would you camp with another troop?

[MollieDuke]

Coming from a small troop area, lots of the troops within, say, an hour from each other here camp together. In fact, they do a rather round robin thing where they each "host" an event. Example: T#xx is going to camp at "The Campground" and they, as host of the event, provide one new scout activity (up through 1st class requirements), one older boy activity, and one type of merit badge or advanced activity. As I remember, learning to fly fish was huge one year. The host troop is then exempt from planning and providing for the next campout and the attending troops reciprocate by doing the next one. They generally are very well attended, the patrol method works well b/c even with small amounts of boys, there are usually three to four troops who can work as patrols within this arrangement. Older boys get activities geared to them as do younger boys, and two deep leadership is less of a problem. Of course, it takes some planning, but it's usually done by email until about two weeks prior to the event and then, the leaders meet along the road somehwere at a restaurant and hash out the hard details. It's been a real lifesaver around here for small rural troops like ours.