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 along with all other paperwork (myscouts report showing emergency contact and medical information 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 completing and submitting the COA form to the Group Commissioner, ensure that any supporting documentation is included. This includes a list of all youth attending (printout from ScoutsTracker), the Hold Harmless forms for any youth attending who are not registered with Scouts Canada (e.g. younger siblings or friends), safety plan (route to the nearest hospital, first aid training, etc.), details about the camp or activity (printout from ScoutsTracker), etc.
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.
Waivers are a real sticking point with Scouts Canada and Scouters cannot sign a waiver 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.
The problem is that almost every place you go to requires you to sign something and this really limits the places that you can go to as official Scouting events.
Fortunately, a large number of places have signed the Scouts Canada Indemnification Agreement and these places therefore don’t require us to sign the waiver. The list organizations can be found here.
Going to any other place that requires a waiver, cannot be an official Scouting event, i.e. no Scouts Canada insurance, no uniforms for youth or leaders, no COA form for the Group Commissioner to sign, and everyone is on their own risk.
There are some events/places that require a wavier or indemnification agreements like parades, use of the mall space for the Kub Kar rally or Apple Day, etc. The Group Commissioner will forward these agreements to Iqbal Lalany and get him to sign on the Group’s behalf. He typically cannot and will not sign the waiver for things that have any risk beyond picking flowers – like sledding up Mt. Seymour, Parkour, etc.
Scouts Canada BP&P has a whole section on insurance at http://www.scouts.ca/bpp/en/section-13000.pdf
The problem is that Iqbal says that if it walks like a duck and squawks like a duck, it is probably a duck. An event involving Scouts, Beaver Scouts and partially financed by Scout funds looks like a Scouting event.
Leaders should also read BP&P section 10004 regarding driving youth to and from events - http://www.scouts.ca/bpp/en/section-10000.pdf This includes “Parents are responsible for transporting or arranging for transport of their children to and from Scouting activities.”, “Volunteers who drive Scouting members to and from meetings, camps, jamborees, etc. do so at their own risk. Scouts Canada does not cover the cost of damage to their automobiles, nor does it cover deductible amounts, loss of discounts or loss of use. Third party claims made against owners of vehicles are NOT covered by Scouts Canada.”, and “Scouts Canada strongly suggests leaders, other Scouting members and/or parent volunteers who use their vehicles to transport passengers carry a minimum of $1,000,000 Liability insurance, and further recommends $1,000,000 per passenger on their vehicle to ensure they are fully protected. Volunteers who drive Scouting members do so at their own risk.”