Labeling Systems for Tent Parts

[Sir_Scoutalot]

Our troop has not purchased new tents in several years.

 

We currently utilize a system where all the tent parts (ie tent, fly, tent bag, pole bag, and stake bag) are numbered identically. We have tent 1, tent 2, ...

 

Over time we have to replace lost or ripped bags. You'll also have situations where perhaps a tent or fly must be retired, but the other portions are still usable.

 

I often wonder what's the wisdom in our system vs one that perhaps labels the parts with their purchase dates. Or perhaps no labeling at all might be best.

 

What system (if any) does your unit use?

 

[eagle90]

Our troop owns 15 Eureka Outfitters. We spent a whole day a few years ago numbering each piece (tent, fly, bag, pole bag, stake bag).

It is remarkable how, after one campout, tent #5 has bag #6, fly #12, pole bag #1, etc. It's like these things move around by themselves! We are going to ATTEMPT to reorganize all the parts again this spring before we start the camping season. Wish us luck!

 

[anarchist]

Sir_Scoutalot,(and eagle90)

 

guess it depends on what you what the information to "do".

 

first we have (all) 'identical' troop tents -either 2 man or 4 man Timberline XT's by Eureka. Each tent, rain fly, bag, pole bag, and pin bag is marked with the troop number an then a designation 2-1, 2-2 or 4-1, 4-2. These numbers tell the QM first; it is a two man or four man tent the second number is the sequence number of the tent. For instance, in our troop we have 21 two man tents so the second number in the sequence ranges from 1-21. The quarter master has a computer based inventory that tells when each tent was purchased and any significant repairs that might have been done. Actually every piece of gear we own is numbered, lanterns, distribution trees, kitchens, kitchen rain flys folding tables, pots and pans, dutch ovens, stoves, just so we can keep tabs...

 

Old tents are canabalized for any good parts which are kept for field repairs...flys, poles, 'knuckles', bags etc. We also purchased a few spare poles (etc) for such contingencies...

 

The numbers on the bags comes in handy when a bag of poles or 'pins' suddenly turns up when we are "policing" our camp site before pull out or is 'found in someones garage or basement after a 'wet' campout...We can easily identify which tent will be missing something "next time". The formal inventory is simply invaluable for planning and for accounting for equipment after a camp. The inventory is down loaded to the adults (CC, SM and adults mentoring the QM) from time to time for updating purposes and when the QM changes he gives his paper work and a floppy or CD/DVD to the new QM...smooth transition.

 

(eagle90) and Scoutalot

 

QM issues tents to pairs and we keep tabs (written check out form) on who has checked out which tent...next month when tent "4-5" gets checked out and the boys return to the trailer five minutes later saying they only have two tent pegs (pins) the QM can quickly tell which two scouts had the tent on the last camp out...he and the spl can then have a "chat" with the two or three scouts who 'left' eight pins behind last time...(the chat usually involves some extra troop "service time") Same holds true for tents returned muddy or wet...seems to work.

 

hope it helps

anarchist(This message has been edited by anarchist)

[EagleInKY]

Thank goodness it's not just us with this problem.

[anarchist]

EagleinKy,

 

Hah! our guys eat tarp lines and tent stakes as appetizers...but they take pretty good care of the tents...and since we started keeping a running record of who is issued each tent- on every campout (in is kept in the QM "clip board" with the trailer) things have gotten pretty good...

 

'course the 'boo birds' are gonna get mad when they read that our SPL and PLC have set up a "negative outcome program" for boys who lose troop gear...but then a little extra work never hurt anyone and boy it sure seems to be working.

 

gotta run and buy some more tarp line...its almost supper time!

Anarchist

[Beth]

We have a relatively young troop, only 2 years old. We have matching tents for all the scouts. All of our troop gear is labeled right down to the forks and knives, coolers and water jugs. We have four patrols worth of gear, red, blue, green and orange are the assigned colors. Paints pens, shrink tape and colored electrical tape worked wonders for marking. I could go on and on but back to the tents.

 

Each of our of our tents and all parts are marked using the number system of 04-01, 04-02 etc. 04 = year, 01 = tent number. Besides that, each are marked using the corresponding color (paint pens) marked small and non-obtrusive. Tents 1-5 are blue, 6-10 are red, etc. When there is a repair needed, the tent is retired until fixed. Each tent is stored on a shelf assigned to a specific patrol (the bag is marked on the end so you can see which tents are there or missing). The quartermasters is responsible for making sure any borrowed tents (OA campouts etc) or tents taken home to dry are returned. This has worked well with our current troop and the previous troop where we developed our system.

 

Our troop has been known to toss out every tent from the trailer, including the ones not used on the current campout and reset up every tent because the part numbers did not match. It's a story the boys pass on to the new scouts for many, many months. It's not a leason soon forgotten.