better campout participation

[Eagle732]

Yes, we have been working on completing the C&O Canal, 184.5 miles long. http://www.nps.gov/CHOH

The Scouts decided on this at their annual planning meeting. We have been working on completing the trail and earning the C&O Canal Medal so yes we've been there before but on different sections of the trail. After this trip the troop will have completed half the trail.

 

Also for this year we are doing or have done the following camping trips: District winter camp, a winter cabin camp at the local Scout camp, 2 backpacking trips (one local and one on the Appalachian Trail), canoeing/kayaking trip with an overnight on an island on the Susquahanna River, a local camp out at our private campsite and tubing on the local creek, camping at Antietam and hiking the battlefield, caving with a guide/naturalist, snow tubing this coming winter. We camp every month with a week long summer camp.

 

All planned by the Scouts. So why do less than 1/2 attend?

[MattR]

Here's something I noticed in my troop. The PLC came up with a calendar that they liked but few of them actually showed up at the campouts they picked. I think we were getting in a rut so we scrapped the calendar and started over. We're trying to work with the scouts on creating a better calendar. On our Spring camporee we told everyone to bring camo for capture the flag and also required every patrol to use a dutch oven for dinner. They said it was one of the better campouts they've had. The thing is they never would have come up with this on their own. We're trying to show them how to come up with more fun and to challenge themselves. They would not have voted for a dutch oven campout but I forced it and then had a meeting with a bunch of dutch oven recipes they could pick from. I've taken over the calendar for three months, after which I hope the scouts will be more willing to find and try different things.

 

Your calendar looks great to me, but I've never done those things before. I'd ask yourself if you're doing the same things over and over.

 

A completely different but related issue I've noticed is that motivating older scouts is not easy. Having fun is not enough. Adults want notoriety, challenge, power, success, etc, and older scouts are starting to need the same things. I've talked to a lot of Scoutmasters and many of them create a lot of PORs that are specific to each scout's desires. The standard troop has roughly 10% of the scouts in a position of responsibility and some troops have 40%. I think this is a way to let scouts excel at something so I'm going to move in that direction.

[jtswestark]

Sometimes you just need to liven it up a little. Maybe go back and look at some of the things you all did a few years back that worked well. Ie we cycle through Gettysburg every three to four years, particular Camporees every two or three years, and so forth. Try something different, keep an open mind, talk to your area troops about their best activities. Try and tie different things into the weekends, something historical, some totally unrelated fun, or something they need for advancement (ie bike ride or climbing wall for camping MB). Do a little research on the web, look into something completely different than you ever did before. Obscure merit badges like Aviation: set up at the nearby air national guard base with a tour of the base & control tower, lunch at the NCO club, maybe a flight (still working on this one!). Sometimes the most gratifying weekends can take the most work to set up and coordinating can be a real bear, but those seem to be the weekends the boys remember most.

 

At times with our schedule it gets tough as once you take out Jan Klondike, Feb ski weekend, April spring & Oct fall Camporees, May summer camp good turn campout, Jun Summer camp, Aug higher adventure, July Hiatus, and Dec Christmas campout, we only have about 4 months where we can really go do something different from year to year. So we really try and liven those events up and go do some real cool things.

 

Always make it a point at the closing of the meeting after a campout to talk about how much fun we had and all the great things we did, believe me - that practice really burns the guys that didn't go. Even if it was just a rotten campout, by that time you can bust on some of the guys (or ourselves) that had a rough time and laugh about it some. They love busting on us adults about stuff like that. All in fun! The standing joke is how I always get our guys lost on hikes or we end up going further than we planned. That happened once, maybe twice, and before just about all of the guys were even in the troop, but now it's legend...

 

Honestly, Im as big of a boy lead as there is, but we adults do this part. We just cant rely on the youth to successfully set these kinds of things up. To get their buy-in they fill in the details and make choices when available, but we need to set the structure of the events for the calendar. Challenges occur when you have Scouts that 'just don't like to camp.' Well, you can't function in a leadership role when you aren't there in the field to apply all that we work on in the meetings. I tell each of the leadership candidates at the beginning of their terms - don't take the position if you can't make the campouts. That seems to help some. If younger guys don't see the older guys there, then they are leading by the wrong kind of example and applying negative peer pressure.

 

Give your families and Scouts plenty of notice! Usually, the activity first on the calendar wins! We work on our calendar in the spring to announce dates for fall and over the summer finalize dates/events and roll it out in detail in September for the complete year. Changing dates and events at the last minute will kill your events. We also lose about a quarter of our guys to band during football season, but we encourage Saturday morning arrivals in those cases. Some will, some won't. You just aren't going to get 100% attendance. We typically get about 2/3 of the troop at any given campout, and I'm pretty content with that.

 

Have some fun planning this stuff is a real blast!

 

Jack Smith

Scoutmaster, Troop 935

Buckeye Council, Ohio

 

[Eagle732]

Matt,

Our troop had not done backpacking, bike hikes or canoeing for years before I became SM. I suggested that we could do these things if the Scouts wanted to. My belief is that if its at all feasible and they want to do it then it's my job to make it happen. Are some of these repeats, yea, they wouldn't miss winter camp, and really like canoeing. I wonder if some of these activities are too physical for some of today's kids.

[SMT224]

We have a pretty good turn out for camping - more than 3/4 usually go. Those who don't go have a solid excuse - sports, band, job, family obligation - something they cannot get out of. Most of our Troop activities focus on camping. We start preparing two weeks ahead of the monthly trip by asking who is going - if a Scout says "no", he's asked why, and gets a bit of chiding if the reason isn't good enough. Answers like "maybe" or "I'm not sure" or "I don't know" are all unacceptable by the other Scouts and are taken to be a solid "no". This peer pressure seems to result in a lot of the undecided Scouts suddenly deciding to go.

 

The Scouts spend most of the rest of the meeting working in Patrols preparing menus and getting their chuck boxes together. The Scouts are usually excited about the camping trip and about what they will be eating. At the meeting just before the camping trip Patrols decide who will be tenting with whom, and then those Scouts set up their tent to ensure it's in good shape and has all the poles & stakes they will need. Then they carefully pack it away and mark it with their names. The atmosphere is something like preparing for some kind of a military mission - the Scouts are excited and psyched. Those who are not going on the camping trip help out or work on other Scout skills, but it's obvious they wish they were going too.

 

After the camp-out we spend a meeting discussion how the trip went - the good & bad, and what we'll change or do differently the next time. Then chuck boxes are cleaned, any dirty pots, pans, or utensils are cleaned up. Tents are set up if they are damp and need to dry.

 

What this means is that out of a month of Troop meetings, 3 focus specifically and almost totally on the monthly camping trip. The forth meeting is used for advancement and Scout skills. Does this focus on camping enhance participation? I sure think so. The guys are really into camping, so that's what we do. They also heavily participate in program planning so have full buy-in on where we go and what we do. The Scouts we loose are those who discover they just don't like camping and all it entails.

 

[Eagle732]

We're using a portion of each meeting preparing for the next camping trip. What I haven't been doing is asking each Scout personally and in front of the other Scouts if they are going and if not then why. I might just might start though.

[MattR]

Eagle732,

 

I doubt that today's kids are not physical enough. Some scouts are obviously stronger than others, but I'm guessing you're reasonable (or else you wouldn't be here asking).

 

I don't know if I asked this before but did the scouts that picked the calendar go on the campouts? If less than half of those that picked the calendar went then that suggests they're in a rut. If all of those guys go but the younger scouts don't go, that's another problem.

 

I do like SMT224's idea of checking out the tents and patrol boxes before and after the campout. I also like five minutes of thorns, roses, and buds at the next meeting. We sort of do it but I think giving everyone a chance to talk is good. I recently changed the meetings so most are about the campout. Pick songs, pick skits, plan it all out and then have a game.

 

So now the challenge is coming up with some aspect of the campout that's new every month. eg, we came up with GPS frizbee golf (the "basket" is a coordinate, if the frizbee is at the coordinate then it's in the basket), so now we need to teach the scouts how to use the different coordinate systems.

[jtswestark]

About five years ago I told the patrol leaders they each needed a skit and song for the campout campfire. Instant whining, complaining, nashing of teeth. Told SPL to get an MC to use it for credit towards Communications MB, more groaning. But the night went great.

Couple months later, we did it again, then the following campout, then the next. Now, they do it all on their own - every single campout, even if we don't have a fire to gather around. Yes, the skits get redundant (but seeing JC Penny in 10 deg weather is hilarious!), and sometimes really wierd, but the MC keeps it going and we have a blast. No need to force it at all anymore and it's become a real important part of the campout routine. Even the guys that had a rough day or night before end up smiling and chipping in. Wonderful for defeating homesickness. I was amazed at how important this aspect has become to a campout.

 

Don't let them leave it out!

 

 

Jack Smith

Scoutmaster, Troop 935

Buckeye Council, Ohio

[ThunderFox]

We do the Annual Planning Conferenc/Junior Leader Training weekend then a revisit 6 months later when we have new leader elections and JLT. Troops do fall into ruts and as some here have said they do not know what they do not know.

 

At a time when we had the same problem, at our regular SM staff meeting after the troop meeting, I asked the team to come up with ideas and experiences from troops they grew up in or some other way. We compiled the list and picked things that were appropriate for our troop at that time. We divided the list so each of us had a couple of "ideas".

 

The next phase of my devious plan was the adults over the next couple of months would "casually" share the ideas with the patrol leader of the respective patrol they were assigned to observe. I also made "casual suggestions" to the SPL when we had conversations; especially the conference we had prior to each PLC.

 

At the next Annual Planning Conference the Scouts came up with some great ideas. Yes, some of them came from our adult list, but several came because the "suggestions" sparked some original concepts from the patrols. Bottom Line: our program got an injection of enthusiasm and increased participation.

 

One of the top ideas was "The Great River Raft Race". Each patrol had to aquire scrap materials and bring it to the campout by the river. On Saturday morning, they would build their raft from the scrap material any way they wanted it. Then mid-afternoon, the patrols would race down the river to the meeting point where the river met the lake at a campsite. Awards were presented at the campfire. The PLC had come up with a list of awards in addition to 1st, 2nd, 3rd for the race. We had awards for Scout Spirit Raft, Most Futuristic Raft, Most Seaworthy Raft and etc. Any Scout who missed that campout missed few more after that because the fun level went way up.

 

Even the adults had fun; photos and video allowed us to share the fun with families at the next Court of Honor.

 

Cheers,

Ol' Thunder Fox

[True Believer]

Mafaking wrote: "My guess is that you have a disconnect with the parents not the scouts. The parents have checked off this experience as sufficient. They are the ones who see little value in your camping program. Ask them what's wrong with your program. Your scout will go if mom clears their calendar and drops them off. "

 

This is a HUGE point, not to be overlooked. If Mom doesn't think the program to be important to her son, other things will be scheduled in. The default position will be that "we've had a busy week, and it's the only free weekend we have."

Be Boy-led, but communicate with the parents. Tell Mom how much her son is accomplishing/growing, with specific examples. In order for camping trips to be a priority, you have to give the parent, particularly Mom, it seems, value must be given.

[True Believer]

Mafaking wrote: "My guess is that you have a disconnect with the parents not the scouts. The parents have checked off this experience as sufficient. They are the ones who see little value in your camping program. Ask them what's wrong with your program. Your scout will go if mom clears their calendar and drops them off. "

 

This is a HUGE point, not to be overlooked. If Mom doesn't think the program to be important to her son, other things will be scheduled in. The default position will be that "we've had a busy week, and it's the only free weekend we have."

Be Boy-led, but communicate with the parents. Tell Mom how much her son is accomplishing/growing, with specific examples. In order for camping trips to be a priority, you have to give the parent, particularly Mom, it seems, value must be given.