Requirements Changes: Camping Solutions better than “Just Make Camping Optional�

[bbender]

Let me spin out another idea about how to improve Cub Scouting, about the camping elements in the Cub Scout advancement modifications released on 11/30/16.  A major emphasis of the new Cub Scout program unveiled in the June 30, 2015 handbooks is increased outdoor activity, including camping.  Campout activities in the required Adventures in Wolf, Bear and Arrow of Light, though there are additional optional and elective camping activities as well.  In those Handbooks, this alternative: "If your chartered organization does not permit Cub Scout camping, you may substitute a family campout or a daylong outdoor activity with your den or pack", so those Chartered Organizations could still see all of their Scouts advance with that family campout or a daylong outdoor activity in lieu of camping.

 

The advancement modifications released on 11/30/16 allow, in lieu of camping, just attending "an outdoor activity with your den or pack". 

 

Whatever the concerns about camping that lead to making it an element that can be ignored and replaced by just "an outdoor activity", based on the intended approach to "maintain the integrity of the engaging, mission-driven, and user-friendly new Cub Scouting program", the choice need not be a binary choice between (a) camping and (b) not camping (just "an outdoor activity"). 

 

For more, see http://www.southfultonscouting.com/node/3564, where I offer a middle ground to maintain that program integrity while addressing local weather and other concerns.  I may also say “C’mon Man†a few times.

 

If you like the ideas, share it with your friends.  If you don’t, consider this idle campfire chatter and ignore it!  Or give some feedback to make this resource better.

[mashmaster]

The first part from 2015 was due to the LDS prohitibion on camping for Cubs.  I don't exactly understand why they don't allow it, but  that is the way it is.

 

The second part is too allow the boys that the parents don't want to camp to not stop them from getting rank.  In my experience, boys really want to camp but family stops them.  Should they be penalized because mom and/or dad don't want to camp?   That is my guess.

[Stosh]

If parents don't want their child to grow up loving the outdoors, why do they have them in a scouting program?  Which then begs the question of if LDS doesn't want kids to go camping, why did they make the scouting program the basis for their youth program?

 

I guess I will never understand..... I had parents that loved to camp, yet only two of us siblings still camp.  Go figure.

[qwazse]

For as long as I can remember, Cubs used to be fully operational without camping. That part was gravy.

 

And, frankly, I found Pack camping to be exhausting. Family camping was more enjoyable for me as a dad.

[SSScout]

If it looks like a camp, smells (!!) like a camp and tastes like Camp Cooking, it's close enough to  camping.   Eeeeeeease them into it.

 

A daylong hike, campfire at the end, hotdogs and veggie burgers over a woodfire in the back of the church lot,  the Cubs are tired and educated in seeing the teeth gnaws on the tree trunk as signs of Beaver (not Justin) activity,  that's enough for me to count as a "camp" activity . They get home after dark, sleep in their own bed, Mom and dad are gently stressed out and the idea of sleeping under cloth (or in a cabin?) is no longer foreign to them.  What's to not like?

[The Latin Scot]

As an LDS Scout Leader, I can say that SSSCout has pretty much summed up a big part of our stand on camping with Cubs. A big part of the reason is that, frankly,  for a Cub-Scout-aged boy, camping is a lot to take in, and can be an overwhelming experience for a child (and Cub Scouts are still children). And while we encourage families to go camping on their own if they wish, the children at these tender ages can still be seen as a bit to young for a programmed camping experience, and honestly, they can develop the desire and learn the skills just as well by being eased into it as they can by being thrown in. They will have plenty of camping once they join the Troop.

 

It's not a matter of limiting the boys experiences as much as preserving the tenderness of their childhood worldview, and in the Church's experience, it has led to a lot of success by the time they actually do join the Troop and are ready for the bigger adventure of over-night camping. But some children just aren't ready for an experience like camping at this age, and that's not a bad thing. Better to wait for an age when we can be more sure of their readiness than to require it of them before the desire is there.

 

Whether or not they camp as a child will have no effect on their love of camping later in life. Neither my brother nor I ever went camping until we joined the Troop. He still loves the outdoors and camps whenever he can; I know all the skills to survive in the wild but despise camping nonetheless (which is why he works with Boy Scouts and I work with Cub Scouts, lol). We can teach them the skills to be excellent campers, but only they can choose to love it or not.

[JasonG172]

All other unit in my District are amazed that we camp as much as we do, some units don't even go to Resident Camp which blows my mind.

 

My pack camp atleast 6 times a year that's about 4 campout outs more than the other units in my District.  My Webs (I am the Web Den Leader will have 2 additional camp outs other then these 6)