[philmont] Local Tour Permits

From: Jonas, Jon W CTR AMC/A3RI
Now to my question: my local Council just published the following policy
concerning local tour permits. In my humble opinion, it violates Guide to
Safe Scouting intent if not letter. Is this a policy other councils are now
publishing as well, or have we stepped out of line?
 
 "COUNCIL LOCAL TOUR PERMIT POLICY:
 After a lengthy discussion, the following suggested policy was agreed upon:

 A local Tour Permit is required to be turned into the Okaw Valley Council
for unit outings if any of the following is true about your outing:
     1. The outing is out of council.
  2. The outing is long term (longer thatn 7 days).
  3. The outing includes any of the following activities: swimming,
boating, climbing/rappelling, caving, or overnight backpacking.
 
 The Troop, Crew, Pack (unit) Committee Chairman or his (her) designee
should fill out the back of the Local Tour Permit Application with the
information on all potential drivers for the unit for the Charter year and
keep it with the unit records." (recently published in the Okaw Valley
Echo, our council newsletter).
 
As to appropriate list, Scouts-L is a great place to discuss this and many
other scouting procedural topics (or most anything else scouting related).
It is a great list with some very experienced scouters, many of them also on
this list, who answer questions very quickly and accurately (and sometimes
not so accurate :-). We do, like all lists, occasionally have our
squabbles, but all in all, it is a great virtual campfire to gather around.
I believe you can go to usscouts.org to subscribe. Scouts-L also does not
suffer from the Philmont lists' annoying habit of passing through read
receipts and notices of out-of-office auto replies to the list.
 
If I understand you correctly, your question appears to be that you feel
your council is not requiring tour permits in as many circumstances as your
reading of G2SS implies. Or (with tongue firmly planted in cheek), to put
it another way, complaining that you don't have to file as much paperwork as
the rest of us :-)
 
Other than saying you should thank your lucky stars you don't have to file
as many of these things as the rest of us, I think one thing to understand
is that decisions on the requirements for LOCAL tour permits is entirely up
to the LOCAL council (hence the word "LOCAL"). National Tour permit policy
comes from, you guessed it, the National BSA office.
 
The quote you supplied from the G2SS had the portions bolded just as you
provided them. That means instead of suggestions, these are actual national
policy. However, the language is simply that "a unit obtain a local tour
permit." Since the local council has control on the policies for local tour
permits, then the rules for obtaining same are up to the council. Your
council may not, however, change the rule that more than 500 miles (or
across international borders) be a national tour permit.
 
My conclusion is that your council is completely within their rights to set
the policy they have, and you should be grateful for needing less paperwork
than the rest of us. I do, think, however, they should include in their
policy the fact that it still only applies to trips of less than 500 miles
(perhaps point one could be "The outing is out of council but less than 500
miles."). We have to file tour permits for everything here, even things
such as work on an eagle project at our chartered partner.
 
I do see, however, a potential issue in the event of an occurrence of some
type on an out-of-council outing and not having a tour permit may be looked
at askance if you are playing in another council's ballpark. I just can't
see what circumstances would lead another council to even know this. This is
why a lot of council's at least require a tour permit for anything out of
council.
 
Regards
Don Roberts
District Advancement Chair, Los Amigos District
Orange County Council
Fullerton, CA
  

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Received on Tue Nov 21 12:04:06 2006