National Camping School, Cub Scout section?

[BartHumphries]

There's a National Camping School section for every Boy Scout Area Director position. Is there basically nothing for Cub Scout camp staff except the Camp/Program Director (which is being folded this year into one superginormous "Cub/Boy/Team/Crew Camp Director or Program Director" section)?

[Eagle92]

Nope, and for a variety of reasons.

 

1 reason is that day camps vary so much not only from council to council, but also from district to district within a council. Some councils will offer a CSDC every week of summer and have paid staff. Others are done one week and by volunteers. Some day camps are evenings only, others are all day for a week, still others are for a few days, and according to national a one day CS event that meets NCS standards is a CSDC.

 

2) Depending upon where you are getting staff far enough in advance to send them to NCS is a problem in itself. I can tell you if it wasn't for some last minute volunteers, we would not have been able to hold camp.

 

3) The focus of CSDC traditionally has been fun and not so much skills and advancement like Boy Scout camp. I do think that will be changing as I got parents coming up to me asking how does the CSDC activities relate to advancement. I expect to see more of this with JTE.

[Twocubdad]

I don't really understand your post, Bart. The Cub Scout Day Camp Adminisration course at National Camp School is generally the same this year has it has been for the past 10 or more years. Those completing the course are dual-certified as camp directors and program directors (although they can only serve in one position or the other).

 

There was a rewrite of the course syllabus implemented last year, but that mainly incorporated policy changes and didn't change much to the overall organization and conduct of the course.

 

One thing new this year is that Webelos Resident Camp Program has been moved to the Resident Camp school. In the past, WRC program directors attended Cub Scout Day Camp school, but had separate break-out sessions for Webelos-specific program stuff.

 

When you say "area director" do you mean within camp, like the "shooting sports director, aquatics director or crafts director? CSDC Aquatics directors or supervisors are required to attend and be certified at NCS. There are local courses for day camp shooting sport range safety officers. But are there NCS courses for the folks leading games or crafts? No. Those topic are covered in detail at the CSDC Administration course. There are round-robin sessions on games, crafts, Cub Scout cooking, nature, skits and songs, etc. The expectation is the camp school-trained directors will deliver that training to their camp staffs.(This message has been edited by Twocubdad)