Summer Camp Staff Inspection

[Eamonn]

It has been a few years since I camped at our Council Summer Camp. For the past few years I have gone up to camp when my son is there and look in when we have Troops in camp. Most times this is later in the day and I visit with the Scoutmaster or the adult in charge for the week. I started doing this when I was District Commissioner,mainly because I could meet 3 or 4 Troops in one night. My little visits were / are always very low key. Some of the Troops tease me about only coming up to get a free cup of coffee.I look in and ask "How is it going?" and "How is the food?" Chatting with anyone who will chat with me.

Most of the time everyone tells me that everything is just fine and dandy. In the past if there has been areas of concern I have met with the Camp Director and seen what can be done to make things right.After Camp is over I meet with the District Camping Chair and we discuss how summer camp went. He can then take everything, the good stuff and the bad stuff to the meeting of the Council Camping Committee.

I have very strong feelings about Summer Camp. I feel very strongly that the little or the not so little Lad attending Summer Camp is a customer. We need to treat him as such. As a Council we have a lot of money invested in the camp and to have unhappy campers is a waste of all the time and money that has been put in.

I have no time what so ever for the people who seem to think that once a Lad arrives at Summer Camp that he is fair game for what ever is thrown at him. There is and can be no excuse for poor food, leaky tents, a poor program or a Lad who after half a day wants to see what can be done about starting an escape committee!!

Scoutmasters at camp are a strange bunch. Some seem happy never to leave their site except at meal times and when nature calls. Others seem to rush around all over the place. The staff at camp seem to be a little afraid of Scoutmasters, they want to go out of their way to keep on the right side of these guys. I think that this is odd as most of the Scoutmasters attend camp at no cost while the Scouts are the paying guests.

Some Scoutmasters seem to have way too much time on their hands and spend the week looking for things to complain about. Morning coffee seems to be a high priority and can lead to unhappy Scoutmasters. Still the number one complaint is always the Camp Staff.

Having worked as a Camp Staffer, I know that Camp Staffers feel that they belong to a very elite, select group. At times the Camp Staff feels that the reason for a Summer Camp is just so that they will have a place to spend the summer and the camp is their camp.At times a camp staff feels that they are underpaid and overworked.A lot of the time I agree with them.

The unhappy Scoutmaster sees the staff as being a loud, at times scruffy bunch. He walks past the staff area and it looks a bit messy and the sound of rap music only adds to his unhappiness.

One area that I hear a lot of complaints about is the Merit Badges done at camp. Again this is put on the doorstep of the Camp Staff.

This year I have been asked to go up to camp for what they are calling a "Dress Rehearsal." I'm supposed to make sure that the staff members in charge of Scout craft are knowledgeable and up to speed.

To be very honest I have no idea how to play this one. I have had young people work for me as dishwashers, and bus persons. While what they do is vital to the smooth operation of a restaurant, it isn't exactly rocket science. In Scouting I have always worked with young people. If something wasn't right we worked together to make it right.I knew the Scouts and they knew me and this knowing enabled us to get where we needed to be. But this idea that I'm going to spend half a day (The time the Council has allotted.) and be able to determine if the staff is ready is new to me.

While I don't want to sound harsh,I can't help feeling that young as these camp staffers might be, they are now professionals. They are going to get paid (Maybe not enough?) to pass on their knowledge and skills to the Scouts who have paid to get this knowledge and the skills. I don't see what I have been asked to do as window dressing or a rubber stamp exercise.

It could be that the staff is on the ball and that the Lads I meet with will be able to do everything that is expected of them. Then again maybe not. I know that I will have to inform the senior camp staff members of my findings and I will hope that somehow someway they will find time to bring any camp staff member up to the expected level of performance. Still I will feel that I'm guilty of passing the buck.I can't remember ever doing this to a Scout. If he needed help I would work with him and his Patrol Leader and we would get where we needed to be.

The Campers arrive on Sunday. The Staff will be off Saturday. There will be a last minute rush to get everything ready on Friday. Even if these Scouts are professionals for the summer, I hate the idea of leaving them "Out to dry." I hate the idea that there will be approx 1,500 Scouts paying good money for something that maybe isn't as good as it should be.

I will let you know how it goes.

Eamonn

[buffalo2]

Eammon - I get the feeling that your experienced impressions are being sought after, rather than a lot of specific input. While you might happen to make the comment that 'the Pioneering area could really benefit from some new rope' I think that the best thing you could do would be to take a high-level view and try to generalize. At this late date you'll probably not be able to put any sweeping changes in place anyway, that time is past.

If I got asked to do this (unlikely!) I think that I'd seek out the Area Director's most senior folks and ask what they needed. Are the most popular MB sessions sufficiently staffed? Are sufficient materials on hand for them to do a creditable job? Do they have some sort of a lesson plan (are they familiar with it) and can they work to it? What's looking better or worse than last year? If they could ask for one thing to really help them do a better job what would it be? Again general questions, but encourage them to talk and show you things while you think about what the customers are looking for and really need... Unlikely that you'll be able to give enough time to individual staffers to really form opinions, but make sure that each of these guys knows that someone appreciates what they're doing and the value of their contributions.

You're on the right track Eammon, give it a good effort (I know that you will) and the value will come right through. Worst thing is that you'll be asked to do it again next year...

[Eamonn]

As ever when I arrived at Camp things had changed, not everyone who was supposed to be there could make it. So I was asked to go to the Handicraft Area. To be very honest I never have liked handicrafts, but working on the idea that ours is not to reason why ours is ... Off I went.

The Area is staffed by 3 young Lads, the Area Director is 18 and is doing some art course at college. They are covering: Art, Basketry, Wood Carving, Leather Work and Pottery Merit Badges.

They were all wearing Scout shorts, socks and a brand new camp t-shirt.

The area was a mess. It seems that they only got into the area yesterday and were still sorting it out.

The Director went first he was covering he Art merit badge. The Lad was great, his love of the subject and his understanding of the requirements really hit me. When I asked about the equipment and if he had it all he smiled and said it was coming.

The Lad covering Basketry knew his stuff and seemed very confident.

Sad to say Leather work was not good. It seemed to me that this had more to do with selling kits from the trading post then it did with anything else. The requirements that were being covered were the bare essentials needed to gain the badge. Again the equipment was a real mess all the stamps were in a Tupperware box, no order or organization. When I inquired about this he was shocked and said that it was always like that.

Wood carving was a joke. None of them had any real interest or knowledge about it. The tools were in sad shape.

Pottery was a little bit better, but they only have one wheel so that is going to be a problem. When I asked if they limit the size of the classes they said no and if they did Scoutmasters would get upset.

I along with all the other people who had been in the other areas met with the program director when we were done.

The things that stuck out were that every area needed supplies. All the areas were a mess thanks to the staff only getting into them yesterday afternoon. All the staff seem to be self taught.

I don't know how much more it would cost to have an extra staff week for staff development. I can't help thinking that we are short changing the campers who come up for the first week of camp. Maybe he Council Advancement committee could work with these Lads in the months and weeks before camp.

Maybe I'm being a little too picky, but we train adults to become trainers and yet seem willing to allow these young Lads sink or swim. I am really glad that I don't serve on the Advancement Committee or the Camping Committee.

Eamonn.

[John-in-KC]

another truncated post(This message has been edited by John-in-KC)

[SR540Beaver]

Eamonn,

 

I spent my very first week at scout camp last week. The food wasn't bad, but it didn't compare to Cub resident camp's quality. Some of the things I saw that were wrong can be attributed to it being the first week of camp. Hopefully they really did fix the problems of last week for the remaining five weeks. One of the "problems" I saw was with the camp staff. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that they were carrying out their duties. However, I saw a lot of staffers wandering the camp. We had one who spent two evening in our camp site playing cards with some of our older boys. Perhaps he had finished his duties for the day. The leader of the Eagle Trail class asked for adult participation with his class. Our troop sent three adults and we assisted with fire building, lashings, flag ceremonies, etc. One of our scouters in the military and is an EMT and a certified battlefield medic. He presented a dynamite first aid presentation for over an hour. While we adults were assisting this leader, I noticed about four other staffers sitting under a canopy and wandering in and out of the class area. Hey, they were getting paid and we were doing the work for them! What gives? The leader did a superb job. His help was dead weight. My son took the Fly Fishing merit badge course and we found out after the second day that the staffer leading that class was playing cards with the boys during class. We took care of that problem quickly. Overall, things went well for the first week of camp. I do think we either had too large of a staff or the staff just wasn't putting forth as much effort as I think they should.

 

As far as supplies and equipment. Things seemed to be in fair order. The one problem with supplies seemed to be in the first aid office. Our EMT was summoned a few times when the gent running it had to leave camp for his own health reasons. The office was a mess and dirty. Our guy bleached the whole place while he was there. He showed me the small amount of supplies they had on hand. It was supposed to last for 6 weeks of camp. He talked to the camp director who infomed him that he was only budgeted $200 for first aid supplies. He instead spent $400. I'm guessing that they are down to ripping up t-shirts from the trading post for bandages by now. We have a good number of scouters in the medical field who probably could have scrounged supplies if someone at council would have just put out the word.