Scout Hut?

[blw2]

I was just looking at Baloo's Bugle for inspiration for my next pack meeting.

There's a little blurb pointing to this blog post

http://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2014/03/20/this-minnesota-troops-scout-hut-is-a-former-train-depot/

 

I was thinking about this not too long ago.  One of you here mentioned their Scout Hut.

I remember seeing a sign in some small town I was travelling through pointing the direction the the scout hut.  I didn't have time to swing by it....

 

But I understand that this used to perhaps be very common, for a community to have a scout hut.  Is that right?

 

Our pack seems to be often in a struggle to get room access from our CO (a church that also has a school).

Ditto the troop

We do have an area in the CO's shed, approx 5LF x maybe 12ft high.  Most ministries of the parish have shelf space in there.... just to store our derby track, etc....

and we have a small enclosed trailer parked in the parking lot....

 

but this idea of a hut I find really cool!  A place to call your own

a place to hang

Opens up all sorts of options for hanging things on the wall, etc...

[JoeBob]

 A Scout Hut is a central repository of troop gear.

 

But it's also a place to lose the keys to.

A roof to repair and a floor to replace.

A place to paint.

A place to clean after that last trip just dumped all their gear...

 

But the light bill's not too much.

[LeCastor]

My first Troop in Norcross, GA had a Scout cabin just off to the side of the Methodist church where we were chartered.  It was plywood walls and floor with the rafters showing.  Very cool.

 

Then, that Troop folded and I moved to a much larger Troop that used a double wide trailer at another Methodist church.  

 

I like the cabin that the Scouts built in Follow Me Boys--well, except for the falling down to the ground part. LOL

[Gone]

We are lucky. We have our own room (18w x 20l x 12h). We can store all of our gear in there and then some. It is secured. Our meeting space is huge!! 45x45 with a 20ft ceiling. A/V, stage and enough room to bring the meeting inside when the weather does not cooperate.

 

Having a great CO makes up for having such a lousy district. 

[00Eagle]

A Scout Hut seems to be more common abroad where Scout Groups (usually consisting of one or more units for each age range) are independent charities unlike BSA units which "belong" to their CO.  BSA COs are required to provide a meeting place so scout huts are less common here.  Also Scout Groups have often been around for many years so had years to raise funds to build and operate their huts.

[skeptic]

We too are fortunate.  Have had a dedicated room(s) in our church basement since they opened the current building in 1928.  The main room is much like a museum, and they hold most of our district Eagle boards there, partly because of the atmosphere.  The second room is starting to take on similar appearance, though is technically the Cub room.  We also have access to the rest of the church if it is available, including the gymnasium and kitchen.  We store boats in the garage, and have another equipment room of sorts that needs cleaning, but has burn bins and large poles and such in it, along with much camping and hiking gear.

 

Have been told that they met in a Sunday school room for the first 7 years of the troop.  When the scoutmaster asked where they were to meet in the new church, they supposedly said, "In the basement where you will be out of the way and not disturb things."  Not sure that was the way it was; but there we still are.

[PA Scoutmaster]

I know of a troop that finished construction on a new $300,000 scout cabin. Lofts, climbing walls, etc. It's become the defacto meeting place for district events and roundtables.

[Stosh]

I know of a troop that finished construction on a new $300,000 scout cabin. Lofts, climbing walls, etc. It's become the defacto meeting place for district events and roundtables.

 

Okay is that bragging rights for the adults or the boys?

 

$300k would go a long way to outfit 100 boys and pay for summer camp for the next 10 years.

 

To me this ranks right up there with the massive plop camp trailers.

[scoutergipper]

I know of a troop that finished construction on a new $300,000 scout cabin. Lofts, climbing walls, etc. It's become the defacto meeting place for district events and roundtables.

 

Yeah, that seems excessive.

[packsaddle]

We had a wonderful log cabin and I do mean really truly log cabin. It was historic. Big fireplace, cabinets for storage, log rafters, drafty and open when the windows weren't covered with plastic. When I first became acquainted the roof had numerous leaks but a local builder donated shingles and we bought sheating and put on a new roof one weekend. And then the owners arbitrarily decided to destroy it as well as another one nearby.

That was so discouraging that leaders left the unit, boys too.

The CO let us have some space near them though and we built a storage shed that at least serves to secure the equipment but our meetings are all outdoors.

 

I know of a few other similar cabins for other units in the area. They are dwindling though.

Edited May 9, 2015 by packsaddle

[Peregrinator]

The town neighboring mine has a scout cabin. Not owned by scouts any more and people can rent it for parties and such.

[Cambridgeskip]

In the UK it's pretty common for a group to have it's own building, probably around half of them do. Mine does! Others typically rent a space in a church hall or school or community center. And by that I mean they may have some cupboards to store things in and then get to use a hall a few hours a week.

 

Yes there are some huge advantages to having your own building. You can store everything in one place. Groups at church halls typically have their camping gear in the garage or loft of the leaders. After camp you can have a kit explosion, drying tents and other kit in the hall rather than at everyone's home. And of course you can make funds out of it. Our building is used by an after school club, they pay us rent. We've had dance troops, home school groups and all kinds of others rent it off us. Yesterday I went and replaced the last of our ageing gas lanterns with LED lanterns. Money we didn't have to fund raise. So yes it's great.

 

However..... our building was built nearly 60 years ago and is showing it's age. It needs a lot of of maintenance and that costs money. Two years ago we had to fix a number of holes in the roof. That cost serious money. In the next 5-10 years the roof will need to be replaced altogether. That's going to be in the high 5 figures. It was built at a time before cavity wall insulation was invented so costs a lot to heat. We'd like to put in new insulation but that will cost another big amount of money. And then there's the more mundane things, when it needs painting we do it, if anything breaks we fix it, if it needs cleaning we clean it etc. That does of course give plenty of scope for the scouts themselves to take responsibility for things, but it does mean the leaders and exec committee committing time to organising and monitoring.

 

So it is as they say a case of swings and roundabouts!

[blw2]

Okay is that bragging rights for the adults or the boys?

 

$300k would go a long way to outfit 100 boys and pay for summer camp for the next 10 years.

 

To me this ranks right up there with the massive plop camp trailers.

I'm betting the boys would enjoy it more if it were simple and rustic.... not much more than a cabin or picnic shelter..... pot belly stove for heat, etc....

[mgood777]

The troop I grew up in was fortunate enough to have our own building. A fairly spacious cinder block building that was mostly one big room, but also had two small offices (one was the Scoutmaster's office and one was the "Eagle Room" where we conducted boards of review, a really neat room decorated with eagle wallhanging, pictures, statuettes, all sorts of eagles, mostly donated by Eagle Scouts who'd come up through the troop) and a restroom, plus a kitchen area. Flagpoles out front, basketball goal off to the side. Big fire pit in the middle of the room. Retired patrol flags, some going back nearly 40 years, hung from the rafters. Right next to our scout hut was "the old scout hut," a dilapidated building used for storage. Some of the scouts in my troop had fathers who had met in "the old scout hut" when they were in the troop. We were spoiled. Only as an adult did I encounter troop meeting places in the chartering organizations' buildings.

Only the adults were supposed to have keys to the scout hut (according to the Lions Club, our CO), but for the years I was in the troop, the SPL always had a key. I had one when I was SPL. It was an honor, a sign of trust, to have a key to the building. Like you were being given an adult-type responsibility and were expected to treat it accordingly.

Edited May 11, 2015 by mgood777

[perdidochas]

I was just looking at Baloo's Bugle for inspiration for my next pack meeting.

There's a little blurb pointing to this blog post

http://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2014/03/20/this-minnesota-troops-scout-hut-is-a-former-train-depot/

 

I was thinking about this not too long ago.  One of you here mentioned their Scout Hut.

I remember seeing a sign in some small town I was travelling through pointing the direction the the scout hut.  I didn't have time to swing by it....

 

But I understand that this used to perhaps be very common, for a community to have a scout hut.  Is that right?

 

Our pack seems to be often in a struggle to get room access from our CO (a church that also has a school).

Ditto the troop

We do have an area in the CO's shed, approx 5LF x maybe 12ft high.  Most ministries of the parish have shelf space in there.... just to store our derby track, etc....

and we have a small enclosed trailer parked in the parking lot....

 

but this idea of a hut I find really cool!  A place to call your own

a place to hang

Opens up all sorts of options for hanging things on the wall, etc...

 

We are very fortunate (although not all of our committee members think so, they would like more) with what our CO provides. We have a Scout hut (a portable classroom with bathroom), as well as an old single car garage for our quartermaster's shack.  We used to meet in the Church's Family Life center (aka gym with kitchen), but have gotten the hut.  The hut has been great--it is a place to hang up stuff, and customize it for our own use.