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Winter cabin camping


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For those of you who Cabin camp during the winter months, I have a question about a requirement in the "Guide to Safe Scouting". The guide states that the men(women will be addressed in a separate thread) and boys must be separated by a temporary wall of some sort (the guide suggests hanging sheets). My question is how many troops actually do this? Some of the cabins we camp at have very high ceilings, which would make this requirement hard to fulfill.

 

I feel that as long as we follow the two deep leadership and minimum # of scouts, this temporary wall is not needed.

 

Thanks again for your thoughts and responses.

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The privacy wall addresses a separate problem from the amount of leadership on the outing. It has to to with respecting the youths privacy. The wall is easy to do regardless of ceiling height. Methods vary, the important thing is that the wall be above the sight line of the adults and youth not.

 

Failure to follow the youth protection rules, (whether you agree with them or not) can result in your expulsion from the BSA as well as expose you to legal troubles.

 

In scouting, as in your community, it's more important that you follow the laws than agree with them.

 

Bob White

 

 

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We do the the temp. wall. Remember the privacy wall is just that it need not reach to a 10 foot ceiling. Think about one of the Doris Day movies when they hung sheets to seperate the man from the woman at nite.

 

As Bobwhite said, follow the rules, it is alot easier to setup a temporary wall than to try and straigthen out a situation that may arise if you didn't follow the rules. Just think what you would say to someone who asked you why you didn't follow the rules.

 

JPS

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We usually just string a rope between bunk beds or the like. We have tied off to attachment points on the walls.

 

Think Clothesline.... Tell the Scouts what you want to accomplish and then let them loose with the resources avaiable.

 

BW, this could lead to an interesting camp gadget! Send us the pictures!

 

JPS

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Hmmm -

 

I'm sure now that we have violated ( though unintentionally) this rule -

 

Our favorite camping spot, at a BSA camp is a small octagonal cabin with a fireplace in the center of it. NO insulation - just board walls and one bare lightbulb. There is maybe 4-5 ft walking space around the fireplace and between it and the bunk camp beds surrounding it against the walls.

 

how the heck would you divide that? Can't hang anything without creating a fire hazard - and belive me - that cabin is so old, that it could go up FAST!

 

what we have done is in the past is that 2 male ASM's take one bunk and the boys have the rest - the female scouters that go, sleep in tents.

 

Actually, the ASM's usually have to draw straws to see who HAS to stay with the boys - most of us adults prefer the tents. The general consensus though is to not leave them in the building alone - the idea being that the adults can keep the fire going all night, keep the boys from staying up all night and keep the place from burning down over their heads.

 

I suppose we could take shifts, monitoring the fire and NONE of the Adults sleep in the cabin...

 

But we're really getting our boys to go more and more for tent camping in the winter, anyway.

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Our troop went camping last month at Camp Sunnen near Potosi, MO in cabins. I dont think we had any kind of barriers between the adults and kids, except one mom who was there. She had her own room. This coming weekend we are going camping in tents. This will be in the snow. We got about 4-5 inches yesterday snowing nonstop almost all day.

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In Girl Scouts adults (male or female) are NEVER allowed in the same cabin or tent as the girls, period. For the little Brownies we have cluster cabins where the leader's cabin is only steps from the girl bunkhouse. By Juniors (webelo age) the girls vote for the "cabins in the woods" where there is more separation and privacy. By Cadettes (middle school) the girls are suggesting that the leaders stay home entirely - whoops, sorry girls, we gotta have our fun too.

 

But we don't have the fire hazard since heaters are also not allowed (obviously more feasible in Texas than for youse guys in Illinois!) Don't know how I'd reconcile that one.

 

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There is an easy way of fixing that. Get a warm sleeping bag. I bought a bag rated to 5 degrees right after Christmas for 40 dollars. We did have the heat going at our cabin, and I was on the top bunk( where the heater was:() so the bag was way too much for me that day. It should be just right this weekend though due to us having snow on the ground.

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One of the difficulties with the newer Youth protection requirements is that the older structures on Scout properties were designed and built long before YP was ever conceived.

 

Remember that the goal of YP is to protect the youth and the adults. The privacy barriers are to block your veiw of the scouts,as well as the scouts view of you.

 

We simply explain that in order to stay within the YP requirements we will need to increase the cost of cabin camping to accomodate separate quarters for any female adults that participate.

 

BW

 

 

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It seems strange that the words "cabin" and "camping" are used in the same sentence. Our forefathers would laugh their fool heads off!

(not that I like to be cold any more than the next guy...I just don't call it "camping"!)

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We use the term loosely.

 

We us cabin camping as an opportunity: an opportunity to introduce those who have never enjoyed the beauty of the outdoors in winter and who may not see it otherwise, an opportunity to teach winter outdoor skills to those scouts who do not yet have the skills to camp outside during the winter and of course to have a great time.

 

It should be noted that some of the members of the troop opt to sleep outside in tents and that is great and guess what? It gives those who may not think it is possible to learn and see how it is done.

 

Cabin camping is like boating with motors ... a resource to use in delivering the promise of Scouting.

 

JPS

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Cabin overnights can be ALOT of fun - esp for the comraderie they encourage - all the boys in one place instead of in separate tents, the music & conversation as they all drift off to sleep around the fireplace.... It's a great opportunity to build the team & relationships in scouting.

 

One thing though - on our last winter campout, we chose to do "survival camping" - the boys had to build their own shelters out of tarps and whatever they could find - they did a great job, too! and were cozy warm -

 

only thing was that because they had decided that the "rules of the game" were to be minimum impact - small stoves and no campfires - and it got REALLY COLD - once the sun went down about 4:30 - 5 pm, the only thing to do was eat and go to bed to keep warm. (about 6:30 - 8?) It made for a really long night - and the boys were up as soon as it got light...

 

If you truly do "leave no trace" camping and don't have a cabin or fires - what do you do to keep entertained and warm on these winter campouts in the dark?

 

We did bring a telescope for some star watching - but it was overcast....

 

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