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Sizing Scouting Programs

What if your ward only has a few Aaronic Priesthood boys?

    Ideas for Sizing Scouting Programs to Fit the Number of Available Young Men

    One of the big challenges that faces leaders of many wards and branches is how to organize young mens' scouting programs where only a small number of young men are available.  The Scouting programs work best and are more fun and enjoyable when there are 6 or 10 or better yet 15 or 20 boys in the program.  Some direction might be derived from Elder L. Tom Perry's presentation at the Church's First Worldwide Leadership Training Meeting held and broadcast to Priesthood leaders by satellite across the world January 11, 2003. Elder Perry gave important instruction about program sizing in small, developing local Church units.  The vision he provided dealt with how the broad range of organizations and programs of the Church may be developed depending on the number, needs, and capabilities of the members associated with a specific unit. As described in his presentation, the Church now provides a general pattern for how to organize a particular church unit, ranging from the tiniest unit in a member home, through establishing a branch, up through having a large ward which is able to sponsor all of the Church's programs in their entirety.  The philosophy for smaller units is to organize only as much of the full program as the members of the unit need and can successfully lead.

    According to Elder Perry, one of the first considerations in making these determinations is the adult leader talent pool.  He notes the need for individual members to be given callings in order to strengthen and maintain them in their faith, but also that persons can be overwhelmed if given too much to do. He counsels that "we should attempt to give each individual...just one calling plus home or visiting teaching." (L. Tom Perry, "Basic Unit Program", First Worldwide Leadership Training Meeting, January 11, 2003, p.8)

    Elder Perry suggests starting with an inventory of members and their ages and needs. Identify active adults with leader potential.  Then review the needs of various sub-groups, such as adult men, adult sisters, children.  Depending on the numbers, a Relief Society may be organized with only a president, or a primary with only an instructor.  He counsels regarding the youth:

      "...Determine the type of program, activities, and instruction they need to have a Young Men or Young Women program.  If they are not ready, wait before you create a youth organization. The Spirit will tell you when the time is right.

      "...in taking an inventory in a very small unit, you may find there area very few youth. If so, do not create separate classes; instead, combine the youth into one class..." ("Basic Unit Program," p. 8)

    Themes in this instruction would seem to be to:

      • Start with an inventory of the needs of the members.

      • Assess the capability among active adults to serve.  Give all members callings, but do not overload anyone.  Lack of adult leadership availability is a legitimate limiting factor.

      • Follow the Spirit.

      • Combine groups as needed to obtain viable numbers for the programs or classes to be organized and effective.

    In implementing the scouting programs for the Aaronic Priesthood young men, the challenge of how much of the programs to use and how to organize or consolidate them to be most effective, not only exists for small developing units and branches but also for full size wards with demographics that provide only a small number of Aaronic Priesthood holders.  For example, there may be some housing areas, even in Salt Lake City, where most ward members are older and have already raised their children or that include large apartment complexes where mostly singles or young marrieds with only small children live.  In common with small developing units far away from the center of the Church, these wards face difficult decisions about how to implement and support the full range of scouting programs according to an ideal pattern.  Some of the same counsel given for small developing units may also apply to wards with limited numbers of young men.

    First, we believe there is an ideal Aaronic Priesthood program which should exist in full-size wards having sufficient numbers of young men:

      • Operate separate Venturing, Varsity Scouts, Scouts, and 11 year old scout programs (but the last two are registered together)

      • Have three unit committees--

        < Venturing

        < Varsity Scouts

        < Scouts and 11 year old scouts have the Troop committee

      • Programs correspond to and support the three Aaronic Priesthood quorums

        < Each scouting program is the activity arm of a specific quorum

        < Scouting youth leaders and quorum presidencies are integrated, as are adult Aaronic priesthood and scouting leader advisor assignments

      • Provide adequately adult leader staffing (minimum of 2 for each program, 3 preferred, or 1 plus 1 additional for each sub-unit, such as patrol, squad, or 4-8 boys in quorum

    In a ward where 1) there is a sufficient number of Aaronic Priesthood age young men and 2) enough adults to staff the Aaronic Priesthood/Scouting leader positions, the ideal programs should be operated as sketched out above. In other words,

      "Having the ability, we have the obligation."

    We believe that adult leaders have a duty to the rising generation of young men to provide for them the best possible resources to prepare them for adult service to their families and the Church.  Where sufficient numbers of young men and potential leaders exist, we should operate all of the Scouting programs as exactly and fully as befits any effort by the Priesthood of God. Most full sized wards in the United States in areas where there is any sort of substantial LDS population probably have the numbers and resources to achieve this level of programming.

    However, the observation of many experienced scouting leaders of my acquaintence and confirmed by my own experience is that it is difficult to run an effective scouting program with fewer that 4-5 young men in that group. Even with only 4-5 boys, leadership roles must be combined and some program methods eliminated, for example, patrols in a scout troop. Many adult leaders report that it just is not as much fun and exciting to be the leader over a small group as to have a larger number of boys.

    Here are some possible options, with a discussion of pros and cons, for wards/branches with fewer than about 12 Aaronic Priesthood boys (about 4 in each quorum):

    1. Do not run scouting programs–have families send any young men to community scouting programs.

       DISADVANTAGES:

        •  Totally lose the priesthood influence and connection

        •  Program not directly supportive of Aaronic Priesthood purposes

       ADVANTAGES:

        •  Boys may have a good scouting experience

    2. Combine the program with other wards or across the whole stake.

      DISADVANTAGES:

        •  Lose at least a part of the quorum connection and quorum and ward identity

        •  Adult quorum leaders may not be in a position to influence

        •  Harder to correlate with ward and quorum

        •  Distance and transportation may be obstacles

      ADVANTAGES:

        •  Activity program has priesthood influence

    3. Do anyway with small numbers (1-3)

      DISADVANTAGES:

        •  Program less interesting to leaders and boys

        •  Cannot run full program

      ADVANTAGES:

        •  Maintains Aaronic Priesthood quorum integrity

        •  Activity program has priesthood influence

    3a. Do anyway with small numbers (1-3), but do more combining with other units or age-groups for activities that require larer numbers*

      *This is YM General President Charles Dahlquist's first recommendation (Young Mens Open House and Workshop, September 28, 2004)

      ADVANTAGES:

        •  Maintains Aaronic Priesthood quorum integrity

        •  Provides "critical mass" for activities needing larger numbers

    4. Combine across programs within the ward (11 year olds with deacon scouts):

      DISADVANTAGES:

        •  Doesn't follow Primary policy

        •  Sometimes maturity differences make it hard for the different ages of boys to be together (but non-LDS scout troops make this combination work)

        •  A little more complicated to program, but not too much (non-LDS scout troops do it)

      ADVANTAGES:

        •  Keeps program within the ward.

        •  Allows for priesthood influence

        •  May increase numbers to the point that an effective program can be operated

    5. Combine across programs within the ward (Use only boy scout program–older boys have high adventure patrol, and/or serve in junior leader capacities):

      DISADVANTAGES:

        •  Not the order of the priesthood–tends to subordinate Teachers and Priests to Deacon leaders

        •  Twelve and thirteen year old scouts may lose opportunities for leadership to the older boys

        •  The wide range of interests of the different age groups may make programming difficult–especially problematic if there are more older boys than deacon age.

        •  Older young men miss out on growth possibilities that Varsity and Venturing can provide

        •  Lose quorum identity

      ADVANTAGES:

        •  Would work best if there are more Deacons and fewer Teachers or Priests

        •  Keeps program within the ward.

        •  Allows for priesthood influence

        •  May increase numbers to the point that an effective program can be operated

    6. Combine across programs within the ward (Combine Varsity-Venturing):

      DISADVANTAGES:

        •  Lose quorum identity

        •  The age range and interests may make programming harder. Some activities, such as having a "Date Night," may be inappropriate for the younger  young men in the program.

      ADVANTAGES:

    7. *Recruit boys from the community to compliment the number of boys in your Ward/Branch, so as to have enough boys (perhaps 12-20) to be able to run full programs and add to the fun and excitement of Scouting.  Have boys invite friends and neighbors. Units should do this regardless of the number of boys available.

      DISADVANTAGES:

      ADVANTAGES:

        •  Keeps program within the ward

        •  Allows for priesthood influence

        •  Increases numbers to the level that effective programs can be operated

        •  Activity program has quorum and ward connection

        •  Boys may have good scouting experience

        •  Introduces a positive experience with the Church to some non-LDS boys and their familiies

                     *Suggested by Andreas Wesemann