How do troops handle reservations?

[Beavah]

Jeffrey H writes:

 

Plan well ahead for your campouts so they don't get cancelled because of late reservations(e.g., campsites or facilities are full and the Troop can't get in).

 

Our Troop seems to be falling into this pattern and we are not the campout/outdoors Troop we should be. We have good intentions, but poor follow-through. Our Troop is boy-led and our PLC plans the campouts and events calendar. However, the boys become discouraged when the Adult Leadership falls down on the reservations side of the planning. Reservation planning is led by one of our Troop Committee members with input from our Scoutmaster. It's not working well. In the last 6 months, we have had to cancel 2 trips and make a major site change on another because we waited too late.

 

Yah, Jeffrey, sounds like da perfect time for the boys to take over making the reservations from the incompetent adults! Seriously. The boys should just do it. Nothing stops a lad from making a reservation. If a deposit is required, have the boy get a check from da troop treasurer and mail it.

 

I think being deliberately incompetent as adults is a great way to get the boys to step up into leadership and planning, eh?

 

Any other suggestions for Jeffrey?

 

How does your troop or crew handle the reservation side of planning?

 

Beavah

 

[shortridge]

A lot of state parks and other camping locations these days use online reservations. A few clicks, and you can tell instantly if sites are available for a particular weekend. When your PLC maps out the yearly program calendar, have a computer nearby to check availability. If the campsite isn't taking reservations that far in advance, find out when they open up, and put that on the calendar for the PLC to take care of first thing. That way, there's none of this waiting-too-late stuff.

[dg98adams]

I think some trouble our PLC is facing is most activities being planned out of the area want a credit card (CC) for a reservation/deposit.

 

I know in the past, the PLC had the SM or ASM use their own CC for the reservation and the Troop reimbursed him after the trip. A couple times the CC was only needed for the reservation, and the Troop paid the fee with a check "day of".

 

I think the SM is considering a Troop Debit card... don't know if that's a god idea or not.

[Buffalo Skipper]

Our troop has a debit card, which is handled by our treasurer, who has held that position for 10 years. Our troop has a unique situation in that our treasurer is retired and attends every meeting and probably 10 campouts a year, even though his son eagled/aged out 3 years ago.

 

If someone else needs to "order" something or book a reservation online, we are good about using the troop card for that purpose. Having the debit card and good leadership certainly makes things easier for us.

[acco40]

We ran into issues that our council, state parks, county parks, and many other areas do not let minors (i.e. Scouts) make reservations. So I paired the responsible Scout to our committee "outings" person.

 

One barrier to break - in advance to a 13 year old is the day before. In advance wrt annual planning can be 9 months or more. Once the the annual plan came to fruition - put names down on paper (Scout/Adult) and tracked it at PLC meetings.(This message has been edited by acco40)

[qwazse]

We do a mixture:

The PLC tells us which camps they want to go to the following year. (Yes, it's come to a year in advance, even for council camps.)

Based on lulls in the local school's schedule, we pick dates that *may* work. This is easy when the PLC is all from the same school and are in the same activities; otherwise, just get out the darts.

SM goes to HQ on the morning of first day available (usually a school day) and pushes the paperwork for our preferred dates.

Council makes it very difficult for this process to be boy led.

 

As mentioned above, state parks / wilderness areas are much more user friendly, so we sick the boys on those.

[Jeffrey H]

Thanks for the good advice from everyone. I'm an ASM with the troop and having a good time, but it's been frustrating watching some of our opportunities vanish. I'm not the official events/activities guy, but I want to suggest positive feedback to Troop leadership and step in and help where needed.