Minimum number for outing?

[Prairie_Scouter]

Do any of you, especially from smaller troops, put any minimum number of participants for an outing to take place?

 

Some things that come to mind.....

 

There shouldn't be a minimum. If even one scout comes out, you go. If he has a great time, that gets back to the other scouts that they "blew it".

 

You need some sort of minimum so that you have enough Scouts going that they can have some fun with each other.

 

You need some sort of minimum so that you make it worthwhile to ask the adult leaders to take time out of their weekends or whatever to support the outing.

 

If the number gets "small", let the Scouts who did sign up decide if they still want to go?

[Trevorum]

I remember one backpacking trip five years ago. It had been raining steadily for 3 days and the forecast was for 3 more days of the same. We had about four or five hearty Scouts show up at the church on Friday evening, ready for a wet weekend. They voted to bag it and try again the following weekend. But I gave them a lot of credit for showing up.

[Torveaux]

I would say 2.

 

You can't have a buddy system of 1.

 

 

[gwd-scouter]

We have a minimum of three scouts on every outing. We only have 12 in our Troop right now. My husband and I are the primary adult leaders on every monthly trip, so it is very frustrating when the scouts plan the outing, say they are going to go (6-8 usually say they are going) and then at the meeting just before we leave, a bunch drop out. We do not want to continuously cancel trips, so we decided if at least 3 want to go (our son doesn't have much choice so that leaves two additional) then we go.

 

In a way, this has resulted in slowly increased participation. Perhaps because we don't cancel trips unless we absoluately have to. In years past, Troop was lucky to get in 4-5 camping trips a year (and summer camp was one of those) because leaders kept cancelling at the last minute.

 

 

[kenk]

I was thinking of 4 - two scouts for buddy system, one adult leader, and another adult for two-deep

 

I guess you could say 2 - one scout and his adult leader parent?

[baden]

We don't have a declared policy. The smallest number we have gone with is 2, but if 1 kid showed up, my ASM and I would probably go.

 

We currently have 15 in the Troop. We have a campout this weekend and 8 have signed up.

[Prairie_Scouter]

Thanks for the input, folks.

 

We have 17 active right now, and I'm hoping we'll add a few more at the crossover in February.

 

I was thinking in terms of maybe 3 or 4 being minimum, depending the type of trip. 4 if it's a campout, so no Scout has to sleep alone, maybe 3 for other outings.

 

I'm thinking that if only 1 Scout signs up, maybe there's something wrong with the outing, although it's the PLC that's picking the outings, so you'd think that at least they would be going, or most of them.

[ASM416]

Its funny this came up. We are leaving tonight (Friday) for a weekend camp. We have a small group of about 9 scouts. Holding our breath waiting for our resurrected cub pack to produce some WEBELOS. We had 8 of them signed up for this weekend and tonight at our meeting the night before 3 dropped out. That leaves us with 5 witch is probably a minimum number. We don't have any rule but the last one we cancelled was 3. Of course sometimes we go anyways and we eat steak instead of what was on the menu. Less scouts means more money for food per person.

 

Anyways, we do what we can not to cancel. Its a real downer for the scouts who wanted to go and scouters who work weekends (me) and were looking forward to the time off.

 

Tim

[acco40]

If an adult only - minimum is two (requires two deep leadership for outings)

 

If youth only - minimum of two (need buddy) and must be a patrol outing with Scoutmaster approval (i.e. no adults required)

 

If youth and adult - minimum of three, two deep leadership needed, youth may buddy up with the adults (no one on one contact so really a "triple").

 

The above is the "legal" minimum to my knowledge. A practical limit would come into play with respect to equipment, transportation, finances, etc. but if at least one youth is interested, I would try my best to make sure the event was held.

[OldEagle4Life]

When my troop was a super troop of 60 plus, in our minds, if you didn't have at least 20 (or 25) go on a campout it was considered a bad turnout, and we would get a little disappointed. However, once the troop downsized, and were left with around 30 scouts, we were very happy when we had a dozen go on a campout. We've gone camping with less, and we have cancelled when there are less than 3 scouts planning on going, but that is only a rare event. It is just so much effort, and time for the adults, to go camping, and while it is benefitial and all for the boys of course, if they themselves aren't willing to put anything into the program.... Most of the time when we cancel, the boys who are going are the ones who go on all the campouts, so they are not that disappointed or devestated.

 

I know several small units that only have 4-5 boys in the entire troop, and when they go camping, often 1-2 can't make it, so 2-3 on a campout is the norm for them. The transition for us was hard at first as leaders, to go from having so many to so few, it was disheartening, until we realized it just reflected the percentage of boys in the troop now (still roughly 45-50% of the boys camping). It was also much easier for us as adults to go on these campouts now, since there were so many less boys to "keep an eye on".

 

The downside for going with few boys is the cost effectivness, especially if you are cabin camping in the winter with fixed costs, but the troop coffers hopefully can compensate for most of those costs if necessary.

 

But in the long run, if you have enough boys to actually go, and they want to go, and you have enough leaders who want to go then just do it!

[SWScouter]

For a camping or backpacking outing, I would say at least four. That way if someone is injured or can't get out, one can stay and the other two can go get help.