Camp promotions chair for district

[BartHumphries]

Sounds pretty clear. You have no authority to push an agenda or otherwise make council-wide decisions, you're the smiling guy who gets to tell everyone how amazing the camp will be (and share any concerns they might have with the council). That sounds like fun.

[Eagle92]

'Fish,

 

Definitely get together with the OA. I know in my lodge, most packs have never heardof the OA's WHERE TO GO CAMPING book that is an invaluable resource.

 

Also think of ideas besides posters on camping. Videos work. Costumes work.

 

Talk up camping.

 

Also Bart mentioned something, what can be viewed as one of the negatives of the job. FOLKS WILL COMPLAIN TO YOU ABOUT CAMP. ( caps for emphasis). One of the things that will help with this is A) Ask them to put it in writing so that you can pass it along. You may need to edit or rewrite the letter to make it more paletable to the Powers That Be (PTB), but complaint is a gift. B)Ask the person to also put in ideas to help solve the problem. This allows them to be part of the solution instead of a "whiner" to the PTB. C) Ask them if they are willing to help out in fixing the problem. ditto above.

 

Good luck.

 

 

[shortridge]

Ditto with what Eagle92 said. You're going to get complaints about things you may know nothing about - the state of the bathrooms, why there aren't "enough" shooting stations at the BB range, the quality of the food, why there isn't more pool time, etc.

 

So before you start doing your presentations, have a warts-and-all sit-down meeting with the camp director and property manager/ranger, putting past problems on the table, so you're up to speed and can have answers to those types of questions in advance - "We've put in all new toilet stalls ... we can't add more shooting stations because of XYZ ... we have an all-new cook who is completely revamping the menu ... pool time is limited because of staff, but we're always looking for volunteer lookouts and lifeguards - can I put you down to help out, sir?"

 

That type of pre-emptive approach is much more effective than saying "I'll get back to you."

[SeattlePioneer]

I'm Commissioner for a pack I helped revive from the edge of collapse.

 

 

Several years into that recorvery, no one was attending the excellent Cub Scout daycamp. I contacted the excellent day camp director, who offered to come to a pack meeting to promote daycamp.

 

He came out and he and several Webelos Scouts did a skit about day camp activities. That produced several boys who attended daycamp and it's a reasonably well attended activity each year now.

 

Same for our district marble tournament. The leader came out and gave boys new to marbling some instruction and opportunities to play marbles and boys participated in the tournament.

 

So promotions are important!

 

Based on my experience, I'd concentrate on units that aren't participating in your activities. Word of mouth among those units that are participating may be all the promotion you needs where units are already participating each year.

[hadulzo]

By the book (there is one but i don't recall the title) this position is "supposed" to have a committee.... Boy scout rep, cub scout rep, OA rep, When I had the position I never had much luck with recruiting the committee. Per the job description you also promote high adventure stuff like philmont. Did my best but there are lots of meetings. By default you are on the council camping committee (if you go by the book) all the district committee. I also took the position of OA advisor for camp promotions. After about 4 years of that craziness I am now just the OA advisor for camp promotions. Fewer meetings and a lot less to do. Of course of was doing a few other "minor" district jobs also. Decied to do one job and do it well

[Scoutfish]

So I had my "training" the other night after a second cancelation.

 

It was a meeting actually between myself, the Boy Scout Camp Promotions chair, and our DE.

 

So here is what I am going to do:

 

At roundtables, I am supposed to tell all the other pack representatives about how great the camp is. Then I am supposed to get each pack to be on a team or at least appoint a designated go to person to let me know how many people want to sign up for camps. If they want to reserve a certain section or field , and which weekends of our: 3 resident camp weekends, our 3 weekends of Webelorees and our 3 weekends of parent/son weekends.

 

They are actually called sessions instead of weekends, but that confuses alot of folks into thinking that the 3 seperate weekends are actually a continuation of the previous one.

So I am going to call them weekends.

 

Incidentally, the camp is actually two seperate camps on one property, or I suppose you could call them two seperate camps that share a border on one side .

 

Camp McNeill Cub Scout World is the camp I will be promoting. That it.

 

Camp Bowers is the Boy Scout Camp. I won't have anything to do with that with the exception of joint Webelos/Boy Scout promotions..from the Webelos side of it.

 

To that extent, I will not be pushing or representing Boy Scouts, Venturers, Crews, OA or the like.

 

 

Pretty much, my job is at roundtables. Talk to CubMasters or designated pack camping reps, have them sign up on sign up sheets, get tallies of "planned" attendance, and if necesary, go to their pack meetings and do Q&A sessions.

 

And this is what was said at the beginning of the meeting: The Cub Camp is not a hard job like The Boy Scout camp as there are not any Council Camps competing for cubs anywhere around us.

 

Boy scouts on the other hand..their attendance has been down due to not only competition, but also many , many broken promises and repeated last minute program cancellations in the past.

[jhankins]

I'm surprised promoting day camp and other outdoor activities wasn't discussed. The more outdoor activities and opportunities cubs use, the more likely they are to enjoy the outdoor classroom of Boy Scouts.

[Scoutfish]

Well, there will be day camps as well as summer wet days, family weeks, pack camping, and many other events too.

 

 

I was just lising the bigger events.

 

My biggest point was that I am only promoting the Cub Scout camp and not the seperate Boy Scout camp. And that I am mostly a pre event announcer snd sign up getter.

 

I can tell the camp director what people say about this or that, but I will not actually be on a committee or participate in planning meetings.