Troop 466 has shared a storage room with the Girl Scouts and Cub Scouts for way longer than I have been with the troop (since 1995). During that time, the room always had a lot of stuff but you could get in and find what you were looking for.
When I came to the end of my tenure as Scoutmaster, about 7 years ago or so, I made the executive decision to expand the troop room, so that it equaled the length of the CYO storage room. Why? Simply we had run out of floor space. People had donated camping gear (some good, some bad) and newer items had been purchased for program activities. It had gotten so bad, that we could not even get into the room, without moving stuff out.
One Saturday, ASM Chip C and I, extended the room about 4 feet. I then purchased wire shelving at the local big, box store, as well as, some large containers. The patrol boxes were placed on the shelving. The large containers were filled with new t-shirts, freeze dried foods, etc.
The room was now well organized and we could get in, and find everything we needed. However, the rule seems to be that if you have more space, you must fill it in. And so it was.
Over the last 6 or so years, more and more gear had been purchased by those leading the various BTOW trips. In addition, leaders would purchase items, such as storage bags and food, without checking to see if we had these items in stock. Of course, at the end of the trip, these were simply dumped in whatever empty container/cooler that could be found. Or simply dumped on a shelf.
By last September, it has become painfully aware that this situation needed to be dealt with. We were again faced with the situation that we could not get into the room without tripping over something.
After some discussion, we determined that the only way to deal with this was to remove everything from the room, sort and trash, and then move what is left back into the room in a organized manner. This could not be done by the Quartermaster and one or two leaders. It had to be a group effort.
This past Friday night, everything was pulled out of the room. The room was then given a good cleaning and moping. On Friday night alone, we filled up one pick-up truck for a dump run, as well as, dumped quite a bit of stuff into the sponsor's dumpster. We even donated a fair amount of food that was just about to expire for the parish food bank.
In addition, the Girl Scout leaders also showed up to take responsibility for their items. They had sorted though much of their stuff and either trashed it, or took it with them. The Cub Scouts were to show up on Saturday.
On Saturday, the next crew was to come in and make a second sort and then pack up the troop room.
When I went in this morning, just to see how it looked, I was amazed. The room was basically empty! Much of the stuff accumulated over the years had either been dumped or donated.
Hopefully, we will not have to do this for another 25 years.
Joseph B.
Asst. Scoutmaster
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