"Trail to Eagle Camp"

[Basementdweller]

Our council runs two merit badge boot camps....one during spring break and the second between christmas and new years..... They offer an Eagle Package.....If you attend both you will have all of the merit badges needed for Eagle, That is how it was sold at round table.

 

So Twocubs......why would the parents be drooling???? The parents need told to back off......It is the boys journey is not the parents....... I hope my son becomes an Eagle, I can encourage him, make sure he has the tools, but ultimately it is his choice.

 

If the topic of the boot camp comes up, I will ask him why he wants to go......If it is merely for rank I will tell him no.....but if it is because his friends are going and it sounds fun, In my eyes that is the right reasons.

 

I don't want his Scouting career to be about earning his Eagle, but about the joy of a new skill, adventure and friendship. I couldn't be happier with the results to this point.

 

[Eagle92]

I have mixed emotions on this. If the sole purpose is to earn MBs, then there is a problem b/c scouting is suppose to be FUN and ADVENTUROUS. Not a classroom.

 

Now I have no problem with scouts going to camp to earn MBs and HAVE FUN! I've always viewed summer camp as a good opportunity for advancement b/c you live scouting 24/7 for a week. You are living with your patrol, doing your share of the work to keep the campsite up to par and doing your turn as a waiter (sorry all the camps I've done had dining halls). If you do some type of HA program, then you are formed up into a patrol and really live the Patrol method while away form the base camp, and possibly your troop ( my camp did that and I was the only scout my year to do it). You are doing campwide games with your patrol and troop ( best way to get some of the troop level prizes is to have the troop's patrols working together to get the watermelons ) and doing troop level activities a few nites.

 

Now I admit my old council did something similar, but it went by the name Winter Camp. Yes it was mostly paperwork MBs, and mostly Eagle, but a few other ones were offered as well. Since most of us in SE Louisiana are not use to, or prepared for equipment wise, extreme cold weather,classes were sometimes inside. But they tried to keep it outside as much as possible. Also it was a six day class, arrive on Dec 26th and start working until Dec. 31st.

[shortridge]

My local camp used to run a special volunteer-directed "Trail to Eagle" weeklong camp the week after the regular summer camp sessions were over. It was all provisional, and pretty neat to get to meet a bunch of fellow older Scouts from all over the council.

 

When that stopped, the program was folded into the regular summer camp and renamed Eagle Base. The provisional troop was housed at a special campsite near the lodge where they took classes, in an area separated from the rest of the camp, so it was still something kind of special.

 

Now, anyone who meets the age requirements can take Eagle Base classes while attending with your troop. You can still attend provisionally, but it's not a special Eagle Base troop.

[Kudu]

I suppose you support merit badge universities too.

 

In a perfect world our Chief Scout Executive would be engaged in a national media blitz to promote a "21st century program" in which Scouts get all the required schoolwork badges signed off in a single weekend.

 

Why?

 

Because Hispanic families prefer that their children learn citizenship by organizing Patrol Outings.

 

Yours at 300 feet,

 

Kudu

http://kudu.net

 

[Lisabob]

My council has run this sort of program as a special 4 day event, just before/just after most regular summer camps are in session.

 

I've known boys who attended, mostly because their parents wanted them to. These are the same boys whose parents feel it is imperative to earn Eagle as soon as possible, and who tend to vanish, once they become Eagles. It gives me a dim view of the whole enterprise.

 

If it were up to me, I would say, take "trail to" anything OUT of summer camp and replace it with theme-based, FUN programs that scouts can't do at home. A week of climbing-related events, a week of water-events (as Moose mentioned), a week of wilderness survival, etc. When he was a little younger, my son used to do a week at scout camp and a week at Y camp. The Y camp offered these sorts of themes and son loved them. In my view, it is way better than being so focused on checking off requirements, as many scout camps have evolved to do.

 

 

 

 

[GKlose]

My council has an Eagle Week, as do a few of the neighboring councils. Let me explain how Eagle Week has turned our troop into a "bipolar" troop.

 

When my oldest son joined the troop, four years ago, the typical pattern was a Scout would attend summer camp for two years, and then sign up for Eagle Week for a year or two. At that point, they typically had all their merit badges for Eagle done, they would start getting busy with high school, and they would stop attending meetings and outings. They'd swoop back in to do a project, finish Eagle, and then not be seen from again.

 

It's taking a grassroots effort, but our guys sort of have to be taught how to have fun at camp again. They've been driven into this advancement-oriented mode, and so they see no purpose behind camp other than the opportunity to earn merit badges. Last year, with the move to a patrol-oriented camp, was the first step. This year, a return to the same patrol-oriented camp, and an added week at a regular program camp (with a dining hall) was offered as a replacement for Eagle Week (the camp offers a few of the Eagle-required MBs, in an "older Scout morning program"). I sold the idea to the troop with the idea that they could attend the equivalent of an Eagle Week but with the troop instead of on a provisional basis.

 

Guy

[Engineer61]

Ok.

 

So everyone knows that I wasn't a Scout, don't particularly agree with it...blah, blah, blah....

 

...that being said, even I am amazed at this blatant "advertisement". It's definitely targeting the parents who see Eagle as a requirement. It's like someone in BSA *wants* to become an Eagle-or-nothing kind of operation.

 

I mean, what's next? A sub-store at the local Sear's?

 

I kinda feel bad for you old-timers you have to sit and swallow this...kinda like me and the "designated hitter" in baseball.

 

-E61

[Basementdweller]

Kudu

 

Please site the source for your statement about hispanics

[NJCubScouter]

I kinda feel bad for you old-timers you have to sit and swallow this...kinda like me and the "designated hitter" in baseball.

 

Ok. I would only do this in a thread I started, where I don't have to feel guilty about sending the discussion off in random directions...

 

I love the designated hitter rule. It allows the manager to make pitching decisions based on pitching. Let pitchers pitch and hitters hit. I wish the National League would adopt it too.

 

With Scouting, as with baseball, there are times to be traditional and times to adopt new ideas. (See how I got that back to Scouting, there?)

[Kudu]

Basementdweller writes:

 

Please site the source for your statement about hispanics

 

Um, sure Basementdweller. As soon as the CSE cites the source for his statement that Hispanics hate camping.

 

"Camping is not necessarily a big thing with them, as a matter of fact in some cases it is not big at all...is it more important that we get them in a tent next week?...when we say 'we want to take your twelve-year-old son but you can't come' we're making a mistake there."

 

http://inquiry.net/leadership/sitting_side_by_side_with_adults.htm

 

 

 

[Basementdweller]

Kinda what I thought.

[Old_OX_Eagle83]

"Hispanics hate camping", I've never noticed this, and have been in units with several Hispanic Scouts. Of course I don't tend to profile scouts ...

[moosetracker]

I don't think Kudu is really profiling Hispanic either.

 

More just picking on our CSE who chose to type cast Hispanics and change our program to include those that fall into his steriotyping for them. Therefore they are being flushed down the toliet with Mazzuca by association.

[NJCubScouter]

Engineer61's jab at the Designated Hitter Rule distracted me from this other statement of his:

 

...even I am amazed at this blatant "advertisement". It's definitely targeting the parents who see Eagle as a requirement. It's like someone in BSA *wants* to become an Eagle-or-nothing kind of operation.

 

I doubt that your last sentence is true. I don't think there's really any "philosophical push" here on the part of my council or other councils that have similar programs. I think the reason they offer this program is because (1) they want to get more fee-paying kids into the council's camps and (2) they think there will be enough demand for it. I suspect it is entirely a market-driven, dollars-and-cents decision. My council has four different camps, and I am sure they have to look at the numbers on a regular basis to justify continuing to operate all of them. (We know from some past threads in this forum that national has guidelines for deciding whether council camps should continue to operate.) This Trail to Eagle camp is not the only "specialty camp" they are advertising. I also mentioned the program for boys and girls of all ages regardless of whether they are Scouts or not. I did not mention the "Backwoods Engineering Camp" (basically a week devoted to pioneering projects), "Excursion Week" (backpacking, COPE, climbing and ATV's) and the "Great Outdoors Camp" (for both Scouts and non-Scouts.) They also have a Boy Scout Day Camp and a resident "Camp Troop" program (where all the Scouts are there as provisionals), and of course (though not mentioned in this particular flyer) the regular troop resident camping.

 

All of these specialty programs, individual programs and non-Scouting programs are there to try to keep the camps as full as possible. I don't believe the thinking behind them (including the Trail to Eagle) goes any deeper than that.(This message has been edited by njcubscouter)

[NJCubScouter]

Personally it is my feeling that if you are writing a post in this forum and you find yourself singling out the ethnicity or religion of another person, or group of people (with the possible exception of your own ethnicity or religion), you should think twice about what you're doing, and then think about it a few more times, and if the ethnic or religious reference is still there, you should probably remove it anyway. But as one of our regular posters likes to say, your mileage may vary.

 

And yes, I am aware that our CSE made a reference to a particular ethnic group. But he doesn't post here, unless its under an assumed name and he disguises himself really well.