🚀 go-pugleaf

In a previous article, macman@bernina.ethz.ch (Danny Schwendener) says:

>                                    ... One of the concrete effects
>is that this year, the three-day campout on Whitsuntide (May 29-31)
>will also host a cub scout pack in their own tent(s).

What is Whitsuntide?

>I was amazed at how that proposal passed so smoothly, as just six
>months ago, the voices from the troop leaders were rather critical
>on the cub and camping subject. One of the major arguments at that
>time was that campouts were one of the key events in the scouting
>program and that it wouldn't come as a surprise anymore to those
>newcomers who had campouts in their cub scout years.
>
>What is your personal opinion on that issue?
>
>Should cubs participate in co-ed campouts?

Yes.  It gives them a chance to see what Boy Scouts do, and whets
their appetite for being with the Troop.  A couple one-night campouts
will get them ready for weekend camping. 

>If yes, under what conditions?

Limited camping for Cub Scouts is good idea.  By limited, I mean
one or two campouts a year with the WeBeLoS Den Leader's.  A
campout is required for the Outdoorsman Activity Pin, I believe.
All Cubs can benefit from family camping outside of the Pack.
The WeBeLoS spend a night with the Troop in a cabin in mid-December
with a number of, but not all, fathers.  It gives me a chance, as
Scoutmaster to 'scout' out the father's for possible Scoutmaster
Assistants or Troop Committee members.

>And alternatively, should packs (or dens with older cubs) have a 
>campout on their own (as opposed to co-ed campouts with scouts)?

Yes.  Our Pack, 306 Mentor Ohio [Northeast Ohio Council] reserves
cabins in the early Spring for the boys and their fathers for one night
of camping.  Cabins provide a certain amount of roughing it and still
guarentee no problems with wet sleeping or cramp space; the fathers
are like it because there not on the ground too!  They arrive early
Saturday morning and stow their gear in the cabins.  The rest of the
morning and afternoon is spent in activities the leaders have
developed, usually scouting related.  The cubs collect firewood for a
campfire, either at the camp's fire-ring or in the dining hall
(depending on the weather).  Kitchen duties are assigned by cabin,
boys and fathers together.  After Sunday's breakfast, they pack up
and checkout.

>-- Danny Schwendener         macman@bernina.ethz.ch
>   Wolfsmeute Nidau/Glockenhof, Sihlstr. 33, CH-8001 Zurich, Switzerland
>   m.h.c. Troop 14, San Francisco            
-- 
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