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Tent Camping- how many per year?


noname

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How many tent campouts per year? Our troop is going soft, last year 4- this year 1. No camporees or high adventure either. They let the outgoing PLC plan the following years agenda. So instead they camp in cabins, musuems and basements...Is this the new norm?

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Sleeping inside a building isn't camping.

 

Is there more to the story? Are the tents in bad condition, or are there not enough to go around? Do the adults prefer indoor sleeping arrangements? Do the boys like hot showers?

 

This seems like a point where the SM, in his role as mentor to the PLC, needs to step in and say "Waaaaait just a minute ..."

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No we got lots of tents and leaders that will only go tent camping. Two things - spent 4 meetings goin thru tents, setting up, repairs ect, 2nd when PLC was presented with a camporee was shut down as the only planned tent campout is the week before. Afterall who would want to go tent camping with a 100 other scouts and show off any skills that the troop may have? Just curious as to where we stand in the amounts of camping...

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Growing up usually 8-9 camp outs under canvas, 1 wilderness survival, and sometimes 1 activity where we stayed in a hall of some sort, usually the Thanksgiving trip where we did some serious hiking. Not including summer camp, winter campOA activities, HA training, or Jambo training

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As a troop we camp minimum once a month every month, we usually get an extra 4 day trip in during the summer in addition to summer camp, and sometimes we'll get an extra trip in the spring. Then for various members of the troop there's NYLT, Jambo, Philmont, etc. and the shakedowns that go with them.

 

We'll stay in a cabin a couple times a winter depending on the weekend activity: we do a November weekend with our Cub Pack where we stay in cabins, if we're going skiing or tobaggoning we'll stay in a cabin. Sleeping outside in the winter is fun, and we do a yearly "Camp Alaska" where we build our own shelters rather than bring tents, but winter outdoor camping also takes a lot of energy and focus and that's why we'll use cabins if our main focus is something other than just surviving outside.

 

Our PLC doesn't have any interest in basements, museums, or indoor sports arenas as camping spots.

 

I should add that the PLC also doesn't really have an interest in Camporee type weekends either. They usually see them as too programmed and structured and prefer just going off into the woods to play.

 

 

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We do 10 tent camps per year, not including summer camp. In August we do a 12 mile canoe trip just for the day. It is hard to justify the extra expense of cabin camping at state parks, and our council does not allow use of scout camp buildings for troops to sleep in. Besides, tent camping is the skill we want to instill.

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Yah, noname, my initial thought was that yeh were talkin' about camping in tents vs. camping under the stars. ;)

 

If you're under any structure that's a temporary, portable structure of some sort it isn't camping. Well, maybe I'll give yeh credit for 3-sided lean-to / Adirondack shelters, but only when yeh catch me on a good day.

 

Cabins, museums, and basements is for cub scouts, and only in bad weather.

 

Generally speakin', this stuff happens when yeh have adult leaders who aren't outdoorspeople and don't like to camp. To change your troop culture, yeh need to recruit some new adult leadership with those skills. The boys' program will follow naturally enough. Don't try to argue the reluctant people into it, just find some more adventurous sorts and start offerin' the boys opportunities.

 

Beavah

 

 

 

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My personal goal for our new troop is a minimum of 8 this year, and hopefully 10. At this point, the schedule the we worked out with the boys has us on track. Funny thing, that was two moths ago and they have gotten to the point now where I would involve myself a lot less if we did it today (but I digress).

 

I would have to differ from Beavah ever so slightly on this one, though. When the boys are working on the next calendar and they are adamant about this one really cool thing they really want to do really really bad, and it's indoors, I wouldn't have a problem being convinced.

 

If I see the next few events that hit the calendar all include HVAC, then we need to talk. :)

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We usually go tent camping every month except December. We do summer camp plus a 7 day / 6 night adventure trip in August. We try to find a Klondike, but other wise just go winter camping in January or February. Sometimes we will rent a cabin for cooking and eating, but always sleep in tents, or occasionally in Adirondacks.

 

We do our calendar year planning in August or September, and stick to the schedule. Sometimes we have 25 Scouts on a camping trip, sometimes 6. We go anyway. Only rarely have we cancelled a trip due to extreme weather conditions.

 

My suggestion to the OP is to work with Troop to set a monthly camping schedule for a year of tent camping. Do it now for the rest of 2012. Take plenty of pictures of the Scouts having fun and show them the week after getting back from the trip. It may take a couple years for this to become part of the Troop culture, but when it does, you'll be a camping troop!!

 

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