Troop Meetings
Patrol Leader Councils
Courts of Honor
Parent Leader Meetings
Troop meetings are held every Tuesday night. Meetings start at 7:30 p.m. and the Scouts are encouraged to arrive by 7:20 p.m. Meetings usually run one hour in length and end at 8:30 p.m. If your son is a member of the Patrol Leaders Council, he will need to attend a short PLC meeting immediately after the troop meeting. This PLC meeting normally takes five to ten minutes.
All boys are expected to come to each troop meeting, and parents are welcome as well. Parents who do not stay are expected to be ready to pick their sons up by 8:30 p.m.
The meeting place is the San Lorenzo Community Church, 945 Paseo Grande near Via Alamitos in San Lorenzo. We meet in the social hall, which should be entered from the west side.
Please be considerate of the Church grounds and buildings. Scouts are asked not to climb on the trees or tear up the landscape before or after the meetings..
Twice a year, the formal Patrol Leaders Council meets to decide the program for a six month period. Not all troop members are expected to attend.
The Patrol Leaders Council is run by the Senior Patrol Leader, and decisions are made by simple majority vote of the youth members present. Most actions are not voted on but are decided by consensus.
Required to attend are the Senior Patrol Leader, Assistant Senior Patrol Leader(s), Patrol Leaders, Troop Scribe, Troop Guide and Instructors.
Additionally, the Assistant Patrol Leaders, and other troop office holders may attend.
Patrol members are expected to have informed their Patrol Leaders as to what activities, camp locations, advancement, and other events they wish to have planned. It is up to the PLC to decide what activities will take place and to plan each meeting, campout and activity.
After the PLC the Patrol Leaders are responsible for informing their patrol members of the decisions of the Patrol Leaders Council.
Adult members present are usually limited to the Scoutmaster or his designated assistant. This adult’s responsibility is to insure that all required troop, and council activities are scheduled, to make sure that BSA policies and safety concerns are properly addressed, and to ensure that events are properly planned.
Parents who are interested may be present as spectators, but do not participate. Parental input may be solicited by the youth members, but questions or concerns about what is being planned should be directed to the Scoutmaster or his designee, not towards the youth.
Patrol Leader Councils are normally held outside of the regularly scheduled troop meetings. They usually take four to six hours, and may be held at a room in the San Lorenzo Community Church, or may be held at a special campout, or in conjunction with a normal campout..
The Court of Honor is a special gathering of the members of the troop, their families and friends. Its purpose is to formally honor those scouts who have achieved advancement, performed service or other earned other recognition.
Courts of Honor are usually scheduled once every three months, and are held on a Tuesday evening in place of a normal troop meeting. The starting time will depend upon what activities are planned by the troop. Your son will be informed of the starting time at least a week in advance.
Each family is encouraged to bring a snack of some kind to share after the Court of Honor. On occasion the troop will decide to have a potluck or spaghetti feed dinner before the Court of Honor as a way of allowing the families to get to know each other. If so, your son will be notified.
All Scouts and their families are encouraged to attend all Courts of Honor, even if the Scout is not expecting to receive a presentation. A Court of Honor is a time where the activities of the troop can be presented, and photographs, slides, and static displays of the activities of the youth are often displayed.
Parent Leader meetings are held on the second Monday of each month at 7:30 p.m. at the San Lorenzo Community Church. Enter the building from the rear parking lot. Room 7
All parents are invited to attend these meetings. The more who attend, the better our program will be. Troop 612 has a long history of active parental participation, and this is what has allowed us to provide a valuable program for your son for over 30 years.
At a minimum we would like each family to have one parent attend a parent leader meeting at least once every three months.
The Senior Patrol Leader is also invited to attend as the representative of the youth leadership.
Issues discussed include: the logistics of implementing the program that the Patrol Leaders Council has decided upon, we discuss ways to continue to improve the troop program, and we coordinate the troop with the actions and policies of the BSA national, council, and our local district. We also work closely with our chartering organization.
Troop 612 Handbook