2013 Jamboree

[The Blancmange]

I haven't seen what our council will be charging yet, but based on the reported fee of $900 and $3500 example above, where does the extra $2600 go, especially if national is providing most of the non-personal gear? Travel is obviously the most significant expense. Are they flying 1st class?

[qwazse]

Even for those of us who are spitting distance from Summit, the calculus is a challenge. The last Jambo broke the bank for a couple of my boys who wanted to come sailing with our crew -- making it hard to fill our boats.

 

Now my crew is invited to join the council contingent, but will we pass on a superactivity in 2012 so we can afford 2013? It's going to be a tough sell.

[Engineer61]

I assume the bulk of the cost is all the non-Jambo site stuff. Airfare is about $700 to DC at the moment.

[Hawkrod]

I will add my rambling thoughts to this. Our Council is charging $3300. I do know that transportation is a big chunk (which is why I always believed Jambo should move around the country every time, give everybody a chance to afford it) but the tours are a big chunk too. I know our council goes to Philly and DC and hotels and meals are a big, BIG expense. I have applied to be in the contingent and will know soon if I will be going but both of my sons will be applying and if chosen will be raising their own money to go just as my oldest did last time. He saved for nearly a year and mom did make up the rest but it was a growth experience that I consider part of the reason we do it. The experience has more value to the boy who worked to get there than the boy going because mom and dad footed the bill and told him he was going. Jambo is a life experience and I am afraid that too many boys do end up seeing it as a long summer camp because they don't have the personal investment in it. I do believe that being choosen to go and participate should be an honor earned and recognized not an experience bought casually by those that can afford it like a trip to an amusement park. I think the boys that go have a responsibility to try and make the most of it, take in the trip, the heritage, the experience and bring it back to those that can't go. There was one boy last time who I spoke with who had spent hours complaining about how bad everything was, the food, the rain, the lines etc... I spent quite a bit of time with him talking about the things he got to do and see. By the time we were done talking he was really starting to understand how great it really was but he was so stuck in the "I have to go because mom said so" mentality that he was missing out on some pretty great stuff. Yeah, some lines were long, really, really, long but the whole time they were in line they were playing pocket games, singing songs and comparing notes with boys who lived a 1000 miles away. Those experiences may have even been actually better than what was at the end of the line if you look at it with the right perspective! I do hope I get to be on the contingent because I know that I can help the boys make the most of the experience and be part of something special but even if I don't, I will be promoting it and preparing the boys going to take in all that they will see and experience while they are getting ready and while they are gone. For me the days at the Jambo are only part of the experience and more than half of the experience is the preperation at home before you ever leave. JMO, fire away....

[Engineer61]

"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. "

 

So I'll bite.... and no, I'm not being sarcastic... because I really don't get it...and may I should try to understand it...because on the surface, this just looks like a very expensive camping trip.

 

What thing is so totally life altering about Jambo that it is worth 8 or 9 car payments or a couple of months of mortgage?

 

Is there some knowledge imparted at Jambo that no person can get by any other means?

[Eagle92]

Eng,

 

I cannot describe it. There is something about meeting people all over the USA, and world for WSJs, with so many activities and so many different things going on, you just cannot do everything at a NSJ or WSJ. Scuba, rifle and shot gun, kayaking rapelling, and i can go on and on.

 

Is it worth it, yes it is. BUT as I said previously, the scout needs to have some skin in the game. He needs to save his money, do any and all fundraisers possible, get a summer job to earn his money etc.

 

YOU SHOULD NOT HAVE TO PAY FOR IT, BUT MAKE YOUR STEPSON EARN IT!

 

(caps is emphasis, not shouting.)

[sailingpj]

It is hard to describe. For me what I really liked was talking to all the people. I estimate the I talked to between 5000 an 10,000 people during the 14 days I was there. That is really cool. I am still in contact with people I met there. Because I went I now have friends in 6 states. I don't know of anywhere else that you can do that.

[Engineer61]

Thanks for the feedback.

 

Both my son's have friends who originate from all over the country and world...that's the nature of most large metro areas...

 

But at $3500, it is completely cost prohibitive...even if there was a path for Scout to earn part of it on his own...

 

Thanks again.

[Eagle92]

Eng,

 

HORSEHOCKEY! (Yep that's me shouting this go around )

 

If your son want to go, tell him HE needs to fugure out how to pay it. Is $3500 a lot of money, HECK YEAH (that would have paid for ER visit last year), but it is about 2 years away, and there are ways for him to get the funds.

 

PM me if you want some ideas.

 

[Eamonn]

I like Jamborees.

I know people who don't.

I went to Nordjamb back in 1975 as a Assistant Scout Leader for Greater London Central. Spent a week living with a family in Sweden. We still send each other cards at Christmas along with a note about what's happening.

I was the SM in 2001 and 2005.

When I talk to Scouts about Jamborees I tell them that Philmont is Boy Scout Heaven and the National Scout Jamboree is Boy Scout Disney Land.

Being the SM for a Jamboree Troop is great fun.

It's wonderful meeting and getting to know an entire Troop of new Scouts.

It's great watching the Patrols and the Troop come together.

It's fun watching them become more at ease with the adults and when they find out that for the most part the adults are just as daffy as they can be and really know how to have fun.

I have a lot of truly wonderful memories that I carry with me. Most are about Scouts and Leaders that I worked with for years, but the Scouts from all 3 Jamboree Troops were all great kids and I feel it was my privilege to serve them.

In 2005 one of my ASM's paid for himself and his two sons to attend. Even though we are not that far from A.P. Hill, it was still a fair amount. He says it was the best money he ever spent! (I think it was spending time with me? But I might be wrong!)

Ea.

[skeptic]

Having attended as a teen in 1960, as an ASM in 85, and this past year on staff, I would agree that the experience is worthwhile and can be a life memory. I also know that it is true, both from my personal experience, and observations as an adult, that those for whom there is no real "skin" tend to view it with far less exuberance, even negatively sometimes.

 

When I told my parents that I wanted to attend in Colorado Springs, I was 14+, and it was late 58 or early 59. Cost from our area in San Bernardino County was $400, plus about $50 for uniforming, and spending money; so about $500 total. My parents said, well we will pay for your uniforms; if you want to go, earn the rest. And I did. It was definitely one of my most memorable experiences, even today. I only regret I did not take advantage of some opportunities that were there, though I did meet many people from all around the world, saw the president, Ike, met James Arness from "Gunsmoke", saw the Lennon Sisters and Brenda Lee (I know some do not even know who they are), and saw many cool places, Santa Fe, Guarden of the Gods, Great Salt Lake, Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo, Salt Lake City and the tabernacle, the huge mine outside the city, and San Francisco. We rode a train to and from, slept in pull down berths (two to a bed), and had the run of the train most of the time. We had 3 troops on the train, and when we went to SF, we stayed in the Grand Hotel and took up an entire floor. Then we went to dinner at a large China Town restaurant where I, along with about 30 or so others, scarfed up on more food than we thought possible, because many were too finicky.

 

As an adult leader of a troop, I had different experiences, but still saw things I never would have most likely, especially having spent little personal time on the East coast. Then, as a staffer, I was able to see the other part of the huge undertaking, and I appreciate just how much we all owe the volunteers, like ourselves. Without them, nothing would happen. And the camaraderie of Scouting is unique.

 

Hope I may be able to work out going again in 2013, but will be almost 70, so do not know. And the world is likely definitely out of reach.

[Engineer61]

"Boy Scout Disney Land"

 

Thanks for the description...

 

As for Scout earning money for it...that will have to be over the summers with his Dad.

[Eagle92]

Not necessarily, but real dad should be encouraging him to earn his way as well. I know I did fundraisers with the troop during the school year: Clean up at some tennis tournaments, distributing flyers for a company (although that may have not been kosher) and some others. I know in my current council, if you are going to jambo or a council contingent to one of the HA bases, you can sell popcorn and get the full 67% of the sale put into you account at the scout office. Here's the caveat though: if you do not use the money for jambo or HA, council keeps all the sale. I don't think council has gotten any money out of that deal yet

 

Also fundraisers with my home troop were also used.

 

Like I said it took me 18-24 months. Trip was expensive because it combined jambo as well as a Canadian canoe trip (don't ask why we didn't do anything local as it is a long story).

[SctDad]

Eagle92

 

I think that you may be mistaken, the council allows 50% of popcorn money to go towards High Adventure. Not the 67%, or 70% as the flyer says.

 

50% is what our council allows. Now your others may have been different, but ours is 50%. I have a daughter that is going to philmont and I am thinking that may be a way for her to raise some money.

 

Although there are other ways for her to raise money that I think will be a little more profitable, and I think we are going to try those also.

[trogers17]

I'll add my $.02 to what the others have stated here. I attended as a youth in 1993. I had my heart set on going after seeing the "older guys" in my troop come back with stories and pictures in 1989. My parents, like many of the others in this thread, agreed to subsidize a small amount of the $800 it cost back then. I was told, if I wanted to go, I'd have to earn the rest. Several of the guys in my troop and I spent the winter/spring of 1992/1993 working on the weekends at a local orchard pruning apple trees at $5-10 a tree. I know I appreciate the value of that hard work more twenty years later than I did then. Between my time trimming trees and my summer job working as a mover, I was certainly more conscientious in my studies the next school year. Working to afford the jamboree served as a catalyst for me to get into a good college and get a degree so I wouldn't be consigned to working in backbreaking labor jobs for little pay.

 

The trip itself was life changing for some of the people. I had been to DC on several occasions before. Most of the people in the contingent had never been to our Nation's Capital, let alone to anything of the magnitude of the Jamboree. I remember taking pictures of the subcamp areas as the tents went up. It was impressive watching rolling hills of grass turn into massive tent cities. I remember talking to scouts from Israel, Asia, Europe, South America. We even ran into scouts we knew from a neighboring council that we hadn't seen in a year.

 

The Jamboree itself is what you make of it. Many of the youth in my contingent made a game plan to hit something different every day. We did rappelling, boating, 5K runs, the nature center, etc. If you want unique merit badges that you can't get locally, the Jamboree was the place to go. It also fostered bonds with many of the local guys from our own council. There are still people from that trip that I keep in touch with nearly 20 years later. I've been back to the Jamboree in 01, 05 and 10 as a visitor (being that I ended up moving to Virginia after college) and it's not the same when you're looking from the outside. It's something to experience as a participant and is well worth the money I earned and spent to attend.