Who decides where you go camping and to Summer Camp, and all of the other activities you do? Who does all of the planning?

The Scouts are the ones who decide where we are going to camp, where we are going to Summer Camp and what activities they want to participate in. Each January the PLC and interested Scouts and some of the Adult Leaders get together on a Saturday Morning and have our Annual Planning Meeting. At that time they bring their ideas for what they want to do each month for the next eighteen months. They weed through those ideas, with some direction from the Adults and decide what campouts to go on and what activities to schedule. We compare that against what is already planned based on the schedule set at the prior year’s meeting. After the Scouts finish, later that same day the Troop Committee and any interested adults meet to review the schedule the Scouts have set. Determine the feasibility and then set the Troop's Calendar. Then the Outings Chair and Co-Chair begin the actual work of planning the logistics of the Outings and Campouts.

Summer Camp is usually decided on later in the year after that year's Summer Camp. That way they have the experience of Summer Camp in their minds when they decide where to go. We have a set week in mind when we want to go, so that it doesn't interfere with other activities. We then challenge the Scouts to find Summer Camps they are interested in and argue for their choice. Once all of the candidates are in a group of Adult Leaders get together and review the choices and pick the camp best suited to our Troop. We try to go to the same camp two years in a row and then somewhere different the third year, to give the Scouts a new experience.