Encouraging culture of camping
I have noticed that various troops don't have a culture of camping. This has resulted in multiple Eagle scouts without outdoor skills and without desire for outdoor activities.
Holding more campouts may not fix the problem of boys not enjoying the outdoors — so you may need to understand why. Some examples I have seen that I believe contributed to the non-outdoor culture include:
- previous Scoutmaster from several years ago who frequently said he didn't enjoy camping;
- a past overbearing SPL who bossed around all the boys on overnighters;
- too many fathers and too many assistant scoutmasters or committee members attending the campouts — who also led tent setup, take down, started fires, cooked the meals, and restricted outdoor exploring and camp skills (the boys mostly just stood around and watched);
- rarely holding campfire discussions;
- leaving so early that breakfasts were often skipped and no time for working on outdoor skills;
- campouts cancelled or not scheduled due to snow, rainy weather, muggy weather, or summer heat;
- scouts not included in campout planning, including selecting and reserving campgrounds;
- no patrol campsite with only members of the patrol;
- little (to no) extra adventure activities, like hiking mountains, snowshoeing, bike trips, rappelling outdoors, et cetera;
- and little to no scoutcraft skills done during other weekly meetings.
The boys frequently said they didn't enjoy camping; some boys who loved camping also said they didn't want to go on the troop campouts. As new Scoutmasters came in, the troop had a culture of less and less camping — as several of the boys didn't have any desire to plan campouts and the adult leaders didn't have much incentive to encourage more campouts. As new scouts came in, and older scouts aged out, the camp skills diminished and the overnighters were rare.
Many boys wouldn't camp unless is required (for ranks or merit badges) and once they say they have the Camping merit badge they quit. Some boys don't camp at resident camps or only one or two times — so often the troop is the youngest with mostly 12 and 13 year olds at the resident camp that has many 15 or 16 year olds. The scouts also showed no interest in backpacking, and they lacked strength and experience with hiking.
Fixing the problems
Some ideas and changes that have helped troops mostly diminish these problems include:
- assistant scoutmasters who enjoyed camping;
- allowed boys to explore, cook, hold fire starting contests, setup camp, et cetera — back to normal scouting behavior;
- fewer adults camping and controling the campouts;
- frequent patrol meetings used for planning campouts;
- new scout patrol weekly meetings included lots of campcraft skills like setting up multiple tents, lighting backpacking stoves, preparing real fires, using axes and saws, et cetera;
- older boy patrols hiking and camping without leaders (the two-deep leadership isn't clear on how close they should be, and patrol sites have been up to a couple hundred feet apart);
- having lively campfire discussions;
- not leaving early in the mornings allowing the boys to explore and enjoy without rush to cleanup;
- held some campouts in rain and in hot weather;
- and doing more backpacking that culminated in a Philmont trip for some older scouts (with a great slide show presented at a Court of Honor).
Please share any experiences you have with losing and/or gaining ambition for camping and the outdoors. What changed?