Historically, patrols were made up of Scouts of all ages and ranks. This approach offers several advantages:
- Each patrol always has members who need to learn Scouting skills and members who are able to teach those skills.
- Each patrol always has experienced leaders and members who need leadership experience.
- Patrols thus are fairly evenly matched for games and skill competitions.
- All members don’t “age out” at the same time.
