Quote: I don't think any of our club leaders had a house of more than 1500 sq ft until we built our new house in 1967 (when I was 15): club meetings were at the Scout Cabin, usually, or Deschutes Grange, VFW, or the IOOF hall. Project meetings were at leader's houses, but even the biggest projects had ten members or less.
I know free venues are harder to find these days: it's one of the things which weakens community, I think.
I had 9 kids in my Camp Fire group when I finally quit my 3 year run on that group. We lost the church we met in due to a daycare taking over the space. I couldn't take having that many kids in my house. I tried for quite a few months. I had very good kids in my group, but that many together would tend to get a little out of control. After replacing 6 plastic mattress covers in 2 months time because the kids would jump on the beds, I was done. They are way too expensive to replace. I just don't want to go there again. It's one thing to volunteer your time, use your own money to pay for supplies, set up the activities - but when parents drop their kids off and leave, and you're stuck trying to manage a group of kids who feed off each other - I just couldn't do it any more. I doubt I'd ever do a kid's group in my home again. That may be a bad attitude - I don't know. Being that I'm still a Cub Scout leader, and a part-time Girl Scout leader, I just don't feel the need to run an outside 4-H Club, too - especially if I'd have to run it out of my home.
