Patrol Cooking vs Dining Hall

[mk9750]

We alternate years. Odd years, like this, we go to a dining hall summer camp. Even years, we cook for ourselves. When at the dining hall camp, the emphisis is on advancement and Merit Badges. When we cook for ourselves, we do almost no group merit badges. We concentrate on rank advancement for the young guys, Swimming and conoeing, and general fun. We have lots of adults go, many of whom are counselors. If a boy wants to work on a merit badge there, all he has to do is ask before we leave for camp.

 

A few people have discussed the tradeoffs of each method. I agree. It is one of the main reasons we alternate every other year.

 

By the way, every meal at Heritage reservation except Monday diner is terrific, I think. but I also have to admit I have eaten intitutional food thoughought high school and college, and always enjoyed it then. I might be easy to please, food wise.

 

Mark

[Overtrained]

Ed,

 

I grow up and worked at summer camps that did the patrol method. I believe it is the best.

 

That said, my troop attends a dining hall camp. There are other camps on the Reservation and one patrol this summer is doing the patrol method of cooking.

 

As to how do we run a patrol at a dining hall camp? There are boundless opportunities. Each patrol has responsibilities each day, ie Latrine, flag raising/lowering, fire wood, cracker barrel, skits, songs, kitchen duty, etc. Each PL also keeps track of where each member of their patrol is each day.

 

Patrol style cooking can enhance that (and I believe teach a life long skill better than weekend campouts), but it is a small part of running a patrol.

 

OT

 

[Hawk]

The previous posts outlined the ways to promote the patrol method with dining hall eating. Waiter duty, clean up after meals, high noon patrol compititions, latrine duty, site and camp clean-up, skits, etc.

However, I think summer camp dining halls helps build Character and reinforces the Scout Law. The inter-action with scouts from other troops is extremely valuable. It may take a little proding the first couple of days in the dining hall, but by weeks end the words helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient and cheerful among all the scouts are common place.

[JoePro]

Here are my scouts' criteria for Summer Camp. They must be able to:

 

1- sleep in the tents they bring,

2- cook their own meals, and

3- be far enough away from home so parents won't visit.

 

JoePro

[eagle90]

I am continually amazed that scouters who advocate dining halls seem to think that advancement and patrol cooking are mutually exclusive. Our troop has always camped at a patrol method camp and our scouts average almost 3 merit badges per scout during the week. If the camp staff plans the meals correctly it should not cut into advancement time. Fires built, meals cooked, eaten, and cleaned up in a relatively short time.

[Eagle85]

Eagle90 is correct, our boys just came back from camp and averaged 3 badges (completed) per boy. Even our newest Scout took 4 classes and completed 2 of them! Our more experienced Scouts took full loads of 6 classes and completed 3-5 of them.

 

When you cook at camp, you get up a little earlier for breakfast, eat lighter lunches (not the best time to roast a pig), and eat dinner a little later in the day (about 30 minutes later than the guys in the dining hall). The boys really enjoy it...(This message has been edited by Eagle85)

[Eamonn]

As a Scout and a leader in the UK,I never saw a dining hall,till I came over here.

In fact I got in a lot of hot water over it.

As I say back in the UK,our summer camps were planned by the PLC. The Patrol Leaders would if possible visit the camp site over the Easter vacation.

Then come the time we would load up the vans and camp as patrols for two weeks. The Patrols did all the cooking. Leaders also cooked for themselves.

So you can imagine what I thought when I came over here, to a camp where the Scouts arrived to tents that were already up and ate in a dining hall.

I suppose if I hadn't been so young (I was 21 at the time.) I could have worked out that the fact that I was there, might have been an indication that things were not the same.

After working for ten weeks and at that time I didn't receive any pay, instead the BSA laid on a tour of the east coast.

It was really good, a bus full of young Scouters from all over the world.

Everything was fine till we got to Philadelpia.

There the then Mayor. I think it was Mayor Zissa had a big ceremony, presenting us all with a splinter of wood from one of the beams from Independence Hall.(I still have mine.)

A member of the press asked me what I thought about American Scouting?

Being young, and even more of an idiot then I am now, I said that I thought that they were a bunch of sissies!!!

This hit the news wires, and I received letters from all over the U.S.A. The International Department of the English Scouts, were not amused.

When I came over here to live and got involved in Scouting (Yes they let me!!) I, for a long time, thought that maybe this is the way it ought to be.

After all this organized camp full of activities and professionals does offer so much more.

As for the lack of Patrol Cooking, I thought it was really good as it gave the Scouts more time to work on Merit Badges.

How wrong I was.

Summer camp should be the time, when Patrols really get to come together,a time when they really gel. (Think back to the old Boy Scout Wood Badge course.)

Patrol Cooking played a big part in this.

What we have now is a group of individuals, all rushing from Merit Badge class, to Merit Badge Class.

Worse, we have a lot of Leaders who gauge the success of the camp, by the number of Merit Badges earned.

Camps are bending over backwards to offer Merit Badges, that if we were to be very honest have nothing to do with being outdoors and being at camp.

Sad to say, the Council in which I serve does nothing to promote the Patrol Method.

Even the way the tents are put up, does nothing to help.

I can't remember the last troop that came in and was "Self Catering".

Hopefully with the advancement of years, I have become a little wiser. I know that there are a lot of well run troops, and the Scouts in the U.S.A. are second to none.

I would never use the word sissy again.

I think the Scouts that go to camp and make use of the pools and the Lakes, along with the "Outdoor Stuff" are playing the game.

But sitting under a tarp, doing Family Life Merit Badge?

Maybe I have not visited enough Council Camps, but I would love to see patrols building pioneering projects, just for the heck of it.How many of our camps have the equipment?

Please don't tell me that it is offered as a Merit Badge - I said Patrols.

(This message has been edited by Eamonn)