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Most Fun Outings (Thrifty & Spendy)


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Looking for general outing concepts we can float to our PLC.  There has been a bit of a trend in our PLC towards "Spendy" outings.  Really cool stuff, but they cost $100-$600 per Scout to attend and when done in consecutive months and around high-spend times of year (holidays) creates a challenge RE: exclusion. 

I've been advocating within our troop the idea that not every outing has to be for everyone, but there should be an outing for everyone - every month.  So, if there's a contingent that wants to drop $200 a scout this month on something unique, awesome.  But there should be something for everyone that month too, maybe a pioneering weekend at the local camping haunt.  Recharter is coming, between that increase, Troop dues, summer camps.... I think having fun but very thrifty outings will be a need this year to achieve retention in our unit.

So, in that spirit looking for some ideas that span the spectrum but that hit both ends and are "Scout Approved".  One thing I find is it's SUPER EASY to find a list of places to go camp.  It's a lot harder to know the Scouts will love it.  And even more important if others have done things the Scouts really loved that did not rely on the place so much as the activity was super fun.  Like some kind of theme, activity, etc. that you did that went off super well but does not cost a ton or rely on something like a specific location.

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This info is a bit dated (like me): Involvement with the US military for something to do or a place to stay. I have visited several Navy and USCG sites. Several times we used the floors of school gyms to overnight enroute. We also used land of a county fair ground, and another time a water district property. Some parks get troops a discount it they do a service project. often corporate entities will help out. Good luck

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Fall/Winter months ideas:

 

- snowshoeing (check with local parks, most only charge $5 or so)

- sledding 

- hikes

- fishing including fly fishing

- astronomy - check for local locations, many are free.  I was at an event last summer and the astronomy place had a telescope that were giving away to a Troop that would use it 

- biking

- community service / clean-ups

- we have one camp that provides us free camping if the Scouts help them with Fall/winter readiness (stacking wood, clearing trails, etc)

- bird identification during a hike

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Most of this was free or cheap:

- Local and regional airports small enough not to view you as a security risk

- Trout Unlimited local chapter -- expert help with fly fishing and providing equipment

- Local fish hatcheries

- Historical barracks, encampments

- State or local astrological observatories/societies

- Hawk watches in the fall. Audubon through state and local chapters is a great source for birding in general. Volunteers have come and led sessions or hiked. 

Not free but in our area several ski resorts offer scout weekends where the packages are really cheap. Some have limited cheap cabin or dormitory type camping. 

 

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Let me give you three words:

Friends

With

Farms

The best outings IMHO have been on someone’s back nine. We ask the farmer what project would be a couple dozen boys could help with. Often, we are asked if we could burn some brush and scrap lumber not worth chopping for firewood. They usually can knock that out in an hour, and then we have the coals we need for Dutch ovens.

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Our SPL actually just sent me this month's PLC agenda and on it he has a specific line item to discuss with the PLC about "expensive" outings.  His definition is anything where the outing fees (excluding Patrol food expenses) are more than $20 per scout for the weekend.  That's probably a decent standard to shoot for honestly. 

Next month PLC wanted a canoe trip, that'll be $30-$50 per Scout due to canoe rentals mainly.  By this definition this is "expensive"

November they asked for a pretty cool but expensive excursion which with bookings and transport fees will be $200+ per Scout.  Some are suggesting we do an alternative on the same weekend that's not "exciting" enough that those with the means for the other outing would not go, but to have something for everyone.  We are in Florida so a few of us ASMs are kicking the idea of offering to shuttle boys up to Georgia to experience some cooler weather than we get and to focus on campfire cooking for the weekend - we're looking to book into a scout camp or similar for $5 a night or less per scout.  Our troop is large enough to support two separate outings I believe.  But the second outing is largely motivated by the one-two punch of a canoe trip month followed by a real stretch outing (9 hours driving each way + cost)

December we're looking at a free campsite where we do a wilderness survival weekend, so that's very thrifty and I think the boys enjoy it.

January we're looking at a group campsite that's free except a rental processing fee of $12, so another very thrifty outing.  For that outing the site is along a major hiking trail so the talk is those of us with an itch for a backpacking overnighter would get dropped about 8 miles away, hike a few miles Friday night and make trail camp, get up Saturday AM and finish at the "base camp" meeting the main contingent mid-morning.  Another thrifty outing, but fun.  The backpacking outing might be scuttled though as it's open gun hunting season in our state at that time and on-trail camping may not be permitted.  There does not seem to be an intermediate camping area open for the hunting season.  So it may be a straight hike OR we might not get to do the hike.  It's a bummer because the only non-hunting dates on that trail here are also SUPER FREAKIN HOT.  So we were really hoping to book a hiking excursion in the cooler months (we're in Florida).

February we have crossover weekend with the Pack, but it is 3 boys this year (maybe) so we're talking about options.  Usually this is at a youth camping area and is "thrifty" but honestly, not super fun.  But since it involves the pack we need all the cub-required things like running water, etc.  With only 3 maybe we can swing soemthing more exciting, but I doubt it.  The entire Pack likes to be there and although there are only 3 AOLs right now, there are 50+ in the other dens.

March/Apr/may are open but we have eyes on a very popular county park that's going to push the $20 per Scout per weekend (we are finding down here even the group sites are $$) and another state park with a spring (rare to have a "safe" swimming spot in Florida) for Apr/May but again - even the "group" camping down here is above $20 per site.

Calling around this year I saw a sad trend which is a lot of the springs in our area that previously had youth group camping have been handed over to private concessions companies to run/manage and they have phased out youth group camping altogether.  So our options for fun hot weather outings (which is much of our year) are a lot more limited or require an investment (canoes) to be on the water.

 

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Our troop regularly does trips dedicated to Mountain Biking, Canoeing (there are some cheap canoes local), Shooting, and then just general camping.  We try pretty hard to keep the number of weekend trips over $40ish to no more than 2-3 per year and that's with $17-$18 per scout allocated to food.  ($15 per person budget, plus we don't charge adults).  One of the things that has been helpful with keeping the standard "just camping" weekends entertaining is the purchase (or donation) of some in-camp entertainment equipment.  We have a set of 12 tomahawks and 9 throwing knives that can keep most of the scouts busy all day long, plus a slackline and a collection of pioneering poles.

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With a larger troop that is able to have enough adults for separate outings, you could also encourage the patrols to plan their outings instead of the troop. The PLC time could then be to see if there is overlap and then patrols could do outings together. But first, the ideas come from each patrol. 

IMO the best part of individual patrol outings are the reporting out to the troop about the outing, bragging on the activity and recognizing patrol members for jobs well done purposely excluding advancement, although the reporting might have involved something for advancement. 

Example.

Troop meeting opening.

Reports from Patrols.

-Big Bad Wolf patrol did an overnight bike trip. Jimmy was awarded "mr.fixit" for his expertise in re-aligning a chain that came off a bike. The Wolf Patrol would also like to recognize Mr. Andrews for meeting us at the park with all our camping gear. He surprised us with ice-cream sandwiches too.

-Wild Lightning patrol just returned from a 2-night campout. Davey led us on a poop hike. We followed marked trails around the park looking for animal poop and trying to figure out what kind of animal made it. Davey gets the "poop hiker award" (hands Davey an TP tube with "poop hiker award" written on it.  

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On 8/30/2022 at 10:35 PM, curious_scouter said:

Next month PLC wanted a canoe trip, that'll be $30-$50 per Scout due to canoe rentals mainly.

Find another Troop that has canoes and ask to borrow (or rent) at lower cost.

We have a local Troop that, in it's heyday had 100+ Scouts.  Once upon that time, they bought 22 canoes and two canoe trailers.  Nowadays, they are around 20 Scouts.  I asked to use a rack of canoes in exchange for refurbing the canoe trailer.  (repacked bearings, bought them a spare tire, fixed trailer wiring, pressure washed the gunk off the trailer, replaced old bungees (a hazard) with painter ropes (which are taken off the rack as tiedowns and used as bow & stern painters on the trip; Scouts learn and use two half hitches, trucker's hitch, and bowline, a lot!))  For about three hours of work for two people (me and one other adult who likes to be a grease monkey with me), and about $10 a head in materials, we now have a perpetual invitation to use their boats.

 

Another idea that our Scouts like: find your local historic hikes, and earn the patch or medal.

https://tap.scouting.org/bsa-historic-trails-index/

 

And a cycling trip is always a hit.  Find your local trails, and make an adventure of any size!

https://www.traillink.com/

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$100 plus monthly is a stopper.   My ideal is the generic monthly camp out should (at that time) have been $20 or less.  Now, $30 or less would be reasonable.   Bigger adventures a few times a year are great, but few families can afford.

Our "ideal" ... when I was in troop planning was that every patrol have every month an option for one camp out and one activity.  Sometimes if at the troop level, then patrols often had the option of more than one camp out and more than one activity; such as patrol camp out and a troop camp out.  Or a patrol game night and a troop swim night.  or ...      It's important to create opportunities for the scout as that's when lessons are learned and when a scout finds a reason to stay in scouts.

Edited by fred8033
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We're luck enough in Cambridge UK to have a small local airport, not suggesting you come over hear (although there is a convenient runway!) but if there is one near you it is a fascinating visit if you can arrange it. We do it every few years and the scouts all love it. Highlight is normally the maintenance hangars, seeing planes in pieces having various things done to them. The owner is also a troop old boy so does it for free.

Alas we've never been allowed in the control tower. Reason being Cambridge is close enough to London Stansted that it is the first choice divert airport if they have to close the runway. If we had 30+ kids in the tower then from the word go they would have planes bound for Stansted landing before we even got them down the stairs!

Someone above mentioned visiting an observatory. Again great fun, especially if you get the right weather for it.

Also great fun if you have one nearby is a birds of prey resuce centre. We visited one as part ofour summer camp this year. The kids loved it!

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@Cambridgeskip, growing up, our local airport had some wooded property beyond the runways. It was great for camping either as a troop or a district. On occasion we would visit the facilities. I loved those opportunities.

Unfortunately, like land around many airports here, that property has been converted to industrial park.

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