Pack Camping Planning

[ChuckSt8er]

All:

 

In your experience, who leads the planning of family camping outings in Cub Scout Packs? We are a larger pack (100+ boys) and have recently involved an ad-hoc group of experienced parents under the guidance of the BALOO-trained Cubmaster (with support from our unit Quartermaster and outings).

 

This year, the Cubmaster has been only marginally involved; the fall camping trip planning has been led by the Committee Chair with support of a camping committee (mix of parents and Den leaders).

 

What is the norm? What do you do?

 

 

[scottteng]

That sounds like a good start. You need more than one baloo trained person if that person gets sick/called out of town on business there goes your outing. Baloo trainings are readily available every district in this area offers 2 per year. It is not an onerous training to complete about 6 hours. The more that other people can do the outings the better the CM can handle the program for the boys side. Parents like to have some input as they are required to attend and may have sibling issues to deal with. A Tot lot keeps not only the little ones occupied but also some of the older girls as well. Don''t forget to draft some boys from the troop to help not only your den chief''s but some extras as well they can usually keep the cubs very busy playing games and doing scout skill stuff. What you don''t want to here is a cub saying "I''m bored can I go home and watch TV."

[Pack212Scouter]

We are also a large Pack (approx 150 boys). Ou campouts are usually planned by the activities chair with support by the Pack Committee. Once they are finalized, the Activities Chair, the Cubmaster, and the Assitant Cubmasters are responsible for the actual campout. We also have 6 people that are BALOO trained

 

By the way, I have a suggestion that your Pack may not have considered....with a Pack our size (4-5 dens per rank and 3-4 patrols) we found alot of potential for Den leadership slipping through the cracks and not getting noticed if something was wrong. This year we have four Assistant Cubmasters, one for each rank. It has allowed for alot more guidence for Den Leaders and also help for activities. Our Cubmaster now directs the Pack in general while the Assitants are responsible for rank leadership.(This message has been edited by Pack212Scouter)

[Lisabob]

Wow! (shock and awe!) Not to hijack the thread but I have never seen a cub pack larger than about 80 boys, and that was really difficult to pull off. How do you guys do it with 120-150 boys?! Hats off to you that you''re able. I don''t think I could do that.

 

(Back to camping...)

 

With groups that big, a council camp might be a great place to go. Depending on your council rules, you might consider hiring/paying for a council-approved archery and bb gun range master to join you for the weekend. As I''m sure you know there are all kinds of rules about cubs and shooting sports that make it hard or impossible to do these activities off council property, yet these are always very popular activities. (If you aren''t familiar with the rules for cubs and shooting sports, do yourselves a favor and inquire early and often. Same goes for swimming or other water activities.)

 

Our pack did a relatively simple fall camp out at a nearby state park. We put together a bunch of games for Saturday afternoon, cooked dinners with age-appropriate assistance by the boys, had a fun campfire program with each den contributing a skit or song, had a pack-wide cracker barrel (snack) and went to bed. In the morning we usually broke the boys into their dens and did some leave no trace instruction and a hike or something along those lines. Worked out well most of the time.

 

With such a big pack you might want a sub-camp for each rank where all the Bears cook foil dinners together, all the Webelos cook something else, somewhere else, etc. You could run any games or activities as stations too, like at cub day camp.

 

You''ll have to decide whether non-cub scout siblings (and neighbors, friends, cousins, etc.) are invited. We decided to say no - and this was practically the only activity to which they were not invited - because BALOO training says that if you have non-scout children present, you are supposed to provide age appropriate activities for them (though the emphasis in BALOO as I recall is that you really should discourage this from the start). We didn''t feel equipped to run a day care center so we just said cubs and parents/guardians only please. Most families were ok with that.

 

 

[Eagledad]

You''re getting great advice. We had a pack of 120 scouts and did two campouts a year. One small one in the fall then our big one in the Spring. I don''t want to repeat what others are saying, so I will pass along the huge difference we found between the troop and the pack. Cub scouts requires a lot more planning because a large number of parents haven''t camped in years. They will need as much hand holding the camping part as the boys. Some families may not have access to tents. A local troop usually will help, and might even be glad to send some scouts to help set up.

 

I will add that camping was always a great experience for our families. We even had to cancel camp early once because we got 10 inches of rain in just a few hours. They even enjoyed that. Something about the outdoors. We had a ton of food and donated it to the rescue crews of the Merrill Building bombing. 120 families and not one complaint.

 

Hey, thought of a theme. Native American Indians is always a fun one for campouts. CAll the Indian Nations Council in Tulsa and ask for cub World packet that gives packs all the needed instructions for getting ready for their Cub World weekend family camp. It is designed for their camp, but you can still use 90% of it for your own program. It has everything you need for four weeks of planning and program including den meetings and Pack meetings. Food recipes, costumes designes, songs, skits, and more. Very cool.

 

Barry

[Pack212Scouter]

"How do you guys do it with 120-150 boys?! Hats off to you that you''''re able. I don''''t think I could do that. "

 

It''s not easy, packs this size have both their challenges and their advantages. It''s one reason that we opted for four ACM''s this year. The fun thing is when we go to district and council events. It''s usually like we''re invading. Our campout this spring at the Council-wide campout has 79 Cubs with a total of 205 people camping.

We have also found that it is vital to get people trained if they are willing. Our Pack even has it''s own BSA rangemaster.

 

As for the actual camping, we encourage siblings to come along. We''ve found that if you exclude siblings, the camping attendence usually drops dramatically in our Pack.

[ScoutNut]

"In your experience, who leads the planning of family camping outings in Cub Scout Packs?"

 

In our Pack it is some/all of the 3 BALOO trained leaders.

[resqman]

We had a pack of about 45-60 boys. The Camping & Outings committee was in charge of planning the campouts. The committee would meet a month or two before the campout and choose a location. They would also decide on activities, menu, and supplies. The tasks would be divided up amongst the committee members.

 

Typically we would have 120 in attendance including family members. Food was personal responsibility except for Sat night the Pack supplied and cooked. The Webelos and occasionally the Bears would cook as a den.

 

Activities usually centered around outdoor skills. We have had a map & compass course, first aid training, marshmellow gun making and shooting, bird house and bat house making, matchless fire starting, plaster cast neckerchief slide making, tree & leaf identification, hikes, fishing rod casting, knot tieing, rope making, fishing, tug of war, sack races, baseball game, box oven making/cooking, poisionous snake/spider presentation, edged tools safety, etc. We also usually try to attend a Park Ranger presentation.

 

One time we had each den prepare and present a topic. The Tigers made a poster, one den discussed edged tools safety (whitling chit), one den made a box oven and cooked cookies, another den discussed fire safety, etc. The dens are given the topics a month or so in advance so they can prepare and train as part of their den meetings. At the campout, each den gets up in front of the rest of the attendees and is given 10-15 minutes to present their topic. If forces the scouts to learn the topic they are presenting and it involves everyone. The younger scouts help make a poster or maybe perform a skit since they generally are not able to present very well. The older scouts tend to be better at doing their own presentations.

 

Fun and learning were our goals. The bird/bat house making required some up front work by the committee members. Lumber was purchased or donated. It was cut to size and some pilot holes for nails/screws were drilled. All the pre-cut pieces were stored together along with fasteners and hand tools. The kits were brought to the campout. Each den was given an opportunity to assemble the kits. Each den was allowed to take the assemembled animal house home. In one instance we built duck nesting boxes which were presented to the park rangers for distribution at the park. Community service and fun!

 

Some of the events required a committee member going to the campsite ahead of time. The map& compass course consisted of paper plates stampled to trees. Bearings were taken and recorded. The bearings were printed on slips of paper and issued to the dens so they could run the course. The paper plates had letters on the plates. The scouts recorded the letters and unscrambled them to figure out the word.

[infoscouter]

 

 

Wow - how can you meet this close to an event and still get a reservation anywhere? We have to reserve space at council camps up to a year in advance. State park sites require at least 6 months lead time. Out time line is 180-360 days out for camp site selection, and 90 to 120 days for program planning.

 

[insanescouter]

To bad you are no where close to use, we need a good feeder pack ...

 

My thought is the committee should be the one planning the event. In a large pack, a sub-committee (a small group of leaders and parents) may take on the task and report regularly back to the committee.

 

As a side note... at the Boy Scout level this would be handled by the youth leaders through the Patrol Leader Council.

 

Just my wacky 2 cents....

 

Scott Robertson

http://insanescouter.org

[Oak Tree]

Our committee has a person who is the Camping Coordinator. He does all the legwork associated with exploring the options, getting the reservations, sending out logistical information on the pack email list, etc. The Cubmaster is responsible for the program aspect of the campouts, and he will often delegate various aspects to others - Den Leaders might have some time for den activities, someone might organize a service project, an ACM might do a campfire plan, someone will take the worship service, a few people will plan one big pack meal, while the rest are done by families, etc. The Cubmaster usually does some of the program himself. We camp four times per year, so it''s essential to distribute the workload.