{"id":2496,"date":"2019-08-20T15:16:14","date_gmt":"2019-08-20T19:16:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/?p=2496"},"modified":"2019-08-20T15:16:14","modified_gmt":"2019-08-20T19:16:14","slug":"issue-612-august-20-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/2019\/08\/issue-612-august-20-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"Issue 612 \u2013 August 20, 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hi Andy,<\/strong><\/p>\n

A couple of weeks ago, you fielded a question about age limits on Scouts tenting together, and I\u2019d like to add a thought to that point.<\/strong><\/p>\n

One simple solution to possible tenting complications is this: There\u2019s nothing that says a Scout must<\/em> share a tent with anyone, or that a Scout can\u2019t sleep alone in a tent!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Whoever thinks that two-Scout tents will work \u201cforever\u201d is way too optimistic. Fact is, when Scouts get older (into their mid or late teens\u2014and I don\u2019t mean just boys!) as a rule they usually get larger, too!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our troop has been okay with having two-Scout \u201cbackpack\u201d tents and these will usually fit two eleven or twelve year-olds just fine. But, by the time they\u2019re age 15 or so, that original backpacking tent is now a one-Scout tent!<\/strong><\/p>\n

The BSA stipulation on age-spread per two-Scout tent makes good sense and I respect it. But I also find that it rarely rears its head when the older and larger Scouts are single-Scout tenting. And then, for those Scouts in other parts of the country, Scouts use camp hammocks and the age issue immediately evaporates! (Damon Edmondson, Atlanta Area Council, GA)<\/strong><\/p>\n

You bet Scouts grow! This may make three-person tents a good option to start with, and let the Scouts grow into them! They\u2019ll be a bit heavier when divided between two Scouts for backpacking, but today\u2019s light-weight technology hardly makes this a major burden. (Yup, we carried canvas pup tents when I was a Scout and they were no fun to lug along a woodsy trail, inside our canvas \u201cknapsacks\u201d that had no waistband belts\u2026but we did it!) But there may be more to this than just tents. The whole \u201cworld\u201d of Scoutcraft and the Buddy System can be brought together with tents!<\/p>\n

For me, the best tents\u2014Scout- and Scouter-tested!\u2014are Philmont Trek tents. Bottom line: We know they work and we know they\u2019ll stand up to just about any weather!<\/p>\n

Bunch of years ago, a Scoutmaster friend, with the troop committee\u2019s green light, bought his troop a dozen-and-a-half used Philmont Trek tents for pennies on the dollar! Each tent had been \u201cfield-tested\u201d over the previous summer of course, and then taken into Philmont\u2019s tent repair shed, where they were fitted with new grommets as needed, rip-stop tears were sealed and patched, broken tent lines were replaced, and missing or bent tent pegs were replaced or un-bent. To give you a cost idea, these (at the time) $250 tents could be had for $25 apiece! Yes, they were two-Scout tents, but remember that Philmont trekkers aren\u2019t exactly toddlers in tan shirts; they\u2019re big, strapping, solid teenagers\u2014both young men and young women\u2014aand these tents worked just fine!<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s the really important part: These tents became teaching aids!<\/p>\n

At the very next campout, two new-Scout patrols of six Scouts each were with the older Scout patrols of the troop. These two patrols were there as equals, with a twist: The two newly-elected Patrol Leaders were asked by the Senior Patrol Leader to select the troop\u2019s campsite for the weekend. The two walked around for a bit, and then picked the top of a bare rise because the view of the valley below was absolutely spectacular. But they didn\u2019t take into account the wind, which was gentle at the moment but was starting to pick up speed. No one corrected them, or pointed out that maybe they should reconsider; the SPL and the other Patrol Leaders showed complete respect for their decision. And we adults stayed out of the way\u2014after all, this troop was the Scouts\u2019 troop; not ours.<\/p>\n

So when the older patrols started setting up their patrol sites, they chose as spot near the top but on the leeward side of the rise. The two new-Scout patrols started setting up at the top of the rise. They started having problems almost immediately. As each Buddy-pair in these patrols started setting up their tents\u2014which required tent stakes and tent lines plus two uprights for the tent ends and two bungeed A poles for the rain fly\u2014the wind began to blow their attempts down. This happened at least a half-dozen times, till their Patrol Leaders stopped and said to their patrols, \u201cLet\u2019s try all of us setting up just one tent. If this works, then we\u2019ll do the next two tents, till we have all three set up.\u201d Teamwork! Yay! And guess what\u2026Nobody gave them any \u201ckindly hints\u201d\u2014they figured this out for themselves!<\/p>\n

The other thing they needed to figure out was what kind of knots to use for the tent lines, which were on the sides of both the tent and the rain fly, and fore and aft as well\u2014and it wasn\u2019t the same knot for all the lines. After scratching their heads for a bit, one Scout spoke up. \u201cLet\u2019s check our handbooks,\u201d he said to his patrol-mates. \u201cCheck your handbook\u201d\u2014Hey, what a concept!<\/p>\n

They did just that, and discovered they\u2019d need about a dozen taut-line hitches and four two-half hitches, but they didn\u2019t need their handbooks to learn how to tie these\u2014they already knew this from the patrol knot-tying relays that were part of normal troop meetings, along with other Scoutcraft-based games.<\/p>\n

Bam! The tents were up and solid. Not one blew down\u2014ever\u2014that weekend!<\/p>\n

But even more importantly, this became a practical experience in problem-solving, teamwork, and leadership via cooperation (not \u201corders\u201d), all accomplished with no \u201ckindly adult interference.\u201d How about that!<\/p>\n

If this isn\u2019t Scouting at its core and at its best, then I\u2019m a monkey\u2019s uncle! Thank you, Philmont tents\u2026and a pretty smart Scoutmaster and Senior Patrol Leader!<\/p>\n

Happy Scouting!<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Andy<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Have a question? Facing a dilemma? Wondering where to find a BSA policy or guideline? Write to askandybsa@yahoo.com. Please include your name and council. (If you\u2019d prefer to be anonymous, if published, let me know and that\u2019s what we\u2019ll do.)<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

[No. 612 \u2013 8\/20\/2019 \u2013 Copyright \u00a9 Andy McCommish 2019]<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi Andy, A couple of weeks ago, you fielded a question about age limits on Scouts tenting together, and I\u2019d like to add a thought to that point. One simple solution to possible tenting complications is this: There\u2019s nothing that says a Scout must share a tent with anyone, or that a Scout can\u2019t sleep […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2496"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2496\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2500,"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2496\/revisions\/2500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}