Patrol Method Camps Rant

[shortridge]

When I staffed a mid-sized (about 300 campers) resident camp, I'd estimate that most troops had 2-3 patrols. But it was not uncommon to see a troop with enough Scouts for just a single patrol.

 

Part of the camp challenge these days seems to be squeezing several small troops into campsites made for much larger ones while achieving sufficient separation.

 

A 60+ Scout troop would have been a novelty - and a treat!

[allangr1024]

Please excuse my ingnorance. I am a new scoutmaster, and have only been to our council camp. I have never heard of a patrol method camp, or of cooking meals in your campsite. Our camp has a central dining hall, and everyone eats there. How does it work any other way?

 

I do have an issue with some aspects of camp, like the "trail to eagle" class for tenderfoot through first class scouts, where they try to teach the lower rank skills (30 to 40 scouts per staff instructor), or the merit badge classes that do not leave the scouts with any sense of the merit badge content (indian lore, nature studies, environmental science,...)

 

I will end up testing the scouts to see that they really learned the knots, the nature stuff, the swimming, the first aid. I'm not sure about the merit badge work.

 

But what else can a camp staff do to promote the patrol method. That is a troop activity. Is it not?

 

 

 

[GernBlansten]

The patrol summer camps I've been to really do promote the patrol method if used properly.

Each patrol is given a cookbox, stove, water jugs, dining fly. The patrol leader develops a duty roster for each meal which includes water fetching, food pickup, clean up, cooking. Staff usually comes during the meal time to help the PLs make sure all the stuff gets done and eats with the patrol. The adults also share the results of the cooking too.

 

The real difference I see is the amount of time the patrol needs to work together to do every meal and it does take time away from other camp activities like merit badge sessions. Frequently, scouts are still cleaning up from breakfast when the first course starts. And they frequently are late to evening flags because dinner took longer than anticipated. Its a great opportunity for PLs to learn leadership.

[Kudu]

allangr1024 writes:

 

Our camp has a central dining hall, and everyone eats there. How does it work any other way?

 

Allangr,

 

Some camps offer "Patrol Cooking," which at one time was the fundamental method upon which all Scouting was based: the Patrol Method. Increasing, as Scouting is perceived to serve the "Trail to Eagle," Boy Scout summer camps have replaced the Patrol Method with a summer school model complete with school cafeteria food.

 

Any Patrol can blunder though the "Patrol Method" for a weekend, but seeking out and attending a "Patrol Cooking" summer camp is an eye-opening test of true leadership.

 

GernBlansten writes:

 

Seems the entire camp experience is built around preparing for meals and cleanup with merit badge sessions to fill the gaps.

 

That has not been my experience: some of our Scouts earned five Merit Badges in a week. Would you be willing to report what you perceive to be the bottle necks in the camps that you attend?

 

1) In mixed-format camps sometimes the recipes for the dinning hall are not selected with preparation time in mind. Good Patrol Cooks can use the same raw ingredients to create different meals in the campsite.

 

2) Mixed-aged Patrols (with the Patrols' best leaders in the Patrol Leader positions) works best for us.

 

3) Early bedtime and early-rising can easily over-come the morning time-crunch problem, with the most efficient Patrols rewarded with extra sleeping time in the morning.

 

4) However: In summer camps that offer only Patrol Cooking, it pays to send an adult to accompany Scouts to their first Merit Badge "class" to make sure that the Counselor does not make everyone sit around waiting for Scouts from Troops that have not yet mastered the Patrol Method. This can be nipped in the bud at the daily Scoutmaster-Camp Director meeting.

 

5) Flexible Thinking: One year I recruited a whole Patrol of new Scouts just before summer camp. Cooking was not a problem for this same-aged Patrol, but morning cleanup was. Our unorthodox solution? The Patrol cooked for the adults and in return we simply washed the morning dishes for them. Likewise if a Scout is signed up for at least three Merit Badges but does not want to take a morning "class," I see nothing wrong with letting him handle morning clean-up for his Patrol, if that is what he wants to do.

 

jblake47 writes:

 

The records we got are incomplete, inaccurate and simply unusable. I'm having to retest the boys on every single requirement to see if they did their work and/or taking their word for doing it.

 

Compressing the Tenderfoot - First Class skills into one week of summer camp is questionable Scouting. When I was Scoutmaster, I encouraged new Scouts to take the Swimming and Canoeing Merit Badges (so that they could attend our Canoe trip in the fall), and spend the rest of their time fishing, catching frogs, or working on requirements in camp if they wanted. This later activity can get very competitive!

 

However, my new Troop uses the "first year" option, and the Scoutmaster put me in charge of that. The basic idea of a first year program is that it covers the skills, but it is up to the Troop to sign the Scouts off according to the Troop's standards.

 

This camp's program covered most of the Tenderfoot through First Class requirements, plus First Aid and Swimming Merit Badges and even a couple of easy badges like Fingerprinting. I attended the classes with the first-year Scouts, and then in the afternoon and evenings I set up a couple of chairs at the pond. I tested every Scout individually as the rest of them fished or otherwise amused themselves in the general area.

 

It really is not that hard. If you watch them apply CPR or build something with lashes during the day, it is easy to tell with a couple of questions or a piece of rope how much they retained.

 

BrentAllen writes:

 

We were the only Troop not eating in the Dining Hall.

 

I recently moved to the south and this summer we attended Camp Thunder in the Great State of Georgia. I have a new-found respect for BrentAllen's commitment to the Patrol Method over the lure of air-conditioned dinning halls!

 

Kudu

 

[GernBlansten]

The time compression that occurs due to patrol cooking gets better through the week. Scouts learn to be more efficent, that teamwork is necessary to get done in time. But the first few days are hectic and chaotic trying to everything done in the time allowed. Overall, I think its a great learning experience for the scouts.

[BrentAllen]

Easy there, Kudu. In the interest of full disclosure, the Dining Hall at Woodruff is not air-conditioned. :-)

 

We had two options for patrol-cooking at Woodruff - cook their food, or take our own. We chose to take our own. This presented a whole new opportunity for learning - how to keep a week's worth of food cold, using only our coolers (no refrigeration or freezer available). We all learned how well dry ice works, when used properly. The camp did offer us free regular ice; we just had to haul it from the Dining Hall. They did give us a discount on the camp fee, around $35 per Scout. At the end of the week, we ended up with a good bit of food left over, mainly lunch meats. We'll know better next year.

 

Our first year campers all had to be at Mountain Man (T-FC program) at 8:30 am, which was a good 15 - 20 minutes away. We had reveillee at 6:45, cooking started no later than 7:00 am. Meds distributed at 7:45. Our in-camp flag ceremony was at 7:55 am. One patrol had flag duty, the other had latrine duty, and they switched each day. The SPL and SM (me) had to be at our respective meetings at 8:15, which meant leaving camp at 8:00. I asked the older Scouts not to schedule an 8:30 class, so they could help with clean-up and other camp duties. They still had the opportunity to schedule 3 MB classes before lunch, and one afterwards. Even with all those classes, we still had time for a Troop rifle shoot, mountain bike ride, canoe over-nighter across the lake, and archery shoot (and the whitewater rafting trip, or course).

 

The boys have all agreed they want to cook in camp again next year. They actually enjoy it, and like being in camp with more free time, rather than eating in the crowded Dining Hall. They still aren't crazy about clean-up, but they know how to get it done. I was very proud of how clean they kept camp. I thought this would be our worst problem, but it turned out to be a non-issue. The PLs and the boys deserve all the credit - I didn't have to say much of anything to them about it.

 

Kudu, I haven't been to Camp Thunder yet, but I hear they run a pretty good camp, and have a very good canoeing program. We may be heading down there early next year for some canoeing, in preparation for our NT trip in 2009. Hope your time here in Georgia is enjoyable!

[shortridge]

Any thoughts on use of heater stacks?

 

In my experience, they're insulated plastic containers that hold hot foods - e.g., taco meat for tacos - that are hauled to each campsite along with the other goods a patrol uses for cooking (taco shells, cheese, sauce, etc.). The patrol does basic prep work, serves, eats, cleans up and takes the heater stacks back to the commissary/kitchen.

 

Supposedly a time-saver when compared to patrol cooking, but I'm interested in hearing what others have to say.

[John-in-KC]

Assuming there is truth that Cooking MB will return to the Eagle Required MB list in the next two years,

 

Having Patrol cooking at Scout Camp will greatly increase opportunity for kids to do the toughest phase of this merit badge: COOK SIX MEALS.

 

I learned the greatest basics of cooking as a boy scout, all those years ago!

[Kudu]

shortridge,

 

My experience is similar to that of Jblake47 and BrentAllen: Patrol Cooking at summer camp was an eye-opening experience for our Scouts. Once they had been so totally immersed in the Patrol Method, they never wanted to go back to the crowded dinning halls, with the long lines, rude hat-checks, and stupid songs

 

Part of the attraction is that food cooked on the Patrol level by (or with the help of) a competent Patrol Cook tastes much better than mass-quantity food, and can even be "made to order" according to individual tastes.

 

It really does not take that long to cook, once they get the hang of it (in a way that is not possible on weekends). Delivering school cafeteria food to the campsites in "heater stacks" would be a step backward.

 

Kudu

 

[Stosh]

Because our troop was mostly new boys this year, we did the whole advancement routine for our in-site cooking. The boys each did a one day menu, planned the shopping list, bought the food, cooked it, the full cycle. Next year our numbers will probably triple our size, but I have at least 15 boys who know how it works from start to finish.

 

We didn't have problem with the time element. Going early for KP, standing in line waiting for cafeteria chow and then staying for KP, the boy with cooking responsibility didn't really spend any more time than that. What happened when he "got behind" was his patrol pards help bail him out.

 

Some of the food cooked up pretty fast on the gas stoves and so we didn't notice being cramped for time except to get down to flags and back in the middle of the prep time.

 

How does one work the menu prep and shopping advancement requirements when one attends summer and the food is provided patrol-method style?

 

Stosh

[GernBlansten]

Menu planning and provisioning is not part of our patrol summer camp. The camp provides uncooked food and a menu. The scouts show up with modified backpacks (milk crates on old pack frames) at the commissary and pick up the food packs and menu for that meal. The scouts follow the recipes, cook and clean up returning any unused food to the commissary. Unless you brought all your own food like Brent did, I don't see how that could be accomplished.

Our boys also prefer this style over the dining hall. The food is better, more of it and like Kudo said, no silly songs unless they want them

[John-in-KC]

Gern,

 

You've never watched "Iron Chef?"

 

Discard the menus and recipes the camp gives you. Have the kids take the foods they're given, and figure out a way to prepare them.

 

Yeah, it's menu planning one meal at a time, but now they're having to think about what they've got and what they can do with it.

 

Of course, the well-equipped patrol box always has biscuit mix... and I can do wonders with biscuit mix

[ASM915]

Our Troop has outpost camped for years. The camp does supply a fridge and freezer shed for cold supplies for the three outpost camps. We supply our own food.

 

Usually our cooks are up and cooking between 6:30 and 7:00. Breakfast is at 7:15-7:30. First MB is at 9:00, anywhere from a 10-30 minute walk depending where it is. The Scouts usually have 30 minutes for clean up, latrine duty etc before the have to leave camp.

 

If we have Scouts taking the Cooking MB and depending on the number, we usually have them skip first period so they have time to work on the cooking. Lunch is only an issue if some of us need to be in main camp at 1:00 for meetings (the MB classes end at 11:50 and outpost is lucky to have lunch started by 12:20). The camp likes to hold the SM meetings after lunch for some reason. I think I'll suggest they try to change it to after breakfast.

 

We have a good commissioner staff who show up to inspect the site and bring the daily newsletter out to us. We have on occassion had a problem where something was change relating to classes, mentioned at lunch, and the commish didn't think it was important to come over and tell us, and our kids given a hard time about not being where they were suppose to be. We have had to have a few stern talks with MB counselors and the camp director to resolve these issues.

 

As for flag raising and lowering, the camp does supply each outpost camps with it's own flagpole and flag. I like the idea of sending everybody but the cooks over for flag raising/lowering if it weren't a 20 minute gaunt one way.

 

jb, come down to 7 Ranges outside of Canton, Oh. The camp runs Patrol games and competions, and outpost offers patrol/Troop cooking. If you come 7th period, your guys can take in some of the Football Hall of Fame activities on your way out. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Inventure Place and Cedar Point are also on your way home.