Troop Plans For Fall

[askyourspl]

What are your troop's plan for this fall? In-person meetings with masks and social distancing? Campouts? Hikes? Zoom meetings? What are your plans to keep the Troop moving forward during this pandemic until we get back to normal? 

[David CO]

My troop is shut down until the school activities resume.  No plans for this fall.  Fall sports are also cancelled, so we aren't being treated any different from the other activities.  Instead of looking at fall,  I'm looking at winter.  We lost 90% of the 2020 scouting year.  Families didn't get what they paid for.   I don't know how many will be willing to sign up and pay for registration fees again in 2021.

I think BSA should waive the 2021 registration fees for scouts who paid the fees in 2020.  It would be the fair thing to do.

Edited August 20, 2020 by David CO

[5thGenTexan]

Our Troop in town has returned to in person meetings.  I think they did some sort of water slip N slide kickball thing the other night.

I am with the Pack...  

We are having a day next weekend with water rockets.

Webelos Woods is still on the calendar and expected to go on.

Big Council camp that was scheduled in April will happen in October

As I understand it, my Council (Circle 10) is the only Council in Texas that went forward with Cub and Webelos Resident Camp, NYLT this Summer....  No cases of Covid reported.  

My family attended a Council Day Camp on Aug 1.  Temp checks entering camp, masks all day, hand sanitizer when entering a station and when leaving the station.  Lunch was catered.. a box chicken lunch.

Out of my 27 Scouts going into this mess...  I lost two because they were AOLs that aged out, 1 that stopped coming in Feb anyway, another recently told me they were not coming back, but they never attended a meeting anyway.  Tonight I heard from one of my Lions last year that they are not returning, but parents are in the middle of a divorce and I bet that has something to do with it.  I have added 4 new Scouts over the Summer and two new Den Leaders.  Our Join Scout Night is September 3.  I am optimistic.  

[yknot]

2 hours ago, David CO said:

I think BSA should waive the 2021 registration fees for scouts who paid the fees in 2020.  It would be the fair thing to do.

Every other youth activity we are involved in has refunded or discounted its fees. Any online offerings over the summer were free and meant as a placeholder to keep the kids interested in the activity or organization and not as a replacement for program. In comparison, BSA is not only charging full price but raising fees. I cannot see the recruiting logic even though I understand the financial need.  

We are attempting to do some social distanced activities but the calendar will be limited. We are also having issues with meeting places as both our regular meeting venues -- a school and a church -- are still closed to the public. We will not be able to offer full value to scouts this fall or likely even into the spring. 

 

[Momleader]

I think BSA should waive the 2021 registration fees for scouts who paid the fees in 2020.  It would be the fair thing to do.

DavidCO you are on to something there!  Our fees for 2021 went up $21 they went up $19 in 2020. We are WELL over the $100 threshold now.   Many families in our pack are now scrambling with extra childcare costs under the hybrid schooling schedules. I’m sure it’s the same nationwide. I get that BSA is a really a business - but they’re not showing much goodwill toward their customers (an increase And laying off council and national employees not to mention not offering live programming due to covid safety protocols). The message our council gave us was “parents  see the value and pay for the extra online content as well as the fees. Packs should be fundraising for the unit level dues”.   {My pack had NO parents participate in the online pay to play activities council ran stating they ‘paid their council program fee when they joined‘ - yup}

As for fall meetings - our school system tried to shut us down on recruitment & meetings - so we can’t use school ball fields/No Clubs or extracurricular activities on school grounds K-12. Our CO is having no groups use the church hall.  We surveyed the parents - the bulk feel with online requirements of school (3 days online)  if the pact/den program is going to be online we will lose most.  So we are Planning pack meetings at the local state park and doing outdoor as much as possible - they’ll need to get appropriate outerwear I guess. Dens will meet at the town beaches and playground parks weather permitting. 

This week council has cancelled all fall events, use of and camping at council camps for the fall too. They will decide after Labor Day if they will allow units to camp on their own. 
 

so yeah - national and councils need to NOT raise their fees or combined with the bankruptcy issues they’ll lose more members. 

[Jameson76]

We held our own summer camp in July, great success, Scouts has a great time.  Over 30 Scouts and leaders

Started in person meetings first of August.  Our troop typically meets outside in the Scout area behind the church.  The church is not having services, they have no issue with us meeting but asked we not be on campus.  Troop is meeting at the park across the street at a large pavilion.

Going camping this weekend at the lake.  Over 40 Scouts and leaders.  Scouts will be transported by parents, no tent sharing, no hammock stacking.  Spreading the patrols out.

Doing what we can, meeting outside, etc

Edited August 20, 2020 by Jameson76

[askyourspl]

For those that can't or haven't held regular in-person meetings, what do you plan to do to keep both scouts and parents engaged in the program and connected with your troop? Do you have concerns of losing membership due to so many months without any contact? Seems like this would be an issue especially with newer scouts. 

Edited August 20, 2020 by askyourspl

[David CO]

11 hours ago, yknot said:

Every other youth activity we are involved in has refunded or discounted its fees. Any online offerings over the summer were free and meant as a placeholder to keep the kids interested in the activity or organization and not as a replacement for program. In comparison, BSA is not only charging full price but raising fees. I cannot see the recruiting logic even though I understand the financial need.  

Yes.  I too understand the financial need, but financial need is not enough to justify fees.  There are many restaurants in my community who are closing due to financial need.  That doesn't give them the right to charge me for meals and services they are not providing me during the shutdown.  Need doesn't justify fees.

 

[MacBrave]

We held our own summer camp in mid-June, right after our state's covid restrictions moved to the appropriate level.

Been meeting in person since then, although outside at an open-air shelter behind our CO.  They haven't given us a date yet on when we can start meeting indoors, hopefully not long after Labor Day.

Had an outing the first weekend of August to a state recreation area.

September outing will be at a state park, and hopefully canoeing if we can find a livery that can accommodate us.  The livery we have used in the past has drastically reduced the number of trips they are offering,  may have to go with another outfit.

October we may be attending a fall district/section camporee, depends on the PLC's decision.   We weren't going to be able to attend this because the organizers scheduled it the same weekend as a local festival where we traditionally run a food booth (our primary unit fund raiser), but the festival was canceled about a month ago so that weekend is now open.

November is open right now, but I hear the district/section spring camporee that was originally planned for April has been moved to the first weekend in November (?), so the PLC may want to do that or maybe have our own campout at a local camp.

 

[TMSM]

Our troop is currently meeting outside in the church parking lot on a weekday and we are running low on daylight (Chicago area). Our plan is to shift to more activities on the weekends and end our Tuesdays meetings until its too cold to be outside (December 1). From there we will resume Zoom meetings but I am not sure if we will continue this every week or go 2 times per month. We are getting about 25 of the 35 scouts to attend on a regular basis so its hard to just shut them down. 

 

Edited August 20, 2020 by TMSM

[MattR]

My troop is doing outdoor activities. Bike rides, rocket launch, just anything that sounds fun and takes lots of room. No meetings in buildings but they are doing Discord meetings.

[qwazse]

The church is basically closed except for retrieving gear from storage. Two local parks have made their pavilions available to us on our meeting night. We had a recognition for the six scouts who earned Eagle, and the SPL distributed MBs earned so far this spring/summer. We are still in the midst of operation give-the-new-SM-blue-card-writer’s-cramp. The next meeting will be the day before school starts, then we’ll start weekly meetings. We have September and October camp outs lined up.

[T2Eagle]

We've been meeting outside most of the summer.  We started alternating in person and zoom, then when we saw it was working we went all in person.  Always masks, always social distancing.  We've been doing day trips that are working well: biking, kayaking, fishing, lots of hiking, but camping is proving challenging. We only had a small group attend the very limited council mini summer camp.  We are trying to get a campout in but the logistics are tough.  We're limited to 10 people per campsite, we have to maintain social distancing, and we still have community spread going pretty strong here so both leaders and families are being very cautious.

Going forward we plan to meet outside pretty much for the foreseeable future.  NOBODY wants to bring a group together inside, masks or no masks.

Edited August 21, 2020 by T2Eagle

[T2Eagle]

23 hours ago, David CO said:

My troop is shut down until the school activities resume.  No plans for this fall.  Fall sports are also cancelled, so we aren't being treated any different from the other activities.  Instead of looking at fall,  I'm looking at winter.  We lost 90% of the 2020 scouting year.  Families didn't get what they paid for.   I don't know how many will be willing to sign up and pay for registration fees again in 2021.

I think BSA should waive the 2021 registration fees for scouts who paid the fees in 2020.  It would be the fair thing to do.

I'm curious, who's decision is it/was it to shut down. BSA's or your CO's.  Except for the actual lockdown period our council camps have been open for activities.  We haven't thought it was prudent to do all the things we normally do, but that's been our call not BSA's.

[David CO]

8 minutes ago, T2Eagle said:

I'm curious, who's decision is it/was it to shut down. BSA's or your CO's.  Except for the actual lockdown period our council camps have been open for activities.  We haven't thought it was prudent to do all the things we normally do, but that's been our call not BSA's.

The CO.

From the parent point of view, it really doesn't matter who made the decision to shut down.  All of the other closed programs gave refunds, but not scouting.  

Edited August 21, 2020 by David CO