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Attending another Councils' events


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We have recently enrolled my son in Cub scouts this year. We are located on the boundary line between two different councils' in our area. One Council is larger and seems more involved with more activities, but he is enrolled in the other council(where his school is located). I don't have any issues with his council, district, pack, or den, however, i would like him to have more opportunities. Is it taboo or acceptable to attend another councils events? We are in a suburb and the more Metropolitan council seems to have more events and resources, but the more rural council seems to be a little more personal and has a larger geographic area with more camps. Is it possible to have him associated with two packs/councils'?

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  • 2 weeks later...

Your son may attend any event in any council. Many councils will offer first option to accept their own scouts first, but otherwise if space is available, he will not be refused! Many Boy Scout Troops travel hundreds of miles to attend Summer Camp out of Council! Your pack leaders should also be aware of this.

 

He may only be registered as a cub scout in one pack and one council.

Edited by frankpalazzi
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Nothing Taboo at all.  As a Boy Scout my son is very involved in the Order of the Arrow (a scouting service organization) in our council, is applying to staff the National Youth Leadership Training program (where youth teach youth to lead)  in one council to the north of us and applying to serve on summer camp staff for another council to the north of us.  Our Troop does weekend camping in camps across the area in various councils - more than 10 councils in three years.

 

As @@frankpalazzi said, some councils give preference to their own units or scouts, but there is no prohibition.

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No problem at all. I've had folks attend our training sessions from Out Of Council (OOC), as well as other events, i.e camporees, Merit badge universities, Cub Scout Day Camps, etc.

 

And when my district cancelled Cub Scout Day Camp, several families went to a different council's because it was closer than our neighboring districts' day camps.

 

Right now, my council is working with another council to set up some scheduled activities at the camp in my district since their camp was damaged by Hurricane Matthew,  Only reason we didn't invite the Cubs to the event this past weekend was because we had maxed out the camp! Otherwise they would have been more than welcomed to attend.

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The pack I help out with hosts an overnight at the local drive-in.

This event draws anywhere from 650-950 attendees (plus staff).

We have packs from every district in our council and packs from other 3 or 4 councils attend.

 

However the largest district in our council has very few packs attend.

We found out this year that packs in this district have been told that they can't attend events outside the district unless it's a council event.

This kind of stuff happens

 

Personally I have attended Venturing Leader training, Woodbadge, Powderhorn and have gone to Scoutng U's in other council's.

the Troop and Crew I work with attend events in other council's all the time.

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I've gone cross district before... a few times, for training and also for camping events.

 

One time, went to a neighboring district's fall campout (SpookoRee), instead of ours (CuboRee)

Well SpookORee was 10x better, but the following year we were excluded.  Excuse being that the were camping at a different council reservation that didn't have as much room..... and they needed to save the room for their district "first"

 

I can imagine you could potentially run into such a thing, but since you are talking one scout and not a whole pack or troop, 'll bet it would rarely hit anyone's radar.

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We found out this year that packs in this district have been told that they can't attend events outside the district unless it's a council event.

This kind of stuff happens

 

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I'm curious to know how they would enforce that.  Send District Snitches to all the competing events?  I'd be telling someone a story about a long walk off a short pier, and then saying "FOLLOW ME, BOYS!"  :)

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I'm curious to know how they would enforce that.  Send District Snitches to all the competing events?  I'd be telling someone a story about a long walk off a short pier, and then saying "FOLLOW ME, BOYS!"  :)

 

Sounds like a job for the District Commissioner.

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My District Commissioner is also my ASM.  A lot of information about what's going on beyond the boundaries of our district are offered up to the boys for them to decide.  The last big event for our boys was helping out at a haunted house..... in a different council.

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I'm curious to know how they would enforce that.  Send District Snitches to all the competing events?  I'd be telling someone a story about a long walk off a short pier, and then saying "FOLLOW ME, BOYS!"  :)

I don't think they try to enforce it.

There are units/leaders who heard someone say it so it must be true.

 

A few years back when I was District Commissioner I was surprised on the number of units who thought that they were "required" to attend our council's summer camp. Not a lot of units but enough that it made an impression.

 

I had it happen again over the weekend.

I was with the Venturing Crew helping at a community service project.

 

A women approached me and said her daughter was in a Venturing Crew but they haven't met or done anything in months.

I invited her and her daughter to one of our meetings and join our crew if she is interested.

 

She acted shocked because she didn't think that her daughter was "allowed" to join a unit in another town.

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