dedkad

Philmont recommends two-person tents instead of singles to reduce footprint and I read elsewhere on this forum that tenting with your son is discouraged at Philmont. I need help on how best to plan for this "requirement" so we aren't forced into a last minute change of plans when we arrive at Philmont. We have 11 people going: Three male adults, one female adult (all adults have a son going on trip, no adults are related), one male "youth" who will be 18 (parent not going), and six male youth under 18. Here are my questions: 1. 18-year olds can attend Philmont as a youth or adult. As we already had four adults going (the max allowed), we registered him as a youth for Philmont. He is also registered as a youth in the troop since he just turned 18 this year. Can he share a tent with a 16 or 17 year old or will he need to tent alone since he is technically adult-aged? 2. If we are faced with the situation of odd numbers of youth and adults, would Philmont allow one-person tents for a scout and an adult or would they force a scout to sleep with his parent to keep as many people in two-person tents as possible? 3. If scout actually wants to sleep with parent, would they allow that? OPTION 1: One-person tents: female adult, male adult, 18-year old "youth" = 3 total Two-person tents: two male adults, three pairs of scouts = 4 total OPTION 2: One-person tents: one adult = 1 total Two-person tents: two male adults, one female or male adult with son, one 18-year old with a 16 or 17-year old, two pairs of scouts = 4 total There are other possible options I can think of depending on what the answers are to my questions above, but I'll leave it at this for now.

Major email exchange going on in our troop right now about the age restriction (I prefer to call it a recommendation) because we have a new leader in charge of our backpacking program who is concerned about running afoul of the BSA guidelines. In the past we've always left it to the leader to decide if the scout is capable of going on a particular trip, regardless of age. I think that flexibility is going to remain.

I hate backpacking on trails where horses are allowed. They chew up the trails so they are really dusty. You get stuck behind them on the trail and you're eating more dust. You get to your destination and finally find the perfect campsite only to find horse manure all over the nice flat area where you want to set up your tents. Worst of all, though, is the amount of gear that people put on those horses that they would never think to bring on their own into the wilderness. At one lake we had a horse group camping nearby with boom boxes and ice chests full of beer. Really took away from the backcountry experience.

I saw it in Cub Scouts.

If your troop is car camping, you could invest in a propane campfire.

I believe the neckerchief slide is where you can express your individuality.

If people don't want to lock down their privacy settings so that others can't see that they paid BSA Troop xxx money for something, I kind of see that as free advertising for scouts. "Hey, I noticed when I was spying on you on your Venmo app, that you paid some money to Scouts for your son to go on a camping trip. I didn't know your son was a Scout. Tell me more about it because I have a child who might be interested in joining."

I stopped counting my kids ages in months when they turned from 23 months old to 2 years old.

Two or more adult leaders be present at all times? Maybe I didn't pay close enough attention when I watched the new training videos, but isn't there still a difference between two-deep leadership and no one-on-one contact?

Interesting about all the desserts people are talking about. None of the summer camps my son has been to in California allow food in the campsites because of the critters.

Many camps have been dealing with this for years when it comes to adults and scouts having to share a bathhouse. Problem is easily solved with a few portapotties and designated shower times for female adults, male adults, male scouts, and female scouts. And let's be real. My son barely changes his clothes when he's at camp, let alone take a shower. This is not a valid reason to keep girl troops from attending all weeks of camp.

Anybody use Venmo to receive payments for scouting activities? We've had a request from a parent for our troop to consider this. Might not be a bad idea. I can't tell you how many times I try to chase down people for payment only to be told they don't have their checkbook on them. Just wondering what the pros and cons are for using Venmo.

Sounds like summer camp for the Montessori crowd.

I talked to the Committee Chair tonight. Apparently, the paper I saw with the two names on it that they were discussing was not the result of the election. Odd that they would have those names on there when they didn't really represent anything, but I have no reason to doubt him. That will teach me to stick my nose where it doesn't belong! Never hurts to verify, though.

Not North Carolina.