Forms

Camping and Outdoor Activity Form

A Camping and Outdoor Activity Form (COA) needs to be filled out for any activity that takes the Section away from their regular meeting place. The adjacent park to a meeting place is considered part of the regular meeting place.

The form is intended to assist the Scouters to consider important things associated with the outing including First Aid/Emergency (first aid, Emergency plan, nearest hospital, etc.), Planning (age appropriate, meals, equipment, etc.), Communication (parents briefed, etc.) and Training (Scouter skill, etc.).

The form is required for all camps, hikes, parades, bike trips, canoe trips, JOTT, Beaveree, Cuboree, Science World sleepover, a sleepover at the planetarium, etc.

The COA form is not required for non-camping and outdoor activities such as a tour of a building or fundraisers like Apple Day, popcorn sales, or bottle drives, Hyack Parade, Remembrance Day parade, Santa Claus parade, and the Kub Kar Rally at a mall or the New Westminster Quay. Even though a COA form is not required, Scouters should definitely have an emergency plan in place, especially if attending big events, such as a parade, where youth could easily get lost. The COA form is certainly a tool that can be used for this purpose if desired. The form is easy to fill out and if nothing else, it forces the Section Leader to keep track of who is coming and go over the checklist to see that they are really prepared to do the activity.

The COA form must be completed by the Scouter in Charge of the outing. The completed form must be approved by the Group Commissioner and retained by the Scouter in Charge with all other paperwork (myscouts report for all participants, forms specific to the camp/activity, etc.) for the course of the activity. For all-Section camps, Section leaders should provide the information to the Section leader who will be the Scouter in Charge of the camp.

When the Group Commissioner approves the COA form, it is scanned and returned to the Scouter in Charge. It is also sent to Dyanna Pfenniger at the Scout Office for filing.

For Camps where our youth go with a different Group, the COA form is completed by the Scouter in Charge of the activity. For example, if several of our youth attend a Venturer Camp with another Group because we don’t have the leadership available to go, we should provide the myscouts printout (registration and medical information) to the Scouter in Charge in the other Group. Our Section leadership should meet and feel comfortable with the other Group leadership team going to the event. For Skeeter in 2016, we provided a Physical Fitness Certificate for Non Members filled out for each youth attending and the Group that took our youth was happy with this.

Waivers

There are lots of great places to take Sections out for fun events like indoor rock climbing, archery, rafting, lazer tag, etc. Many places require a waiver to be signed and Scouters are not allowed to sign waivers on behalf of Scouts. If a waiver needs to be signed, forward the information to the Group Commissioner who will engage Iqbal Lalany at the Scout Office. If proof of insurance is required, forward the request to the Group Commissioner who will get Michelle Yu at the Scout Office to provide it directly to the facility requesting it.

Fortunately, a large number of places have been vetted by Scouts and these places therefore don’t require us to sign the waiver. The list organizations that have signed the Scouts Canada Indemnification Agreement can be found here.