Largest Units in North Star

Posted on June 20, 2017 Updated on June 27, 2017

As leaders of our own packs, troops, and crew, we often get tunnel vision about what is going on in neighboring units. To help break that, let’s take a quick peak at the size of District’s units, based on registered youth.

This article has several purposes. As congratulations and recognition, it commends succesful units. As a primer for new leaders and former T’Sun Gani District units, it gives an orientation of the major units. As an aide for unit development, it offers the listed units as resources and mentors to other units which are not as large. 

This listing includes all units with more than 45 youth members. Some very successful units do not have 45 members, they have been omitted for the sake of brevity and not commentary on their effectiveness.

Cub Scouts

This is a bit misleading, since this is the period where Packs are missing a Den after cross-over but before Back to School Recruiting. Pack 358 had nearly 50 Webelos cross over, so their numbers do not reflect this large group. Other packs have similar patterns, so the ratios do not change radically.

1. Pack 358 (Zionsville Christian Church): 224
   (five “tribes” ranging in size from 39 to 59 Cubs per tribe).
2. Pack 105 (Zionsville American Legion Post): 86
3. Pack 171 (St Luke’s Roman Catholic Church): 57
4. Pack 174 (Immaculate Heart of Mary RCC): 53
5. Pack 18 (Second Presbyterian Church): 50

Boy Scouts

1. Troop 358 (St Alphonsius RCC, Zionsville): 140
2. Troop 174 (Immaculate Heart of Mary RCC): 93
3. Troop 69 (Trader’s Point Christian Church): 52
4. Troop 269 (St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church): 52
5. Troop 804 (Zionsville American Legion Post): 52
6. Troop 56 (St Luke’s United Methodist Church): 48

So what do these numbers tell us? Baden Powell believed that troops should have no more than four patrols of eight boys, totaling 32 members. In modern practice, units with fewer than 40 youth often have adult volunteer issues.

Smaller units can succeed from the sheer dedication and focus of their adult leaders. I made Eagle because of a troop with only about 12 scouts and 5 adult volunteers, including my father and the late Darryl Clifton, whom some of you knew well.

Smaller units should look at working together on campouts. If they share a campout, they can run the patrol method and patrol competitions that help each troop grow stronger, while sharing the comraderie of scouting.

If you would like more contact information, please do not hesitate to let me know.