going. At the same time, remember to give the youth room to grow while you enjoy the view.

Don't hesitate to show a Scout how to do something, just don't do it for them. Don't jump in just to prevent a mistake from happening (unless it's serious & involves safety). Encourage Scouts to make their own decisions...ask them what they think should be done or how THEY are going to solve a problem. We all learn best from our mistakes and a big part of our job as adults in the troop is to provide them with a SAFE environment in which they can make mistakes.

And above all, remember to let the youth leaders lead. They get to learn from their mistakes, too!

Camping with the troop is more fun than you probably imagine and is something you should do if you can. Experience is not required—the other adults will help you if needed.  Fathers, mothers, grandparents, guardians—all are welcome!  

Troop 26 operating procedures

As in any organization, Troop 26 has a set of guidelines to help us be consistent in what we do and how we do it. The guidelines are available to all adults and youth registered with the troop and typically given to new members as they join.