The Key Elements of a Troop Meeting

The troop meeting takes up about 50% of a scouts experience on the trail to Eagle, so when meetings suck, scouts begin to drift away from their trail and eventually drop out.

Some troop's have extremely fun and dynamic meetings that keep all ages of scouts engaged until the end, while others sadly don't have the same appeal and excitement.

Without good meetings, your troop will likely fail as your numbers dwindle, so here are a few things that you can do to run a successful troop meeting.

1. Teach Some Scouting Skills

One of the best things to do at a troop meeting is teach a scouting skill. This is an especially popular meeting activity with the new scout patrol. Not only can this activity be fun, but it can help advance scouts in rank and through merit badges.

2. Projects

A scouting patrol is a group of friends within a troop, and doing scouting projects, such as build a dogsled or a teepee, can help further strengthen a patrol and patrol spirit.

3. Scenario Reaction

One of the best ways to teach your troop to survive in dangerous situations or help them advance in rank is by doing a scenario reaction. This is when you give your scouts a problem to solve that relates to an emergency, such as surviving a fire in the building with an injured scout.

4. Teach Merit Badge Requirements in a Different Way

Instead of quickly flipping through requirements, try giving scouts a real world objective, such as demonstrating a skill instead of just explaining it. This will make for a lot of fun.

As you can see, there are many things you can do during a troop meeting instead of just ran advancement. Give some of these ideas a try and risk making your troop better.