Tour Plan?

[Col. Flagg 909]

Learned something interesting. The national policy is underwritten by a board member. That's not right.

 

 

Maybe our BSA membership card should include our insurance underwriter (MHBT?), policy number, Council point of contact. I have not seen or read the actual policy, Anyone, anyone ...Bueller, Bueller? I have read the Council-issued sparse insurance certificate stating general liability insurance coverage exists.

 

Why not a link to the insurance policy pdf on the Council website?

 

I had heard this rumor too, that BSA was finding it hard to find an insurance provider and a company owned or run by a member of the board was the one picked to underwrite the policy. It does smack of conflict of interest but I am sure some lawyer somewhere has already looked at it and found it to be on the up and up. To the layperson it does should a bit shady. I certainly would not allow it if I were the head of BSA.

[RememberSchiff 3664]

I had heard this rumor too, that BSA was finding it hard to find an insurance provider and a company owned or run by a member of the board was the one picked to underwrite the policy. It does smack of conflict of interest but I am sure some lawyer somewhere has already looked at it and found it to be on the up and up. To the layperson it does should a bit shady. I certainly would not allow it if I were the head of BSA.

I worry more about real estate agents on local Council Executive Committees. Hello mergers, good-bye camp(s).

Edited March 29, 2017 by RememberSchiff

[Junaida 0]

Hi! I'm Pack Secretary for our 10 member (total!) cubscouts. We planned an overnight trip toBattleship Texas and i attempted to complete the Tour Plan online - tedious! I then completed the paper version and had to ask parents for vehicle/insurance info and so many other requirements..by the time i submitted that to our Council, i was told Tour Plan requirement would be eliminated by early April so there is no need for a tour plan for our June trip. They even called Battleship Texas to ask them to remove the BSA Tour Plan requirement on the website. 

 

I guess the rumor is true. I am pleased!

[Gwaihir 198]

I worry more about real estate agents on local Council Executive Committees. Hello mergers, good-bye camp(s).

 

it pains me that Treasure Island, the birthplace of the OA is closed and up for sale. 

[Cleveland Rocks 75]

Here's the text of an announcement that was put into our council's monthly newsletter for April, that was posted online yesterday:

 

 

 

Tour and Activity Plans no longer required by National office!

 

As of April 1, the National Council, BSA has terminated the Tour and Activity Plan requirement. Units will no longer have to file any trip forms. This is intended to cut back on paperwork for unit leaders.

The BSA has adopted a flexible risk assessment strategy for your use. This is summarized in the Guide to Safe Scouting, and detailed in the Enterprise Risk Management Guidebook.

The BSA program includes several planning tools (Checklists, The Sweet 16 of BSA Safety, Flying Plan) that are designed not for “filing,†but to prompt discussions and conversations about risks.

The program hasn’t changed. For example, permission from parents is still needed to take youth on a trip, as would be program requirements for annual health and medical records for all participants. No policy or procedure can replace the review and vigilance of trusted adults and leaders at the point of program execution.

[NJCubScouter 1389]

it pains me that Treasure Island, the birthplace of the OA is closed and up for sale.

That's too bad. I knew it had been closed for a few years but had not heard it is up for sale. I went on a weekend camping trip there, probably about 12-13 years ago. Most of what I recall is that it was very, very rainy all weekend (in other words, just like almost every camping trip this troop goes on, except when it snows) and that at the beginning of the somewhat rickety stairway from the street level down to the "ferry" was a spiderweb with the largest spider I have ever seen in my life. Little-known fact, one of the two islands that make (er, made) up the camp is in New Jersey, though the parking lot and access to the camp was from the Pa. side of the river.

 

I am not sure who would want to buy such a flood-prone piece of land.

Edited March 31, 2017 by NJCubScouter

[krikkitbot 71]

it pains me that Treasure Island, the birthplace of the OA is closed and up for sale. 

So what's the asking price? Could we get enough scouters to buy it and keep it open? I'm good for $100

[NJCubScouter 1389]

So what's the asking price? Could we get enough scouters to buy it and keep it open? I'm good for $100

 

It would take a lot of those Benjamins because you would be committing to rebuilding the camp every time there is a really heavy rain and the floods wash pieces of the camp down the Delaware River.  I think the camp has basically been destroyed two or three times in recent years.

[krikkitbot 71]

It would take a lot of those Benjamins because you would be committing to rebuilding the camp every time there is a really heavy rain and the floods wash pieces of the camp down the Delaware River.  I think the camp has basically been destroyed two or three times in recent years.

 

So why not have it as a primitive piece of property. Just some land where scouts can pitch tents and hang hammocks. Bring your own water and supplies.  

[Chisos 118]

Well, I just sent one in today.  I'll see if anyone notices.

[Stosh 3452]

So why not have it as a primitive piece of property. Just some land where scouts can pitch tents and hang hammocks. Bring your own water and supplies.

Oh, like for real scouting?  How's the bathroom situation going to be resolved?  Oak for boys, Pine for girls?  LNT? so it won't look like a local city park?  No zip lines?  No pool?  Go back to what it was in 1910?  Nope, never work.  No hotels for STEM scouts?  No MB's?  Seriously!  Are you nuts?  No one wants a camp like that when what you're proposing is just going out in the woods with nothing to do.  Never work.

[Chisos 118]

Well, Bryan said it (a day *before* April 1) so it must be true.

 

http://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2017/03/31/bsas-tour-and-activity-plan-eliminated/

[desertrat77 1144]

Oh, like for real scouting?  How's the bathroom situation going to be resolved?  Oak for boys, Pine for girls?  LNT? so it won't look like a local city park?  No zip lines?  No pool?  Go back to what it was in 1910?  Nope, never work.  No hotels for STEM scouts?  No MB's?  Seriously!  Are you nuts?  No one wants a camp like that when what you're proposing is just going out in the woods with nothing to do.  Never work.

+1

 

Some of the camps that are on the auction block could be saved if the BSA wasn't so hung up on AC, flush toilets, paved sidewalks, conference halls/rooms, and a host of other man-made stuff.   And I'm throwing this particular rock at pro staffers as well as units who feel they have to all the comforts of town whilst in the great outdoors.

 

I like @krikkitbot 's idea.

 

When did nature become so boring to many scouts and scouters?

 

Signs of the times.

Edited April 1, 2017 by desertrat77

[Back Pack 431]

When summer camps became vacation destinations instead of local camps.

[NealOnWheels 73]

Sure enough the National website has been updated.

 

http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/HealthandSafety/TourPlanFAQ.aspx

 

It must be real.