The Scribe keeps the troop's records. They are the key scout that helps the Patrol Leaders' Council stay organized, work efficiently, and communicate well with the rest of the troop. Scribe is one of the most important positions for the success of a troop.
Nearly everything the troop does starts as a decision made at a PLC meeting. If that decision never makes it into the notes, onto the calendar, or out to the people who have to act on it, then as far as the troop is concerned it never happened. Closing that gap is your job.
Position Facts
Selection
Appointed by the Senior Patrol Leader, with approval of the Scoutmaster
Reports to
Assistant Senior Patrol Leader
Required Attendance
80% of all PLC meetings, and 30% of all troop meetings and outings. If your attendance is below the standard, you can be removed from office and/or lose credit.
Responsibilities
Create and share the agenda for each PLC meeting
Take notes during each PLC meeting and ensure that the plans are complete
Make the PLC notes available to the troop in a timely manner
Track action items, and follow up on anything needing further planning or preparation
Maintain the troop calendar with detailed, accurate, and up-to-date information
Keep the troop informed with timely announcements and reminders
Live by the Scout Oath and Law
Set a good example by showing Scout spirit and wearing the uniform correctly
The PLC meets once a month, and it works about a month ahead (for example, the PLC meeting in November is where the troop plans everything that happens in December). Your agenda is what makes that time productive instead of a conversation that wanders.
Some parts of the agenda are the same every time, and you can simply carry them over.
The rest you build:
Event and meeting planning. List out every event and troop meeting in the month being planned, each as its own line. Pull them from the troop calendar so nothing gets missed. This is usually the longest part of the meeting.
Old business. Anything that was raised at the last PLC but not conclusively decided and put into action. You prepare this section by reading your notes from the last meeting. If an item doesn’t get resolved this time either, it stays on the list for next month.
New business. Anything that needs to be brought up and doesn’t fit in the other sections — a proposal to buy new gear, an idea for changing how troop meetings run, a request for help at an upcoming service project. Anyone on the PLC can propose an item.
You are taking notes, not a transcript. Nobody needs a record of every word in the discussion — they need a record of what was decided. For each decision, write down three things:
what was decided
who is doing it
when it’s due
Get the details exactly right as you go. Dates, start and end times, locations, costs, and deadlines all end up on the calendar and in announcements, so confirm them out loud at the meeting rather than guessing afterward.
It’s also your job to notice when a plan isn’t finished. You’re the one person in the room reading the whole plan back, so ask the questions nobody else thought of:
What time are we leaving, and from where?
Who’s telling the parents?
When is the signup deadline?
Do we have the supplies?
When something gets tabled without a decision, write it down as an action item, and bring it back up as Old Business for the next meeting.
Write up your notes while the meeting is still fresh — that night or the next day — and get them out within a few days. Notes that show up a week later are no help to anyone trying to prepare.
Your notes should contain:
the decisions that were made
open action items, with the person responsible and the due date for each
anything else left unresolved, which becomes old business next month
the date of the next PLC meeting
Then:
Send the notes to the PLC, and post them where the rest of the troop can read them.
Update the troop calendar with everything that was decided.
Send out any announcements the SPL or ASPL asked for.
Keep your action item list somewhere you’ll actually check it, and follow up before the next meeting.
The troop calendar is the authoritative source on all of the goings-on in the troop. That means it’s very important for information there to be complete and up-to-date.
You are the only scout in the troop who can edit the calendar. As plans get made or changed, you’ll need to update the calendar to reflect them.
The SPL and ASPL will ask you to send announcements and reminders to the troop. Ask the ASPL how each one should go out — most go by email through the troop website, and some are better made in person at a troop meeting.
A good announcement:
covers one subject. Two topics in one email means the second one gets missed.
says what’s happening, when, where, and what the reader needs to do about it.
puts the deadline up front, not buried in the last paragraph.
links to the event page on the calendar instead of retyping every detail.
says who to contact with questions.
is short. Long emails get skimmed.
Send it early enough that people can actually act on it, and send one reminder as the deadline gets close. Before you hit send, check the dates and times against the calendar and read it through once for spelling.
