New Parent FAQ


Parents play an important role in Troop success. They provide leadership and critical logistical support. All parents are expected to contribute time and talents.

Program and Support

There are two facets of parent involvement in Scouting:

The Program side: outings and scoutcraft skills. The Scoutmaster and Assistant Scoutmasters play the principal roles. All other parents serve too: we lead trips, teach (not just woodsy skills such as knots and knife-sharpening, but also Merit Badge courses in our areas of specialty, whether it be accounting, computer programming or cooking) and contribute ideas. Any parent can take the brief training to be an Assistant Scoutmaster.
The Admin side: the Troop Committee. The numerous duties of Troop administration are shared among parents who are appointed as “Chairs,” in advancement, training, outdoor event coordination, membership, as Committee Chair and Treasurer, preparing the annual charter renewal and Journey to Excellence paperwork, managing uniform inventory, etc.

Troops are graded by BSA. We compete at Camporees, and for excellence awards. To do well on these, both the program and admin sides have to perform well. Admin is usually well subscribed. Parent help on the program side is harder to get.

FAQ

How often are the meetings?

Boys and parents begin the year with a Planning Meeting, a Saturday morning about the 3rd week of August, where we set out the year's agenda of outings. Thereafter, boys meet every Wednesday during the school year, except during tree lot season which runs from Thanksgiving to Christmas. Parents meet the first Tuesday of each month, year-round.

Are parents required to register and to attend committee meetings and outings?

When your son signs up as a Scout, it's expected that one or both parents sign up as adult volunteers, which makes you a member of the Committee. It's not formally required currently, but getting fully involved is the right thing to do.

All families are required to participate fully in the T36 Tree Lot, which involves four or more 4-hour sales shifts, plus setup, delivery and teardown (each 3-4 hours) between Thanksgiving and Christmas. As much as it's a chore, it's also a fundraiser, a regular presence in our community, a show of teamwork, and an education for the boys, and a Troop tradition going back about 50 years. There's a party atmosphere about it, and most families do more than what's required, stopping by on off nights to socialize and to run errands.

May family members attend events?

Big Yes! We encourage it at T36. Aside from parents, all family members, boys and girls, and even guests are welcome on most activities. Guests are particularly encouraged because they tend to lead to recruits. The BSA liability policy covers a guest on an activity up to 30 days.

How many trips must my son attend each year?

Wait a second. I have to lead a trip? We've just joined, we don't know the ropes

Your son will hold his head so proudly after you've led a trip, you'll never look back.

First, join a trip. There's a Camporee in April, just after the new recruits bridge in. Followed immediately by an easy backpack in May. There are easy trips and tougher trips. Choose your comfort level.

Then lead a trip. You don't need a degree in wayfinding. Leading means organizing the trip: figure out the requirements of the destination (reservations, fire restrictions, parent qualifications, etc), make sure the paperwork is done, make decisions: “we meet at this time, this place.” There's an Event Planning web page to guide you through the entire process, with links to Boy Scout resources and our own T36 checklists. And ask for help; seasoned parents like nothing better than newbies trying to shoulder their load. Extended back-country trips require leaders to have specialized courses/skills such as Wilderness First Aid. But you could get started with a car camping trip to Gaviota Beach. If the calendar doesn't provide for a trip you can lead, propose an off-calendar event, a day hike. Plan a family outing, invite the Troop along, and you have a trip.

Easy steps to blend in even better:

What are some measures of Troop success?

The Journey to Excellence award recognizes performance on a long list of criteria. These are our program priorities:

On the administrative side our priorities are transparency, ownership and involvement by all families, and outreach to other Troops, alumni and the community.

Do parents have to stick around at weekly meetings?

There isn't a rule requiring it, but there's an expectation that you will help with activities, supervise games, learn/teach skills, and take charge when your turn comes up.

What's special about the hoity toity parents who get to wear the uniform at weekly meetings?

All registered Scout parents should wear the Class A uniform at Troop meetings, but typically only those adults working with boys on the program side do (Scoutmaster, Assistant Scoutmasters, Merit Badge Counselor du jour, Advancement Chair). On the admin side, such as parent committee meetings, we tend not to wear them at T36.

Parents and boys should always wear Class A uniforms when traveling to/from outings, and at service/District/Council events.

What does a year of Scouting cost?

Membership fees to BSA are nominal, about $30/year for each participant (child/parent). The first year, you'll spend about $150 on Class A and Class B uniforms. As boys outgrow their uniforms, they often hand them down.

Then there are outings, which can be anything from $10 for a nearby 1-night backpack to $400-600 for summer camp (much of which is supported by funds from Tree Lot). A ski trip could run $150 (shared travel and food) plus gear rentals, lift tickets and lessons. For boys aged 14+, there are $1500 1-2-week-long High Adventure trips to New Mexico, the Minnesota-Canada border or the Bahamas; a boy may attend one, two, maybe three of them in his Scouting tenure. There are national and international Jamborees (that we typically do not attend). But most outings are in the $10-30 range. You are not required to attend a minimum number of trips at T36, though it's normal to face a little pressure to shore up the numbers on a particular trip to make it viable.

There's a fund-raiser in the spring: Friends of Scouting. It proposes that the cost per Scout to the organization is about $150 (developing training programs, keeping offices open and executives paid). We do encourage you to contribute, but the amount is entirely up to your family budget.

Then we need camping gear, right?

There's a packing/gear list. You can find equipment at REI ($$), Big5 ($) and other sporting goods outlets. Boys and parents aging out of the Troop often sell good equipment at a bargain.

The Troop owns some equipment for general use: stoves, cooking pots, lanterns, etc.

Some other troops own camping gear (tents, backpacks) for member use. T36 does not.

How are trip expenses met, reimbursed and paid?

On a trip, let's say you drive and take 2 Scouts in addition to your son. You incur gas costs, and maybe some food costs on behalf of everyone. File a claim with the Treasurer and it's reimbursed. Then each participant is billed a proportion of the cost.

Restaurant meals en route are paid by the Scout on the spot, for which he should carry a little cash (the Adult Leader for the trip would be happy to manage the cash for young Scouts).

Meals at destination are usually prepared from supplies purchased and carried by the Troop — those costs are shared and billed to participants.

What are some Troop activities?

The aims of Scouting are character development, physical fitness, and citizenship training. Activities generally cater to these aims.

How does my son advance?

There are 4 ways to grow, that are somewhat independent of each other.

Are there required religious activities?

This varies. Troops that have a church as Chartered Organization may require religious observances. T36 is chartered by the Rotary Club of Goleta Noontime, which does not impose religious requirements. Spirituality is a condition of membership in Scouting (but your Sunday morning travel is not tracked by BSA Church Police). Reverence, broadly interpreted, is one of the 12 points in the Scout Oath. At camps, there are optional Sunday worship periods, gently titled “Scout's Own.” They tend to be generic, inter-faith and non-controversial, appreciating goodness and peace rather than dissecting this or that holy book. Never worry about being a minority in faith or denomination.

Do the Scouts have political leanings? Is it guns or tree-hugging?

When you join, you are the Scouts. Your political leanings become the “Scouts'” leanings. Troop members are drawn from the general population, and presumably cover the spectrum.

There are occasional activities that involve shooting: outings and training with age-appropriate firearms: shotguns, rifles, etc, and slingshots. Within T36 this is optional. At some BSA High Adventure camps and competitive venues, shooting is part of the prescribed activity set.

At the other end of the political scale, a long-standing Scout tradition is to “leave no trace” of our presence in the wilds. That means raking displaced leaves back after we've uprooted our tents, to restore the evapo-transpiration balance and insect micro-habitats that we disturbed overnight.

So there, boys can earn a merit badge in Shooting or Sustainability, or both. And parents can drive Suburbans or Priuses.

Abuse at Boy Scouts has been in the news. Should I be concerned?

You should be concerned any time you leave your child in the care of others, and you should ensure that due precautions are in place.

Youth Protection is the single most serious issue of our time in Scouting, and the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) as a national organization has done well to prioritize it. BSA has participated at the highest levels, with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, and other youth organizations, to develop national standards for Youth Protection. The procedures that BSA has put in place are considered exemplary.

Before a child is admitted as a Scout, parents must read the Youth Protection pull-out booklet at the front of the Scout handbook, and discuss it with him in the family's preferred style. Every adult who participates with boys in Troop activities must take Youth Protection training, and renew it every year. We will cancel a trip, whatever the cost, if “two-deep” Youth Protection requirements cannot be met. Parents are required to intervene without reservation in any way necessary, with anyone at any level, if Youth Protection guidelines are not being followed, intentionally or otherwise. Allegations of abuse are reported to police.

National policy aside, it's ultimately up to every parent to look out for kids in our care. If you ever have concerns about the safety of your child at T36 (e.g. when planning an event: “Will my 11-year-old son be sharing a tent/cabin with a 17-year-old,” or “Who's this adult leading the trip — I don't know him well enough”), be assured that you are not rocking the boat by raising the point, you're doing what it takes to protect your son, and we expect no less from you.

By way of full and candid disclosure, one of the more publicized recent allegations of abuse in California was associated with the Troop 36 Tree Lot. The alleged incident was in 2007, and both the accused and the accuser left T36 shortly thereafter. Subsequent accusations of cover-up were directed at a Council official (who has also left), never at any T36 member. While Tree Lot is a Troop event and we do what we can to ensure safe setup, operations and policy, the fact is that sales shifts are signed up by families, who then are in control at the lot for the duration of their shift. The first line of protection and responsibility for boys at the lot is clearly their own parents on the scene.

My child has a disability. How do you deal with it?

Over the years T36 has had several Scouts with disabilities: physical, autism spectrum, etc. In many cases they went on to become Eagle Scouts.

BSA puts out a manual on dealing with youth with disabilities. Page 13 points out that when joining, you must discuss your child's disability with the Scoutmaster and other Troop leaders who work with your child. We're parents like you, not medical or behavioral experts, but to the extent possible and reasonable, we'll learn about your child's needs and accommodate them.

Is my child's privacy protected?

There are numerous facets of privacy: contact information, date of birth and medical records; exposure of signups, photo captions and other documents to the public on the web site; training boys not to give away their identity on the internet; etc. They impact personal security as well as vulnerability to profiling and identity theft. BSA recognizes the issue and takes several precautions to limit access to data.

We have measures in place at the Troop level too. Troop 36 does not use popular social media to organize events or store data. We have our own in-house tools.

Application forms ask for some personal information. DOB: because there are lower and upper age limits on activities. Adult SSNs: because every adult has to undergo a background check. Medical forms, which include DOB, are a necessity on trips for obvious reasons; they must be studied by adult trip leaders. Troop leaders are required to protect the information in application and medical forms.

Is my child allowed to use a cell phone on a trip?

BSA disallows use of electronics on camping trips, but that's usually in the context of games. If Junior has gone on a trip and not called, it's not because the Scoutmaster is reading him his rights. Cell reception can be poor at camp sites. A Scoutmaster will not object to a nightly call home, and certainly not an emergency call. In general, a call home is appropriate on the first night (“We've reached safely”) and an hour away from home on the return journey.

What courses/certifications do I need?

These courses are valuable not just for leading Troop activities, but also in personal and professional management. The Troop pays for many leadership training courses.

To whom does T36 report?

We fall under the South Coast District (Goleta to Carpinteria). Which is under the Los Padres Council (Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties: Atascadero to Carp). Which falls under the Western Region. And eventually under the Boy Scouts of America National headquarters in Texas. National, Region, Council and District dictate some things. But Troops have considerable autonomy, and each one develops its own program priorities and character.

What sets T36 apart?

T36 is small, and is fortunate to have dedicated parents from the past who continue to help. Boys are more likely to have leadership opportunities and to receive individual attention. We have a high rate of Eagle graduation.

The T36 vibe pre-dates most of us, so it's difficult to write down the exact reasoning and code at the heart of it. Maybe it's that every boy and parent has a voice, and while we do have some traditions, guidelines and expectations, even rules, we're relaxed and non-judgmental, we have candid and thoughtful conversations on difficult subjects, and we let the Troop evolve. As the papa rat in Ratatouille put it, we're family.

How do we sign up?

In no particular order:

When you join, we'll give you orientation materials to cover parent training, uniforms, etc, in detail.