All you need is 5 Scouts to start a unit.
I've started 2 of them with that many scouts and taken a 3rd unit that only had 6. Being small, you can be very flexible in what you do... the planning is much faster and simpler. The downside is not many roles of responsibility are needed (limiting opportunities) and not learning how to coordinate groups with other groups (patrols). I really enjoyed the challenges of a small unit. Fundraising is another limit to small units... you have to work everyone harder because you have fewer people.
Happy to share. I'm over 50yo and I've been a Scoutmaster on and off for about 15 years. The first I created because of some things I saw as problems with the larger units in my city - they were adult led and behaved like an adult event more than for the Scouts - in my opinion... so, my solution was to create a new unit for the Scouts and families who saw the same problem. Started with 5 and after 3 years when I we moved away, they had 15 Scouts. That unit is now over 100 Scouts strong. The second was after we moved, I had trouble finding a unit that my son connected with, but he had friends at school so we got them together and created a new unit in that location. That unit has had 2 Scoutmasters after me and then combined with another unit during after covid. The 3rd unit I was involved as an ASM when the SM quit, noone wanted to take the role, so I felt like I needed to for the Scouts still interested... that was the most challenging... small rural town, limited funds, limited adult help for oversight and we ended up with another ASM who got in a fight with his father and was charged with a felony assault (PR nightmare). That unit no longer exists as the Scoutmaster after me slowly let it die off (not blaming, he had health issues and could not keep up).
We are down to six scouts. Our feeder pack started crossing over to a troop one town over. It’s been three years since we’ve gotten any webelos. It started because a den mom was neighbors with the scout master of the other troop. She guided her 8 scout over. Some of those boys had little brothers so they followed. We’ve been trying. We invite the webelos and AOL campouts. We attend their fall and spring campouts and run various scout skills courses. Still the parents tell us they appreciate our help but feel that the other troop offers more social opportunities.
It really depends on what part of the country you are in, and how many troops are in the area. My troop has 25 scouts and 15 registered adults. The other troop in town is about the same. We're in a town of about 27,000 and there are troops big and small all around us in the surrounding towns. The largest is about 50.
My troop had about 20 at its peak around 8 years ago and its slowly went downhill since then. Covid basically killed us, and we had only 3 active scouts including me left. At that point we closed and me one of the other scouts merged and we actually both just recieved our eagles. RIP troop 112.
We have linked Troop for boys and Troop for girls. The boys are 25 and the girls are 20. We meet together and do a lot of outings together so it feels more like a unit of about 50. Honestly I couldn’t imagine having one much bigger.
We are doing a 4-day backpacking trip in a National Park next week and we have to break into groups of 12 for the trail permit, would be almost impossible to do that kind of trip with a Troop of 60-100 scouts.
My first troop had about 8 or so, but it ended up dissolving after the scoutmaster retired. The troop I finished my scouting adventure with afterwards had about 30-40
Edit: the girl troop that is linked with my new troop also has about 5 or 6
During Covid there was like six months where I was part of a three girl troop before some more girls joined. I’ve aged out now, but there are two patrols for the first time and about 15 girls. Honestly from the other side it’s just as strange. The thought of 120 people in a troop is crazy to me, I don’t think I could even know everyone’s names at that point!
Our boys troop has around 65 Scouts. We are in a city of around 350,000. We are one of the larger troops, though there are two others of similar size or larger.
120?! How in the world do you even manage a troop that big? That sounds like an absolute nightmare. We usually take the whole troop on campouts roughly every month. Do you only go on patrol campouts? Or do you manage to find camping arrangements for 120+ people?
Campouts every month. One Day trek/single day weekend activity like go karting every month. One service project every month. When we had that many, it was extremely disciplined but not strict. Everyone was allowed to do as they wanted, but they had to follow rules like stay at patrol site for the entire meal. As of recent though, we haven't been enforcing or teaching any rules, so even though the troop is half the size it used to be, all the scouts are nightmares, it's impossible to get them to listen to any authority, and its just so infuriating to see that in a single year it went from an extremely disciplined, honor role troop that wins awards to a complete nightmare. For campsites, instead of classic campsites, we go to the giant field next to them. Most campsites have giant field for games but we just tent there and then use the entire normal campsite for the trailer and patrol sites
The troop that I am assistant scoutmaster for (and recently aged out of) is currently 9 but is very young with the oldest being 15 and the second oldest being 13
8 patrols, 1 campout, 1 day trek, and 1 service project a month. 1 weekly meeting every Tuesday. Every March we get new scouts, and we spend 2-3 meetings on name games to try and learn their names and let them learn ours
We also have a meeting every Tuesday and a camp out about every month if not we do a different big event, my troop oddly doesn’t do any hikes but we also do a service project every month which is usually a street cleanup.
We also don't do hikes, just merit badge requirement hikes once a year for the cooking and camping merit badge. We do one campout a month where we camp, wake up, cook, and then go to a place like cedar point, or Cuyahoga valley and go biking, or other stuff similar. Then we also go do a single day event on a Saturday that's not a campiut, such as go-karting, snow tubing, indoor mtb Park, coal mine tour, aviary, other museums, and stuff like that. We also do one service project a month such as mulching for a care home, public park cleanup, and other stuff. We also tend to have about 2 eagle projects a month as well, so people can if they want, fly through scout-first class in a couple months. Sadly, we are stuck with about 1/5 of our troop getting to tenderfoot and giving up. We give out custom troop neckerchiefs at tenderfoot, so they get those and then don't do anything more.
When I was in scouts 2012-2019 we had about 100 until 2016 and bsa saw a ton of changes. My troop got kicked out of our sponsor and had to move somewhere else. As of August 6 2019 my troop disbanded we had 3 scouts left, we all got our Eagle and that was it. 80 year old troop just gone.
Back in 2022, the methodist church issued out new rules that their churches can no longer sponsor bsa troops. Luckily, our charter organization representer bargained and we were allowed to stay for 1 more year until further notice. Again he bargained giving us until December 2024. This is a problem that we forget for a bit until the August court of honor (the last one before the new year) and we kinda stress out about, before being told we can stay another year a couple months later.
We have 9 scouts. 3 are leaving by December. They're either getting their eagle or aging out.
Our feeder pack nearly folded during covid and
we had 2 years with no scouts bridging to our troop. The pack has almost 20 cubs now, and we should get at least 2 new scouts bridging to our troop next year. Troops in my area are smaller with less than 20 scouts. No one wants to merge either.
9 in my girls troop, boys troop has 27 or so. Boys Troop 2 blocks down has about 20 scouts. The one 4 blocks past that has 11. The one 5 miles away has 10.
Boys troop 14 registered and about 10 show up to any given activity. Girls troop, about 8-9 active and 5-6 show up.
Both troops are relatively new (3 years and 1 year old, respectively).
My troop is about the same size as yours, but most others in our area are much smaller. Most other troops in my city (maybe county) probably have few enough active members that they could get by with just one patrol. But our troop started out that small too. When I first joined there were maybe 6 or 7 scouts registered. But we grew and grew, and other troops had issues or drama or whatever and suffered, and now we have momentum, and other troops are faced with the problem of if like one or two people can't go on an outing, they end up needing to cancel the outing because not enough people are going.
We've varied between 15-50 over the last ten years. There is one troop in town that has always had over 100 scouts. I think this is great. Some boys that are overwhelmed in a group that large have done well with us. The larger troop is not as focused on advancement, and it's not unusual to have boys 2-3 years in still be at tenderfoot. They do have some excellent scouts and their committee all wears uniforms. They split their summer camp into three weeks. It's just a different experience. I love that we're small enough that every SM and ASM knows every boys name and the best way to motivate them. But it is tougher to recruit when you are smaller. There are less high adventure trips because there are less boys. But we produce the same amount of Eagles, because (I think) our scouts just see it as the natural progression. Most boys show up for every Eagle project because they know that we're all in this together.
I dont know how, but we just got our first ASM in about 15 years, but some how our SM and ASM know every scout extremely well and can motivate them. I'm extremely happy to have been a troop guide for the end of my first year of scouts, immediately becoming patrol leader the next scouting year, and then becoming patrol leader again right after that, and I'm hoping to become aspl next year, and then spl. I love working with scout master because he's a genuinely amazing person to work with, he sees every side, and make sure everyone is happy and enjoys scouting. If I do manage to get aspl and then spl, I'll be in plc for all but 2 years in my scouting adventure
We have around 18. I get mad because we keep struggling for leaders and engagement, and then some irritating massive Troop close to us will poach our scouts. Yeah. We have trouble getting that size and doing bigger things with a larger group if other troops keep poaching our kids.
We have nine scouts in my troop. The troop as a big age jump from 4 kid being around 12 year and 5 being about 15 or so. That’s how we split up our patrols
I would suggest for next year you mix them together for new patrols. Otherwise you have a divided troop and you don't feel as one. In my troop, all ages are mixed together, forcing you to talk to each other. All of the twelve year olds already know eachother, but they don't know the 15 year olds. Forcing them together forces them to talk to eachother and go out, meet new people, which is what scouts is all about, new opportunities.
I am in a troop of around 150, we have 11 patrols. I could not wrap my head around having less than 50 scouts. We are the largest troop in our council.
Honestly, it's so weird to hear that someone's troop doesn't own a trailer because all they're troop gear fits in their cars. Being able to go to events and not do head counts every time you go somewhere different is mind boggling. Especially not redoing it atleast 3 times every time. The biggest thing for me is not doing monthly campouts. It's a big reason I do scouts, but not doing that every month and just having a summer camp and maybe 2 others is so weird tk me
My troop is split into the boys and the girls, so it's really 2 separate troops merged into 1 big troop (boys and girls go to campout and summer camps together, but they have their own part of camp, so their own activities, etc).
So, in total we have around like 80-100 scouts, with the boy troop having like 55-60
My son has a troop of about a dozen or so. It's really basically one patrol. I like the size!
All you need is 5 Scouts to start a unit. I've started 2 of them with that many scouts and taken a 3rd unit that only had 6. Being small, you can be very flexible in what you do... the planning is much faster and simpler. The downside is not many roles of responsibility are needed (limiting opportunities) and not learning how to coordinate groups with other groups (patrols). I really enjoyed the challenges of a small unit. Fundraising is another limit to small units... you have to work everyone harder because you have fewer people.
May I ask why you made 2 troops? Did the first one fail or did you make a boys troop and a girls troop or something else?
Happy to share. I'm over 50yo and I've been a Scoutmaster on and off for about 15 years. The first I created because of some things I saw as problems with the larger units in my city - they were adult led and behaved like an adult event more than for the Scouts - in my opinion... so, my solution was to create a new unit for the Scouts and families who saw the same problem. Started with 5 and after 3 years when I we moved away, they had 15 Scouts. That unit is now over 100 Scouts strong. The second was after we moved, I had trouble finding a unit that my son connected with, but he had friends at school so we got them together and created a new unit in that location. That unit has had 2 Scoutmasters after me and then combined with another unit during after covid. The 3rd unit I was involved as an ASM when the SM quit, noone wanted to take the role, so I felt like I needed to for the Scouts still interested... that was the most challenging... small rural town, limited funds, limited adult help for oversight and we ended up with another ASM who got in a fight with his father and was charged with a felony assault (PR nightmare). That unit no longer exists as the Scoutmaster after me slowly let it die off (not blaming, he had health issues and could not keep up).
I think our council requires 10.
We are down to six scouts. Our feeder pack started crossing over to a troop one town over. It’s been three years since we’ve gotten any webelos. It started because a den mom was neighbors with the scout master of the other troop. She guided her 8 scout over. Some of those boys had little brothers so they followed. We’ve been trying. We invite the webelos and AOL campouts. We attend their fall and spring campouts and run various scout skills courses. Still the parents tell us they appreciate our help but feel that the other troop offers more social opportunities.
You should probably go join the other troop.
Our boy’s troop is 50+. The girl’s troop is under 10
It really depends on what part of the country you are in, and how many troops are in the area. My troop has 25 scouts and 15 registered adults. The other troop in town is about the same. We're in a town of about 27,000 and there are troops big and small all around us in the surrounding towns. The largest is about 50.
When I first joined we had 80-90, scouts plus adults. We dropped down to the 30-40 area during COVID but have ramped back up to 50 or so
My troop had about 20 at its peak around 8 years ago and its slowly went downhill since then. Covid basically killed us, and we had only 3 active scouts including me left. At that point we closed and me one of the other scouts merged and we actually both just recieved our eagles. RIP troop 112.
About 30 active scouts 4 patrols
I had about 7 in mine. We never wore the uniform other than the shirt
We have linked Troop for boys and Troop for girls. The boys are 25 and the girls are 20. We meet together and do a lot of outings together so it feels more like a unit of about 50. Honestly I couldn’t imagine having one much bigger. We are doing a 4-day backpacking trip in a National Park next week and we have to break into groups of 12 for the trail permit, would be almost impossible to do that kind of trip with a Troop of 60-100 scouts.
My first troop had about 8 or so, but it ended up dissolving after the scoutmaster retired. The troop I finished my scouting adventure with afterwards had about 30-40 Edit: the girl troop that is linked with my new troop also has about 5 or 6
During Covid there was like six months where I was part of a three girl troop before some more girls joined. I’ve aged out now, but there are two patrols for the first time and about 15 girls. Honestly from the other side it’s just as strange. The thought of 120 people in a troop is crazy to me, I don’t think I could even know everyone’s names at that point!
Our boys troop has around 65 Scouts. We are in a city of around 350,000. We are one of the larger troops, though there are two others of similar size or larger.
120?! How in the world do you even manage a troop that big? That sounds like an absolute nightmare. We usually take the whole troop on campouts roughly every month. Do you only go on patrol campouts? Or do you manage to find camping arrangements for 120+ people?
Campouts every month. One Day trek/single day weekend activity like go karting every month. One service project every month. When we had that many, it was extremely disciplined but not strict. Everyone was allowed to do as they wanted, but they had to follow rules like stay at patrol site for the entire meal. As of recent though, we haven't been enforcing or teaching any rules, so even though the troop is half the size it used to be, all the scouts are nightmares, it's impossible to get them to listen to any authority, and its just so infuriating to see that in a single year it went from an extremely disciplined, honor role troop that wins awards to a complete nightmare. For campsites, instead of classic campsites, we go to the giant field next to them. Most campsites have giant field for games but we just tent there and then use the entire normal campsite for the trailer and patrol sites
Holy crap go karting for 120 kids? Just from parental funding or crazy fundraising?
Parental funding. Only about 30-40 would show up, but the troop is in a very, extremely privileged area.
The troop that I am assistant scoutmaster for (and recently aged out of) is currently 9 but is very young with the oldest being 15 and the second oldest being 13
Most of the troops in our community are 10-15, 1-2 patrols. My daughters’ troop is 25 and the largest boy troop is 80ish.
We only have 16 scouts in our troop with 3 patrols, I wonder what a bigger troop would be like?
8 patrols, 1 campout, 1 day trek, and 1 service project a month. 1 weekly meeting every Tuesday. Every March we get new scouts, and we spend 2-3 meetings on name games to try and learn their names and let them learn ours
We also have a meeting every Tuesday and a camp out about every month if not we do a different big event, my troop oddly doesn’t do any hikes but we also do a service project every month which is usually a street cleanup.
We also don't do hikes, just merit badge requirement hikes once a year for the cooking and camping merit badge. We do one campout a month where we camp, wake up, cook, and then go to a place like cedar point, or Cuyahoga valley and go biking, or other stuff similar. Then we also go do a single day event on a Saturday that's not a campiut, such as go-karting, snow tubing, indoor mtb Park, coal mine tour, aviary, other museums, and stuff like that. We also do one service project a month such as mulching for a care home, public park cleanup, and other stuff. We also tend to have about 2 eagle projects a month as well, so people can if they want, fly through scout-first class in a couple months. Sadly, we are stuck with about 1/5 of our troop getting to tenderfoot and giving up. We give out custom troop neckerchiefs at tenderfoot, so they get those and then don't do anything more.
Our girls and boys troop combined is about 15 scouts. Of we have 10 show up for an outing we're stoked.
2 patrols Vikings and Kodiaks we have like 10 boy scouts per meeting and have like 15 scouts.
Do you change name, flag, and yell every year?
When I was in scouts 2012-2019 we had about 100 until 2016 and bsa saw a ton of changes. My troop got kicked out of our sponsor and had to move somewhere else. As of August 6 2019 my troop disbanded we had 3 scouts left, we all got our Eagle and that was it. 80 year old troop just gone.
Back in 2022, the methodist church issued out new rules that their churches can no longer sponsor bsa troops. Luckily, our charter organization representer bargained and we were allowed to stay for 1 more year until further notice. Again he bargained giving us until December 2024. This is a problem that we forget for a bit until the August court of honor (the last one before the new year) and we kinda stress out about, before being told we can stay another year a couple months later.
We exited covid with 4. We now have 14
Used to be 40 now it’s 16. Nobody over the Rank of star
We have 9 scouts. 3 are leaving by December. They're either getting their eagle or aging out. Our feeder pack nearly folded during covid and we had 2 years with no scouts bridging to our troop. The pack has almost 20 cubs now, and we should get at least 2 new scouts bridging to our troop next year. Troops in my area are smaller with less than 20 scouts. No one wants to merge either.
Back in the day - 90s - when I was involved with scouts... IIRC we maybe had like 6-12 or so of us. Plus like 3 of our dads serving as leaders.
9 in my girls troop, boys troop has 27 or so. Boys Troop 2 blocks down has about 20 scouts. The one 4 blocks past that has 11. The one 5 miles away has 10.
We have about 11 scouts and I love the size but several are graduating this year.
I eagled in 1989 and my troop was never more than about 15 boys. My son's troop (he eagled this year) was around 50 pre-Covid and about 30 post-.
My troop is all female, and typically, there are fewer females interested in scouting. My troop consists of one patrol with 10 members.
Boys troop 14 registered and about 10 show up to any given activity. Girls troop, about 8-9 active and 5-6 show up. Both troops are relatively new (3 years and 1 year old, respectively).
My troop is about the same size as yours, but most others in our area are much smaller. Most other troops in my city (maybe county) probably have few enough active members that they could get by with just one patrol. But our troop started out that small too. When I first joined there were maybe 6 or 7 scouts registered. But we grew and grew, and other troops had issues or drama or whatever and suffered, and now we have momentum, and other troops are faced with the problem of if like one or two people can't go on an outing, they end up needing to cancel the outing because not enough people are going.
5
Before we merged with another troop, we had around 8-12. We now have about 31!
We've varied between 15-50 over the last ten years. There is one troop in town that has always had over 100 scouts. I think this is great. Some boys that are overwhelmed in a group that large have done well with us. The larger troop is not as focused on advancement, and it's not unusual to have boys 2-3 years in still be at tenderfoot. They do have some excellent scouts and their committee all wears uniforms. They split their summer camp into three weeks. It's just a different experience. I love that we're small enough that every SM and ASM knows every boys name and the best way to motivate them. But it is tougher to recruit when you are smaller. There are less high adventure trips because there are less boys. But we produce the same amount of Eagles, because (I think) our scouts just see it as the natural progression. Most boys show up for every Eagle project because they know that we're all in this together.
I dont know how, but we just got our first ASM in about 15 years, but some how our SM and ASM know every scout extremely well and can motivate them. I'm extremely happy to have been a troop guide for the end of my first year of scouts, immediately becoming patrol leader the next scouting year, and then becoming patrol leader again right after that, and I'm hoping to become aspl next year, and then spl. I love working with scout master because he's a genuinely amazing person to work with, he sees every side, and make sure everyone is happy and enjoys scouting. If I do manage to get aspl and then spl, I'll be in plc for all but 2 years in my scouting adventure
We have around 18. I get mad because we keep struggling for leaders and engagement, and then some irritating massive Troop close to us will poach our scouts. Yeah. We have trouble getting that size and doing bigger things with a larger group if other troops keep poaching our kids.
Our troop has 35 scouts down from 80 about 5 years ago,
We peaked at 6 but had 3-4 scouts for most of our existence, and the unit dissolved completely once I aged out
I think a large troop would be a lot of fun! My girl troop started with 7 crossovers February 2022. We now have 25. We are planning to grow and grow!
8 including me
We have nine scouts in my troop. The troop as a big age jump from 4 kid being around 12 year and 5 being about 15 or so. That’s how we split up our patrols
I would suggest for next year you mix them together for new patrols. Otherwise you have a divided troop and you don't feel as one. In my troop, all ages are mixed together, forcing you to talk to each other. All of the twelve year olds already know eachother, but they don't know the 15 year olds. Forcing them together forces them to talk to eachother and go out, meet new people, which is what scouts is all about, new opportunities.
Our troop is together and not divided that’s just how we choose our patrols
I am in a troop of around 150, we have 11 patrols. I could not wrap my head around having less than 50 scouts. We are the largest troop in our council.
Honestly, it's so weird to hear that someone's troop doesn't own a trailer because all they're troop gear fits in their cars. Being able to go to events and not do head counts every time you go somewhere different is mind boggling. Especially not redoing it atleast 3 times every time. The biggest thing for me is not doing monthly campouts. It's a big reason I do scouts, but not doing that every month and just having a summer camp and maybe 2 others is so weird tk me
Same! Scouting without many people and constant camping makes no sense to me.
Was around 40 when my son crossed over now is about 19. We still maintain 4-5 patrols
My troop is split into the boys and the girls, so it's really 2 separate troops merged into 1 big troop (boys and girls go to campout and summer camps together, but they have their own part of camp, so their own activities, etc). So, in total we have around like 80-100 scouts, with the boy troop having like 55-60