What to do about late outing cancellations

[altabill 10]

I am having trouble with Scouts in my unit canceling at the last minute. Over the past few months several Scouts have decided just prior to a campout departure not to attend. This is putting extra work on patrol leaders who have to re-plan supplies, duty rosters, etc. I would appreciate any suggestions or comments on what other units do in these situations?

[Scoutmaster Ron 12]

The policy our PLC came up with to counter this problem is that if the Grubmaster has allready purchased food based on your commitment of saying you were going ....You are still on the hook for your portion of the food.

Another idea is coming up with a "down payment" upfront to show their commitment on going.

 

[FScouter 24]

Charge a campout fee, say $10. Collect the fee and parent consent form a week before the event. Those boys that miss the deadline don't go. Those that pay on time and bail out at the last minute forfeit their fee. It may be harsh, but it should cure the problem. Boys that bail out at the last minute were probably not really committed to go in the first place.

[dan 10]

Each patrol picks a grubmaster, who collets 10 dollars from each patrol member going, at the meeting before the campout, and if the food is purchased before they cancel, this has to be done through the PL and the SM, you are out the 10 bucks.

[mk9750 11]

All our Scouts pay when they sign up for the event. We offer no refunds, unless it is significantly in advance so that arrangements can be made. Reasonable exceptions are made in the case of illness, but those monies go into the Scout's Troop account, which can be used for another event.

 

If it's the same person or two every time, I'd be getting the youth leadership to make those people responsible for something significant, like cooking, to make it far mor edifficult for them to back out without reason.

 

Mark

[silver-shark 10]

Our PLCs goal is to get any non-refundable deposits, for canoes or equipment, etc... in advance from the boys, and permission slips and food money 2 weeks prior to a campout.

 

For food and supplies we normally calculate $1.00 for breakfast, $2.00 for lunch, and $5.00 for supper and evening snacks, then add about 33% for charcoal and propane for a weekend. This usually works out to $12.00 per campout for food and supplies, and is very close if they are having good meals. On the rare occasion that a scout becomes ill or has a family emergency we will return the food money IF the food has not already been purchased.

 

We normally stay at State Parks which charge by the boy per night and we don't ask for this money until departure time.

[matuawarrior 10]

We had the same problem years ago. Now we have a $10.00 non-refundable, non-transferable activity fee. The fee is broken down into food and supplies. Depending on the activity the fee can go up to $15/participant but no higher. This is decided by the PLC.

 

There are rare exceptions when we transfer the funds into the Scout's Own Account with the unit. It has to be an illness with a doctor's note, a death in the Immediate family (here on Guam, practically everyone is related and this excuse has been used up to many times), etc. . Then the member may use the funds at a later activity.

 

It's Sad times when you have to have a down payment on a Scout's Honor.

 

WE also have to other incentives: Secret Activity and Honor Court.

 

Matua

 

 

[Eagle Foot 10]

Sounds like everybody is on target. I pass out the permission sheets two weeks before the campout, included is a list of basics for the season, (I use troop master for permission sheets) that way every scout is listed by name and the patrol that they are in. This is due back to me with the money at the troop meeting before the campout. The money goes to the patrol grubmaster...you do not pay the budget for the patrol is what is paid. No promises...if you show up with out paying you had better have brought some food or you will be sent home. If you pay and don't show up...no problem...just more food for the patrol. No refunds...if you can catch the grubmaster before he has bought the food you might have a chance to get your money back.

 

You have to come up with something...this works for us, if not this will continue to be a problem.

 

Good luck...happy camping & good eating.

[evmori 11]

We do the same as everyone else except our permission slips are on the internet at

http://www.bsa.net/pa/t1

 

Ed Mori

Scoutmaster

Troop 1

1 Peter 4:10

[hops_scout 9]

Our permission slip is also on the internet at our website: http://troop323.cjb.net

[LauraT7 13]

A related problem we have, is that we can't seem to get the boys to plan or commit more than the meeting ahead of a campout. This means every time they are rushing to plan meals, do shopping, and end up packing the day of the outing. Every time they say "we gotta plan earlier" and every time, they wait until the meeting before.

 

I am the troop activities coordinator and I coordinate for the two summer camps we are attending this summer and will serve as SM for one of them. I asked the PLC last meeting to plan time for a 'camp orientation night' for the parents of the NSP so we could have time to outline for them how badges and advancements work at camp - what to expect, what to pack, etc. Especially, I wanted to stress having the boys review the badges they want to work on, so they could do pre-requisites at home before camp. We leave for camp July 6. we have 4 weeks to do this. They "planned" this for June 30 - 6 days before camp. ??????

 

they also decided they didn't need a meeting June 16, as we are going on a campout the weekend before. So why didn't they plan the parent's night for that night???

 

We've had a sign-up sheet for that campout up for a month - 5 boys out of 28 have signed up - 3 have told me they are not going. so where are the rest????

 

We are new to boy-lead - been working on implementing alot of changes in the last year. But they complained about this with the adult leadership, and now they are repeating it. how do we break such bad habits? how do we get them to think ahead?

 

 

[dsteele 20]

Interesting . . .

 

These same issues apply to district/council activities. The only difference is that of scale in numbers of people and dollars.

 

I hadn't thought to apply the comparison to a troop campout to a council event until I read this thread. It's true that if you're paying attention, you do learn something new every day.

 

If I had a nickle for every refund request made after the council has paid for food, site rental, t-shirts, etc. and a kid backed out.

 

Last year I had a man literally yelling and screaming in my face because his kid decided to drop out of the Philmont trek at the last minute (and not for any medical or personal reason other than he didn't want to go.) We had paid his Philmont fee, train ticket from Wisconsin, etc. There was no one to take his place. I think we ended up refunding the portion of the trip that he paid for that we didn't spend on him . . . which was about $90 out of $855. The man was/is still mad at us.

 

DS

[FScouter 24]

We had difficulty with our boys when we moved away from adult directed to boy led. They boys didnt readily understand that if they botched up the planning, then the outing would be botched up. They believed that the adult leaders would step in and save them if anything went wrong. And we proved them right every time we did that!

 

We now have an event planning checklist. It lists all of the planning steps that need to be done, from deciding a location, planning activities, writing menus, etc., to pack inspection and final Scoutmaster approval. Each item on the list has a due date from 1 day to six weeks before the event. The PLC must assign a boy to be responsible for each item.

 

It is my job as Scoutmaster to make sure that the PLC has delegated every item, and that they are completed by the due date.

 

The last item on the list is to debrief and reflect on the event after it is over. That is always done at the very next troop meeting.

 

[packsaddle 753]

It has been my observation from organizing conferences that adults are no different from the boys, maybe even worse. Does anyone think that the boys have, perhaps, learned this behavior from us? Parents? H'mmmm?

[saltheart 10]

BINGO...!!!!! We have a winnah...!!!

 

packsaddle...!!!