Early Departures from Campouts

Scouting Magazine publishes answers to questions from Scouters in 'Front Line Stuff'.
They have posted questions that will be featured in upcoming issues here. There is also an archive of past questions.

Here's the question for the May-June 2008 issue.

Early Departures From Weekend Camp-Outs

Our troop has a growing problem of parents picking up their sons from a camp-out on Sunday morning, right after breakfast but before the real work of breaking camp begins. The parents have many excuses for their son's early departure, but this makes the other Scouts feel like they are getting stuck with all the take-down and packing chores. They even wonder if they should ask their parents to make an excuse to pick them up early. Any suggestions?

J.S.
Dallas, Tex.

I would encourage J.S. to take this to his Patrol Leader's Council at their next meeting. They are the ones who have to do the chores, they should be able to find some resolution.

A more predictable reaction is creating a policy of some sort or tossing the problem to the Troop Committee. To do either denies the Scouts a prime opportunity to  practice some leadership and self government. Once he has asked the PLC to solve the problem J.S. should listen carefully to their discussion, perhaps ask a question of two and let the Scouts formulate a solution.

If they own the solution they are more likely to make it work.

Comments

[scoutingmaniac]

First step I would say would be to involve the PLC in the matter. see the PLC can come up with a solution that is more fair to the rest of the scouts. Try that for the next campout and then if that does not seem to improve the problem ask the PLC again to evaluate what went right and what went wrong. If the PLC after the next outing after that second evaluation it does not work out. The next logical step would be to write something into the Troop bylaws or have the Troop sit down with the parents and have a heart to heart talk about staying through the whole campout. Yes their are reasonable reasons to leave early but the fact remains the Troop leadership needs to decide what is appropriate and not appropriate in this particular Troop.