A Modest Proposal

[boomerscout]

Many council camps are boring, understaffed, underutilized, underfunded (well, some of yours, anyway). Plus, the boys have other, sometimes conflicting, activities.

 

I am, here, putting forth a proposal to change most of this. Setting aside, for the moment, the extra costs and logistics, I suggest, for those who pay an extra fee, that one or two hours each day (no more) be devoted to an optional summer football camp or basketball camp.

 

The extra fee, which is in addition to the regular camp fee, covers all the costs of the sports camp option plus a little bit extra to enhance summer staff paychecks and to lower regular camp fees.

 

Since many camps already offer the setups for athletics, sports & personal fitness mb, this is not that much of a stretch. I, myself, would probably baulk at installing an 18 hole golf course, but a driving range with its own instructor is also feasible (golf mb, at least).

 

[shortridge]

In my neck of the woods, at least, there are a lot of sports camps that already offer a much better program, with experienced coaches, full equipment and professional facilities. Why try to copy and compete with what's already out there, when sports is not the focus of our program?

 

Bottom line is that offering two hours a day of football or basketball practice is not going to attract more kids to join Boy Scouts and attend camp.

 

Besides, "Varsity football teams and interscholastic or club football competition and activities are unauthorized activities," according to the G2SS. So all they'd be able to do is touch/flag football.

 

On the logistics side, neither of my council camps would have the setup for this without a lot of investment. One is on a mountain and rocky; the other just doesn't have the open space without slashing down a bunch of trees. Covering the costs involved in such a proposition would make the fee exorbitant. You still need to buy the football helmets, pads, etc., and pour the basketball courts and put up the hoops whether you're practicing two hours a day or six hours a day - running it for a shorter time doesn't cut down on those costs.

 

We're Scouts, not athletes. Let kids come to our camps to explore the outdoors and have Scouting adventures, not feel like they have to multitask and practice sports, too.

[Scoutfish]

I'll echo shortridge and also add that alot of coaches already have specific camps and particular programs in mind. Matter of fact, most of them expect player to go in house in order for it to count for anything.

[boomerscout]

OK, guys. I'm just trying to enhance summer camp to get more participants. There have been too many gripes that Scout camp comes last when it's a choice between it and sports camp and band camp. Obviously, something has to be redesigned so Scout camp is the hands-down choice. More of the same-old, same-old may not cut it. Suggestions?

 

 

 

 

[JoeBob]

Longpig, anyone?

Jonathan Swift...

[shortridge]

I don't have a solution, just a few observations.

 

>> One Scout camp can't be all things to all people. Scouts have to attend the right camp for them. That may mean older Scouts attend Camp A, while younger Scouts attend Camp B.

 

>> An awful lot of troops attend the same camp, year after year after year. That gets boring - not necessarily because that camp's program is boring, but simply because the Scouts have done it all before. Switching it up helps. This is closely related to the practice of wanting troops to sign up for next year's camp at the end of this year's sessions, guaranteeing them the same campsite, etc. While it's a no-brainer for camps, I think it's a horrible idea for most boy-led troops. The decision is basically made for them a year in advance.

 

>> Generally speaking, camps need to do a much better job of marketing themselves directly to the boys. Instead of pitching their camps at roundtables and mailing out leaders' guides to SMs, they should be visiting meetings, setting up Facebook pages and putting promo videos on the council's website and on YouTube. And those videos need to be up-to-date. As of two years ago, my council was sending out videos shot in the late 1990s.

 

>> Camps need to figure out their strengths, and focus on those. Again, you can't be all things to all people. Offering Golf or Auto Mechanics isn't going to get a whole group of Scouts to say "Yeah, let's go to Camp A!" But saying "You can design your own trek, choosing from a menu of climbing, survival, backpacking, canoeing or sailing" just might. If you have great hills, running a three-day intensive mountain biking program followed by two days of two days of swimming and boating might be the thing to do. Running a provisional camp turned into a 1911-era Scout camp, wearing old-time uniforms and working on badges of yore, could be another's special pitch.

 

>> Understaffing and underfunding are issues that are really tied together. Underfunding leads to low salaries, which leads to understaffing. Underfunding also leads to insufficient program supplies and resources. There's a finite amount of money that a camp can bring in through direct fees. If you can't run your camp based on that, it needs to be subsidized by council funds - or you need to raise your fees. There's not really another way around it.

[rdclements]

Some of the challenges that we have when scouting bumps into sports or other groups is that the other groups require 100% participation. The coach or band director tells the young participant that missing a single practice means that you ride the bench or similar. There is a learning value in team sports, but on the whole I think we need more young people to learn and experience balance, trade offs, and compromise.

 

Then the parents get involved in that equation. Being on the team and enjoying the experience is not enough. You have to be a starter, team captain, etc.

 

The cost of these programs drives participation too. I have a young friend whose parents pony up several thousand dollars each season so he can play high school baseball. If you miss a practice, that money is lost.

 

The special ones are the ones who learn, through their own experience, the value of diversity in activities. I cannot recall sitting on an Eagle BOR where the young man that we were chatting with was involved only in scouting. Too band that the leaders of other activities as well as parents of our youth don't get that as well.

[Engineer61]

I think there is a perception here that the reason more athletes and musician types aren't in Scouts is the time conflicts.

 

I disagree. The reason these boys are in Scouts is that Scouting doesn't appeal to them. For some it's the outdoors activities that kills if for them, for some it's the uniforms that are the turn off. For those few cases that want (or are required) to do Scouting, then they do it.

 

My son's H.S. band has 165 members. Maybe 4-5 are Scouts...and that's being optimistic.

 

The fact is that Scouting appeals to fewer and fewer boys...that's the change in our world.

[shortridge]

There's really no comparing activities that are affiliated with schools. Sports teams practice after class lets out. Ditto band. They're held right there at the school. No fuss or muss.

 

For Scouts, you have to go home, eat dinner, do your homework, change clothes and get a ride to a meeting across town.

 

Which is more convenient for a boy or his parents?

[Engineer61]

I would comment that Marching Band is way more of a daily hassle than Scouts.

 

Band practice is before school, due to the heat. They are on the field ready to go at 5:45 AM. Then one night a week they also go 5:45-9:00 PM.

 

 

[Tampa Turtle]

I concur with E61, the "practice after school" days appear gone at our local High Schools. They are frequently morning or evening, also sue to heat.

 

Boomer, I do not think your football idea is the right way to go, I think it dilutes and confuses the product for those who choose it in the first place. I applaud you for thinking outside the box instead of just complaining about it. Probably a different approach.

 

I think a big reason our Troop is successful is not our wonderful program or august adult leaders but that we meet on a different night of the week than other Troops missing a lot of band and sports conflicts.

 

 

[Eagle92]

I know that at the school I went to, if you were on a sports team or band, attendance was part of your grade for a class. If you played a sport, then practice was your PE class during the season and training, and the normal slot for PE was a "free period" to do HW, goof off, etc. However once the season was over, you attended regularly scheduled PE classes.

 

Ditto the band, except depending upon which bands you were a member of, you may also have to attend a class as well. We had a regular marching band, concert band, play band (for the school's musicals), jazz band, and a MCJROTC Band. Some of those guys never got a break, and with the exception of the MCJROTC band, your music grade was based upon the attendance at events.

[boomerscout]

when I first started thinking about camp, I did have some misconceptions about summer football camp. I thought that was just about conditioning exercises, windsprints, individual coaching; I did not realize they actually played football in the summer heat.

Someone mentioned elsewhere that Girl Scout camps are themed: one year may be aquatics, the next year hiking. Since Philmont, N. Tier & Sea Base are themed camps, maybe that is a vector worth investigating.

True, a camp can't be all things to all people - that will please no-one because all the efforts become diluted since too many are drawing from the same small purse.

Maybe if we add a Fat Camp and instruction in personal self-defense?

[Tampa Turtle]

Maybe fat camp for old scouters

[Phibbles]

Ironically, my son's soccer team is 10 scouts and 2 non-scouts. I figure by the end of the soccer season, it will be all scouts. ;-)