[Sca-cooks] Peers, Pressuring the BoD

[kattratt]

I know this sounds extreme so my first comment will be answer C.  I
would suggest putting a note out and renting the porta potty if and when
you are contacted by even one person.  BTW folks I know that this next
part is going to sound totally opposite of what I wrote last week but
Muiredach and I talked and I actually agreed with him just not about the
quitting part.
Now on to the controversial part...

How hard is it to find a Handicap accessible camp? Aren't all boy scout
camps supposed to be Accessible?  How about YMCA's?  Does that church
down the road have a "fellowship hall"?  What's wrong with using that as
a site? One of our churches that we used charges us by making us cook a
feast and run around in garb for them... Ie a DEMO. I am not kidding
when I say that I think every and I mean EVERY event that I have been to
down here has been accessible. (Ok there was one that was difficult but
they were putting folks with wheelchairs in the cabin off the main hall
not to exclude them mind you just so they didn't have to deal with the
hills...kinda wish I had stayed in there truth be told.)
If the choice is to turn someone away or put down mats, I would suggest
putting down mats.
One suggestion that has worked for us here locally is that one of our
Ladies did some research and has listed all of the good sites in our
area online.  She has gotten most of them with a few exceptions.  This
might help you all out. See if someone is willing to call various places
for prices and info and then post it where your local grroup can find
it.  Oh another suggestion for sites... VFW Huts.  (I do recommend a
male Autocrat for that one... military is an even bigger plus) ((And if
they are having a meeting don't look at anything they are doing as they
will have to shoot you then...))
Seriously one last thing I could offer when exploring sites... Grab a
chair and sit in front of the building, now try and figure out how to
get in if you couldn't get up and had a wheel chair instead. If no entry
way is readily visible start looking for one.  If you do not find one
then tell the person in charge of the building that you are not going to
use their building and why.
Harsh yes but it makes you search for better ways.

Ok I am done with my rant.
Nichola
Climbs off soap box, empties it out, brushes off the top, and leaves it
standing upright for the next person.  Sneaking off to the rock...

jenne at fiedlerfamily.net wrote:
>
> I'm not idly arguing here, though I'm not arguing to defend my personal
> experience either. This January, I realized at the end of an event which
> we bill as handicapped accessible that there is not a single handicapped
> accessible toilet on site. I was really, really embarrassed.
>
> However, the site is the only one we've found that we can hold a
> reasonable indoor tourney in (it's affordable and we don't have to put
> down mats). We could rent a handicapped port-a-potty and put it outside,
> but that would be very, very cold, not to mention we'd have to watch it
> like hawks (it'd have to be down by the page fighting area, and we already
> have problems at our summer events with things happening in the
> portapotties.) It would also raise the cost of the event by about 75 cents
> to $1 per person, and we've never had a person in a wheelchair try to
> attend the event.
>
> So, what are our options? Should we
> a) not use the site anymore and quit having indoor tourney events in
> January?
> b) rent the port-a-potty?
> c) ask people to contact us and rent the port-a-potty if we need it?
> Which would be sufficient?
>
> There's a church within a block that might have an accessible restroom.
> Would contacting them and getting access be sufficient? What if we did
> both?
>
> I'm seriously asking here.  We're likely to make arrangements for people
> in our local group (like diabetics or nut allergies, or people who can't
> walk too much) but we aren't experienced in dealing with possible
> wheelbound attendees.