Overnight Camping for Leader with Other Pack

[ZebraLongwing]

Sorry if this has been asked and answered before, but I couldn’t find it on the forum. I’m a leader with a pack that recently attended an overnight council event.  Our committee chair notified us at the last minute that she would be camping with another pack that she has friends in, rather than our own. She does not have a child in scouting this year, and camped with them on her own. The rest of our pack is a bit confused. Is this normally allowed?

[RememberSchiff]

@ZebraLongwing welcome to scouter.com   

[skeptic]

Not sure what the issue might be, other than surprise to you.  IF she is properly vetted there should not be a problem, especially if she was not necessary as leadership for your unit at the event.  

[TheScouterDude]

Per the Guide to Safe Scouting:

Quote

All adults staying overnight in connection with a Scouting activity must be currently registered as an adult volunteer or an adult program participant.  Adult volunteers must register in the position(s) they are serving in. Registration as a merit badge counselor position does not meet this requirement. See FAQ for list of approved adult registration fee required positions.   Limited exception below for Cub Scout overnight Programs.

Cub Scout Programs – Overnight Exception:   Cub Scout parents or legal guardians taking part in an overnight Cub Scout program with their own child or legal ward are not required to register as leaders. All adults must review the “How to Protect your Children from Child Abuse: A Parent’s Guide” that can be found in the front of each Cub Scout Handbook. In addition, the parent or legal guardian must be accompanied by a registered leader at any time they are with youth members other than their own child/ward.  All other overnight adults must be currently registered in an adult fee required position.

The Cub Scout exception does not apply if she does not have a child camping, which means that she "must be currently registered as an adult volunteer." On the surface, it sounds like she would meet that requirement, as she is a registered member of Scouting America. However, I've been advised multiple times by professional Scouters that this rule requires the adult to be registered with the unit they are staying with. Simply being a registered member in another unit doesn't transfer permission to stay overnight with other units. It's possible that your council has chosen to interpret this differently. The most likely reason why this wouldn't be a violation, though, is because it was a council event according to OP's description. That may change things as it's no longer a unit event.

 

Edited Saturday at 11:03 AM by TheScouterDude

[jcousino]

On 10/16/2025 at 11:55 PM, skeptic said:

Not sure what the issue might be, other than surprise to you.  IF she is properly vetted there should not be a problem, especially if she was not necessary as leadership for your unit at the event.  

The issue is what unit is responsive if a  she is named is named in a problem.

 

 

 

[Tron]

On 10/16/2025 at 3:44 PM, ZebraLongwing said:

Sorry if this has been asked and answered before, but I couldn’t find it on the forum. I’m a leader with a pack that recently attended an overnight council event.  Our committee chair notified us at the last minute that she would be camping with another pack that she has friends in, rather than our own. She does not have a child in scouting this year, and camped with them on her own. The rest of our pack is a bit confused. Is this normally allowed?

The ScouterDude has a good handle on the normal rules and practices in his post. The only thing I can add that would allow your CC to camp with that other pack is that there are different rules for council level events as those are under NCAP guidelines which allow provisional camping exceptions. As long as your CC spoke with the camp (probably program director) ahead of time she was probably within the rules. 

The real issue is why wasn't she camping with the pack doing her duty as CC? 

On 10/18/2025 at 6:02 AM, TheScouterDude said:

Per the Guide to Safe Scouting:

The Cub Scout exception does not apply if she does not have a child camping, which means that she "must be currently registered as an adult volunteer." On the surface, it sounds like she would meet that requirement, as she is a registered member of Scouting America. However, I've been advised multiple times by professional Scouters that this rule requires the adult to be registered with the unit they are staying with. Simply being a registered member in another unit doesn't transfer permission to stay overnight with other units. It's possible that your council has chosen to interpret this differently. The most likely reason why this wouldn't be a violation, though, is because it was a council event according to OP's description. That may change things as it's no longer a unit event.

 

 

[ZebraLongwing]

I apologize, but I made a mistake. She did end up camping with the pack after stating that she was planning to camp elsewhere. However, she ended up bringing her son, a member of a local Troop, with her. He slept in her tent. He does not have a sibling in our Pack. I'm a bit confused about whether or not this was allowed, as well.

[InquisitiveScouter]

@ZebraLongwing, the answer to this is clearly in the Guide to Safe Scouting:  

 

Tenting

• In Cub Scouting
  • Parents and guardians may share a tent with their family.

• In Older Youth Programs (I.e., Scouts BSA, Sea Scouts, and Venturing)
  • Separate tenting arrangements must be provided for male and female adults, and for male and female youth.
  • Youth and adults must tent separately.
  • Youth sharing a tent must be no more than two years apart in age.
  • Spouses may share a tent.
  • As an exception, a parent or guardian may share a tent with their own child if they are of the same sex.

https://www.scouting.org/health-and-safety/gss/gss01/#a

 

Your local council can make exceptions to this policy for reasons of health and safety.  For example, once upon a time, we had a Scout who had night terrors and sleep walking behavior.  The parents were deeply concerned for the Scout's safety on camping trips.  So, we, wrote a detailed email of the situation and our recommendations to the council exec: a parent would register with the Troop, sleep in same tent with Scout to deal with the issue if it arose, and parent would not count toward our requirement for two-deep.  This was acceptable to council (and national), and the exception was granted.

[ZebraLongwing]

Thank you, InquisitiveScouter, this was my understanding, as well. I wanted to get a second opinion before raising the issue in our next committee meeting, so I appreciate your help. I am also unclear if her son was even allowed to camp with us, given he is not a cub scout, he does not a sibling who is a cub scout, and he is not a den chief for our unit. Again, this was a council event, and there were Troops present, just not in our campsite.

[Tron]

19 hours ago, ZebraLongwing said:

I apologize, but I made a mistake. She did end up camping with the pack after stating that she was planning to camp elsewhere. However, she ended up bringing her son, a member of a local Troop, with her. He slept in her tent. He does not have a sibling in our Pack. I'm a bit confused about whether or not this was allowed, as well.

Normally no. If this were a joint unit event outside of an NCAP environment she would need at least 2 leaders and 2 scouts from the Scouts BSA program level (preferably all from the same unit). But under a council event that is NCAP regulated there are all kinds of variances. 

[Tron]

1 hour ago, ZebraLongwing said:

Thank you, InquisitiveScouter, this was my understanding, as well. I wanted to get a second opinion before raising the issue in our next committee meeting, so I appreciate your help. I am also unclear if her son was even allowed to camp with us, given he is not a cub scout, he does not a sibling who is a cub scout, and he is not a den chief for our unit. Again, this was a council event, and there were Troops present, just not in our campsite.

I would advise you to chase this as a program improvement point and not a punitive point. Raising it such as "I am concerned that without proper messaging and clarity the camping variance from the council event that our CC utilized might be viewed as allowed outside an NCAP environment. We don't want to normalize the view that we can just camp with who we want when we want. I want to make sure that in order to follow Safeguarding and the GTSS we understand that unit level camping outside of an NCAP regulated event doesn't allow this." versus "CC did this and I don't think we should allow it. What are we going to do to prevent this from happening again?"