Know Your Patrol

Believe it or not, the title says it all. If you want to be a real Patrol Leader, and build a real patrol, you have to know the members of your patrol. I don't mean just knowing their names, or being friends with them, that's important too. What I mean is you have to get to know them much better than that. You have to know what interests them, what they think is fun, and just about everything you can learn about them.

It's not easy getting a group of Scouts to do something in the first place, but it's much harder if you don't know what motivates them, or how to appeal to their sense of team, I mean patrol spirit.

In order for the patrol to work, you've got to do a lot of work keeping everyone together and working toward the goals you set as a patrol. If you know the personalities, likes, and dislikes of everyone in the patrol, your job will be easier. You'll also know how to keep them out of trouble before it gets started.

So, how are you supposed to learn everything there is to know about the members of your patrol? That's easy. There are two ways to learn things about your fellow Scouts. One way is to do things with them like hikes and campouts. You'll learn a lot about how to motivate them on the activities you have and at troop and patrol meetings. The other way to learn things about other Scouts is to simply ask them. Let them know what your interests are as well so they can get to know you too. That way your patrol will work better together.

Ben's Story

I can't stand Pete. He never listens to me, no matter how loud I yell. And the rest of the guys aren't much better. No matter how hard I try, I can't get them to do the work around camp. I keep trying to tell them that we need to get the work done so we can go on a hike, but all they say is "we don't want to go on a stupid hike." I mean, I had the whole weekend planned perfectly, and no one wants to do anything.

Mike's Story

I never saw those guys work so hard. I mean, I'm always hearing Ben yelling and screaming at his patrol just to get the camp work done. I never have to yell. All I had to do was say "we need to get KP done," and the next thing you know everyone's pitchin' in to help. We had all kinds of time for our hike. We even spent an hour with the Camp Ranger helping him load one of the trucks. On the way back to camp, all the guys talked about was the service project we volunteered for. I gotta hand it to Joe, he's a real salesman. It's a good thing I found that out!