What’s the difference between Patrol system and Patrol method?

I have never found any actual difference between those terms in Scouting literature, but I will share acouple of thoughts to differentiate between patrol system and patrol method in a way you may find helpful.

Over the next three podcasts we’ll continue our foundations series by examining three main things about Scouting: Patrol System, Advancement, and Youth leadership. Scouters spend the most time working with these three key pieces of the game.

We first want to ask why are they a part of Scouting, how they function, and define our role is in making them happen.

This week we’ll talk about the patrol system. Be sure to read John Thurman’s story in linked below in the podcast notes.

They formed a Patrol and they started to train themselves, using the book Scouting for Boys as the only guide, but they found, as Patrols have always found, that there were many things they did not know, many things they could not find out and many things they could not do without the help of some adult, and so the practice grew of a number of Patrols getting together, forming a Troop, and usually finding their own Scoutmaster.

John Thurman

Podcast Notes

John Thurman’s Patrol Story in Why We have Scoutmasters

Happy Wanderer Opening Music

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