Parent required for every Cub?

[BartHumphries]

I haven't ever worked with Cubs as an adult. I still am not, I'm working with Boy Scouts. I just heard that Cub Scout summer camp requires that a parent attend for every Cub Scout? Doesn't that effectively double the cost to send a Cub Scout to camp, as well as having to take a week off work? Parents actually do this?

 

Back when I was a Cub Scout, my parents would drop me off with my sleeping bag, etc., at the camp and I'd be assigned to a group of maybe 10 boys? As I remember it, there was one primary leader who was with us all the time and one other leader who came around every so often, but mostly it was just the group doing activities with the leader supervising us. Have things changed that much or was that camp wholly out of line (I admit, with two-deep leadership you'd need at least two adults with a group of boys all the time now, so that's one thing that's different at least, but maybe I just wasn't paying any attention to an adult leader who rarely talked, I don't know). This would have been back in the late 80's.

[moosetracker]

Most cub camps are between your two extremes.. If you are doing Pack camping or Webelos Den camping then it is closer to one parent per cubs with a few exceptions for siblings and an occasional time when another parent may accept responsibility for someone elses child, but that should be rare..

 

For council run events it is different years ago (when my son was a cub) 5 cubs to 1 adult.. Reading the cub camp Info now, it only states you need two adults One 21+ and one 18+ and that is it.. I find it hard to believe National has gone down in overkill strictness in something.. So someone can tell me if I am wrong. Anyway when we had the 5:1 we would get 2 adults free if we had less then 10 cubs, 3 adults free if less then 15 etc.. (free, I am sure really that the price was worked into the cubs camp fees)..

 

I know there is something called Family camp.. That we hold on weekends between the normal week camps.. That is with cubs and family so yes I would imagine they would expect a parent with that, but then siblings and both parents are welcome too.

 

Now BasementDweller will tell you his council asked him to have one parent per cub for camp. But I was unsure if it was just him because they don't like him, or if it was expected of every Pack.

[infoscouter]

The Guide to Safe Scouting set this as the standard for Cub Scout camping:

"In most cases, each youth member will be under the supervision of a parent or guardian. In all cases, each youth participant is responsible to a specific adult."

 

 

[BartHumphries]

So, officially, every youth has to know which leader to report to, and most often every youth will have their "own" leader, but there's no official requirement for how many Cubs can report to the same adult leader?

[momof2cubs]

As far as our district tells us, cub scouts cannot camp on their own. In other words each cub has to have an adult. Now WEBELOS can camp on their own with a leader. The ratios vary. Our district I think requires a 5 to 1 or 4 to 1 ratio.

 

Now for Day Camp (no overnight), our district requires a 4 to 1 ratio.

 

It is a fine balance between making scouting (and camping) accessible to everyone and convincing parents that BSA does not, in fact, stand for Baby Sitters of America.

[ScoutNut]

Tiger Cub Scouts must ALWAYS have their Adult Tiger Partner with them at all times.

 

the "Resident Camping for Cub Scouting" -

 

"The ideal method of camping for Cub Scouts involves parents and the pack by dens."

 

"In most cases, the youth member will be under the supervision of a parent or guardian. In all cases, each youth participant is responsible to a specific adult."

 

And

 

"The camp ratio of adults to boys is set by the COUNCIL, but each boy is responsible to one designated adult."

 

Some councils require 1:1, adult to youth ratio. Some councils require 1:5. Others use different ratios.

 

My council requires a parent to register with their Cub Scout(s) for all of our Cub Summer camps.

[Basementdweller]

Moose......in talking to the neighboring Packs they were excluded as well by the required parent rule. The District event had 12 Webelos out of a possible 500. Sad state of affairs. The event organizer allowed a person friend bring a couple of webelos with out their parents....fair right???

 

The best part is we went on the same weekend to a neighboring council Webelos woods event it was cheaper, and did not require an adult for every webelos. The program was superior to our districts event in all ways.

 

I spoke with the neighboring CM's and we are going to that event as a group next fall.

[kari_cardi]

For resident camp, each pack must have two leaders, minimum, and two leaders for every 5 boys. But the different ranks can camp in different areas, and each rank needs only one adult. There are always other leaders present, the facilities hold a lot of boys. The first two leaders are free, and there are two additional free leaders for every 5 boys. It really helps in finding adult volunteers.

 

There doesn't seem to be any guidelines for adult:scout ratios for twilight camp or Cub-O-Rees. We don't even have to send a leader to twilight camp.

[moosetracker]

Seems like councils make their own rules on this.. My son went to cub camp this summer with one other parents they had under 10 cubs, but he says out council is the 2 deep which would cover the first 10 cubs. And then 1 adult per every next 5 grouping thereafter.

 

Soon the district is running a recruitment night at some sports facility.. Sleep over night, bring a friend (so not all the kids will be scouts).. Parents drop the kids off, council / District is providing the adult leadership.. Even I am a little surprised at this. As far as I know they will not even have a count of who is comming so may have 1:1 or 20:1 and that some kids are not even scouts is weird..

 

But, also although the kids may be excited about signing up after a fun night, not sure if this will feed the expectation to parents that BSA is Babysitters of America..