Cleaning jobs

[chaoman45]

On Sundays (the last day of a campout), how should the cleaning duties be separated?

 

One school of thought is that the boys are responsible for their messes and can take all the time they need to finish it right. Adults clean their own campsites, and kitchen if it's an indoor campout.

 

The other side says adults should be able to help Scouts clean up so adults can "get out and go home."

[Eagle92]

I'm in the first school of thought when it comes to Boy Scouts, Sea Scouts, and Venturers.

 

Now in regards to Cubs, everyone helps.

[SMT224]

Patrols are responsible for cleaning their own dishes, pots & pans, and any kitchen mess. Adults take care of themselves.

 

We try to get things cleaned up as much as possible on Saturday night so Sunday morning is pack & go. Sunday breakfast is oatmeal out of paper bowls so we don't create any big cleaning jobs.

[Beavah]

Curtain number one.

 

However, there is a bit of a fine line, especially with younger boys. We don't want to leave 'em with the impression that all of the experienced, cool old furry critters just hang out and watch when there's work to be done. All that will encourage is them to become experienced older scouts who just hang out and watch in their patrols when there's work to be done.

 

Yeh let 'em do it as a sign of respect, that they don't need to be mothered, and it's OK.

 

But sometimes, yeh just help out to be neighborly. And sometimes, perhaps, yeh give 'em the opportunity to help out the adult patrol just to give them a chance to be neighborly.

 

Beavah

 

[Eagle732]

In our troop adults and Scouts all pitch in to help break camp with the SPL in lead working through his PLs. SPL's job is to make sure everyone is pitching in until the job is done. However when I see Scouts sitting on their butts and not helping the rule is all adult helps stops and the Scouts do the rest by themselves. It only took a few times for the Scouts to figure it out.

[Eagledad]

Why are Sundays different from any other day? I have never understood that. How can your adults break camp with the scouts if they are 100 yards away breaking down their own camp?

 

Our troop averages 40 to 60 scouts on a campout and they break camp in about 45 minutes without adults anywhere in sight. And, we include Sunday Lunch on our campouts.

 

I've said this before, there is no better teacher of discipline than the agenda. If the patrols know the troop assembly is at 8:00am, then they know when they have to have everything done. If they can't get it done in time, then they have to change something. And that something isn't help from the adults.

 

Our scouts are in the habit of stopping at a convenance store on the way home from the campouts for a junk food stop . The parents are told when the troop will be back at the church, so the SPL writes the agenda to meet the parents on time. The scouts only had to miss one junk food stop to make a change in their future camp break down habits.

 

You guys work way to hard at this scouitng stuff. You need to start thinking like the boys.

 

Barry

[resqman]

The scouts are responsible for their personal gear, patrol gear and troop gear. They used the equipment, they clean and stow the equipment.

 

Adults camp seperately. We clean the equipment we use. We place it near the troop trailer so the Quarter master can stow it in the trailer.

 

The troop leaves camp when the boys have everything stowed away. The troop expectation is this is BOY scouts not ADULT scouts. When we return to the troop church, no one is released until the trailer is unloaded, the shed packed, and any dirty or wet gear is distributed to the scouts for additional cleaning or drying. Then and only then are they released to their parents.

 

The closest thing adults do to cleaning up is make a final walk over the tenting area looking for lost or forgotten tent stakes. The scouts have already held a police line over the area at least once but often twice before the adults go and pick up the overlooked trash and tent stakes. Tent stakes cost money and we would rather not buy anymore than we have to.

[Venividi]

As an aside on tent stakes, 'tis the season for material for making new stakes. After primaries are over in your area, collect old campaign signs (with any necessary permissions). The kind that are cardboard over a U-shaped wire frame with legs that stick in the ground. Its a good sized wire guage to serve as tent stakes.

 

Cut stake sized lengths from the frame. clamp one end in vice. Bend until it looks like a tent stake. Makes a great scout project. A scout is thrifty.

(optional: use grinder to dress the ends.)

 

 

Return to subject.

[OldGreyEagle]

heck, for that matter, the sign itself makes a pretty fair target for .22's and heck any size shell. After you shoot the sign away, then you make tent stakes, a scout is very thrifty.

 

PS make sure the youth understand you are not shooting at the "name of the candidate" cover it if you think it may be an issue

[FScouter]

Why wait for the election to be over? Yank those suckers up the moment they appear.

[qwazse]

I just cleaned up a late night cracker barrel for our VOA. Alterior motive: making sure the hall was cleared of "stray" youth.

[chaoman45]

@Eagledad - That's easy. The problem is that Scouts usually DON'T camp that far away from adults. My issue that I presented at the beginning of the thread had more to do with cabin camping, where the proximity is within earshot.

 

Perhaps I should explain what the troop has done the past year. Scouts camp separately, eat separately (cabin camping they sit at different tables), and are expected to clean separately. Adults clean their areas and kitchen. The problem is adults can do things faster, hence they want to speed things up so they can get back to their families or whatever. Scouts that don't work will soon realise they need to improve something, in my opinion.

 

By the way, a lot of gear IS stowed away on Saturday night, but this is personal gear. Some troop gear might be dismantled, depending on the campout.

[resqman]

Nothing is prepacked Saturday nite. A campout is all weekend long. We leave Friday afternoon and return Sunday afternoon. It never occured to me to plan additional activities on Sunday afternoon of a campout because I will need to clean and store my personal gear. It will be at least 3pm. Still need a shower and a bit of rest. Sunday afternoon is recuperate time.

 

No, our troop does not rush off Sunday morning. It if takes the lads hours to cook, eat, clean, and break camp, then it takes hours. It seems kinda like cheating to prepack Saturday nite, have a cold breakfast and rush off to get home to TV and video games.