Troop Organization

How the Troop is Organized

The Troop is an organization that is run by the girls. The girls elect their leaders and those leaders decide what the Troop will do. Of course the elected girl leaders have a lot of assistance from adult leaders who advise them.

The girls hold elections for troop leadership positions every 4 months. As a large group, they vote on a new Assistant Senior Patrol Leader. This position then transitions into the Senior Patrol Leader at the next election. The Senior Patrol Leader asks for nominations for other leadership roles (Quartermaster, Scribe, Chaplain Aide, Historian, Librarian, Webmaster, Bugler) and then appoints girls to those positions.

Every girl also belongs to a smaller 5 – 8 member group within the Troop called a Patrol. During the elections mentioned above, each Patrol elects a girl to serve as Patrol Leader and another girl as Assistant Patrol Leader. These girls run the Patrol meetings. Each Patrol selects a name and the members wear a patrol patch and have a Patrol flag and a cheer. Members of Patrols usually become good friends because they work together with each other on projects and earning advancement ranks and merit badges. When the Troop meets on Monday evenings we break-up into Patrol meetings for part of the time to learn and plan things. When we go on hikes, camping or other activities we often break-up into our Patrols to do things. For example, all girls in a Patrol put their tents near each other when we go camping. Patrols often compete against each other to sharpen and demonstrate their Scouting skills.

The Senior Patrol Leader meets with all of the Patrol Leaders once a month for a Patrol Leaders Council (PLC) on the first Sunday of the month. The Senior Patrol Leader runs that meeting and parts of our Troop meetings. She is the head girl and with the help of the Troop’s adult leaders runs the entire Troop. Every girl will have her opportunity to be a leader.

We are glad to have adult women and men help guide us as we learn about citizenship, leadership and Scouting skills. These people include our Scoutmaster and several Assistant Scoutmasters. They attend most of our Troop meetings and go with us on most of our trips. They are very experienced with Scouting, keep us safe and help us make leadership decisions when we are unsure about what to do. They help us learn Scouting skills so we can advance through Scouting ranks and earn merit badges. But most important, they have a good sense of what is right and wrong. They try to say and do the kind of things our parents, teachers, religious leaders and other people we admire would also say and do. The Scoutmaster Staff doesn’t lead us – that is what our Senior Patrol Leader and Patrol Leaders do. But, they try to keep us from making big mistakes and help us whenever we ask.

The Scoutmaster Staff is selected by our Troop Committee, which is a group of about ten adults, and includes a representative of St. Martha’s where we meet. No adult can become a volunteer leader unless the representative of St. Martha’s approves. The Troop Committee also includes some of the parents and guardians of our girls. The Troop Committee is a very important group that does a number of things. It collects and spends our dues money on Troop activities. It reviews and approves the program plans of the Patrol Leaders Council and Scoutmaster Staff. It helps to find people with knowledge and resources to help the Troop do things. And, it helps the Scoutmaster Staff do its job.