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Scouter Larry Gieger wirtes:
I awoke slowly early Monday morning at Scout camp and enjoyed listening to the stream and the birds. A cool breeze coming through the open tent flap… what could be better?
Suddenly the silence was shattered by clanging pots and pans and someone hollering “IT’S YELLOW SHIRT DAY!, IT’S YELLOW SHIRT DAY! ”
Now I was awake! It was much earlier than I first thought. My side of the campsite was still quiet.
Now I ask you, if breakfast is at 8:00am why would you wake your troop at 6:30am? Why? Why? I don’t know. I just don’t know. The average Scout slept in his clothes so he only needs to put his shoes on and visit the latrine; that takes 90 seconds max. Why wake them up an hour and a half early? I don’t know.
So began another morning sharing a campsite with another troop. It kind of set the tone for the rest of the week – a high-pitched LOUD tone.
Most of our troop slept through this fiasco. About [7:30] the patrol leaders got their Scouts up. I watched from my tent as they led their guys quietly down to the dining hall.
Next door a young man that I assume was the SPL and Mrs. YELLOW SHIRT DAY started hollering at the other troop: “GET IN LINE, STRAIGHTEN UP, DO YOU HAVE YOUR SCOUT HANDBOOK? READY? FOLLOW ME!”
Eventually they left and it got quiet again. Why? Do people do this to Scouts? Why? I don’t know. I just don’t know.
I came out of my tent and joined two of our committee members quietly drinking coffee. We strolled down to the dining hall with the older PLC Scouts for breakfast.
Tuesday was ORANGE SHIRT DAY! Wednesday was BLUE SHIRT DAY! Friday was RED SHIRT DAY! How do I know? It was burned into my memory each morning by a voice that could cut steel plate.
Monday afternoon we were lounging in our modest leader area that we created from a tent platform and a pop-up shelter. Our new leaders had been watching some troops who had mommies and daddies leading their Scouts around camp and I was trying to explain that this was not actually Scouting. David, an adult from the other troop bopped in uninvited and plopped down in one of our chairs. He generously regaled us with stories of sailing trips to Bimini , the various houses that he owns around the state and a whole bunch of other far-fetched stuff. There went my ‘teachable moment’ with my new leaders. Why?
I did get a chance to meet Scoutmaster YELLOW SHIRT DAY.
We had an issue with the latrine; you know the issue – the one where someone confuses the urinal with the john? I went to the other side of the campsite and found Mrs. YELLOW SHIRT DAY. I explained the latrine issue delicately so as not to infer blame – just to keep her informed.
Turns out they had different leaders scheduled to stay with the Scouts and they were “Scoutmaster of the day”. So Mrs. YELLOW SHIRT DAY was soon replaced with Mrs. ORANGE SHIRT DAY and so on. Why? I have tried to be a good person, really.
I may not be the most congenial Scoutmaster in summer camp. Sharing a campsite with another troop is a real struggle for me. You get three choices – cooperate, ignore, or tolerate. If two troops have very different styles it’s usually pretty difficult. For this reason we almost never camp with other troops or near the general public.
Allow me to offer a few ideas to consider if you do have to share space with another troop:
1. Don’t talk to or approach the Scouts in the other troop without first talking to their leaders. Unless they are physically in your camp area or in your Scout’s tents, leave them alone.
2. Address any issues that may arise with the the other troop’s adults; be polite but be direct.
3. Keep your Scouts out of the other troop’s area and don’t allow them to shortcut across the other troops area. If they make friends with the other Scouts that’s great; they can hang around the fire circle with them, but no random wandering.
4. Speak very pointedly to your PLC about your expectations for sharing the site. You can’t control what others do but you can control how you react.
5. Think hard before you have competitive activities with the other troop. If someone gets snippy you won’t really be able to get any distance from them.
6. Follow camp rules as to shared duty rosters, fire charts, inspections, etc. Some camps treat two troops in the same campsite as one inspection, others as two inspections. Go with the flow and don’t argue with the commissioner. Talk to the Camp Director or Program Director if needed.
7. Help out the other troop’s leaders whenever they ask but refrain from making unsolicited suggestions. Save those heavy sighs for your long morning walk to that far away program area you wanted to visit.
8. Do what all good Scoutmasters do; delegate. If you have a particularly good diplomat, and you trust him, put him in charge of relations with the other troop.
9. Older Scouts from the other troop hanging around when you know they should be involved somewhere else is worth mentioning to the adults from the other troop. I don’t worry much but older Scouts just hanging around is sometimes a sign of trouble.
I want to emphasize that despite some of these minor irritations our troop had a great week at camp; our Scouts did just fine. We kept an eye out for potential problems and everything went smoothly.
Our neighbors last week were a local council troop. Unlike them we had a ten hour trip home so we had to get up much earlier than them on Saturday to pack. Packing is kind of noisy, I hope our neighbors weren’t disturbed by it that early in the morning.
Just got back this last week from a patrol-oriented camp (and not just patrol cooking!). For the 4th year in a row, we were sharing a site. At this particular camp, organization is by patrol, so the troop sharing with us had two patrols (10 scouts total) and we had one patrol (7 scouts).
They were a congenial bunch, and I’d like to think we are too. Site-sharing went fine, and we received several invitations from them during the week. Two nights, they were making fried dough in their part of the site, and one night they made enough barbecued country-style spareribs to share. So, turns out they were awesome neighbors. We talked about a combined in-site campfire, but that never materialized. When all of our scouts were out in program areas, I did spend a bit of time talking to both of the other leaders. Nice guys. One of them was a bit of a yeller (he had young scouts and his method of boy-led was to yell at them to do things), but that’s okay, some guys are. Ours were older and more experienced, so our mealtimes were usually quickly-prepped and quickly cleaned up. It was okay, overall.
Smaller troops that don’t want to have to share a campsite should consider going during a light week, such as the week containing the Fourth of July. When our troop was small, that always worked out for us. Even when we were larger, we often shared a site during later weeks. We are big again and usually try for the week of the Fourth or the week prior. Last week there were twelve troops in camp, some as small as three or four scouts, and I believe each got their own site.
Talk to the camp director and get his or her opinion on what the best course of action should be. Ask about which weeks are historically lighter. The camp would like to fill those weeks and even out the load on their staffs.
Having just come back from summer camp and sharing our camp site with 2 other troops, it was a summer camp like none other. There was a roaring forest fire to the South of the camp about 7 miles away, but the prevailing winds were blowing away from our camp, so no problem. On Sunday, going up to camp, another fire stared in the mountains about 20 miles away, but up wind from the camp. We had a week of blood red sunsets and some smoke in camp. Incredibly, the least of our worries was the other 2, small, troops sharing our camp. We all knew each other and managed quite well… really, well, actually. Good to be home!
We shared our site with 2 other Troops this year at Summer Camp. We knew about the first troop but the second was a surprise. I make it a point to introduce myself to the leaders and adults of the other Troops on Sunday as soon as practical after everyone has settled in.
We confine ourselves to our general area and tell the scouts to respect the privacy of others. As the week goes on the boys tend to commiserate more with the other scouts and by the end of the week they are all hanging together.
One of our traditions is to make cobbler Friday night (during the campfire) and invite the other Troops that share the site along with our Troop Guide and any other camp staff after campfire is over. This year we made 3 different ones. We also had vanilla ice cream to top it as a finishing touch. It has always been a hit and and is much appreciated by everyone.
Our troop had a very similar experience last year at summer camp, with the exception of not having color-coded leader of the day. It started poorly as we were not informed about sharing a campsite, and evidently a screaming match erupted between one of our adult leaders and one of theirs before I even arrived. (I was acting scoutmaster all week) When I went to the office to check in, the camp director glared at me and informed me of the screaming match. I still don’t know who started screaming first, but having been to summer camp with the leader on our side for several years and after watching the leader from the other troop, I’m pretty sure it was them.
On Thursday nights at camp, Troops that are sharing campsites are suppose to have a common campfire. I sent the SPL over and made an invite. They declined, then sat in camp chairs at the edge of their half of the campsite and laughed at us during the campfire (not with us, at us) They also had a habit of throwing rocks at one of our leaders tent while she napped in the afternoon.
On the last day of camp, the toolcraft area was branding any non-living item that you brought to them. The scoutmaster from the troop in our campsite was first in line and had a stack of 30 or so leather patches to be branded. As the branding iron was being heated in a fire, not with a blowtorch, it took a while for him to get them all branded. They weren’t even for the kids in his Troop, but for a decorative “art” thing he was making. After 30 minutes waiting, we finally walked away and found a better activity. I got my boots branded this year…
Great blog, keep it up, except on Yellow Shirt Day.
🙂 🙂 🙂
We’ll be sailing similar ‘share-a-site’ waters next month for our first time (I blogged about it today and linked here).
Thanks for the tips!
Scout On
We have been fortunate and never had to share a campsite with anyone else. I however have been guilty of playing loud music to wake up the Scouts in the morning. Last year my approach was to make sure the SPL was up and then everything else was his responsibility. Seemed to work great. Thanks for the reminder of what NOT to do as we leave for camp this Sunday.
Thanks for the tips Clarke. Our Troop (small but growing) is likely to be sharing a site for summer camp. Sharing the site with another Troop that may or may not Scout the way we do is one of my biggest concerns.