Becoming a Troop Leader
Serving actively in a position of leadership and responsibility in your troop for six months is one of the requirements for achieving the rank of Eagle Scout.
In January, my fellow scouts in Troop 1916 elected me to serve as the troop’s Senior Patrol Leader (SPL). I was sworn in as the SPL on February 5th by my predecessor, Max, who had done a great job as our SPL.
While I had spent the previous six months serving as the Patrol Leader for our Bulldogs Patrol, the transition to SPL was by no means easy. In the days leading up to my first meeting as SPL, I had almost no idea what to expect.
In the beginning, it’s the little things that escape you. Like the flag ceremony that we do at the start of every troop meeting, and a process that I’ve seen hundreds of times. That first night as SPL, however, I could not remember the order of the commands. I found myself thinking, “Wait, is it ‘troop attention’ first or ‘color guard advance’ first? Do I tell the color guard to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance or do they do that without me?”
Fortunately, the rest of the meeting was relatively hands off for me. I just sort of hovered and made sure everyone was on task. At around 8:40 p.m., that night’s task wrapped up, so with the consent of Mr. Salt, our Scoutmaster, I let the scouts go into our church’s gym for the last 20 minutes of the meeting (which is something we always try to do—it gives the scouts a chance to burn off some energy). They started playing with a thing that looked like a cross between a headband and a Frisbee.
At 8:55 p.m., I went in to get them so we could wrap up the meeting. The problem was that no one wanted to leave the gym (which is also a common issue with our troop!). People started to trickle back into the meeting room, but at the rate that they were moving, we wouldn’t be out of the church until around midnight.
I called again for the 60-some scouts in our troop people to come back to the meeting room, but the majority of kept throwing the faux-Frisbee. Then someone made the mistake of throwing it over my head. I snatched it out of the air, and when I called for them to go inside this time, everyone listened.
Even though I had accomplished my goal, I couldn’t help but feel that I was a bit lucky. Fortunately, that incident turned out to be a “red herring” as the scouts adjusted to my leadership style.
Since then, our weekly meetings have ran smoothly, and I look forward to serving as the troop’s SPL.
Matthew H. -- Senior Patrol Leader, Troop 1916