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Question about Webelos Camping


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I am a Sr Webelos den leader and am thinking about taking my boys on a Webelos only camping trip. Last year as Jr Webelos we went to a Webelos Campout at a local Athletic Club (they slept overnight there and completed a few activity badge requirements in Sportsman, Fitness and Readyman). I am planning to get BALOO trained and my husband will have IOLS from Boy Scouts so we are covered with training. I have a couple of questions.

 

1. Are we allowed to tent camp in MD in November or does it have to be Cabin Camping? I'm good either way with going camping I just want to make sure I'm following the rules as it can be cold in MD in winter (or it may be 70 degrees you never know!)

 

2. When looking at the guide to safe scouting it says Webelos overnight but not weekend camping. Does that mean we can only go Saturday-Sunday (go up Saturday morning and come home Sunday afternoon) and not Friday-Sunday (go up Friday night and come home Sunday afternoon)?

 

Any advice is appreciated. Thanks so much.

 

Ericka

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You should be fine, although you may want to contact the trainer a in order to A) Make sure your husband go credit for OWLS ( some placed will give credit for OWLS and IOLS, some won't) and B) Make sure your council does not have stricter requirements on camping.

 

 

Don't know why it would be limited only to 1 nite, except that someone hasn't updated the language from 30+ years ago.

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I never noticed the separate "overnights" vs "weekend overnights" before. Seems pretty dumb to me.

 

Our Pack campouts were always Fri - Sun, 2 nights. Our campouts were always approved by council, never had any problem.

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'Nut,

 

Way back in the dark ages when I was a Webelos, Webelos were limited to a one night camp out with Boy Scouts or dad at a "Cub and Dad" weekend, which was a Saturday-Sunday event. Somethings take a while to change, just look at the requirements and artwork in the various CS handbooks, they are 99.999% identical to the one I had growing up.

 

Yep, my pack also camp 2 nights, and council events for Cubs are 2 nites too.

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BALOO is required for camping as a Pack.

 

For Webelos camping alone as a den there is no outdoor training that is required by BSA National. Outdoor Leader Skills for Webelos Leaders is highly recommended, but not required by BSA National.

 

Check with your local council to verify what their requirements are. Local councils are allowed to have stricter policies.

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When I took my Webelos on a two-day adventure where they canoed out to a primitive site on an abandoned island and the boys did their fun things. I explained to the council there would be canoeing involved but it would be father son in each canoe, they would be on an island with no facilities, but we would be prepared to handle that appropriately and I asked if I needed any approval from the council. The SE said, "No, but be sure to have a good time."

 

So, either there were no council bans in place for such a trip or they didn't care what we did as a den. So we just followed his requirement and had a good time.

 

Stosh

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I don't think we need OWLS because we will have someone IOLS trained which is basically the same thing. In our district they do IOLS and OWLS all together the same weekend combined together.

 

 

IOLS and OWLS are not the same thing. OWLS is geared towards Webelos aged activities and transitioning to Boy Scouts. IOLS is First Class camping skills. IOLS does not supercede OWLS or BALOO.

 

Camp to the ability of your boys and other adult leaders. If they can't handle the in tents cold (pun intended), go for the cabins.

 

Have fun!

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Sprout18: Greetings from the Old Line State and welcome to the Wonderful World of Wondering if I'm doing it right. And to the Scouter Forums.

Never anything wrong with getting some more training. The worst it can do is make you think. And give you another excuse to go camping....

In our home district (sounds like yours) folks that attend IOLS can stay another two hours and get the philosophy/safety part of OWLS and leave the site with IOLS and OWLS certs. Yes, it is another step up from BALOO.

As has been said, BSA is concerned with safety and accountability. So Cubs camp in a Pack with mom and/or pop. Webs camp as a Den with the WDL and his/her colleague AND pop/mom, as possible, drive the car up to the campsite, YP rulings apply. If you are going up to Cunningham Falls, be aware they close early in the fall! Camp Bennett may be open for group camping.... Back yards of grampa's farm is always available.

 

Thanks for all you do!

YiS

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As has been stated, IOLS and OWLS are different courses, in part where they differ is in instruction on requirements for Webelo camping as compared to requirements for Boy Scout camping. :)

 

OWLS and Baloo are also not the same training, because one is based on Cub event requirements, skills, and supervision, the other Webelo event requirements, skills, and supervision, which are also different.

 

To say that any of these three courses covers another is line saying Venturing YP covers Boy Scout and Cub Scout YP, which it doesn't. Each training course id distinct for a reason.

 

Your Webelo Scouts certainly can camp multiple nights with correctly trained leadership and supervision. I

suggest speaking with you training chair, they can help you sort this out.

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  • 1 year later...

I don't think we need OWLS because we will have someone IOLS trained which is basically the same thing. In our district they do IOLS and OWLS all together the same weekend combined together.

 

 

IOLS and OWLS are not the same thing. OWLS is geared towards Webelos aged activities and transitioning to Boy Scouts. IOLS is First Class camping skills. IOLS does not supercede OWLS or BALOO.

 

Camp to the ability of your boys and other adult leaders. If they can't handle the in tents cold (pun intended), go for the cabins.

 

Have fun!

absolutely right.  It seems very common to think that with IOLS the others are not needed.

 

They wouldn't cover the rules and such needed for cubs in IOLS, since it's a Scout level training.

As others have written, these are all separate

iols, owl (also has other names), and baloo

 

In some ways redundant, yes..... & I think that's a big reason that people blow them off.

 

and around here they aren't thought very often..... well IOLS is, sometimes with OWLS tacked on.

It took me over a year of looking in all surrounding councils before I found a BALOO course I could make.  They are very rare.  Honestly not worth the wait IMHO.

I have never seen OWLS offered alone

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I have taught both the Boy Scout and the Webelos curriculum over the years and yes, they are two different animals, but a lot of overlap.  The part that does not overlap is very important to know. It doesn't hurt to know them both especially SM's who are hosting Webelos visitors.

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I've read some districts will combine the two so that the common materials are together, then split off into IOLS and WeLOT.

 

I've seen it done where the course did IOLS then kept the Cub leaders a little long to talk about some of the differences.

 

Anyone remember when national was going to combine to the courses?

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