A Scoutmaster's Day At Scout Camp

Clarke, Great summary, and your experience largely mirrored mine this past week with my troop.

After several years of being a smaller troop that was largely adult-run, we have finally gotten to a very nearly fully youth-led troop with 51 boys attending summer camp. The SPL was in charge and had a strong corps of ASPLs to assist him.

Patrol leaders took responsibility for their patrols, including the PL for the new-scout patrol, the Nighthawks, who worked closely with his Troop Guide.

I was impressed. At flag assemblies, most of us adults took my lead and stood well behind the boys lined up.

I noted that in the other troops, the adults stood with the boys.

Nobody had to walk the scouts to their merit badges. We did, of course, have several parents of 1st year scouts who went with them to PATH.

Again, Moose Patrol (adults) camped in the back area of the campsite. We put up our patrol flag in hopes it would inspire the other patrols who still don’t have a flag. It was just a couple years ago when some well-intentioned adults thought it was best to “surround” the boys’ campsites and tent among them so as to keep them under “control”. All it took was a simple “let’s camp back here” to change that. SPL got to set up a tent of his own and tent with two of his ASPLs, while the rest camped in BSA canvas tents on pallets. In the dining hall, once again this year I was fortunate to sit at the table with many of the 1st year scouts.

I got to know their names and what they are like, and watched as they changed from a forgetful, uninvolved mob into a patrol of boys who worked together. My biggest challenge was to convince the new parents to let the boys do for themselves, particularly clearing the table.

Challenges that remain are to encourage parents in camp not to shadow their sons too closely so they can become more self-reliant, and to withdraw the last of the adult interference in the boys running their troop. As for me, I checked in with my son about once a day to see how he was doing; otherwise, he did his thing and I did mine.

Proudest moment? When my son was called out for the Order of the Arrow. Our troop spirit is at an all-time high. The camp staff really likes our troop and looks forward to us returning. In the course of a week at camp, lots of little things come up, and in a post on my blog this week, I’ll mention a few of them that may be of help to others.