Pack Cabin Camping

[SctDad]

The G2SS does mention the Dorm style living accomidations, which it says Adults should erect sheets to form a temporary barrier. But shortridge is right. There is no mention of how to handle it with having females there.

 

So in order to comply COMPLETELY with the rules, you need to rent another building for the famales or just cancel the trip all together. I guess if there is no flexability and everyone would be super-offended by having tarp/blanket barriers this is the only choice.

[John-in-KC]

Actually, that idea of tents inside a warehouse-like facility isn't half bad...

[shortridge]

Just have to make sure they're completely freestanding designs. But that would certainly make for an easy solution, if your parents are utterly opposed to tent-camping outdoors.

[John-in-KC]

Long, long ago, my troop would go to Camp Whitsett each fall (hey Trev, ya listenin'?) for a service project weekend. Camp was already COLD (as in into the teens) when we'd go up, even though other parts of Southern California were still quite nice.

 

Since we did live in Southern California, warmer clime gear was good enough.

 

The Troop was assigned quarters in the camp commissary building.

 

Even boy scouts sometimes can sleep in a warehouse.

[trainerlady]

Our council runs one of the largest indoor camping programs in the country. We have 28 cabins ranging from 12-60 beds. Each cabin has at least 3 rooms. 2 are sleeping areas and 1 common area/kitchen. Some have plumbing most don't. Our council suggests separating youth from adults (each gets it's own sleeping room) and male from female using tarps and ropes. At most we have 2 sisters in camp (cub age), they get their own curtained off area. Men and women are seperated the same way. NO ONE changes in the cabin, restrooms (if available) or laterines are used for this. NO YOUTH are allowed in the cabin without at least 2 adults. NO YOUTH is allowed on the adult side without parental escort. YOuth have one bedtime/lights out, adults another. We never have enough females to warrant giving the females their own room when pack camping.

 

Our cub summer camps are run the same way (yes we stay in cabins at cub summer camp). Youth on one side, adults on the other. Tarps divide the adult genders.

 

Separating the ages and genders doesn't require a wall and door. It requires a barrier, a tarp and rope serve as a barrier. G2SS says nothing about walls and door, just seperation of groups.

 

We have never had any problems and seldom get a complaint with our system. Most of the complaints are about not being able to sleep with junior over an over protective mommy during their first time at summer camp. Our camp is BSA approved yearly and we've never had an auditor complain about the system or deny accreditation for any reason.

 

If we enforced a female cabin and a male cabin as another writed suggested we'd never have weekend campers. We may as well bulldoze the camp and sell 1700 acres of wilderness to developers because we'd never use it.

[Twocubdad]

It's neither here nor there as to what the policy is or how it is it applied, but can some please explain the purpose of separating boy/men and girls/women by hanging a sheet between the sleeping areas? What's the purpose of that? It's just a sheet.

 

I know kids these days are wierd about getting naked in front of each other (at least compared to the generations who grew up showering in large rooms with 30 other naked guys). But what difference does age make?

 

If we are concerned about privacy, fine. Then set a policy which provides for private areas in which to change. But I've never understood the thing about hanging sheets and blankets around.

 

[shortridge]

trainerlady,

 

I beg to differ with your interpretation.

 

G2SS: "Male and female leaders must have separate sleeping facilities. ... Male and female youth participants will not share the same sleeping facility."

 

Hanging up temporary barriers does not somehow create another "sleeping facility." And the only G2SS section in which those blanket/sheet barriers are referenced is the one referring to youth and adults of the same gender sleeping in a single room - NOT the separation of male and female adults or male and female youth.

 

The easiest way to get around all this, as several have pointed out, is to do true family camping, get out of the cabins and use tents. Bingo, problem solved.

[FL_Leader]

It's an interesting question on how to handle overnight events at certain locations. Our pack has camped at the local aquarium & zoo (everyone in a big open space), the baseball stadium, and Kennedy Space Center. All have been in large open areas with both men/women/boys/girls where what you bring in is exteremely limited. Obiviously, at these types of events, you aren't involving showers, and changing occurs in the separate restrooms. All are council approved sites and events, yet it's not feasible or allowed in some cases to bring materials to setup dividers. G2SS isn't clear on how to handle these events, which I believe many packs participate in.

[DeanRx]

shortridge - you're splitting hairs on this one.

 

The semantics are in the definition of "seperate sleeping facilities", isn't it? Why is it OK to segregate male from female via a tent wall in an outdoor camping situation, yet to wall off with rope and tarps a seperate area in a large room to divide males from females, its not allowed?

 

Aren't most tents made of poles, rope and tarp?

 

I've been to council events with both male / female adults and scouts all sleeping outdoors on the baseball field... there were not curtains, tarps or other barriers.

 

AS for a unit function, males and females in seperate areas, with privacy screens and no one under age 18 in the over 18 area for both genders. If a family wants to stay together all in the same space - they need to spring for their own cabin, or sleep outside in their own tent. Simple as that.

 

Do your best to provide privacy, don't mix gender and adults / youth in the same area of the building when sleeping and practice 2-deep leadership and it'll be fine. I've seen it done in an area like a large gym, with youth on one side, females on the other, and adult males in a third corner. The center floor area is a "no man's land". They had seperate bathrooms and changing room by gender and age adjacent to the gym. That was at a council sponsored event, so it must be OK.

 

Dean

[Frank17]

I agree with DeanRx and some others. The real issue is not sharing sleeping room space with adults / scouts and/or men/women. It is in providing the needed privacy for changing clothes and bathroom essentials without impacting others. I have been to multiple council organized scouting events where the adults and scouts were all jumbled together in one large dorm for sleeping. Almost all the adults were scouters who were youth protection trained, and unrelated, both male & female. Separate bathrooms, showers, and changing rooms were provided. It just happened again to me 2 weeks ago during an OA weekend when the camp was overbooked. The choice was stay and sleep by council's rules or go home. Maybe I should have griped more about the G2SS, but when there were multiple adults and multiple boys to watch out and provide witnesses on both sides, I did not see a real problem.