2013 Jamboree

[SR540Beaver]

I was looking at the Summit's website today and came across this info again. I can't remember if it has been brought up here before or not. There are some interesting changes coming to Jambo. A few that stand out, J-phones for each participant, no Regional sub-camps, Venturing Crew sub-camp, Troop cooking instead of Patrol cooking and all Troop equipment provided. Thoughts?

 

https://summit.scouting.org/en/Jamboree2013/Pages/2013-Jamboree-Highlights.aspx

 

Create World Jamboree-Style Scouting Neighborhoods

Smaller camping footprint (1,000 acres) than Fort A.P. Hill (5,000 acres).

Maximum distance to arena from any subcamp will be 1.5 miles.

Twenty subcamps organized into five villages.

Much smaller subcamp staff.

Troops assigned to promote highest amount of interaction (no camping by regions).

One subcamp will be dedicated to Venturers.

Almost all adult staff will be housed and fed in the adult camp (6,000 to 7,000).

Walking will be the normno personal vehicles allowed in the jamboree footprint.

 

Build Flexible Infrastructure to Support Both Jamboree and The Summit Year-Round Programs

Permanent camp sites with bathroom facilities.

Underground electricity and fiber optic cable for the entire site.

First jamboree will have more temporary facilities.

The Summit Center will be designed to function as the visitor experience area.

 

Embrace Cutting-Edge Technology in the Jamboree Operational Model

Jamboree will utilize technology at every possible level, from registration through the event.

Plans are to give each participant a personalized, programmable handheld device (the j-phone) with all program data and individual schedules pre-loaded.

J-phone will entertain and inform participants throughout the jamboree.

BSA technology will become part of the jamboree magic.

Employ a Seamless Logistics and Supply Operation

Jamboree will provide all troop equipmenttents, cooking equipment, etc.

Participants will only bring a duffel, sleeping bag, and day pack (jamboree will supply duffel and day pack).

Food will be pre-packed by troops, with cooking designed for troops rather than patrols.

Commissary will be offsite, with troop food delivered to villages.

Lunches will be issued with breakfast in the morning so that participants will have them wherever they are.

 

Deliver a World-Class ProgramConstantly on the Move

Program will be more diverse, more intense, and have a higher energy level than previous jamborees.

Jamboree will engage Scouts on a more intense program level in areas of interest to them.

Program will be daylight to dark.

Day of Giving Back.

New Jamboree Trek program.

Merit badges connected to program areas.

Arena shows designed to entertain and inspire youth members.

 

Showcase a Visitor Experience Very Different than the Participant Experience

Visitors and participants can come together in the 90-acre Summit Center.

Access to program areas will be limited to jamboree participants.

In the Summit Center, visitors will be offered a jamboree lite experience with a sampling of jamboree activities, constant entertainment and activities in the arena area, in addition to the exhibit and display areas.

Jamboree visitors will be provided an improved experience and charged a reasonable but appropriate fee.

 

Enable a Volunteer-Driven, Professionally Guided Jamboree Staff Opportunity

Staff mantravolunteerdriven, professionally guided. No duality of one volunteer and one professional in each major assignment.

Less management, more customer-engaged staff.

Emphasis on recruiting younger staff members by providing shorter commitments than entire jamboree.

OA will provide more than 600 Arrowmen for programs such as Jamboree Trek and Day of Giving Back.

Jamboree staff camp will be separated from participant camps, with vast majority of staff housed at this camp.

Adult staff camp will provide first-class facilities and food.

 

Go Green, Go Healthy, and Go Safe

Jamboree will use absolute best practices of eco-friendly campingan example to other camps.

Embrace conservation practices and Leave No Trace camping.

Promote childhood health and fitness.

Everyone will walk everywhere.

Healthy food and drinks offered.

Maintain high standards of Going Safely that was benchmark of 2010 jamboree.

 

Sustain the Scouting Movement for the Next 100 Years

Jamboree will preserve the best of jamboree traditions while creating new ones.

Scouts, staff, and visitors will be introduced to the World Brotherhood of Scouting at The Summit.

 

Offer Scouts, Scouters, and Visitors a True, Once-in-a-Lifetime Experience

A jamboree at The Summit will truly be that once-in-a-lifetime experience for all who attend.

 

[SR540Beaver]

No takers amongst the Jambo set? I'll start.

 

Likes

Maximum distance to arena from any subcamp will be 1.5 miles.

No personal vehicles allowed in the jamboree footprint.

Permanent camp sites with bathroom facilities.

Jamboree will provide all troop equipmenttents, cooking equipment, etc.

Program will be more diverse, more intense, and have a higher energy level than previous jamborees.

Access to program areas will be limited to jamboree participants.

Maintain high standards of Going Safely that was benchmark of 2010 jamboree.

 

Dislikes

Plans are to give each participant a personalized, programmable handheld device (the j-phone) with all program data and individual schedules pre-loaded.

Participants will only bring a duffel, sleeping bag, and day pack (jamboree will supply duffel and day pack).

Food will be pre-packed by troops, with cooking designed for troops rather than patrols.

Lunches will be issued with breakfast in the morning so that participants will have them wherever they are.

[ChaiAdventure]

Beaver...I am almost 100% in concurrence except for the lunch thing. I like that the boys will get their lunches with breakfast. It gives some more flexibility and cuts down on the staff requirements. I am also not enthralled by the J-phone, but let's see....

 

I like the Venturing campsite...and that changes a lot. I wonder if there will be program changes to go along with it, like Venturing activities and opportunities for Venturing "advancement."

 

Most of all though, I applaud the "no POVs, everyone walks."

[Twocubdad]

Except for the J-phone (sounds like a sponsorship deal) this is 100%, up and down, just the way World Jamboree was run in 2007. Not surprising since Jack Furst, the guy heading up 2013, was the BSA contingent head at 07 World.

 

It worked well, including distributing lunch at breakfast (although I liked the kiosk system at national better). The big difference, and what drives much of the logistical changes, are troop activities. Instead of two Scouts looking at a map and deciding what to do on any given day, troops will attend a variety of activities they will attend together. Some will will be full day activities -- like going off site for rafting, climbing or a service project; some may be a few hours, like the OA explorium-thingy which was such a cluster-flub last year.

 

Personally, I like the random assignment of troops to campsites. I attended the 1973 jamboree as a youth along with my regular troop (not a provisional troop like they do now). It was a bummer when we arrived and camped smack in the middle of all the other troops from our council, the same guys we camped with at camporees on a regular basis.

 

Smaller subcamp staffs is a "duh!" It seemed like half of the staff at our subcamp this year was devoted to supporting the other half of the subcamp staff. The extent that staffs seemed to compete with other staffs for the most over-the-top meals and amenities for the staff area. I thought it was an embarrassment. Good riddance.

 

Having everything provided but one duffle, and one daypack is great. The amount of gear our troop traveled with to national was ridculous. Flying internationally to World, the boys only had the two bags. Everything else was provided, including material for building a gateway (identical poles and rope for a pioneering project).

 

On the down side, I think one of the big losses at the jamboree will be the big ticket, "natonal scout show" aspect of the jamboree. I've heard the number 20,000 participants quoted. That's about half the number of past jamborees and the 6-7000 staff a little more than half the number of staff. It seems to me jamboree will be much smaller, much harder to get into. Because of the high adventure slant to some of the activities, they've said the medical requirements for jamboree attendance will be as strictly enforced as for the high adveenture bases. Seems like they're trying to build an exclusive event, instead of one where just about everyone is welcome. That would be a big loss.

[gcnphkr]

I signed my first recommendation last night. This time the council will have one troop that is just going to the Jamboree without the extra tour. Saves almost $2000 from the cost. About time.

 

What the heck is a j-phone and is it really needed to provide schedules?

 

>>>Healthy food and drinks offered.

 

Where is the fun in that?

[SR540Beaver]

TwoCub,

 

20,000? Nope. 50,000! A lot of folks for 1,000 acres. Check this out.

 

https://summit.scouting.org/en/Jamboree2013/Pages/default.aspx

 

Get ready! The 2013 National Scout Jamboree is coming and it ain't your father's jamboree. We're talking seriously high adventure, people! Whitewater rafting, zip-lining, rappelling, mountain biking, hiking, and more - with 50,000 of your closest friends at the brand new Summit Bechtel Reserve in the wilds of West Virginia.

 

I liked the lunch kiosk system in 2005 and 2010 because you got fresh, cold food in the heat of the day. Lunch was actually my favorite meal of the day as the breakfast and dinners were a little too kid friendly at times. If kids are going to have to carry lunch with them like they used to, I fear it is going to be a dry trail lunch. Maybe not. I just dont want to carry a squashed meat and cheese sandwich in my daypack for 4 or 5 hours. I don't want 10 days of Slim Jims, beef jerky and processed cheese and crackers either.

 

According to the info I posted, even the duffle and daypack are provided by Jambo. Our once concern on this end is that we color coded our troops and it was easy to pick out our guys by their bags as well as their contingent hats. If 50,000 people have the same bags, it will be hard to find your guys and easy to mix up bags.

 

Since they provide the equipment, it raised a question for me. Will equipment be a part of your Jambo fee the way it was part of our contingent fee in the past? Will they hang onto tents for four years and reuse them or sell them off when it is over? Will Jambo cost say $795 like before or will it be $1200 to cover equipment?

 

A conversation that popped up yesterday amongst us local Jambo'ers is the inclusion of Venturers. Will Crews be the same size as Troops with 36 youth and 4 adults? Will they be required to purchase and wear uniforms like the Scouts? Will they wear a Jambo necker? I wonder if the move to Troop cooking has to do with Crews being included? Other than internal structure and logistics, will Patrols even matter?

 

I don't have any heartburn over mixing the Troops up instead of going by Region.

[Twocubdad]

Long term, having gear provided should reduce the cost. I mean, the local councils are paying for gear now only to see it disappear into the ether every four years. For such a big change it has to be figured into the development cost of jamboree to some degree -- at least you would hope.

 

I hear you about the sandwich crammed in the bottom of your day pack. But it really wasn't a problem at World. And that's about the only way to handle lunch for the off-site programs. Sodex (am I remembering that right?) handled food service at World and grub was pretty good. Lunch was usually a prepackage sandwich (in the little, semi-rigid tray so it didn't get squished), a bag of "crips", piece of fruit, a cookie and a canned drink. I thought it was fine.

 

I was on staff at world and didn't spent a lot of time with the troop during meals, but if I'm remembering correctly, after a couple days doing the patrol thing, my son's troop started cooking as a troop anyway, with patrols taking turns cooking for the whole troop. Part of their problem was a lack of familiarity with the food. They had a lot of old-fashioned rice which is almost impossible to cook on a camp stove in a thin aluminum pot. The Scoutmasters took the attitude that no one paid $4000 to hone their re-heating and cleaning skills so they stepped in and provided alot of help. I wouldn't do that at home, but it's probably not a bad approach at jamboree.

[Engineer61]

Just saw the local flyer for it... $$$$!!! Ouch!

 

$2300-$3500 depending on which of the three you sign up for... Short, Long, Long-LDS.

 

 

 

 

[jhankins]

I think I saw the Jambo fee posted at $900, not too bad.

 

Our council tour fees and airline costs jack it up to $3500, though.

[Engineer61]

Kinda expensive vacation for a 14 year old...

 

I think Scout's Dad can pick this one up....let him raid the college fund.

[Eagle92]

Eng,

Must respectfully disagree with raiding the college fund, esp witht he price of colleges these days. I also disagree with letting real dad pay.

 

I say let the scout earn his way. I know when I went to jambo and Canada, I did a good bit of fundraising, and my mom also helped out with fundraising. I also cut grass, and got a last minute campership to cover the last $75+ I owed.

 

It was an expensive trip, but that I have memories of to this day, one that I would love to repeat with my sons someday.

 

 

[Engineer61]

A good idea ... maybe he'll do that in the summer with Dad.

 

$3500 is a lot of cash, either way.(This message has been edited by Engineer61)

[Eagle92]

I know when I went to jambo, I spent 2 years saving up the money for it.

[Basementdweller]

I don't know any 14 year old that could raise $3500 in two years of mowing grass or delivering papers or even dad with paying excessive rates for chores.

 

$900 for a week camp?????? ouch.

[sailingpj]

Jambo was totally worth the $2000+ that my family spent for me to attend as staff.

 

I hope to be able to do it again in 2013.