COs without meeting space

[shortridge]

I’m looking for some ideas and insights. If your CO does not have meeting space that it provides your unit, where do you meet and why/how? Where do you store troop gear?

[The Latin Scot]

I have talked to a number of troops with similar problems. Some have found success talking to local churches, country clubs, and recreational centers. You may want to canvas your neighborhood and look for places that have space, then approach them either in person or by letter and ask if they would be willing to donate their space for meetings now and then and perhaps a small area for storage. It never hurts to try! Many units have had good fortune doing just that here in Orange County.

[Eagle1993]

Our Pack and Troop CO does not have a building.  Our Pack stores it’s equipment at  various leaders’ homes and we meet at an the elementary school where our scouts are primarily recruited from.  We also meet at another public building for den meetings.  Unfortunately the costs add up (~$3 k per year just for meeting space).

Our Troop stores most of its equipment in a Trailer located at the Quartermasters home.  I believe they then meet at the public school as well.

 

[MattR]

Our CO, the largest church in town, has very little storage space. So we found a local business with a lot of land and put a shed on it. They have a fence all the way around their property so it works well. It would be really nice if the shed was where we meet but beggars can't be choosy.

[scoutldr]

Not to be a party pooper, but when your CO signed the charter agreement with the Council, they agreed to the following:

"Ensure appropriate facilities for the unit for its regular meetings to facilitate the aims of the Chartered Organization and Scouting."

SO, my read, is, if they are not providing appropriate meeting space, they have breached their contract.  Something your DE should have ascertained before entering into the contract.  But I guess we need to meet those goals, one way or the other.

[shortridge]

I perhaps should have clarified that I’m looking at a CO possibility that would’ve perfect but has no dedicated space of its own - it rents rooms at other facilities when it has meetings and events. I’m trying to get ideas of other unit meeting location options, as space in my area is costly when rented on a regular basis (like $2,400 a year minimum) or limited in its use (only rented during the business day).

I’m a big proponent of outdoors meetings, but we’d still have to have a backup space in case of inclement weather and in super-cold temps.

[NJCubScouter]

One of the troops in my area is chartered to a "Friends of..." entity, but they have been able to arrange to use one of the public school gyms for their weekly meetings, and they have also arranged with one of the local churches for storage space.

[scotteg83]

Our pack is currently chartered with a Hospital, but we are massively outgrowing the space for meetings. 

 

We are looking into holding pack meetings at the school.  Due to connections, we were allowed free access as long as it was during the week, when they have a evening janitor already staffed.  (normally any out of school hours would cost us a $30 per hour janitor fee).

 

We used to be chartered by the Knights of Columbus through a Catholic church, but after the KoC dropped charters, we had a hard transition to the Church, specially with their additional Youth Protection requirements (Protecting God's Children training). I was a hard move, since we lost storage (now we rent a storage unit) and lost a large Cafeteria for meetings.  The Catholic churches are the biggest in-town, so switching to a smaller church isn't really an option.