Debate Class

Is anyone taking it? I like debate, but I never really considered it important.  Well, until yesterday.  Remember I'm a Patrol Leader?  You see, my troop has Patrol Leader Councils every month or so.  We make decisions and vote on what happens to the troop.  Now, even farther back.
There's alot of flashback in this, so brown stands for past events, and this is present.


 My SPL is in the Panda Patrol. Have I mentioned them yet? Honestly, their patrol is my least favorite patrol.  They swear and make inappropriate jokes.  All the time.  THere was this on campout where they swore so much in front of new scouts, (and no one reported them) (and I wasn't there) (and parents  started calling after the campout) that 1 of the patrol members was "demoted" a rank.  Well, he didn't pass his Board of Review.  Also, the people in the patrol are about the same (except for this one really awesome dude).  They "encourage" and permit bad behavior in their own patrol.  Bad quality control is a problem for them as well. They once used a sheath knife to stir their dinner. 

Ok. Back to the future present.  Our SPL is very unhappy with his patrol.  He isn't that much like them, but he doesn't try to stop them.  Hmmm.  Anyways, (this is my opinion), at the last PLC,  he suggested that the Pandas be disbanded.  This idea was quickly shot down by one of the adults (without a vote). This made him start thinking of some new ideas to get himself a new patrol. 

There's a camp called NYLT.  National Youth Leadership Training. Each attendant gets a COMPLETELY new patrol to work with. 

Mr SPL decided that he could use that to get a new Patrol System. At the council, he decided that we were going to scramble patrols every year.  We still needed to vote on it though.  Here's the points of the debate.

Pros (for mixing patrols)
-New experience
-New scouts get new patrols
-Duty Rosters and PLC will enforce the mix
-People will learn to work with enemies.

Cons (mostly mine. :D)
-confusion over patrols
-most people know the entire troop.
-Broken patrol relations
-people will feel attached to their first patrol
-Less equipment care.
-some people have problems no matter who they work with.
- there'll be a constant struggle to train patrol
-no patrol pride
-like switching names. :-(

Anyways, it was a really close vote.  A lot of people were on the fence about it.  It was a really intense discussion, partly because there was a potential big change, and partly because I was shooting down reasons faster than he could put them up.  In the end, we voted not to split the patrols on a 8 to 5 margin.  (Did I use that right)  It was still way too close for me.  Ohz Wells.  SPL said he would bring it up again later(even though we already voted it down) (I bet he's just reloading).

Is there an organization that's important to you? A club or afterschool meeting?  If it really matters to you, you should matter to it.  :D  It's good to have influence on events that will effect you.  In my opinion, that vote was way too important to leave to the rest of the PLC.  :-)  Although your club might not be "boy lead",  it's good to have a grip on the future. 

All's well that ends well.