Troop Meetings at the 21st have no particurlarly rigid format, as this
gives flexibility in programme planning. A rough guide for an indoor Troop
night is as follows :
7:30 - Flag Break
7:35 - Inspection
7:45 - Game
8:10-8:15 - Activity
8:50 - Game or Activity 2
9:15 - Change back into Uniform
9:20 - Badge presentations, notices, prayers
9:25 - Flag Down
The final 5 minutes of the meeting are set aside for tidying up and putting away and kit or Patrol boxes which have been used.
Subscriptions are paid weekly and are collected by the APL's just prior to inspection. Inspection consists of a check of uniform, hands and patrol box for tidyness. Points are awarded out of a score of 10. These and any other points which are awarded during the Troop meeting to a patrol, count towards their monthly total. Points can be awarded for ideas, games, quizzes in fact anything you care to think of. These are tallied monthly for a small trophy which the winners hold for a month and count towards the yearly total.
Once every three weeks, one patrol is nominated as duty patrol. On their turn the patrol is responsible for sweeping the headquarters at the end of the meeting and for breaking and lowering the Union Flag.
At the end of the meeting we have a small tuck shop where we sell crisps and sweets to help raise a little extra money for the Troop.
Activities vary in nature. We try to offer a mixture between theory and practical activities, as well as indoor and outdoor skills. Some of the activities we run are listed elsewhere on this site. We are quite lucky for our outdoor activities as there is a Scout Camp site about 3 miles away by road our headquarters. If we hike it by footpath it is only 1 mile.
We try to camp at least once a year as Scouts in addition to the annual Group Camp. We also take part in an annual Incident Night Hike called "Nightowl". This is organised by our Venture Unit and involves 3 Scout Troop and the local Guide Colony
Awards and Badges are earned by the boys individual or team efforts, depending upon the award in question. We encourage the boys to work towarss there awards on their own initiative, providing guidance as required. Test work is linked to the activity programme so the boys can pass their award requirements as they go along from experiences they have gained. The Leaders do not set test work per se this is set by the PL of each patrol. We prefer to act as consultants to the PL; there is no way 3-4 of us can cover all of the boys one to one.