BSA Troop 474

Welcome to Troop 474

Welcome to Troop 474, BSA. We offer an aggressive outdoor program with experiences for young men that are not available in any other program. We are very pleased that you to have chosen to join us. The adult leadership has put together this handbook as a resource for Scouts and their parents. It includes information on who we are, our policies, and how we administer the Scouting program. It also contains information on advancement, Scout skills, sources for gear, trips, schedules, and more. We hope that it will be helpful and that you will use it as a place to store and organize announcements, schedules and other documents you will be receiving as you participate in our program.

It is my privilege to introduce you to our troop, so let me begin with a little information on our history, organizational structure and some of the important differences between Cub Scouting and Boy Scouting.

We are a troop with a long and proud history. We were first chartered as Troop 4, the fourth Troop established in Guilford, in November of 1953. We became Troop 474 when the troop numbering convention was changed and 47 was added to reflect our council, Quinnipiac and our district, Lighthouse.

Like all Boy Scout Troops, we came into being when our sponsoring organization obtained its first charter from the Boy Scouts of America. Our sponsor, The First Congregational Church of Guilford, did so by making a commitment to provide a meeting place and the Troop’s chief adult officer, commonly know as the Institutional Representative.

The Institutional Representative acts as the liaison between the sponsoring organization and the Troop. He is also responsible for recruiting a Committee Chairman, who in turn is responsible for recruiting a Troop Committee, a Scoutmaster and Assistant Scoutmasters. The boy leadership of the troop is lead by a Senior Patrol Leader (SPL). He presides over a staff of Assistant Senior Patrol Leaders (ASPLs), Patrol Leaders (Pls) and Assistant Patrol Leaders (APLs).

The Troop is organized into patrols of six to ten boys. Each Patrol is lead by a Patrol Leader and an Assistant Patrol Leader. The original concept of the patrol was that it was made up of boys that were friends or that hung out together. Although troops today organize their patrols in a variety of ways, such as older, more experienced Scouts as patrol leaders for younger Scouts, we have found that the original concept of organizing around natural groups works best for us. Consequently, when WEBELOS cross over into out troop we try, whenever possible, to keep them together as a patrol.

The major difference between Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts, other than as the boys grow bigger they participate in more rigorous activities, is that Boy Scout Troops are boy lead organizations. The crossover ceremony from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts is in fact a symbolic rite of passage from childhood to young adult. Every Scouting activity, our organization, and our methods have behind them the purpose to move boys from where they are towards some basic goals. We call these goals the aims of Scouting. They are: developing character, citizenship, and fitness.

It is the Scouts who, in patrol meetings and the patrol leader's council meetings, plan meeting programs, trips, fund raisers and everything else we do as a troop. Because developing leadership is one of the ways of achieving the aims of Scouting, every Scout, at some point, should have an opportunity for a leadership position. The net effect of giving leadership experience to all Scouts is that boys rotate, fairly frequently, through leadership positions. Consequently, at any given time, most of the boy leaders will be inexperienced. Boy leadership is therefore a learning situation. This not an efficient way to run an organization. It is kind of like trying to learn how to swim by jumping into the deep water. In a large troop, like ours, a strong adult organization to support, teach, control, monitor, and stand behind the boy leaders is essential to the success of the program. With the frequent turn over of boy leaders and with Scouts and Scouters joining, leaving, and at different development and experience levels, organization is a never ending process that rarely reaches a level of efficiency that one would like. It is important that Scout parents keep informed and communicate with the Scout leaders to help them make sure no Scout gets lost or overlooked in the confusion.

Boy Scouts are also responsible for their own advancement. Advancement is core of the Scouting program. It gives the Scout a sense of accomplishment and most importantly, advancement is how boys learn the traditional Scout skills necessary to participate in and enjoy the outdoor program.

To the parents reading this, I strongly urge you to participate in Scouting as an adult leader for several reasons. First of all, it is an extraordinary opportunity to interact in a parent/child relationship unlike any other I know of. Kids are wonderful in the outdoors. One of the main reasons for going out in the wilderness is to get away from the pressures of modern life and reduce life to the simple needs for food, shelter and companionship. Behaviors that tend to wear one down in "civilization" seem to fade away in the outdoors. If you participate in our adventures you will see your sons make some extraordinary accomplishments in overcoming difficulty and in character development. I guarantee that you will find out something good about your Scout that you didn’t know was there.

People frequently say things like, we must be very special people to want to give up our leisure time to deal with a group of rambunctious boys. I’ll tell you a little secret. We are not special; actually we are probably a little selfish. There is simply not one adult Scout Leader that I know of, that does not feel that they get more from the boys than they give.

If you hesitate to get involved because you feel that you lack outdoor skills or that camping is an exercise in tolerance of discomfort we can teach you the skills. There is nothing that gives us greater pleasure that the opportunity to show off our skills by passing them on to others, and with proper training and equipment one can be quite comfortable in the outdoors. Concerned about the cost of equipment? It can be expensive, but there is a great deal of equipment available that the troop owns or that other leaders are more than willing to loan. Most of us, in fact, have acquired our gear over time as presents for birthdays, Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, Christmas, etc.

Another reason I urge you to participate is that, our adult leaders genuinely enjoy each other’s company, more so than in any other organization I’ve participated in. If there is any one thing that makes our troop successful it is that our adult leaders develop strong bonds in their outdoor experiences. I think you will find the rewards of adult leadership are, by far, worth the effort and finally, without your help we have no future.

Scouts and parents let me again say welcome to our troop. You are the future of Troop 474 and we are very glad to have you with us. We hope you find your experiences in Scouting rewarding and most importantly, fun.

Happy trails to all,

Gary A. Goldsmith, Troop Committee, a.k.a. "Smokey"