Ideas for Tent Tags

[Snow Owl]

We are looking for ideas to somehow mark the Scout tents so we know who is in each tent.  This would be a temporary tag.  We are going through a growth spurt and are trying to set up some methods as we grow.  When we camp all the scouts are in identical tents.  So there is a row or bundle of 12 tents we are looking for some way to identify whose tent is whose during the specific trip.

 

This is both for the Scouts and the Leaders to be able to know which Scouts are in which tent.

 

Thanks for your ideas.

 

 

[qwazse]

First: patrol flags, tents should be organized around them. Assuming your scouts average two to a tent, that's a cluster of four tents per patrol. Let's also assume an "old goat's patrol". One cluster 100 yards to the east, the other 100 yards to the south, the other 100 yards to the west, the last, 100 yards to the north. SM/ASM's in the center.

 

As far as tent tags, I would suggest a rated carabiner for each scout. (It doesn't have to be rated for heavy loads, the point is to get the scout to pay attention to the tools he uses.) If you have an adult with a powder-coating facility, hit him up to give each patrol a different color. Then, a kevlar strip with the scout's first name should do. Better: if an adult has a 3-d printing facility, have the name printed in colored lego blocks with a whole for the 'biner. This travels with the scout and can be used as a buddy tag, toting cup and spoons, tagging backpacks, etc ...

 

You could also use para chord and personalized neckerchief slides to the same effect. By requiring neckerchief to be worn on all scout activities, asking them to hang their neckerchief on their chord would be a good way knowing if each scout and leader has "check in" for the night.

[NJCubScouter]

I changed the title of this thread so it says "Tent" instead of "Ten." 

[TWCub]

We have an un-creative group.  We use duct tape and a sharpie marker.

Edited October 2, 2017 by TWCub

[Eagledad]

Just out of curiosity, why do you want to know who is in what tent?

 

Barry

[Back Pack]

We use branded leather tags with numbers. The brand was made by a scout in metalworking class and the leather we got cheap from a dad who owns a western store. The tags are assigned to patrols and then to scout tents in the patrol.

[blw2]

shouldn't the scouter be approaching the PL or SPL and asking him to send little Johnny over?  Seem to me that at least theoretically the PL are the ones that need to know where they are and the SPL needs to know where his PL's are....

[resqman]

We don't label who is in each tent.  Micro management.  We use a marker to label the tent for inventory purposes so the quartermaster knows which patrol withdrew which tent from inventory that weekend.  White board on inside door of trailer has all the tent inventory numbers.  When PL sends patrol member to withdraw tents, QM marks on whiteboard Tent X went to Patrol Y.   At end of weekend, Patrol Y takes tent home to clean and dry.  Next troop meeting, QM checks clean tents back into inventory.  

[mashmaster]

We use luggage tags for each tent.  Labeled with a number.  The QM logs who took the tent.  

[Scoutmaster Teddy]

We plant a tall stake near each tent. On the stake we attach a wood scout emblem with each scout's name wood burned on the emblem. Two in a tent - one stake with two emblems attached.

[RememberSchiff]

PL's know where his guys are. SPL know where patrols and PL are.  SM knows where SPL/ASPL, chair, and coffee are. 

[SSScout]

"It Depends".

 

If you're at a Camporee, by all means, label and organize.  Troop flag/entry "Welcome to" sign... , Patrol flags, tents in nice "streets".  Poles, label the Streets with paper plate, marker, duct tape.  Mini City, earns a ribbon for the Patrol and Troop for "Camp Site " layout.  Have fun with it, make it a creative thing for the bored Scouts that have "seen the usual Camporee".

 

At Summer Camp, same thing. Take some pride in your campsite, doll it up, make it not only a "camp", but a "community".  At one summer camp I attended, we totally rearranged the tent platforms into streets, etc.  The camp inspectors basically dropped their jaws and said "wooow" as they walked around. No more tents here and there. Lashed together (Pioneering !) a "Gateway" with the flags and a carved (traditional !) sign on it. 

 

On the trail,  I like the carabiner thing. But is your Troop so large that the Patrol Leader cannot have aegis over his Patrol's arrangements? 

[Tampa Turtle]

In 10 years even with a large Troop never saw a need to do this. If needed a couple "whose tent is that" or "what tent is 'x' in" was sufficient. Boys ALWAYS know. But then we do not provide tents.

[qwazse]

Those of you who use tags: do they roam with the boy, or stay with his tent?

My prior suggestion assumed the former.

 

I guess I've never been in a position of worrying about whose canvas was whose when they weren't under it.

 

Is there a reason why you'd care to know that?

 

We don't have troop tents, so we don't think about this much. Boys can swap tents as they wish, and we make no never-mind. SPL does bed-check at taps ... sometimes after a storm. Once, some of the first years scouts weren't in their tent (cots and all except dirty laundry ... gone) two tents over, they were all packed in with Son #2 and his buddy -- safe and sound. We were so relieved, I forgot to take what would have been the cutest camp picture ever!

 

I have had scouts make buddy tags - tongue depressors with a whole at one end which they marked in indelible ink - when I was supervising a canoe trip.  They put them on a stringer in my boat: two to a clip, with buddy boats on adjacent clips. But that was more about aquatics safety. I didn't care which boats they were assigned to. If they wanted to swap equipment, that was fine ... as long who was watching out for whom remained the same.

[Eagledad]

I guess I saw the tags as a camp gadget. Something to get extra inspection points and/or set the patrol apart from the other patrols. I don't see a practical need for tags, but then many camp gadgets push the line of being practical. 

 

Barry