RK Patrol system

So now that our outpost has been up and running for one successful quarter I am wanting to introduce the patrol system into the RK program. I have my reservations though as our outpost is not traditional. We do not call them to attention or anything military drill related. I am trying to picture what kids in the group would be able to function as a patrol leader and I am struggling to even imagine it.

does the patrol system work well in RK? do the boys tend to surprise when given a leadership role at such a young age?

Any other input/advice would be welcome.

Depending on your culture but my boys tend to want to run the mouth and everyone do their own things. 

Growing up in Royal Rangers the military commands helped teach us discipline and how to listen to the leaders. Apostle Paul uses military terms and Boothe founder of the Salvation Army did as well.

You know my background, so my attitudes are a little biased, but here are my observations from over 20 years with Rangers.

The boys tend to LOVE it; especially the younger ones.

If you read some of the Leaders' Materials from National Royal Rangers, they talk about boys' natural desires to run in a "pack" that has its own sense of order. In the cities, if you put a bunch of young men together without fathers or constructive adult leadership, they form their own groups with rank, order, and discipline -- called gangs.

However,

Too many people think that to use the Patrol System is to try to make them behave like the Royal Parachute Regiment or the Queens Guards. That is an unrealistic goal, and attempting to achieve it will be an unproductive use of your assets of time and leadership.

My BEST preparation for being a Royal Rangers Leader was training in Special Forces for working with Third-World Indigenous Forces. They told us, "Don't try to make the Native Forces spit-shine their boots, when they were bare-foot, just yesterday".

(And thinking of your boys as a bunch of barefoot little Southeast Asians or Central Americans just about gives you the right attitude.)

Come up with your very basic goals that you would like to see your boys do: assemble as a group, work together as a team, achieve team goals, have Esprit de Corps in their unit --- and you are well on the way.

We don't do all of the Beaver and Cougar Patrols, because our R/K's are integrated with the Discovery Rangers. So our organization is pretty-much formed like a Light Infantry Squad.

We have a Patrol Leader and 2 Team Leaders. We will move the boys around in the teams, depending on the activity that we are doing. If we are camping, we put the younger guys on 1 team, so that they can be in the same tent with their buddies.

If we are doing competitive games, we split the boys evenly by ages & abilities in order to make the teams & games fair.

At the Local Level, I haven't seen that having the boys march behind a Patrol Flag or Guidon is worth the work.

In my outpost growing we did include marching and used it to present colors at cofa's.  For us it was fun to keep getting more precise at it.