Cell phones, text messaging, etc....again

[Aquila calva]

This has been discussed before but I need an update with new ideas.

 

Our troop is again taking a look at trying to form a coherent policy about electronic equipment at camp, and to-and-from camp, especially our week-long camp coming up in a few weeks. The way things stand now: scouts can bring music-listening and game devices for use in the vehicles when traveling to and from camps. Then the equipment is left locked in the vehicles for the duration of the camp. Many adult leaders bring their cell phones and keep them discretely for the duration of the camp, most often using them only when not around the scouts. But those "important" calls can come in at the strangest times.

 

Now, cell phones are ubiquitous. Almost all adult leaders have one and many scouts have them, too. Text messaging using cell phones is becoming a standard form of communication wherever we happen to be. Trying to say no cell phones just doesnt seem reasonable any longer. Then there is the issue of keeping the cell phones safe.

 

What is your troops policy about cell phones, and other electronic devices (ipods?), on camping trips?

 

[Lisabob]

I am a bit ill at ease with it, but our troop policy is that the boys may not have these things at camp outs. They can have them in the car but the items get left in a locked car while at camp. If they happen to get damaged by the heat while in the car, or stolen, or broken, or lost, etc., that's the scout's problem. It is supposed to be up to the SPL to enforce this. Sometimes that happens, sometimes it doesn't.

 

The part that I'm ill at ease with is that there is no policy re: adults and nearly all have, carry, and use their cell phones whenever they feel the "need" - which in some cases is often. On one hand it seems like hypocrisy to me. On the other hand I'm not so dumb as to think that I could ever convince most of them to give the phones up, even for a few days, especially since I'm one of those rare few who do not own one to start with (and don't want one either). They all think I'm a little off my rocker on that issue as is.

 

 

[MarkS]

Our policy is that the scouts are not permitted to bring electronic devices including cell phones, laptop computers, music players, and radios, etc., to troop meetings, activities or campouts. We tell the boys' parents to ensure that they don't bring them so that an adult leader doesn't have to confiscate them and contact the parent come to retrieve it.

 

Adults are permitted to have cell phones in case of an emergency or if they need to call the boys' parents for some reason (i.e., did Johnny bring such and such, to put parents at ease when they start missing their child, etc). However, we keep them in manner mode, use them out of sight of the boys, and they always notoriously fail to obtain service around the boys.

 

There are three issues with boys having these devices on a week long campout... calling home simply makes home sickness worse, they interfere with the boys participating in the activities they're supposed to, and they are at risk of getting lost. Only the last two apply on a weekend campout. Adults, for the most part, not always but for the most part, tend to be more responsible in their use.

 

Simply put there are more reasons for an adult to have a cell phone at a campout than to not and there are more reasons for a boy to not have a cell phone than to have one.

 

I take my cell phone but the most use it gets is as my alarm clock.

[PeteM]

In my experience, the excuse that the Scouts give is:" What if there is an emergency? What about then? I could use it to call for help and save the day", So I tried an experiment.

Toward the end of a campout, I asked the SPL to find one of the Scouts that have used the above excuse to bring me both him and the phone. I asked the scout to show me how much signal AND how much charge there was left on the phone's battery.

He couldn't, BECAUSE he and his buddies had depleted the charge over the course of the campout by PLAYING GAMES that were built into the phone. I asked him, "What if there was a REAL emergency?"

He replied, "We would just use yours, since we all know that you don't play games on your phone".

 

The Troop's rule still stands, NO SCOUT CELL PHONES OTHER THAN SPL.

 

Pete

(edited to correctmy poor spelling)(This message has been edited by PeteM)

[epalmer84]

We don't allow electronics past watches, flashlights (and no, flashlights with radios don't count) and a GPS. If they want to play with it in the vehicle and leave it, that is fine.

 

Cell phones get turned off during meetings. Adults who are on call are expected to use the vibrate feature and go out of the room when using the phone.

 

At Camp Shenandoah, you pretty much have to walk down to the parking lot to get a signal- you might get lucky in the evenings, but it is spotty. I have taken my cell phone with me on several camping trips just to check coverage- it is really quite poor in the rural areas of the Shenandoah Valley. There is at least one dead zone between home and work. Relying on a cell phone for emergency use under these conditions is a fool's wager.

 

Ed

[MarkS]

Cell phones are just one tool in the arsenal of emergency preparedness. Not the only tool. I don't rely on any one thing to perpare for an emergency.

[fotoscout]

We actually went so far as to ask our Executive Board to support a complete ban on youth cell phones at camp.

 

This has become a huge problem, especially with kids who are special needs or borderline special needs....you all know the kids I refer to. In one case a kid called home and told his mom that the camp had no food. She called some other moms in the troop and before anyone knew what was going on, there were 5 mom's coming into camp with tons of food for the poor boys who had no food. Well of course the Camp Director got wind of this and decided to give the mom's a tour of the walk-in boxes, freezers and food storage areas. I understand that the kid who started this little episode had a really rough summer from that point on.

 

As for other electronics in camp, video games are prohibited, but we don't come down too hard on Ipods or other music players. We do remind everyone that no electronics are the best electronics, and that they are on their own. Don't come complaining when your Ipod disappears.

 

As for the trip to camp or any campout; we let the boys have whatever they like, video games, DVD, etc...etc. It all stays in the car when we reach our destination.

[evmori]

I have always felt cell phones & iPods & laptops & video games have no place on a camping trip. If a kid can't go without his Gameboy for 48 hours then there is a bigger problem.

 

Ed Mori

1 Peter 4:10

[Hunt]

I would support any policy the PLC comes up with.

[fotoscout]

Ed,

 

For the most part I agree with you. When we camp locally the kids don't seem to bring any of the electronic "stuff". But, when they're going to be in car for an hour or two, we'd rather they be occupied and engaged. The ride is always part of the outing, and I happen to believe that they are entitled to have some fun on the ride.

 

 

[FScouter]

"If a kid can't go without his Gameboy for 48 hours then there is a bigger problem."

 

In our church, the weekly news bulletin was being handed out with the order of worship as churchgoers entered the sanctuary. The minister was annoyed that the congregation seemed to reading the bulletin during the service instead of paying attention to the sermon. His solution was to "ban" the bulletin by withholding it until after the service was over. Now, his sermons are much more interesting, NOT.

 

Yes, a bigger problem exists. What is the bigger problem? What is the best solution to the bigger problem? Unless the bigger problem can be identified and discussed, a ban on boredom-relief devices isn't going to solve anything.

[Stosh]

Last weekend I had a 4 hour drive to the river we were going to canoe on. In the vehicle I drove there were 3 boys and one other adult. The adult sat in the middle row of seats with a boy, another was in the far back and one rode "shotgun". The adult's two sons rode in another vehicle.

 

The boy way in the back drew in his sketch book the entire trip up and back, taking the time to come up and show me his drawings when we made our rest stops. The boy in the middle row read a book. And the scout in the front seat chatted with me all the way up and back. He did at one point ask me if I enjoyed listening to the radio while driving. I told him it's always playing when I'm driving alone. He asked why I didn't have it playing on that trip and I said, "Lead by example." Our policy is no electronic devices. A car radio counts as such. Our conversation continued on without any interruption for the rest of the trip. The other adult spent his time watching the scenery go by, something he didn't get to do very often when he had to drive the family.

 

While it did very little to encourage getting to know each other, everyone seemed satisfied with the lack of electronic stimulus.

 

With a background in counseling and psychology, one must always remember that boredom is not a result of lack of stimulus, but more a factor that the individual cannot entertain themselves. One of my psych professors once told me that if a person can't sit in a dark closet for two hours without being bored, they will in fact be boring to other people as well. We are required to develop not only the physical and moral development of these boys, but also the mental alertness that is often dulled with outside electronic stimulus.

 

 

Stosh

[Aquila calva]

Things have changed a little since my days as a scout in the 60s. Going to camp. There we were in the back seats of a large station wagon, speeding down the two-lane highway at 75 miles per hour, no air conditioning, no seat belts, windows wide open, playing rock-paper-scissors, and maybe card games, hoping the cards wouldnt blow out the window, hearing Beatles on the radio, breathing in the second-hand smoke from the Scoutmasters cigarettes, reading the occasional set of Burma Shave signs, counting cows in the field. Ah, the good-old days, or not!

 

Thanks for your comments. Are there other troops that actually HAVE a defined policy about electronic devices? So far, its sounds like the ideas are all over the map.

 

If there is a troop where the PLC actually made this decision, what did the PLC decide?

 

(Thanks, Stosh, for your thoughts. I wrote the above entry before I read your post. I, too, think conversation is the best, but that may not be what the PLC decides.)

 

[evmori]

Were the preacher;s sermons better before he instituted the new policy or were you too busy reading?

 

Boredom relief? If camping trips are so boring that the kids need to bring electronic devices to cure the boredom, then maybe the PLC needs a little work in planning the camping trips. Relief from boredom is a poor excuse to allow electronic devices on camping trips!

 

Ed Mori

1 Peter 4:10

[OldGreyEagle]

Ed, I beleive that was the point, if kids spend time with noses buried in electronics, the answer isnt to ban electronics. Wasnt there a thread on this topic by Beavah, something about banning things is the cowards way out or words like that?