Impact of Non-GS Group Use of Camp
Responses to the statement: “If you answered "YES" to the above question (If your council does rent camps to other groups, has this impacted your ability to make a reservation for camp?), please add any additional information you would like to share here.”
Responses are listed "as is" from the survey. They have not been edited for spelling or grammar.
Responses are listed "as is" from the survey. They have not been edited for spelling or grammar.
- 1st come, 1st serve with the reservation for the camp
- A company leases the nearest Girl Scout camp to bring at risk youth up for the summer
- A group of 6 troops wanted to go to camp together, but we had to accommodate on the dates and the cabins we were to use because of a group of LARPers that were camping the same weekend.
- A movie was being filmed at one of the camps, so the camp was shut down during the time I wanted to take my troop. We had two other camps to choose from, but they each offer different experiences and the other two camps were not what my girls wanted at the time. As a result, we just delayed our trip from spring to fall.
- Alcohol should be banned while scouts are at camp
- All camps seem to be booked all the time
- At Camp Anna Behrens they rent out for weddings and they are booked 4 years out during the wedding season. This prevents troops from any availability.
- Called every year for 3 years and Camp River Ranch is booked for Women's Conferences which are not even GS related! This is unacceptable.
- Camp was in use by other groups when we were requesting it
- Camps are used by the local school's outdoor program and also by YMCA .... however .... because they are used by non-Girl Scouts it opens the door to do gold awards at the camps as it can/does benefit non-Girl Scouts (sorry trying to look for a silver lining - also because they are used and bring in revenue .... hopefully we will not face the sales that are plaguing other councils)
- Closest camp is used by another group in the summer so we have to drive over 2 hours to get to closest summer camp.
- Council blocks the camp schedule for potential opportunities with other groups. They usually fall through but because the camp was booked troops do not get the opportunity to utilize the facility.
- Council camps are usually closed when I want to use them.
- Council lets other groups take priority over troops
- Council often double booked and I lost my reserved spot to outside groups more than once! But, that was about 10 years ago. Our council has gone downhill since then and has not let outside groups in for a couple of years, causing income to drop drastically!
- Council puts camps on rest, and then rents them out to outside groups.
- Council upped the price this year for non Girl Scout Users. We have had less competition from the Boy Scouts, who liked to use our camps b/c they're cheaper than theirs since then
- During the school week, our Girl Scout camp has outdoor education days for local schools. This has been a good addition for our camp. We now have camp pets and other kids get to spend time outdoors.
- During the summer our local facility rents out the entire camp to YMCA so we cannot camp there in the summer.
- Girl Scout troops are not given preference in reservations. Anyone can get the reservation. It is first come first serve.
- GS summer camps are all summer long and have no breaks for troops to get in during the summer. The web site wouldn’t let me look beyond mid September. Most camps are not appropriate for older girls
- GS troops & SU's should always have priority over outside groups. We don't.
- Had to reschedule once because camp was being used for 10 days by an outside user group.
- Hadn't impacted us much yet. They just started this a year or so ago.
- I believe they rent to other groups during the work week, leaving the weekends for troops.
- I do not feel safe when outside males are in the camp
- I don't know if they do or not as we can't afford to camp at our council camps any more. I would definitely have a problem if other groups were there when GS troops were there. I have heard of that situation happening at other council camps. We have always considered GS camps as the place to go where we know we are safe, but this would not be the case if other groups were there.
- I feel that it has become extremely hard to rent out the whole camp to be able to do a service unit camping trip. We currently have only 1 camp that offers food service and year round cabins. One camp is now for sale. The camp is available to rent the cabins but there is no food service. There are kitchenettes in each cabin, but this doesn't work to take a service unit to this camp. Our other camp is very rustic with very few cabins that can be used year round and currently no food service to outfit a service unit for the weekend. Council is renting out the camps for weddings and company events, which makes it hard to get a weekend. Outside people are paying a higher premium than we are but feel that these outside people are given priority because they pay more.
- I have no way of telling who has rented camps.
- I hope GS have a longer open window for camp reservations.
- I rented a camp in Alabama. We did corporate things & my wedding there. Then, 10 years later I'm told the girls come first and that doesn't happen anymore... in that 10 years I’m gone - minimal things have changed to impact the girls in positive manner. Closed other camps, barely kept up with the one I was married at... it was to be the "mega center" - well it didn't happen.
- I think that troops have precedence over groups, but groups have been sharing the camps. It is working out OK as far as I know.
- I tried to rent it for my Boy Scout troop, but they wanted $25.00 per person for boys versus $5.00 per person for girls! And our boys were going to do volunteer service projects for them!!!!!!!!!
- I would like to see councils work harder to promote resources to the community and rent facilities and camps to corporations and organizations instead of closing camps
- I would love to take my troop for a weeklong trip in the summer when all other activities are on hiatus, but we lose access to the camp after June
- I'm not sure who is renting the camps - all I see is that it is rented.... so not sure if it is GS or another event
- I've been told that one of the camps is used exclusively by a 3rd party all summer. This camp is 3 hours from me so it doesn't impact me, but I'm sure it impacts those nearby.
- I've heard mixed stories on this. I hear they have rented, and do rent, but have also heard they do not for "liability reasons".
- In August, a group rents the camp. They are also trying to book school groups to visit the camp, but only day trips, I believe.
- In the past we had difficulty catching the camp available because of outside use. When an outside group is there the camp is closed to girl scouts.
- It also makes it hard to reserve camp when it is closed from November 1- April. They say it is for deer season but gun season is only 2 weeks long. Pre-merger parts of camp were open year around.
- It appears that when they put the camps "on rest" in the winter months (which is one of the best times to camp in TX and when we're not selling cookies) and don't allow troops to use the camps that they rent out the camps to other groups.
- It fills up and sometimes we lose out.
- It has not impacted any camping dates that my troop has wanted, but I have seen week long camps for Businesses, youth programs, and weekend weddings.
- It hasn't effect our ability to schedule but we have had limitations due to other groups in camp as well as camp property that was damaged and not available for use
- It is listed as unavailable, so if they have an event there it isn’t always known to us unless we are sharing a camp with them. That has happened in the past.
- It makes Girl Scout camp unsafe when there is a rowdy family reunion taking place
- It makes it unavailable to the girls. They rented out one of our camps for the summer this past year. They could only serve half of the girls now. Same camp gets rented to Live Action Role Play group. They do not treat it like their own. We find their litter all over; ranger does what he can to pick up. They use little balloons filled with sand as some sort of weapon and leave the balloon bits behind. Not good for the wildlife residents.
- It seems that groups from Chicago get all the good fall weekends at Camp McCorrmick our closest camp. Those troops can afford to travel far and come to us, but we find it hard to travel far so we are limited to the camps that are close.
- My council does have what they call adventure weekends - but it is same thing each time, usually, fishing, canoeing, a hike sometimes archery, how to put up a tent, how to roll a sleeping bag, very basic and it does not change, so once you have done one, there is no reason to go back, plus they charge $65 per person now and the food is not very good.
- My council rents Camp Adahi to Coca Cola's G5 group during the summer. This camp is unavailable to GS during this time of the summer.
- One camp is unavailable all summer. Even though this has happened for 4 Years, one building closed for safety reasons.
- One of the most unfortunate trends is that Council uses what should be girl space for council meetings/functions. Our former CEO decided that she needed a dedicated office in each region and they used a conference room that used to be used for training. So now training happens in camping spaces! Not right. Since we have so much extreme winter weather here, we can't do much camping from Oct to April because of a lack of winterized space, and we can't camp from June to August because of summer camp. This means all camping and camp training have to be fitted into 1.5 months in spring and 1.5 months in fall.
- Our area uses a local Boy Scout camp to go Troop camping. We are able to go camping there at about $20 for insurance. The local Girl Scout camp had not been available for us to schedule troop or service unit events for several years, often rented to other organizations.
- Our camps used to rent to outside groups for limited times -- school groups, specialized medical camps, et cetera. We have lost some of these partnerships. Although there are definitely cons to outside groups if they prevent Girl Scout access, in limited quantities and managed well they brought in TONS of money that supported Girl Scout programming -- really helped to cover the cost of resident camp, and actually worked as advertising for GS for kids who saw how cool our camps were! I think a FEW key partnerships managed judiciously were actually a good thing that I'm sorry we've lost.
- Our CEO wants to build a corporate retreat center at one of our camps to attract outside user groups. This is not in any way helping the girls. Paying a fund development staff person to solicit donations for this building is an outrageous use of the girls' hard earned cookie revenue.
- Our Council does rent out some properties to outside groups. The Council charges more for outside rentals. There is one camp in particular that is almost always full (Mountaindale) and that is the nearest camp to our troop.
- Our council rented the camp to a movie production to make money for the camps. Great idea, but it impacted many troops' ability to use the camp.
- Our council rents out the entire campground from mid July through August. Our understanding is that it pays the rent!
- Our Council staff is not making any effort to save our camps via corporate sponsorship or rentals to outside groups. They appear to be making it more difficult to use camps by raising the prices, closing one with the renewed threat to sell it, and unnecessarily increasing its admin costs to perhaps force the sale of a camp. They sponsor big events that likely cost a lot of money that are not wanted or well attended by the membership. They have rented a high cost office space and have put a space we own up for sale, but that space has not been rented or sold. They have let go staff, even some recently hired. It's alarming. They also do not seem to listen to the feedback of their membership regarding how to improve programs.
- Our most requested camp is regularly fully booked.
- Our south camp is privately rented every summer.
- Outside groups are usually not scheduled on weekends unless there is no GS activity scheduled. Most outside groups are schools or businesses which come during the week. One of our camps is able to be self-sustaining due to its location and the high utilization by outside groups and Girl Scouts alike, which is nearly equal.
- Outside groups can make reservations up to a year ahead, but troops can make them only for the following quarter.
- Outside groups should not be allowed to reserve camp more than 4-6 weeks ahead or not at all. Girl Scouts are not allowed on Girl Scout property at all if an outside group has reserved any portion of camp.
- Outside rentals are generally during a time (M-F) or summer time when the camps are not being otherwise used.
- Rental to non-GS groups are rare and at times GS are not using.
- Rented out to others and they left the housing in such horrible disarray!
- Rented to Boy Scouts because they felt sorry that their location cancelled on them so we (GS) we're not allowed to rent that weekend.
- Renting out is OK but put on more camp based events and price them reasonably for girls. 40.00 for a girl to attend a daytime event at camp is too much. My cub scout attends his council events for 8.00 or 10.00. Couple that with the paperwork, training requirements etc and camping becomes more of a hassle
- Reservations are required several months in advance, which is impossible for a new troop, or a troop that does not meet over the summer (most don't in this area)
- Service Units are supposed to be able to reserve 9 months from the date and troops 6 months. I have called several times, 6 months to the date and have been told that the camp was not available because of an outside organization renting the camp. One was a YMCA and their day camp, so we were unable to have a weeklong camp and the other was a group of inner city at risk boys who were using the camp. These are just the last two times that I called.
- Some of our camps are used by outside groups. The camp next to my troop does not allow outside groups. I don't typically use the other camps because of distance so I'm not sure if letting other groups use it is a problem or not.
- Space is very limited, especially since the camp that was closest to us got closed and sold.
- The camp closest to us is rented to another group for a good portion of the summer. Our ability to use the camp is greatly limited.
- The cost is so unreal outside groups never actually use it.
- The council has one camp that most of the outside groups utilize for community or family camping.
- The group that our camp is rented out to is responsible for repairs and has offered to pay for the camp maintenance but needs to sublet it once in a while on their week of use but Girl Scouts refuses to allow that because they don't want to " commercialize" the camp
- The resident camp closest to our troop is unavailable since they rent the lodge out for weddings. They have rentals four years out. Service Units cannot hold camporees, and troops cannot get in except for late fall (in Michigan, not always the best time to take girls) and there are limited accommodations for this time of year. Girls cannot share camp when it is rented to an outdoor group (usually because of alcohol on the premises). The income from the rentals doesn't even go back into that camp or any other GS property we own!
- The whole 2015 summer is booked to some organization other than GS at our most centralized camp
- There are plenty of Boy Scout units that would love to rent our camp, but it's not open to this. It would be a great opportunity to make a little money.
- There have been films filmed at our camps.
- There was a sorority renting another unit at a camp while we were there. Girl Scouts should not be at the camp with other groups and Girl Scouts should have 1st priority when renting camps.
- They don't tell us who uses camps or if they do. They could use this to fill empty weeks and make more camp $$
- They just stopped renting out to outside groups (weddings, grad parties, etc) & it has greatly improved how much easier it is to get our preferred dates scheduled.
- They might not rent out to other camps, but they reserve a lot of their own space for their programs, and sometimes they don't use it very well. - Reserve an entire camp site, and then only use 2-3 buildings
- This summer the YMCA has taken all of one of our camps except for 1 week when a volunteer camp will be run
- We are not allowed on camp property when any other group has reserved ANY part of the camp. I understand the safety issue with an overnight stay but during the day we should be able to conduct chaperoned events. Our girls are surrounded by non-scouts everywhere else in the world. Why can't we be on camp property with proper supervision? It's far safer than anywhere else we could be!
- We camped on council property earlier this month and there was a sorority camping there too! How often are camps booked to groups other than Girl Scouts, preventing troops from being able to camp? Girl Scouts should get first priority!
- We have a difficult time getting the camp during the season of the year when all of the parents can participate because it fills up very fast before the season starts and we can get all of our leaders together to pick a date.
- WE have no way of knowing who has rented the property, so we don't know if another group has rented when we were hoping to camp.
- We only rent when there is space available ...
- We were looking a specific camp during a specific month and the camp was either booked for Encampment or a wedding
- When other groups using the camp, it is usually closed, like when a movie was being made at one of our camps
- While my above answer is no for our local campground (Camp Todd), I was surprised once when I attended a leader training event at Country Center in Delaware, and found that we GS leaders could not use the much promoted, newly built, STEM lodge, because it had been rented out by a non-GS group for the weekend.