ace4au

Our Spring Camporee was a "night time" event. We did a variation of the above mentioned "Relief at Mafeking" from the US Scouter site. Some of the events...

-fire starting

-3 point orienteering course

-finding north without a compass

-Kim's game

-Morse code

Shoot me your email and I'll send you the bulk of the details.

This event was so popular that we're doing it again this coming Spring.

Gags...

Check your PM.

We often leave early enough on Sunday morning for them to get to their own church.

Here's what I'm not understanding...

As the CS Roundtable Commissioner, how did you not already know of this rule? Whether by word of mouth from other District Cub leaders or by the visits/discussions with this troop prior to your joining it? I know that every prospective parent meeting we sit in, stuff like this is brought up by us or the parent (our troop also doesn't allow women to camp with the troop, but they can be an ASM, all of which is another story for a different thread).

The bulk of this parents scout training and experience is in Cubs, where parents (often times, mothers) have to serve as adult volunteers to literally run the program. Boy Scouts is not like that. I've seen time and again, long time Cub adults come to Boy Scout troops thinking they have to volunteer like they used to, and that's not necessarily the case any longer. Why not keep working with the Cubs, while your son moves up to Boy Scouts? What's wrong with being a overly trained member of the Troop Committee or one day, the Chair?

Your Wood Badge training teaches you that all this is about the Boys, not the beads (or any other adult awards/recognition). I'm not saying you should up and leave the troop nor am I saying that you need to stay because your son has already made friends. But what I would say is this, talk with your son. Ask him bluntly and honestly and see if he wants you to be around as much as you're wanting to. Then take his answer and accept it. If he wants you around on these campouts and other outings, tell him of the troop's (CO) woman policy and see what he'd like to do, stay or visit other troops? If he doesn't, accept it, and maybe find another position within the troop (or district) to continue to serve in, and at the same time, have interaction with your son in a Scouting experience.

Our troop doesn't allow mom's to camp with the troop, but that doesn't mean they can't be heavily involved. A number of them are.

The troop I grew up in, not long ago, had serious problems finding enough adults to "staff" troop outings, I think we had some events that got cancelled because we didn't have the adults to do them. My mom really enjoyed camping and hiking and everything (she's done parts of the AT), but for some reason, she never offered to go, or we (the troop or her sons) never asked her to go with us. I have no idea if that made her mad or upset, but she never voiced that to me for whatever reason. All that to say, I still look back on my Scouting days as a youth with very high regard and would do everything all over again in a second and she knows that.

I'm sorry this has you so upset, hopefully you'll figure something out and your son will have a valuable Scouting experience with or without you.

Our troop's PLC dictates this sort of "rule". Most of our scouts have no desire to have "mom" on a campout with them. Currently, moms are not allowed to camp overnight with the troop. However, mothers are encouraged to participate in as much of the remaining troop activities as they like (transportation, meeting attendance, committee chairs, etc).

Luckily, we haven't had many, if any, moms step up and be adamant about going on a campout. If and when we do, the issue will be brought before the PLC.

Our CO has a couple of stipulations that affect the way our troop (and pack) work and are structured...

1. All registered adults (Scoutmaster, Asst. Scoutmasters, Cubmaster, Den Leaders, and Committee Members) have to be members of our church (the CO).

2. Since our Troop and Pack are considered ministries of our church, we're also hamstrung when it comes to fundraising.

3. We do get access to the church vans, which come in handy pretty often.

We just started with ISAs.

First off, the paperwork side of it is a pain in the neck.

Otherwise, with our troop...

We collect a small amount each year at Recharter time for dues, which covers most of the administrative stuff the troop needs to operate, like patches, badges, awards, etc.

Any and all "fundraiser" money would go to two areas; #1 to the troop for purchasing of equipment (including troop-owned tents) or any other "big ticket" items the troop deems necessary to purchase. #2 would go into the Scout accounts, where they could use their ScoutBucks to pay for any outing (including food costs), like Camporees and Summer Camps. If they have money left over when Recharter comes back around, they'll be able to use it for that as well. At no point would we even consider offering the possibility for using ScoutBucks for personal equipment.