How To Welcome New Scouts To Your Troop (First 90 Days)

A Scout crosses over from Cub Scouts, walks into your troop meeting, and finds out that almost nothing works the way it used to. If you’re the person responsible for making that go well, nobody hands you a plan for that part. Until now! Don’t worry, if you’re planning to greet some new Scouts in your troop, you’ve come to the right place. 🙂

How should a troop welcome new Scouts? Put them in a new-Scout patrol with a troop guide, give them a job in their first month, and make sure an older Scout knows their name by the second meeting. Scouting America’s guidance is that new Scouts stay in that patrol until First Class or the end of their first year, whichever comes first.

I still remember walking through the doors of my first troop meeting with butterflies in my stomach, shy and awkward and determined to make friends anyway. Nobody in my family had been in Scouts BSA, so this was new territory for all of us, and I can’t count the times we wished for someone who’d been through it before to guide us.

That’s who you get to be for a new Scout.

Which is why I was glad when a reader, Robert W., asked me to write this one. He pointed out that the Scouts BSA program is run completely differently from Cub Scouts, and that nobody writes about what a troop should actually do when new recruits show up. He’s right, so here’s my attempt at it.

In this article, we’ll cover:

Why the first three months are the ones you control
What actually changes when a Cub Scout crosses over
How the new-Scout patrol and troop guide are supposed to work
The two meetings worth running in month one
What to do when a new Scout goes quiet
A 90-day checklist you can steal outright

Feel free to jump to whatever you need, though I’d read the whole thing if you’ve got ten minutes.

Why The First Three Months Are The Ones You Control

The Boy Scouts of America (now Scouting America) partnered with researchers at Montclair State University and the American Institutes for Research on a study called BEST, short for Building Evidence in Scouting Together. They surveyed 3,495 Scouts across 624 troops and interviewed 110 Scoutmasters and assistant Scoutmasters, 103 of whom were re-interviewed for the wave these numbers come from.

When those leaders were asked why Scouts leave, here’s roughly how it broke down.

Why Scouts left	Share of interviews	Can your troop do anything about it?
Competing activities	55%	Not much
Money and cost	20%	Sometimes, through fundraising and shared gear
Loss of interest	20%	Yes
Academics	16%	Not much
Problems inside the troop	10%	Yes

Loss of interest and problems inside the troop are the two you can actually move, and both of them get decided early, while a new Scout is still working out whether this is a place where they belong. That’s my read of it rather than something the study claims, but it’s the read I’d bet on.

One more finding worth knowing. Younger Scouts in that study reported more joy and fun in Scouting than older Scouts did. New Scouts arrive with the enthusiasm already loaded, so your job is mostly to avoid spending it.

Note: Those percentages come from interviews with adult leaders about why Scouts in their units left, not from the Scouts themselves. Leaders and Scouts don’t always name the same reason.

What Actually Changes When A Cub Scout Crosses Over

Most of the friction in the first few weeks comes down to five specific changes, and every one of them catches families off guard. Say all of it plainly before anyone gets frustrated.

In Cub Scouts	In Scouts BSA	Why it throws people
A den leader runs the meeting	Scouts run the meeting	Parents expect an adult in charge and see “chaos” instead
Adults sign off advancement	Often other Scouts and counselors, depending on how your troop assigns sign-off	Progress feels slower and less automatic
Parents stay for everything	Parents step back	Can read as being pushed away
Activities are planned for you	Your patrol plans and cooks for itself	First campout meals are usually rough
Advancement is by age and grade	Advancement is by what you do	A Scout can stall without anyone noticing

None of that is a flaw in the program. Youth leadership is the whole point. But it lands as a shock if nobody explains it, and confused parents are where quiet Scouts start.

Scout Tip: Say the words “this is going to look disorganized, and that’s on purpose” out loud to new families in the first month. It buys you a season of patience.

The New-Scout Patrol, And Why It Isn’t Random

Scouting America’s guidance on patrol types is more specific than most troops realize:

New Scouts get assigned to a patrol. Joining the troop is the only time that happens. Every patrol after that is one a Scout chooses.
They elect their own patrol leader, usually on a shorter term of about a month instead of six, so several of them get a turn early.
They stay in that patrol for their first year or until they reach First Class, whichever comes first. After that, troops handle it differently, with some folding them into existing patrols and some keeping the group together.
An assistant Scoutmaster advises the patrol without running it.
A troop guide does the day-to-day work.

That last one is where most of this lives. The troop guide is an older Scout holding at least First Class rank, and here’s the job description:

Introduce new Scouts to how the troop operates
Help them along toward First Class
Teach basic Scout skills
Coach the new patrol leader on doing the job
Attend patrol leaders’ council meetings alongside that patrol leader
Help individual Scouts through Scouting problems

If your troop hasn’t filled this position, that’s the single biggest fix available to you, and it costs nothing. Pick the older Scout who’s patient rather than the one who’s most senior.

Scout Connection: Being an Instructor was one of my favorite troop positions of all time, and troop guide is the same shape of job. If you’re an older Scout wondering which position to ask for, this is the one where you’ll actually see what you did. 😀

The Two Meetings Worth Running In Month One

Robert suggested two, and I think he’s landed on exactly the right pair.

Meeting	Who’s in the room	Why it matters
The adults	New Scouts’ parents, Scoutmaster, committee	Parents who understand the change stop fighting it
The older Scouts	New Scouts, SPL, troop guide, two or three older Scouts	New Scouts learn the troop from people their own age

Meeting One: The Adults

Twenty minutes is plenty.

Cover: what changes from Cub Scouts (the table above works as a handout), who to contact about what, what the year looks like, what it costs, and what the troop needs from them.

That last one matters. Parents who leave with a job come back.

Say this:

“Thanks for coming. The biggest thing to know is that in Scouts BSA, the Scouts run the meetings, and we coach from the side. That means the first few months will look messier than Cub Scouts did, and that’s how it’s supposed to look. Your Scout is going to forget things, burn dinner, and figure it out. Our job is to keep it safe and let that happen.”

Parents getting involved matters more than it sounds. Mine were fairly active on our troop committee, but the thing that actually changed my Scouting was my dad coming along on our first troop trip.

Meeting Two: The Older Scouts

Troops skip this one, and it’s the one that does the most.

Get your new Scouts in a room with the senior patrol leader, the troop guide, and two or three older Scouts who actually run the meetings. No adults talking.

Cover: how a meeting works, what the patrol leaders’ council is, how to get a requirement signed off, and what the older Scouts wish they’d known when they joined.

Now, if you’re the troop guide running this, here’s the part that probably worries you. You ask if anyone has questions and you get total silence, and then it’s just awkward. That happens every time, and the fix is to never ask an open question first.

Say this instead:

“Okay, quick one before we start. Everybody say your name and the worst meal you’ve ever eaten outdoors. I’ll go first, mine was undercooked pasta that I made myself. Then I’ll tell you the three things that confused me most when I joined, because they’ll probably confuse you too.”

Then have every older Scout learn every new Scout’s name before they leave. I know how much that one matters because I was bad at it.

I’ll admit it, I wasn’t the most outwardly friendly person growing up. I often felt shy and was bad with names, so opening up to people took work. What I figured out later is that being friendly is a muscle that needs practice to grow, and after that I always tried to look others in the eyes, smile, and greet them by name. I’m not exaggerating when I say that one second of kindness can change the course of someone’s life forever.

Months Two And Three: Give Them A Job And A Trail

Two things keep a new Scout around once the novelty wears off.

A job. It doesn’t have to be a leadership position, just a job. Somebody has to carry the patrol box, fill the water jugs, keep the duty roster, be grubmaster for one meal. A Scout with a job at a campout is part of the campout.

Visible progress. Early ranks are designed to come quickly, and they should. When I was new, it was like I was playing a game where I’d see how many requirements I could get signed off in one week, and I put together a rough visualization of my progress so I could see myself moving forward one checked-off requirement at a time. That worked on me. Something has to show a new Scout they’re going somewhere.

Moving fast is good and rushing is not, and the difference is whether the Scout can still do the skill a month later. I’ve written more on that in when Scouting feels like a race, which is worth a read before you turn early advancement into a leaderboard.

Then let them teach. The fastest way to make a three-month Scout feel like a full member of the troop is to have them show a brand-new Scout how to tie a square knot.

If you’ve already got half of this running in your troop, give yourself a big pat on the back! 🙂

When A New Scout Starts Going Quiet

They miss a meeting, then another one. Nobody calls, and that’s usually the end of it.

The fix is simple, and it works better coming from another Scout than from an adult.

Send this:

“hey, we missed you at the last couple meetings. we’re doing the campout thing Saturday, you coming?”

That’s the whole intervention. My mom used to say, if you see the need, you do the deed.

It also helps to know what they usually go quiet about, and more often than not it’s a campout. Mine was nearly my breaking point. I was drenched, cold, and feeling utterly miserable, and thoughts of quitting and going home to my warm bed were growing more tempting by the second. Then I looked up, expecting mirrored expressions of defeat on my companions’ faces, and was shocked to find looks of acceptance and even one or two grim smiles.

Nobody made that happen, but somebody could have. If an older Scout had told me that morning that the first campout is usually the hardest one, I’d have spent the day waiting for it to get better instead of waiting for it to end.

Here’s the lesson: tell new Scouts in advance that the hard part is coming, and that it passes. It costs one sentence.

One More Thing: Be Somebody’s Andrew

In the first few months of joining my troop, I was a nervous newbie and used that as an excuse to not be my best. I’d grumble without thinking, and I’d only known the school mindset of competition, so I figured it was every Scout for themselves. (I wrote the long version of that stretch in my eBook, The 7 Secrets for Scouting Success, if you ever want it.)

Everything changed for me as a new Scout when I met Andrew, a Life Scout who understood the true meaning of leadership. He was a shining example of how Scouts should treat each other, and for years afterward, whenever I faced something difficult or wasn’t sure what to do, I’d ask myself how a leader like Andrew might handle it.

Andrew almost certainly had no idea he was doing that. He was a decent older Scout who was consistent about it.

If you’re an older Scout in a troop with new Scouts in it, you’re already somebody’s Andrew whether you signed up for it or not. They’re watching how you treat the youngest kid in the room, and they’re deciding what kind of Scout to be based on what they see. You don’t need a position of responsibility to start.

Your First 90 Days Checklist

Here’s all of it in the order it happens, so you can hand each piece to whoever owns it.

When	What happens	Who owns it
Before crossover	Invite Webelos to a troop meeting and one campout	SPL and troop guide
Week 1	Assign new Scouts to a new-Scout patrol; name a troop guide	Scoutmaster and SPL
Week 1	Every older Scout learns every new Scout’s name	All older Scouts
Week 2	New-Scout patrol elects its first patrol leader	The new Scouts
Month 1	Parent and adult volunteer meeting	Committee and Scoutmaster
Month 1	Older-Scout meeting, no adults talking	SPL and troop guide
Month 1	Every new Scout gets a job at the first campout	Patrol leader
Month 2	Troop guide checks in one-on-one with each new Scout	Troop guide
Month 2	First requirements signed off and visibly tracked	Troop guide
Month 3	Each new Scout teaches one skill to someone	Troop guide
Ongoing	Anyone missing two meetings gets a text from a Scout	Patrol leader

Conclusion

A troop keeps new Scouts when, within about a month, each one has a patrol, a job, somebody older who knows their name, and proof that they’re getting somewhere. The program already gives you the structure for all four, in the new-Scout patrol and the troop guide position, and most troops just never fill them in.

It took me years to realize that Scouting is what you make of it. New Scouts haven’t had those years yet, so for their first three months, it’s mostly what you make of it for them.

If you’re building out this part of your troop’s program, these are worth a look next:

Thanks for making our world a better place through your involvement in Scouting! 🙂

How To Welcome New Scouts Into Your Troop: Their First 90 Days