Troop Kit is brought to you by the same folks that provide the great resources at BoyScoutTrail.com

I'm the lead developer and company president. I've been involved with scouts since the mid-1990s and have been developing web sites since before that. I'd like to tell you why Troop Kit was made and what it will do.

I became a Scoutmaster in 2004 of a troop with about 30 scouts. The previous scoutmaster had the scouts lead meetings and decide what troop activities to do, but he did all the planning of activities. That worked for a troop of 15-25 scouts, but I felt the scouts could take care of much more on their own. We started having each patrol choose a weekend campout to organize and plan. An adult would work with them to cover all the bases and do reservations. After about 2 years, the scouts got it! They now do nearly all the planning of campouts and meetings.

As the operations became well-known, scouts got tired of hounding scouts for permission forms and last-minute registrations.
At the same time, I was tiring of the mundane tasks of setting up scoutmaster conferences, preparing blue cards, checking on scout sign-ups, and other duties. We saw an opportunity to make life easier without transferring responsibilities from the scouts.
By simplifying the processes and reducing paper, Troop Kit could keep the scouts leading and organizing, but minimize the wheel-spinning.

As you can see from the Features List, Troop Kit is a supplement to your scout advancement tracking software. It provides support for day-to-day running of your troop in which the scouts should have a major role. Other great scout software packages are inexpensively available for the advancement tracking, but giving the scouts the ability to lead their troop activities is the goal of Troop Kit.

Our troop is now over 70 scouts and we've been using Troop Kit since November, 2008 with great results. Our overall participation has improved because parents are reminded of registration deadlines and it is simple to sign up for an outing. The patrols are more organized on campouts because they use the duty rosters more often. Troop meeting instruction and activities are better prepared since agendas are readily available.
The Quartermaster and Patrol Leaders can more easily track equipment use. An extra bonus is that our Librarian position now has real responsibility with a single-click book check-out system.

And, for the Scoutmaster? Well, in August, 2011, I stepped aside so a new volunteer could guide the troop. He gets blue card requests in email and just prints them from TroopMaster rather than wasting minutes at troop meetings writing them. Training of patrol leaders and senior patrol leader is easier because all the process training is a snap. More time is spent talking with scouts at troop meetings and training the youth leaders on skills rather than process.

You can Mail Me with any questions or Register now.