Camp Parsons, BSA

970 Bee Mill Rd

Brinnon, WA 98320

360-796-4427; FAX 360-796-2039

**Important Information Do Not Lose**

Welcome to Camp Parsons as we celebrate our 90th season of continuous camping on the Hood Canal. This memo is to provide information to you rather than taking your time covering this during the opening Scoutmaster meeting. Given the volume of information we feel it is important to relay this to you by written form. Please read prior to coming to the meeting particularly to see if you have any questions.

Cars are restricted to the parking lot. If you need to have some major piece of equipment moved into your campsite (outside of personal gear and troop equipment) we may be able to move this to your campsite with our authorized camp vehicles. This will be at the discretion of the Camp Ranger.

Upon arrival, you will proceed through check-in and get settled into your campsite. From time to time we have to make last minute changes so you may be in a campsite that you were not originally scheduled to be in. We apologize if this causes any hardship, but we have to make the best fit for the whole camp. We ask that you be “helpful” and understand that we must safely accommodate all campers at Camp Parsons. Once settled in, your staff guide will take you on a tour. Your staff guide will be an excellent reference point for questions you may have, however to make sure you have an accurate answer, questions are best answered by the Program Director, Head Commissioner or the Area Director of the area in question.

You most likely will be sharing a campsite with another troop. We ask that you and the Senior Patrol Leader meet with that troop and get to know them and set up boundaries regarding your troop area. It is important to understand that you will be sharing some resources, particularly the kybo. You may wish to develop a clean-up schedule that you share amongst the other troops sharing your campsite. We have found in the past that most situations that developed between troops could have been prevented or solved quickly if the troop leadership talks with one another.

In your Leaders’ Guide you will find a listing of camp rules. Please take the time and go through them. Two very important rules must be emphasized. If a Scout is found outside of camp property, they will be sent home immediately. This includes crossing the county road instead of using the culverts that were designed for this. If a scout is found in possession of fireworks, regardless of whether he uses them, he will be sent home. These are two safety rules that we feel strongly about and will be dealt with swiftly. Unless behavior affects the safety of the camp property, staff, other scouts or the individual scout, all disciplinary action will be at the discretion of the Scoutmaster.

Mail arrives at the Silver Marmot Grill and is generally available for pick-up at 3:00 PM. We ask that an adult pick up the mail for the troop. Outgoing mail should be given to the Trading Post staff by 11:00 AM to go out that day.

Lost and Found is also located at the Silver Marmot Grill. If you find an item, please drop it off at the Trading Post located at the Silver Marmot Grill.

Equipment can be checked out of the Tool Room located at the maintenance shop at the parking lot, following each meal, which will be open for an hour. On Sunday, the tool room is open during the merit badge sign-up time only. Please come here if you require any tools, cooking equipment, paper towels, toilet paper, etc. Please plan ahead as the Ranger is generally not at the tool room during other times. This is very important for cookouts. Check out equipment the evening before your cookout, as the Tool Room will not be open prior to breakfast. The kitchen does not have any utensils or cooking gear to checkout.

Cookout. During the week you will be cooking out one day in your campsite. This will consist of a morning, lunch, and evening meal. The breakfast meal will consist of oatmeal and fruit, lunch will consist of hot dogs as the cooked meal, and dinner will consist mainly of material for stew (ground beef, onions, etc.). You will be assigned a day at the Sunday Scoutmaster meeting for your cookout and more information will be available during the Scoutmaster meetings.

Emergencies & Health Lodge. If you encounter any emergencies, medical or otherwise, that require immediate attention, please get a hold of any staff member and notify them of the emergency. There is sick call after each meal when the medical officer will be available at the Health Lodge (located just off the Dining Hall Parade field towards the water). We ask that you attend to cuts and bruises much like you do on campouts instead of depending on the health lodge, which is essentially there for emergencies.

If there is a camp emergency, fire bells will ring constantly. When you hear the fire bell ringing constantly, extinguish any fires you have in the campsite and report immediately to the parade field in front of the Silver Marmot Grill (Trading Post). Do not have the troop meet first in the campsite, they can form together once they arrive at the parade field. You will be instructed what to do next by a staff member.

Daily Assemblies. Each day, prior to a meal, there will be a camp wide assembly. The times for these are 7:50 AM, 12:25 PM, and 5:50 PM. There will be a Senior Patrol Leader’s report taken at that time. When asked to report, the SPL will take two steps forward and report that the troop is present (this includes the waiters who are attending to the meal) or if someone is absent, we hope that you can tell us where they might be. If you are cooking out, a representative of the troop should be present to report in for the troop and gather the daily messages. Following this, there will be a flag ceremony for the morning and evening meal. Although we appreciate scout and troop spirit during this report period, we ask that you do not charge or approach the staff member taking the report or giving messages. By doing this you will automatically disqualify your troop for Honor Troop. If a staff member encourages you to do this, please notify the Program Director.

Meals. Except for the day you are cooking out, you will be eating in the Dining Hall. On Sunday evening, we have a buffet so waiters are not needed. Beginning Monday morning, you will need to supply waiters to tend to your troop. We ask that you send 1 waiter for every 7 scouts (not adults) to the dining hall at 7:15 AM (initial orientation) for breakfast, 12:00 for lunch and 5:15 PM for dinner. It is important that your waiters are on time, if not, this will delay the meal. It is also important that they stay behind to help clean up their tables. If they leave prior to their duties being complete, the table will be left as it is. It is probably best you rotated the waiter duties so that a new waiter starts every morning.

We eat family style here at camp, which consists of food being placed on the table and being passed around from the head of the table (see diagram). Tables seat nine “average” sized scouts and servings are based on this. The tables are set as such:

HEAD

B

E

N

C

H

B

E

N

C

H

Waiter

Staff Guest

Kitchen

We try to have a staff sit at each table but we also try to keep your troop together as much as possible. When you enter the dining hall, you can identify your tables in three different ways. First is by looking for the flags which identify your campsite, the second is by looking for your waiter. Perhaps the most important and final way is to look at the laminated sheet on the table. This lists your troop, the number of scouts, adults, and staff members sitting at each table. You may be sharing part of a table with another troop and this control sheet will tell how many spaces there are for the other troop. If this is the case, then it is probably best if you talked with the Scoutmaster of the other troop in order to develop a waiter rotation schedule. When you arrive to your table, we ask that you remain standing until grace is complete. We ask that adults sit at the head of the table. There will be seconds called after the meal commences, we ask that you send only the waiter up during this time. This reduces the amount of individuals moving around the dining hall and reduces the chance of accidents. Please do not send multiple scouts up to get food, this is the job for the waiter. Scouts remain seated until dismissed from the dining hall. Please do not send scouts out of the dining hall for “a breath of fresh air” unless they have some adult supervision. We generally find these scouts on the obstacle course and bouldering wall without spotters. Given the various sizes of scouts and adults which may vary from table to table it would be wise to monitor the proportions that scouts take so that the food is distributed evenly around the table. We ask that you share amongst other tables if you are lacking any particular item as we find ourselves throwing away food consistently. Remember, a scout is helpful and thrifty. If there are problems with the food service please let us know prior to the end of the week, so we can try to solve those issues that may arise.

Coffee. We always try to have coffee available either at the Silver Marmot Grill or at the Dining Hall. Coffee is for adults only. If you allow your scouts to drink coffee then we ask that you get this for them, as we will not allow scouts to use the coffee machine.

Scoutmaster Meetings. We have daily Scoutmaster meetings at 10:00 AM usually at the Scoutmaster lounge in the Silver Marmot Grill. During this time we will discuss the daily program and problem solve on issues that may develop during the week. Programming issues can also be discussed but program scheduling will be done during the Senior Patrol Leaders meeting.

Scoutmaster Lounge and Phone. The room next to the trading post in the Silver Marmot Grill serves as the Scoutmaster lounge. There is coffee available there most of the time and it is generally a “self-service” operation. There is a phone for your use located in the lounge. This is a call out phone allowing only 800 numbers or credit/collect calls. It is also the phone that our staff uses for personal calls. Scouts are not allowed to use this phone unless accompanied by an adult leader.

Blue Wrist Bands. When you checked into camp, you received a blue wristband to wear around your wrist. This is to identify you as a registered adult at Camp Parsons. Given the volume of people that come and go, it is difficult to identify adults who are supposed to be here as opposed to those who are visiting. This is done to protect our scouts from possible intruders. When adults check in during the week they will be given a blue band once they are checked on the roster you filled out. Please help us keep your scouts and our staff safe.

Smoking. Smoking is not allowed in any of the program areas, or areas of camp which are readily visible to scouts. You may designate an area in your campsite as a smoking area, but we ask that you be discrete. The designated smoking areas in camp are behind the SMG and behind the Dining Hall.

Program. Camp Parsons offers a wide selection of program items that will hopefully meet the needs of your troop as well as the individual scout. Each program area has either a Director or an Area Lead. Should you have any questions regarding program within that particular area, please seek out these individuals who will try to do their best to provide you with the program you need. Please understand that the Boy Scouts of America have specific policies, which govern the operation of any resident camp. The staff is responsible to the management to provide a safe and learning environment for the scouts that attend camp. Although staff members will never discipline a scout, they have the authority to remove any individual from the program area if they feel there is danger or if that individual does not follow the area or camp rules. Should you have any concern involving this, please speak with the Program Director, Assistant Camp Director or the Camp Director.

Staff. Staff members are easily identifiable by the blue jacket with the CP symbol or they will be wearing staff t-shirts. The staff member assigned as your staff guide is an employed, full season staff member and is an excellent resource should you have simple questions regarding the operation of camp. We have volunteers in camp; Counselors-in-Training (CIT) and Visiting Commissioners. CIT’s are young scouts who spend a week at camp learning about being a staff member. As such, they probably will not have a firm grasp on camp operations and are not good resources with regards to this. Commissioners, much like yourself, are Scoutmasters who have spent time at Camp Parsons and can be an excellent resource, particularly when it comes to helping you with troop issues.

Visitors. Although visitors are welcome, Camp Parsons is not designed to accommodate their needs. If you have visitors coming to camp, they will need to sign in at the office. If they plan on eating a meal at Camp, they must purchase a meal ticket prior to the meal. Visitors do not eat with the troop, they are accommodated at a separate table. Only registered Boy Scouts and Scouters may stay overnight at Camp Parsons; young children who are not of scout age cannot stay overnight. There is a local motel or state parks nearby that can accommodate your visitor’s needs and we will be happy to give you information with regards to this.

We appreciate your attention to these policies. It is very important that you share this information and handout with those adults replacing you as the Scoutmaster during the week if you leave, as well as those other adults within your troop. We find our biggest obstacles to a smooth running camp in general extend from poor communication and lack of information. Please help us with this challenge. We hope you enjoy your week here at Camp Parsons and if there is anything we can do to help your scouting week, please ask. Thank you.