Beyond Wood Badge Mills

[gcnphkr]

There are times with dispersed camping with a large number creates issues. Mostly sanitation-the idea of scores of cat-holes is unappealing at best, and fires. But they can be dealt with. Not so much for an overnight, but longer camps.

 

I'm finding that the easiest solution for camps over 48 hours is to use council camp facilities. Relatively cheap, everything you need for infrastructure and lots of room.

[Kudu]

We have not been discussing Green Bar Bill's "Real" Patrol Method (camping without adult supervision).

 

Supposedly Real Patrols are against the "21st century" rules. That's what happens when we replace nuts-and-bolts how-to training with generic "leadership" formulas: "Trained" indoor people on safety committees have never heard of what the BSA once called a "Real" Patrol.

 

Camping Patrols 300 feet apart is a good approximation. Try it sometime.

 

Scouts who buy their own equipment are always free to camp with their friends, some of whom might be Scouts. That's how my mixed Patrol did it during Green Bar Bill's golden era. It never occurred to us to ask a Scoutmaster for "permission" to camp without adults.

 

Nuts-and-bolts how-to training:

 

http://inquiry.net/patrol/green_bar/index.htm

 

 

[Eamonn]

Trying to work out what this has to do with Wood Badge??

 

Maybe the fact that Gilwell Park isn't big enough to allow Patrols to camp 100 yards from each other comes into play somehow or someway?

Maybe the Scouts who camped with Lord Baden Powell at Brownsea Island and didn't cook as patrols has something to do with it?

The new WB course very well might not be everyone's cup of tea. Some people might not like it very much at all?

That's fine and dandy -Don't go.

I was never sold on the Powder Horn course.

I wasn't willing to spend the time and the money to attend.

I think I can find out or have already found out what's going on and what's available in the area near where I live that would capture the imaginations of older youth.

Still I have friends who have Powder Horned and had a great time.

A pal of mine is directing a course in the Council next door this year. He is a nice guy and will do a good job.

But I'm not interested and not going.

I'm also not going to try and maneuver each and every thread into somehow being about the evils of Powder Horn.

I think it might get very boring very quick and the more I were to harp on about it the more boring it would become.

Yours,

at 300 inches from my modem.

Ea.

 

[Kudu]

Jet,

 

In Baden-Powell's Patrol System, the Patrols were spaced 300 feet apart in a large circle, with the social campfire near the Scoutmaster's site in the center hub.

 

I agree that Council camps are a great resource for Baden-Powell's Troop Camping, if adults can can think outside the box (Patrol Box).

 

Lightweight Camping:

 

http://inquiry.net/outdoor/equipment/lightweight_camping.htm

 

Eamonn,

 

So no Troop has ever used Baden-Powell's 300 foot Troop formation at Gilwell Park? I don't use it at crowded American theme parks either. Brownsea was an experiment. B-P's last word on "How to Play the Game of Scouting for Boys" came 30 years later, and he stuck to the 50-100 yard formation. Roland Philipps used it as well. It was Philipps who actually wrote the famous fake Baden-Powell quote we Americans learn in training:

 

The Patrol Method is not ONE method in which Scouting can be carried on. It is the ONLY method!

 

Yours at 300 feet,

 

Kudu

 

 

[Basementdweller]

Tampa there was huge drama bout 6 month ago when the latest rendition of the g2ss came out it basically disallowed Patrol only camping. When you camp as a troop and only have one functional patrol then that is troop camping.

 

 

 

[TAHAWK]

Patrols, as distinct from the Troop in which they are registered, may camp if there are two adults "on" the outing. What those adults do depends on how they have been trained to behave. Their behavior can usually be determined by ear alone.

 

For most council camps I have seen to be used for distributed troop camping -- patrols far enough apart to have some change of independent experience -- the troop would have to rent several "troop sites."

[gcnphkr]

Hard to make a circle with 3 patrols, but a triangle works.

 

The new scout patrol was only about 100 ft. out, not unreasonable for their skills. But the older scouts where a little over 300 ft away for the first couple of days. They got tired of carrying food out to their patrol site so about mid-week they moved in to about 150 ft. from the center (and 400 ft. closer to the rifle range). Still, it was far enough that they were as autonomous as they had been.

 

Before Memorial Day my son came in and told me he and his friends (who all happen to be in the same patrol) were going camping. It was his last chance to camp with them before he turned 18. He knew they couldn't do it as "scouts" anymore, but it didn't matter. I think they all wore camouflage just because. I don't think they took the air-soft guns.

[Eagledad]

>>For most council camps I have seen to be used for distributed troop camping -- patrols far enough apart to have some change of independent experience -- the troop would have to rent several "troop sites."

[Kudu]

Renting a "Troop site" for each Patrol is not necessary unless you are committed to heavy Patrol boxes and therefore need "street access" to unload them.

 

Most Council camps have "primitive areas" where Patrols with lightweight equipment (and/or backpacks) can spread out, if you know who to ask.

 

 

 

 

[TAHAWK]

All council camps I have encountered recently, due to LNT, do not permit establishing new campsites. Wear is to be confined to existing campsites. Especially, new firesites are not to be established. The sample size is only seven (since I started keeping note of the phenomenon) and so is suspect. YMMV

[Kudu]

It depends on who you ask, how you ask, and what you want the answer to be

 

It doesn't hurt to be a training staffer and/or FOS presenter, but sometimes you need only know the name of the Camp Ranger's dog.

 

Talk in terms of "backpacking" destinations, even if you plan to hike less than a half-mile.

 

All pre-1972 Boy Scout camps are dotted with abandoned old campsites that can satisfy the "established" requirements of Leave No Trace fundamentalism. They always include a fire ring if you are so inclined. Look for rotting old lean-tos around which the Patrols can pitch their tents.

 

Former summer camps are treasure troves, as well as camps that once had aspirations of becoming summer camps but ran out of money. One such camp (Scouthaven) has an artificial lake at the top of the highest hill where we built shelters in the surrounding woods.

 

In the winter and/or in threatening weather we sometimes rented a good lean-to, and camped our Patrols in the woods around it.

 

Yours at 300 feet,

 

Kudu

 

[Eamonn]

Kudu

Strange that you should mention Roland Philipps.

As a young leader in London I spent many happy hours in Roland House.(The House On The Green)

Residents of the House used to organize an annual competition for Patrols within the London area.

To be eligible from the District I was in the Patrol had to be in the top 3 of our District Camp craft competition.(A really tough competition at that time.)

The residents of the house were free to come up with whatever theme or skill they wanted and teams competed for the Windjammer Trophy. A massive big plaque with a bronze windjammer on it.

We entered several times and didn't win or do that well.

However one year we swept the District Camp Craft Competition

With Patrols filling all the top ten places except second place.

We sent two Patrols to the Roland House Windjammer Competition. One Patrol was just an outstanding Patrol with a truly wonderful Lad as P/L. The other was good but had a couple of very young Scouts in it.

That year the competition was a cross between a round London quiz and a scavenger hunt, the Scouts were out and about all over London.

Sadly one of the younger Scouts got hit by a car and ended up in the hospital with a broken leg.

The other Patrol went on to win the competition.

The Lad with the broken leg was in what was then Saint Stephen's Hospital on the Fulham Road.

The Patrol that won waited until Monday to visit him in the hospital. They brought the massive plaque with them and left it wedged over his bed.

Later after they left, the darn thing fell on the Scout hitting him on the head and he needed five stitches.

Roland House closed a couple of years before I moved over to the USA. A good many of us tried to prevent it from closing, but it wasn't to be.

As for "The Patrol Method is not ONE method in which Scouting can be carried on. It is the ONLY method"

It should be " Make the Patrol Leaders and Seconds responsible entirely for their Patrols in everything,not just one or two things, but everything".

Ea.