Tents what do you do?????

[Basementdweller]

Our Troop has provided tents for the scouts to use since it came to being 50 years ago. We have really struggled over the last year with maintaining our tents from boys taking them home to dry them and not doing it to broken zippers, bent poles vandalism.......on and on. We currently are battling the smell from the break down of the water proofing. Smells like vomit, we are going to need to replace $3k worth of tents.

 

 

So what do you do???????

 

We are considering getting out of the tent business.

 

[Oak Tree]

Getting out of the tent business is probably a useful step to consider if most of the boys have their own tents.

 

I think your best bet on keeping the tents in working order is to assign the tents to a Scout or Scouts on a more or less permanent basis. If they know they're going to have to use the same tent next time, there's a much better chance they'll take care of it. We're working with this idea now.

 

If it's a big problem for your troop, you might try requiring a tent deposit while a Scout is in the troop. Have everyone pay for their tent up front, and give them their money back when they leave the troop if their tent is still in good condition.

[Knot Head]

We are a BYOT troop (bring your own tent). New scouts usually start with dome tent. Sometimes a Kelty or Apex and sometimes a Wal-Mart tent. We cap it at 3 scouts in one tent and most times it is two in a tent. The older guys usually trade up to a 2 man backpacking tent as they start to get closer to Philmont.

 

It is their tent so it is their responsibility to take care of it. Air it out, make sure they have poles, stakes, ground cloth, etc.

 

I switched to a Hubba 2 years ago and love it. Junior has a Hubba Hubba.

[shortridge]

Sounds like you're dealing with two separate issues - aging tents and disrespect for the equipment.

 

There's really no cure for aging tents, except to keep a close eye on them and make sure they're in good repair. Broken zippers are fixable. Bent poles are repairable, or at least replaceable. Monitoring that closely should be one of the primary jobs of the quartermaster. He could take digital photos of the condition of each tent regularly.

 

For the latter problem, assign certain tents to each patrol. Don't let them change up. The patrols are responsible for the tents, and that's it. If they're not aired out or if they get torn, the patrol members all have to chip in to pay for the repair or replacement. Make sure the parents know this from the get-go.

 

You mention vandalism. I don't view that as a tent issue - it's not the tent's fault that it's been ripped. Address that with the boy or boys responsible.

 

I confess I've never dealt with problems like you describe. We had the occasional zipper getting stuck or tent stake getting lost, but it was never anything huge or deliberate.

 

As a last resort, stow the tents one weekend. From the hardware store, get a roll of black plastic, some cheap nylon cord and a few metal stake-y things, and have the boys make and sleep in tarps. They'll love those tents like they were their own the next time they hit the trail.

[Twocubdad]

So that's what that smell is in my old tent!! I though some had barffed in it when I wasn't looking. I know I never did.

 

Can't help you with the 3Gs, but we have solved the problem of lost/broken/missing gear by permanently assigning tents and other patrol gear to each patrol. The troop QM does an inventory every six months. The cost of replacing anything that's broken or missing beyond normal wear & tear is shared by all members of the patrol.

 

Interestingly, after this system was set up, most of the patrol begain signing-out the tents within the patrol so they could hold accountable the individuals who used the tents.

[Eagle92]

My troop growing up provided tents, as well as the rest of the patrol gear. Everything was labeled with the patrol name and numbered (for whatever reason we only changed patrol names twice in my 12 year tenure, and one time was mandated by national with their converting of the Leadership Corps into the Venture Crew, now called a venture patrol). Each patrol member knew that they needed to take care of the tents as they would be using them again in a few weeks. Only time we ever had challenges was when we allowed Webelos to use them, one reasonwe do "survival camping" with them, and when we got some cheap deeply discounted tents that broke while setting them up or taking down on their first camping trip.

[jhankins]

If the boys can't take care of the gear, they shouldn't get a tent unless they bring their own. It's that simple. On a 4 day canoe trek, a few boys vandalized a tent the first night, and they had to clean their mess, then they slept under the stars the rest of the weekend. Oh well!

 

As far as replacing gear, if the troop has the funds, it would be worth it to have some high quality gear for the boys who are responsible and could use it for say treks and other lightweight gear, but as far as every day tents, I wouldn't waste the money anymore.

[qwazse]

Disadvantage of troop-owned tents. When a boy goes off to college and has a ton of other expenses, he won't have a tent! But, enough about my sad story.

 

I can imagine it would be really hard for a troop to move from one method of ownership to a different method. Chalk this up to a learning experience for the boys. Let them know the troop's current situation, let them know how other troops aproach the same problem, let them know you need to make a decision that may affect how the troop runs for the next 50 years, have them decide. Hold them to it.

 

If they decide on individual tents, sell off the servicible ones. (Maybe you want to hold on to 2 or 3 for demonstration purposes.) If they decide the like the whole uniform tent gig, put together a maintenance plan like some of the above and have the boys work it.

[Basementdweller]

That is one of the problems.

 

We schedule the work day for the troop gear.......guess what My son and I are the only ones who showed up. We cleaned out the Patrol boxes and inventoried them, washed the gear and restocked them. We cleaned the tents on Sunday. Getting tired of maintaining tents to only have them returned trashed.

 

One of the ASM's is a real horses A#% his sons are a the biggest abusers of the equipment. He told me that his boys aren't going to waste a Saturday maintaining Equipment. Schedule all I want they will not attend. They even walked out of a troop meeting when we tried to do the maintenance during a meeting. Then the rest of the troop adopted " a if he isn't gonna do it, then I am not either".

 

 

[Beavah]

Great attitude yeh have in da troop there.

 

Question: Who is scheduling these gear-maintenance events? The Quartermaster? The PLC? Usually peer pressure handles most of this behavior, eh? But if it's you or the adults scheduling, then yeh don't have that leverage.

 

Yeh want to get most of da people on board, and then deal with your problem-cases.

 

Some troops make the lads sign out and check in their gear from da trailer. Handled by the QM. If tent comes back missing pieces or in bad shape, those that checked it out get billed for da maintenance or they don't get a tent next time. Personally, doin' it by patrol always seems to work a bit better to me, but just depends on your setup.

 

I expect if your PLC got together to discuss what was fair, they'd come up with some version of "if yeh don't help with gear maintenance, then you don't get to use the gear."

 

Beavah

 

 

[Eagle92]

Base,

 

I'd follow the advice a wise man once gave me in refernce to a similar problem: my fellow camp staffers were not doign their share of cooking and cleaning in the staff cabin. very simiply put you don't cook for them and you only clean your dirty dishes. After a week, the problem was solved.

[Mike F]

Once upon a time, we had troop tents and liked the uniformity, neatness and sharing of parts.

We had all the problems you mention and it was a big headache - mostly for adults.

 

We transitioned by telling the older guys they could bring their own tent if they wanted to use it instead of troop tents. They loved it, found ways to buy their own or asked for them for birthday, etc. Younger guys started getting their own, too. As the number of functional troop tents decreased, so did the demand.

After 2 years we had 2-3 experienced scouts using troop tents and most of the first-year guys.

After 3 years, only a few first year guys.

 

This week - after 5 years - we just made the decision to give/throw away the last remaining troop tents which hadn't been used in over a year. New guys are simply bunking with older guys in their patrol until they get their own to share with a buddy.

 

With beginner tents so cheap they are practically disposable, things have changed a lot. Most start out really cheap. Older boys definitely enjoy moving up to a higher-end tent as they move up in scouts.

 

Guys definitely take better care of their own tent. And it they don't, they live with the natural consequences. This is one major headache gone forever.

 

[eisely]

There is no easy solution to this problem. In my current troop, every other troop with which I have been affiliated, and most troops where I have had some contact or had occasion to observe, the tents are not owned by the troop. I suspect that this results in parents doing most of the maintenance. Few troops, including ours, have a facility where tents can be spread out or hung up to dry. When a troop does own tents, some kind of accountability has to be maintained. The quartermaster administers this, but you cannot expect the quartermaster to do all the work. As suggested by several posts in this thread, some boys will behave irresponsibly and ownership and accountability are necessary to instill the proper respect for the equipment.

[boomerscout]

"we are going to need to replace $3k worth of tents."

 

Do you need to replace every tent at the same time? We have both Scout owned personal tents, and troop owned car camping tents. The larger car tents are used for some Camporees where each troop's site is none too large.

Can the old waterproofing be scrubbed off with a nylon pot scrubber, and then new waterproofing applied? Tips on how to do this are on Google. Just search "tent smells like vomit"

Assigning each specific tent to each specific patrol does help a great deal. But, has each patrol quartermaster been actually taught how to service and maintain a tent? As simple as this may seem to an adult, remember we are dealing with children.

I would set up the worse tent, have each Scout sit in it for a minute, and then lead into the new fundraiser for new tents

 

 

[Eagle92]

I've been thinking what my old troop use to do, or at least I heard as I never saw it done. We had some of the old, heavy, canvas tents with no floor or netting from when the troop first started. We had them after almost 20 years, and I was told that if any patrol didn't take care of their tents, the old canvas ones would be the ones they would use from then on.