2 Deep Leadership - Husband and Wife

[kbandit]

As a husband (SM) and wife (Comm) we do not consider ourselves as two deep leadership. It is CYA for us. We have never had to cancel an outing because of not enough leaders. If for some reason we did not have additional adult leadership we would cancel. We are not babysitters parent(s) would have to step up to the plate.

 

Kbandit

[Gunny2862]

At our NLE training it is pointed out that it isn't against the rules to do Husband and Wife(H&W) two-deep for YPT at the Troop level, but that it is foolish to do so on both the H&W part for their liability and also for the youth.

 

The previous SM made a practice of enlisting his Wife or his Father, or Aged out Son to do YPT when there was a lack of parental interest. (His Father and his Son were registered as Committee members)

I won't be doing that if I can in any way avoid it(To include a lot of griping to my CC about getting some help recruited). Another Parent/Committee member will need to step up.

 

My ethics training (from various sources) often pointed out the appearance test - if it looks like it could be wrong - why would you leave it open to question and do it that way? And in some instances H&W leadership with no or minimal other adult leadership could look hinky very quickly.

Now if you've got additional adult/s going with the H&W team, then no problem.

 

So CAN you do it, sure.

SHOULD you do it, another question. I might - depending on circumstances but would definitely prefer not to and only after I

have tried all other options first.

[Gold Winger]

Call me sill, but I never gave the whole thing a second thought. I thought that two deep was supposed to be in place so that if a boy got injured, one adult could go for help whilst the other stayed behind. Not for CYA. The no one-on-one is for CYA.

 

My son's patrol used to go on outings with two ASM who are the parent's of one of the boys. I never gave it a second thought. Now I guess I should start interrogating my son about what went on.

 

You have to let go and trust folks at some point. What if you send two unrelated ASMs? They could be in cahoots and as soon as they are out of sight of the parents, they'll light up a joint and start drinking Southern Comfort from a hip flask.

[mikecummings157]

The husband & wife going in this case does meet the minimum requirements, but many folks have posted the risks of going on a campout with this thin leadership. Another problem would be if an emergency at home came up, both spouses may have to leave, so the boys would have no leadership left. For practical purposes, from my experience, a mimimum of 3 unrelated adults should go on a weekend.

 

It's a tough call to cancel an outing, but it may be the right thing to do.