Additional Areas of Outdoor Training
Responses to the question: “Are there any areas you would like to see additional outdoor trainings offered in?"
Multiple responses are noted in italics. Responses are listed "as is" from the survey. They have not been edited for spelling or grammar.
Multiple responses are noted in italics. Responses are listed "as is" from the survey. They have not been edited for spelling or grammar.
- 15+ years as a leader, day camp outdoor skills trainer, but NOT ok for troop outdoor skills. We just had to retake all the training! NOT HAPPY!
- Add swaps in
- Additional first aid and outdoor skills trainings offered. Typically only a couple trainings a year- no outdoor themed first aid. More leader events at camps would introduce more leaders to camps and troop programming that can be done there.
- Advanced outdoors
- Advanced camping, cooking by fire, etc. And maybe not offered at camp. To learn to cook by fire. We don't have to be at the camp!
- Advanced cooking techniques, low ropes challenge course, archery, orienteering
- Advanced Outdoor Cooking. Outdoor Safety Guidelines, high adventure, team building
- Advanced skills
- ALL areas.
- ALL at a reasonable price. Tcc1 and 2 are the only reasonably priced trainings.
- All of the 8 basic skills
- All outdoor training for activities listed.
- All trainings are at our Council Office. Alternate locations aren't an option as there are no other neighboring Councils that are closer or easier to attend. Only other NV Council is an 8 hour drive or in other States (CA, UT, AZ), so the drive to attend training at our Council HQ is our only option due to our living in a rural area 70 miles away from our Council Office. We know that going into it and adjust accordingly. Our council is supportive, understanding and great..!!!!
- Allow us to use it off council property. IE canoe training only valid at camp, cannot use on local lakes
- Alternate local sites
- Anything beyond the basic Outdoor Core that is offered
- Archery, Canoeing
- Archery (they have equipment; I've no idea how to use it). Canoeing/boating (can canoe, know nothing about sailing). Basically, anything beyond very basic camp skills.
- Archery, boating (canoeing), backpacking. those kinds of activities
- Archery, small water craft (for canoeing/sailing)
- Archery. Boating. Cooking Outside. Fire making. Knots. Survival skills. Info about outdoor animals and bugs.
- As a facilitator, we have offered compasses, advanced cooking, backpacking, and no one signs up and we end up having to cancel.
- Backpacking, extended tripping, more advanced options.
- Backpacking, wilderness survival, more aquatics programs, trip / camp programs - i.e. - Canoe adventures - learn canoeing, fishing, packing for a river float trip and go...
- Backpacking; high adventure; pioneering skills
- Backpacking/ Hiking, Survival skills, water craft- kayaks, row boats and paddle boards
- Basic Camping skills as required for all volunteers, offered at least every 2 to 3 months for every area. This way as new volunteers come on board there are opportunities to learn outdoor skills. Council should help and encourage SUs hold these training in their areas. 2) Training in tent camping, backpacking, sailing and boating and how to pack vehicles. Fire safety, fire building and how to check that it is out.
- Basic outdoor skills
- Basic outdoor skills-- less about forms and more about skills
- Basic skill building. Anything!
- Because lack of trainers and the equipment it is hard to take on the road.
- Big Bear, Arrowhead, Los Ositos & beach camps. Water places!
- Blair county
- Boating. Archery.
- BROOKLYN
- Camp courtesy, how to camp for new leaders, set up tents, plan camp set up, types of cooking, the new leaders (and some of the older) need more extensive training.
- Campfire only. We prefer cabin camping but would like to do campfire
- Camping set up. Anything beyond the required ones that's all they offer.
- Canoeing and kayaking.
- Canoeing and STEM lab training to be able to use the lab at Camp country Center
- Canoeing especially open water
- Canoeing on moving water, Kayaking, Backpacking
- Canoeing, Backpacking, Knife Skills (Not chef knife). Better training for inexperienced leaders for camping.
- Canoeing, water certifications
- Canoeing!!! I've been trying to get trained in this for 3 years now!!!
- Clark county, WA
- Compass and maps, advanced outdoor skills, additional camp skills, remote camping skills, beyond the basics outdoor cooking
- Conservation of natural resources, how to use nature to guide you on camping trips, more lashing projects and learning more knots and actually using them.
- Cooking
- Cooking, Lashing, Orienteering, Canoeing
- Cooking outside, tying knots, wilderness first aid. Teaching girls
- Council typically only offers Camping 101 and 102. Council once a year in the past has offered a challenge day for adults and I believe one challenge training in the fall which required one full evening inside for class work and one full day at the activity. Generally that day has been after school has started in the fall and GS activities as well as other school activities are already scheduled. Council activities are generally not scheduled or promoted in advance.
- Delaware County offers nothing in regards to outdoor training and council events.
- Dutch oven cooking, other trips, more sharing
- Dutch oven cooking, hiking backpacking. I teach canoeing as a volunteer.
- Each community (at Troop level) for leaders and co leaders of multiple Troops to attend, as well as older Girl Scouts (senior/ ambassador)
- Ecological and wildlife knowledge.
- Enrichment activities beyond the basics that leaders can share with girls
- Eugene / Springfield area
- Events have been developed at service unit levels, and staffed by volunteers. The newest program was started as a leader/older girl training day in a very rural area that is difficult for staff to support due to distance. It is starting its 4th year, while it does not use a council site; the result is an increase in camp use as the leaders get 'qualified' to take their girls.
- Everything--training used to be more comprehensive--now it's just a couple of hours
- Everything!!!!! Ours seem to be outdated and a waste of time.
- Fire safety, carving/ whittling, maps - navigation
- Fire set up animal tracking plants
- First aid, CPR, survival skills
- General outdoor skills and what the camps offer. There's not a great resource to show off what all of our camps offer. Leaders also need help in knowing what is acceptable in each level of scouting and what to expect from the different age levels.
- General outdoor training is easy to find. Specialized outdoor: backpacking, wilderness first aid, etc. is not. Shooting sports: shotgun, BB, clay. They do offer archery instructor training.
- Geocaching, knife safety, cooking, knot tying, shelter construction, tent care
- Good question. As a trainer, if I thought people would attend trainings beyond the mandated ones needed to take a troop overnight and/or camping, we would offer them (LNT, hiking, camp craft, etc.)
- Gun/firearm safety and handling, rock climbing
- High adventure skills backpacking bike touring activities to keep the older girls in scouts. Most the trainings are entry level. Outdoor basic skills basic troop camping. I want trainings that kick it up a level or two.
- HIGH ROPES
- High Ropes, Canoeing and archery
- Hiking - outdoor skills not related to camping. Fishing. Swimming.
- Hiking; winter camping and activities; primitive camping
- Hiking. Back packing
- Hiking/Backpacking, High/Low Ropes Courses, Rock Wall Belay
- How about sessions solely on Orienteering (compass use), Outdoor Cooking; right now, these are thrown into our general Outdoor Camping Orientation. A one-day or half-day for each skill would be nice, and if the Outdoor Camping orientation was a full day with an overnight, that would make it more meaningful! I would also be willing to pay a higher fee for such a program.
- How to run a Mini Camp!!
- I have not looked for this in years. I do know that many trainings are cancelled due to lack of enrollment. I do not think they are adequately promoted.
- I have thought about going to flex and getting trained in new things but it's expensive. $60 for overnight and Saturday. Hard to swing on limited budget.
- I have waited about 6 years for archery and will finally get to take it this year
- I pay for training so that I can pay for camp facility. Meanwhile my daughter and I pay a registration fee, and then we get to sell items on behalf of the organization. Then I get to solicit the parents for "donations" during an annual drive. There is something wrong here
- I think an overnight camping outdoor experience training would be beneficial
- I think our council is doing a horrible job with training. They have you sit in front of your computer and watch a power point presentation and then say you are ready to take your troop camping. We used to have to actually spend a weekend at a camp with other leaders, learning about troop camping, but they don't do that anymore.
- I would like additional training in hiking activities, backpacking, geocaching, horseback riding, fishing, archery, zip line, ropes course, orienteering, etc.
- I would like the training to cost less or nothing at all. I'm volunteering so much of my time to just be a troop leader. Maybe we could do training for leaders at our council meetings. I can't drive over an hour to learn how to make a fire (that I already know how to make).
- I would like to see ANY outdoor training offered. Right now there is the camp certification training and archery!! Nothing else at all!! I have been camp certified for about 22 years and as a trainer have personally trained hundreds of leaders. I would love to see training for other activities like outdoor cooking, more dates for archery, hiking, etc.
- I would like to see better training on planning camping trips for new leaders.
- I would like to see more options, more in depth trainings, with traditional camp crafts and skill sets.
- I would like to see more training for people who want to train other leaders. I would like to be able to do Dasiy training for new leaders so troops can start with confident leaders.
- I would like to see more weekends offered for volunteers! I would also like council to promote and emphasize trainings in outdoors as well as all other trainings! And not just computer trainings!!!
- I would like to see online training
- I would like to see some more skill trainings... some that we do not need to stay overnight, but can just go for a few hours... not necessarily a "training" but some good info we can put in our back pocket... song nights to learn more scout songs, campfire skills, cooking skills, bits and pieces so that we get a bit at a time... or to reinforce what we've learned in a training. One training is a lot to remember everything. It will sink in better if we get a bit at a time. And make it open to the girls as well and call it an event... I've seen other councils do this and it works out well. The girls learn something, and the adults learn something as well. Perhaps we can even have the girls earn a badge while doing so... but something like that I would do even if we couldn't earn a badge.
- I would like to see the opportunity available 4 times a year rather than only two.
- I would like to see the training be main streamed. Troop camping on the eastern USA and Troop camping in the center USA is still the same- with different weather.
- I would like to see training in specific outdoor areas. Hiking, cooking, etc
- I would like to see trainings offered more often. Over a year ago I wanted to sign up for a watery safety course, but they only offer it once a year - I signed up for this past June - and then the council cancelled it because they did not get the Red Cross instructor lined up. They never rescheduled
- I would like volunteers reinstated into programs outdoors and Council staff be used for other things or in addition to volunteers. If we as volunteers don't have responsibilities we don't feel ownership and so we don't feel valued...
- I would love more outdoor training above and beyond things like outdoor essentials and first aid
- I would love to know more about outdoor trainings, and would be happy to take some, but have never been notified. I would like to receive notifications from Council on these events, since our service unit and my daughter's troop do not promote these trainings.
- I would love to see any outdoor training offered
- I would love to see the council provide training in archery, canoeing, first aid, nature studies, water ecology etc. At present, it's impossible to get clarification about what training would be needed to take girls canoeing. If these were offered at every camp in the early spring, with plenty of notice, I think a lot of people would take more training.
- I would love to take Zip-Line training, but have not been able to get it. I know it is offered at the multi-day "Fall School" leaders' program run by our council; however I have not been able to attend that yet, due to scheduling.
- I would really like to get trained as a level 2 archery instructor. Then I could train other troop leaders to do archery with their girls. I would also like to see some of our older trainers be allowed to host trainings again. Some of them feel there is no room for them in the new structure. I feel there should be regional "Welcome to GS" trainings with some beginner outdoor skills in person for new leaders.
- I'd like to see boating offered more than once a year. I have never been able to fit it in my schedule in June and that's the only time they offer it.
- I'd like to see train the trainer type options where I can learn skills that I can then teach to the girls in my troop.
- I'd love a full volunteer camp out to teach all the skills. I had to take tent camping and outdoor cooking separately. I have yet to take knots and lashing.....if I could do it all in one weekend that would be better.
- Identifying things in nature such as trees, wildflowers, and birds.
- IF GS is going to require certain kinds of trainings, such as WFA and ARC Small Boat, they need to offer the courses.
- In our area at cheaper costs
- It is a little hard to find waterfront certification classes. They are not offered very often.
- It would be helpful if more training options were available. As a veteran camper, CIT, and former camp counselor I would like to renew certification in many areas, but have been unable to attend more than the basic introductory training.
- Just more of them & closer
- Just more than one or two sessions to cover a few days of the week
- Just more...on cooking, crafts etc. everyone at my training said Jamboree was the best to get more training, but it was never marketed to me and it apparently sells out.
- Kayaking, archery, zip line, holy cow, lifeguarding
- Kayaking, Canoeing, and other water activities
- Knife, knots, orienteering, camping programming,
- Knots and lashings
- Knots Lashing, advanced outdoor cooking, geo cashing
- Leave no trace, advanced cooking.
- Lifeguard, archery, zip line, sailing, boating ... but then council would also need to have these things available at council properties for the girls to do and to use once leaders had the training.
- Local parks in each county. I can learn outdoor skills like fire building, knots, and outdoor survival at a local metroparks. You tell us to camp there with our girls now that our camps got sold so teach us there to.
- Local regional or city parks or local mountains
- Love to see more advanced training. Also more stringent training, it's been dumbed down in the last 5 years.
- Lower Bucks County, PA (2 responses)
- Make the training real training and don't dump it down because we are girls.
- Memphis
- Mentoring scouts in the outdoors, wilderness first aid, regular first aid (only offered once per year, usually in early August)
- More "tent training" (second level of camping training). More training for archery, canoeing, etc.
- More accessible trainings
- More advanced cooking classes.
- More advanced outdoor trainings, more opportunities for leaders to practice their basic outdoor skills
- More archery and water craft trainings held at Conowingo. Usually held at Ilchester or one of the Anne Arundle County locations at times and or dates which are difficult to work around.
- More convenient a locations. Driving two hours for a class in the middle of the week hat is five hours long, after working all day and having to work the next day is not my idea of fun.
- More dates. Our platform tent training has been offered on 1 weekend this year. That's it and none are scheduled for the spring yet. My troop was troop camping that weekend and I was unable to attend. Kind of irritates me since I can't take my girls platform tent camping until I get the training, but the training is never scheduled.
- More frequent outdoor trainings, wilderness first aid, canoeing/watercraft, lifeguard certification
- More high adventure
- More high adventure - older girls are looking for this!
- More offerings. There are very few training offered in recent years.
- More on teaching general outdoor skills. I loved my Outdoor Overnight training, and wish we had spent more time on knots, knives, and fire starting -- we did some of each but ran out of time.
- More on the basics, knife skills, fire building, camp first aid.
- More outdoor trainings of all types, particularly in areas Council requires trained facilitators in, such as canoeing and archery. Advanced outdoor skills trainings would be awesome. One girl event Core Camp was all various kinds of very basic outdoor cooking skills. How cool would that have been to have an adult advanced outdoor cooking training?
- MORE please
- More training for all levels of outdoor program. If there were more trained volunteers, chances are there would be more programs offered for girls.
- More trainings for High Adventure type activities.
- More trainings on things we can do with the girls - archery, orienteering, hiking, trail riding, etc.
- Native plants, poisonous plants, etc.
- Need more local
- Need to offer a variety of dates -- the most recent offerings included 3 different classes all with the same date for the planning portion.
- No, I can’t afford all the certifications required for boating and climbing activities. Also, most outdoor training focuses on the paperwork and rules that discourage leaders from doing more activities.
- No, I don't think leaders need to be trained in everything. We can partner with those who are to lead trips and programs.
- No, just more dates
- No. We have Basic Outdoor, Advanced Outdoor, and Wilderness training.
- Oklahoma City
- On the go, stem in outdoors,
- Only basic outdoor trainings are offered - Outdoor 101, Cabins, & Tents - is all that I've seen in the past 5 years. I would love for the council to offer more advanced trainings.
- Only offered twice a year this is just ridiculous to accommodate people
- Organizing campfire programs, more songs, skits and other ideas.
- Orienteering, Stargazing and astronomy
- Orienteering and geo-caching would be nice.
- Our council chose to eliminate outdoor training for leaders in 2014. Stating, leaders don't need or want training. Training used to be only 3.5 hours and focused primarily on cooking, fires, safety, and progression, (all we could fit in).
- Our council DESPERATELY needs a "how to camp" program. The logistics of what to pack, what not to pack, how to pack your car, how to pack your cooler, how to prepare meals for a troop, what supplies your need (food and cookware), etc.
- Our girls want to camp but we can't get training on how to make a campfire... :/. We have to make s'mores in the microwave- how lame!!!!
- Our local course, outdoor 101, was a joke. As an attendee, I ended up teaching most of the course as well as bringing most of the supplies to use during the course, on the flip side, I am not allowed to become a full fledged trainer because it requires I pay to take the course twice more at two different locals within the council, which requires travel of at least 2 hours one way. I must also then instruct as an apprentice several times. The course went several years without being offered locally at all and even now is offered once a year at most. It would take several years for me to be a qualified instructor, yet I have more knowledge than many teaching.
- Ours are always an overnight, weekend event. With 3 kids, too difficult to go for a whole weekend. How about a day program?
- Outdoor cooking (2 responses)
- Outdoor cooking, orienteering, lashing, knife and axe skills
- Outdoor cooking techniques. Also, here's a biggie: they require "watchers" in addition to lifeguards. Watchers require certification, but they never offer it. I called Red Cross and they don't even know what that is. I have seen it offered once in my six years in GS. We got one of our moms to do lifeguard certification but we are still unable to meet the watcher requirement, so we swim without it.
- Outdoor cooking, archery, general outdoor skills, more optional trainings
- Outdoor cooking, progression of outdoor cooking, trail blazing, exploration of nature
- Outdoor programming, nature, science, team building, ropes and trail horseback riding.
- Outdoor skills, including backpacking, canoeing, boating, etc. I have had to use my access to Boy Scout trainings to provide canoeing/outdoor events to our troop
- Outdoor skills, small craft and archery certifications.
- Outdoor skills.
- Outdoor skills. Actually pitching tents, building fires, advanced outdoor cooking, etc.
- Outdoors skills, cooking and advance camping
- Outdoors! Outdoors! Outdoors! Camp Songs, Activities
- Overnight camping
- Plants to stay away from, snake and spider info., sounds of animals to be recognized at night, axes
- Pottstown, PA seems to be a middle zone. Things are at Valley Forge, Reading and Lehigh Valley. All over 1/2 hr ride.
- Primitive, extra outdoor cooking methods
- Primitive / backpack
- Problem finding trainers who can commit and show up for the dates. If we had more trainers, we could offer more trainings and have more dates open.
- Regional instead of at our council properties. More on Outdoor skills at the Service Unit or regional area. (within a 30 min. drive) The first time I took Outdoor Overnight I only had to drive 20 minutes to a neighboring state park. Now the training is held at Council Properties and it is a 2-3 hour drive from our town to the camp.
- Ropes course, rock wall, more small craft/canoeing opportunities
- Ropes course, archery, lifeguarding
- Sailing, kayaking, fishing,
- Sailing, naturalist, horseback riding
- Several of our younger leaders have asked for more hands on camping experience to feel comfortable to take their troops camping.
- Shelters, Creative Cooking, Outdoor Traditions, Leading a Hike (Day/Night), Geocaching/Letterboxing for the Volunteer, STEM in Nature for Volunteers
- Skills-- knife safety, bow and arrow, etc.
- Small craft certification
- Small craft safety training, life guard training, ziplining, repel, archery, STEM, geocache
- Snow adventure sports (like snow camping)
- Some actual hands on training would be great. You cannot teach outdoor skills only by online. You need hands on experience.
- Some areas of our council provide ample outdoor training opportunities and others do not. The most populous area of our council has big training weekends in both fall and spring, where leaders can take training in a retreat-like atmosphere. These weekends are planned by volunteers with staff support. Getting good council PR for these has sometimes been an issue but seems to be improving with some recent staff changes.
- Songs and games, disability access
- Southern Chester County
- Southern Indiana
- Southern MD
- Specialty trainings need to more often and more reasonable.
- Specializations of the outdoor experience- local insects and plants, creeking
- Spotsylvania VA
- St. Mary's county.
- Survival, wilderness training, pitching a tent, knots
- Survival Skills for girls and adults
- Survival skills. The girls like their Girl Scouts with a pop culture twist .. like surviving the Zombie apocalypse or Hunger Games/Brave themes
- Survival skills/ten essentials what to do when lost, outdoor water sports (lifeguarding, water safety, small boats sailing/canoeing), hiking (choosing hikes, choosing hiking gear (backpack, shoes, compass, gps, etc.), orienteering (gps/compass, map reading, telling time by the sun, direction finding), leave no trace, ultralight camping/backpacking, first aid/cpr/wilderness first aid, outdoor cooking (meal planning, food storage, cooking with propane, box oven, over a fire, dutch oven, foil meals, sack meals), water- how to find water (desert, ocean, forest, how to carry water, how to purify water, how to conserve water), lashings/knots (how and when to use them, types of rope), signaling (for emergency, trail marking). I could go on but I think you should ask the girls and adults in addition to this survey.
- Survival training wilderness first aid
- Teaching the outdoor skills to the girls. When we attend skills programs they are always taught by the older volunteers and they are awesome! But if you aren't trading up the next generation, there will be no one to do it one they're gone. Not everyone wants to sit in a meeting room and do crafts and service learning projects.
- Tent camping, campfires, knives and axes, plant identification
- Tent camping, knife skills, survival skills, knots, basic water rescue
- Tent camping, knives and axes, campfires
- Tent camping, roughing it
- The cost of maintaining/training for teaching high/low rope courses is extremely high. Therefore, there are only a handful of people trained. We have parents who are willing to be trained to run the program, but council hesitates to move forward.
- The only one that I've seen offered in my area is basic outdoor skills and low ropes, and they are usually offered during the annual leaders retreat weekend. So they can say that they offer it, but as a leader it is really crappy to have to miss out on all the fantastic programming of the leaders retreat in order to get the training in. I would love to see hands on training in advanced cooking skills, hiking/backpacking, orienteering, canoeing, and archery. I have seen archery available in our council before, but it was several hours away. Most of us can't afford the time and gas to go to the next camp over to get training.
- There is very little offered. We need all kinds of training, since we now have many leaders who are not trained in anything at all.
- They need to offer more training options and also need more trainers.
- This is rarely offered for any topic so really more of anything would be great. I think focus needs to be put on either finding leaders willing and able to take the girls out camping or finding the leader helpers to take the girls if leaders are not able for some reason.
- Too bad it is not done at real camps like Mile Hi did. It was a lot more fun, you got the feeling for being at the site, and what was available at the site.
- Traditional camp skills...not propane or cabins
- Training to facilitate outdoor programming : archery canoeing etc
- Trainings need to be held more often and at a closer location.
- Tree climbing
- Water sports, cooking, hiking, nature identification
- Water sports. Canoeing, kayaking for both girls and adults.
- We are trying to add regional area camp trainings to make it easier for our leaders. It is a work in progress
- We do not do one day trainings. Camp training includes 2 three hour sessions in town plus a weekend at camp.
- We have 6 camps in our council. I believe trainings should be offered in ALL areas.
- We have outdoor skills, archery, canoeing, high and low ropes, nature explorers.
- We need more enrichment trainings in addition to the basic cooking and camping training.
- We need more outdoor trainings and they need to be emphasized more. Many leaders take girls out without proper training.
- We need MORE! More archery facilitation. More canoeing facilitation. We need our Council to let us hire the trainers to teach our SU.
- We need to be able to "test out" of tent training, outdoor cooking, etc or offer online versions. We have many BS leaders and outdoor enthusiasts with 20yrs experience who refuse to take 6 hours of training, and I don't blame them. I agree that there needs to be a test or some way to slim it down to the "GS way" of camping.
- We would like outdoor training offered more often!
- We would like to see training for small watercraft like canoeing and kayaking offered.
- Wider more specific variety, like cooking methods or outdoor activities.
- Wilderness first aid (2 responses)
- Wilderness First Aid, Advanced Wilderness Experience
- Wilderness first aid, climbing instructor, archery instructor, NRA instructor
- Would like existing trainings offered LOCALLY.
- Would like some specific trainings: outdoor first aid, compass/orienteering, canoeing, archery instructor, advanced meals/cooking,
- Would like to see more training's held in our local area.
- Yes make it a weekend long training not just an overnight, teach backpacking, lashings, get more into leave no trace, teach how to use camp stoves, cooking over fire,
- Yes, it would be nice to offer basic camping, basic set up, a walk through for the leaders who have never done it, campfire cooking, leave no trace. I don't really NEED to know how to light a fire with a flint...that should be the advanced class.
- Yes, Other Outdoor Activities - I plan to offer this next year (songs, games, cabin activities, more.)
- Yes, use of local parks would be great
- YES! Higher level outdoor skills for starters