Monthly camping

[qwazse]

Oh, now I understand.

I would never push the boys to have a troop campout in addition to a camporee in the same month.

Basically it takes a lot of effort to prepare a troop for a good camporee. Training. Equipment checks. Rules for competitions. We usually need one or two weekends for some kind of training for each patrol. This is especially true if it's the boys' idea. The more enthused they are about something, the more effort they'll put into it.

So, unless there is a patrol who wants to do something completely different, I wouldn't add anything more than the camporee if that's what the PLC elects to do for the month.

[Stosh]

Two things must happen before my boys go to Camporees.

 

1) they have to offer one.

2) the program has to be interesting.

 

So far between the two, my troop generally doesn't do Camporees or other council promoted outings.  They prefer to do their own thing.

[T2Eagle]

Our scouts rarely choose to attend camporees. They find them over structured, over programmed, and basically boring. I get asked at roundtable about our lack of participation and my response is always that the boys get to choose and that just isn't our thing. My own suggestion was that if they put a lot of effort into one camporee a year rather than three they might get a different result.

 

Several years ago I attended a a Uof Scouting session on Annual Program Planning and the instructor said he starts the process by putting the District events: Spring Camporee, Fall Camporee, and Klondike on their calendar. I was appalled and spoke to him after the seesion and asked him about the boys views on that. He said yes the boys get to do the planning but they certainly don't have the option to skip those. One of the biggest changes I nade as Sm was telling the boys at the Annula Planning that they were starting with a blank slate, there were no trips they had done in the past that they had to do in the future.

Edited November 5, 2017 by T2Eagle

[shortridge]

Like anything else, a camporee should have some clear value. Klondikes are (supposed to be) different from the usual. But I've been to far too many camporees that are just round-robin Scout skill contests - start a fire, tie knots, set up a tent, load a pack, do first aid. They have to appeal to both younger patrols and experienced Scouts, and so fail at doing both.

 

I'd love to see a camporee that had a single clear focus or special program - like kayaking, reflector oven cooking, orienteering, woodcarving. The outlay in getting qualified program staff and equipment for a district full of Scouts would be a significant challenge, however.

[Stosh]

I have noticed that the single program emphasis on a topic relevant to the scouts does draw more units than the round-robin competition camporees.  Of course the verbiage is important.  A scout will quickly see through an feeble attempt at this when one comes up with a Zombie knot tying, Zombie first aid, Zombie, fire-starting competition.

 

I like the idea of a single topic outing, kayaking/canoeing, orienteering, etc. type of approach. 

 

We had a half-way approach a few years back, Civil War weekend.  All the patrols were given numbers.  Numbers were drawn out of a hat to divide into North and South.  Then the skills competition was held and totaled not by patrol or unit, but by North and South.  It quickly dispelled the ringer patrol method of winning the competition.

 

When each side was tallied up, the South had won.    They then had a run off and the South won again, then a best of 2 out of 3, South won, 3 out of 5, and finally the North won 4 out of 9.  The interesting thing was my single patrol troop of new boys ended up on the South and they were really happy with the way things went.

 

There are ways of sprucing up the camporees, but it takes a bit of thinking outside the box and a lot more planning than showing up at the last minute and throwing something together Friday night at the cracker barrel.

[fred johnson]

Curious as to whether you all consider a camporee as the troop’s monthly camp out.

 

It's a moot question.  The real questions are

• Do your scouts want to attend the district camporee ?
• Do your scouts want to do a different camp out ?
• Can your troop support both or need to choose one ?

District camporees are great in that they provide a structure, plan and content for a camp out.  It's a service to the troops.  And it's great if your troop wants to participate and support the district's efforts.  BUT do something else if it becomes a "been there, done that" sort of thing.  Maybe your troop wants to plan to do both the district camporee and a more significant campout.  Maybe the camporee for the younger scouts and a bigger trek for the older scouts.  

 

IMHO, constantly adjust to your situation.

[Stosh]

My boys sign up as patrols.  I do have age-layered patrols.  The NSP boys and most of the regular patrols do fine with the camporees, but the older boys do their own thing having been burned out on camporees.