Silly Troop Camp Rules

[evmori]

Did the tent look better before or after the bear went through?

[Owl62]

One rule I heard was no vehicles past the parking lot, on the camp roads, or in camp, only trailers. Question: how is the trailer going to get to the campsite?

 

Another rule is no electronics and then a photographer goes all over camp with a digital camera taking pictures and then the camp staff has a slide show the final night of camp.....

 

No lockblade knives. Can't understand this one - the locking mechanism is a safety feature.

 

Lots of others - too numerous to mention.

 

I guess some people just feel better if there are lots of rules.

 

 

[DugNevius]

"One rule I heard was no vehicles past the parking lot, on the camp roads, or in camp, only trailers. Question: how is the trailer going to get to the campsite?"

 

We have never had a vehicle up past the summer camp parking lot. When we get to camp we hump that gear up and at the end we bring it all back. It takes a few trips but not at all too challanging. Plus, this is why we love backpacking.(This message has been edited by DugNevius)

[SR540Beaver]

It kind of makes you wonder just why they built all those roads at summer camp if they don't want you to use them, doesn't it?

[DugNevius]

Safety, not convienence

[SSScout]

Camp Rules (Summer Long Term Section)

Troop Rules (all the Scout time)

Patrol Rules (some of the Scout time)

Family House rules (ALL of the time)

Federal Registry Volume 38 section 12 page 23 line 8 (If you are germane)

 

God's Rules ( Consequences may not be immediately evident)

 

"Why are there so many silly rules?" "I don't think THAT rule is important" "But officer I didn't know..." "NO... I WON'T MOMMY!"

 

Along with the RULE and it's REASON should be noted the BAD things that could happen should it be flouted (bears in your tent, you clean the latrine) and the GOOD things that can happen if it is followed (you can have some gedunk occasionally, and bears won't go in your tent. They'll go in the OTHER Troops tents...).

 

My original Troop had the following rules, way back when...

No candy (except for the boy who was diabetic. We all understood). Mountain pies and Dutch oven cakes were better any way. Your money when we came to a store .

No sneakers on serious backpack trips or hikes.(less turned ankles) Good boots only!.

No sodas. No one wanted to carry all that extra weight anyway. Carry in, carry out? Water quenches thirst anyway. One boy was allegic to milk, so in camp we carried TANG. Strange taste in Iron heavy water.

No food in tents (obvious).

The older boys set the pace for all of us. Rules/tradition had to be explained to every new Scout that came up, so what?

So, how do you motivate the OLDER boys (not the OLDMEN) to set/follow the RULES? And Show the Younger Scouts that we love them and need them to be safe, both for their health and well being AND our peace of mind? (boy those insuranc claim forms are long...)

 

You have not had panic in you mind until you have had this happen: Cub Scout Day Camp. Archery Range Safety Officer. . Tiger Cubs. Teaching archery by the numbers: "Bows at ready. Nock an arrow. Pull, aim... " and then Johnny Cub turns around WITH THE BOW AT FULL DRAW to ask Mr. Smith a Question... Fortunately ( thank you God) one of my Scout assistants was right next to him and grabs the arrow and pushes it down to the ground. AND THEN THE PARENT later that week comes to me to complain about how strict I was. Similarly, I had other parents compliment me for being so strict. I explained all the RULES of the range first off, and the consequences of disregarding them. First offense, you sit down. Second, you don't shoot for that day. Third, you don't shoot the rest of the week. My Tiger Cub ultimately had a very successful week.

Are archery ranges different than candy bars (" well THAT"S a silly rule")? Well, yeah, but all rules should have a REALLY good reason....

[drhannon]

Ed

 

It definately looked better before the bear went thru it. When the bear went thru she just about ripped the tent off the platform.

[scoutldr]

Our camp also restricts vehicle traffic in camp. Upon check=in, one "gear vehicle" is allowed to unload at the site. Then it must be returned to the parking lot. This is for a)safety and b) to reduce wear and tear on the dirt roads, especially in wet weather. Invariably, there are one or two who feel that they can leave their vehicle in the site and they need to be told to move them.

 

The roads are primarily for emergency vehicle access, deliveries to the dining hall, and for the Ranger to make his rounds for maintenance and trash pickup.

[DugNevius]

SS, i think those are pretty solid rules.

[OneHour]

Does anyone have a silly rule on tree climbing? For some reasons, that has always been one of my pet peeves, but I have not enacted a silly rule for it! Every time that the boys climb the tree, the vision of one of them fall off the tree and hurt themselves badly scares the heck out of me! ... it's not the broken arm or leg ... it's the broken back or neck!

[red feather]

When I get accused of being too strict with 'silly rules' the explanation is this, scouting not your home, school or any other area that you are active in.

 

The effort to explain to the scouts that what they are learning is different from anything else that they do is what scouting is all about. Granted the leadership can be done in other venues (sp?) but the basic survival, campership, and woodlore is different. Different skills for different areas of expertise.

 

Scouts will, no different from others areas of their lives, will try to get any with as much as possible. This is expected and scouting can teach them that 'this area of their lives' has different rules and necessities.

 

Kinda like life.

 

 

yis

 

redfeather

SM

 

 

[LongHaul]

When I posted before and said my troop had no silly rules I was joking, as Scoutmaster I approve all the rules the PLC makes before they are implemented. SSScout's post brought me back to something I was taught as a new staff person as a boy. "You are allowed zero mistakes on the shooting range or the water front" meaning the staff in this case. "If you make a mistake someone's life is, at that point, in jeopardy" Sometimes phrases like that just stick with you and cant be shaken loose. Problem is that today people just dont feel that way as SSScout says about the parent who thought he was to strict. Recently I was acting as lookout for our sailing base at summer camp when a sail boat capsized. A scout who was on shore and not checked into the water front crossed the rope barrier and swam out to the sail boat to assist. Completing the offense he didnt have a PDF on either. I signaled the Beach Master and was told to take a row boat and another scout and Get that kid out of the water!!! We approached the offending scout and threw him a Float and instructed him to take hold, to which we were told to go ####ourselves. He was then instructed to take hold of the row boat to which he answered screw you. Once back on land I confiscated his buddy tag and made a written report to the camp director. The next morning the boy had a brand new buddy tag issued by instruction of the camp director (because I destroyed his original one) with the explanation that we cant deny the boy access to the water front because he paid for the use of it in his camp fees. The boy's Scoutmaster was very angry and said that the water front staff and I in particular were blowing things out of proportion. When this thread started I was waiting for silly camp rules it might just be me but I havent heard any yet. I dont agree with a couple but dont by any means consider them silly.

LongHaul

 

[evmori]

WOW! Something is rotten there! That kind of language & behavior should not be tolerated! Anywhere!

 

Ed Mori

Troop 1

1 Peter 4:10

[Eamonn]

Thinking back to when I was a Scout.

Skip our SM had:

No long pants at camp. (Winter camp long pants were OK. - He decided what the Season was!!)

No Socks till Lunch time -His thinking was that if you had socks wet from the dew you had wet feet all day.

No wearing anything to bed that you wore during the day. At this time in the UK people still wore PJ's and he'd check to make sure that nothing was under the PJ's -Can't see that ever happening today!!

No Singing Green Grow The Rushes -He hated that song.

He had a book of rules that no one could ever remember about Axes and Knifes. I remember that there were no axes in the Patrol boxes, he liked bow saws.

He really was a super nice fellow, I loved him dearly.

We were the most active Troop ever, doing stuff almost every weekend and meeting 3 nights a week.

But it was his Troop.

Eamonn.

[SR540Beaver]

E,

 

I'm with your old SM on Green Grow the Rushes, O. I had never heard of the song before this past Saturday. We had a Wood Badge staff development meeting and our SPL knew this song from when he took Brownsea as a boy. He wanted us to sing it. It was a disaster to say the least and left everyone scracthing their heads. I'm hoping he doesn't try to introduce it during the course at a cracker barrel. There are plenty of other (better) songs to sing.