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Stop the Hype, give us solid information !!!!


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I've had enough of the over the top hype being communicated about this Jamboree. It's time that we started to get some solid information and instruction passed along to us. To say it simply, my comfort level is low and getting lower! National needs to park the PR machine. The Jambo website has nothing but hype, the leaders guide is pitifully puny, and the leaders are frustratingly uninformed.

 

As a parent of a Scout who plans to go, and past Jambo leader myself, I am really very concerned. It seems to me that National has not moved beyond the "sales" phase of this event. Yes, yes, I've heard all the rhetoric about the great things being done at the Summit. But none of it appears to have morphed into a logistically sound operation. At the bare minimum, I expect that we'd have had a thorough understanding about meals by now. We don't!

 

As you all know, this is not an inexpensive event. I will give it until the end of February. At that point if my comfort level has not significantly increased, I will cancel my son's registration.

 

Foto

 

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Back when mine was considering going (he decided a while back it was a waste of his time and money) I sent several basic questions to the BSA about logistics, emergency care ... all went unanswered...not even an acknowledgment of "hey we have your question, we'll look into it"...

 

That would be customer service rating of "fail".

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Be prepared for a mud hole. Last reports I got from a fellow who did a site visit recently says in his opinion there is no way they will be ready.

 

Did you see that the zip lines aren't going to be able to run to the predicted capacity.....Each troop will be given only so many tickets not enough for the entire troop to participate.

 

There is an up charge for white water rafting. On and on and on. The folks that went to the shakedown gave some horror stories of what went on.......followed by an email from national saying that it was NOT the jambo experience but a test.

 

 

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My son is going and I was told only insulin will be kept at health 'lodge' areas. Makes me nervous to think that there will be teenagers in charge of their own ADHD meds, some of which are controlled substances! What a liability nightmare for national if something goes wrong.

 

I know 2 adults on mb staff who don't know when they are required to be there snd when they are to leave afterwards yet, but have ad to send in their money already.

 

Information is key.

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"My son is going and I was told only insulin will be kept at health 'lodge' areas."

 

That means Epi-Pens as well....those things are very shock-tolerant...one when off in my daughter's purse a year or so ago...needle when right through the case...glad it wasn't in her pocket.

 

"teenagers in charge of their own ADHD meds"

 

That's probably not too good of an idea as well...although I've seen it work in small groups... I don't know of any that *aren't* controlled substances ... even the few that were not stimulus based (off the market now I think) were still on the controlled list.

 

 

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Go to https://summit.scouting.org/en/Jamboree2013/Pages/Council.aspx and scroll down to "Webinars". Each month there is a webinar that contingent leaders can listen to and ask questions of National jambo organizers. The transcripts of these sessions are at the above link. They won't provide all the answers, but there are useful nuggets in there and (in particular) you can read leaders' questions and at least know that you're not alone in wondering what the deal is.

 

 

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The medications question was answered in the FAQ's for the December webinar (page 4) - but basically each Troop will have a lockbox (bring your own) to put their non-perishable medications in. Perishables will be at the med lodge for the subcamp. We have one Venturer going that carries an epi-pen with him, the extras will go in the lockbox.

 

Link to the December FAQ pdf - https://summit.scouting.org/en/Jamboree2013/Documents/December_2012_Webinar.pdf

 

 

YiV,

 

John

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You are paying the cost of being "first" to break in this HA base, there will be bumps in the road.

 

When Jambo moved around every time, I bet there were similar challenges. I was at the first Jambo at AP Hill. Not everything ran smoothly (as I learned later), but I had a great time.

 

So, do think of things from a youth's perspective. Maybe your son does need to know exactly what he will be eating six months from now, but maybe he'll have fun regardless.

 

I agree that this is overhyped. At it's core Jambo is about gathering scouts. All the other stuff is just Disneyland.

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  • 1 month later...

I just saw that news bit about Train quitting because of the policy. Kinda sucks, my Life scout son has told me he doesn't talk about scouting at school because he doesn't want kids at school thinking he is 'bigoted towards gay people'. I hope people don't think all scouts and scouters are anti-gay if this policy stays around - the organization could lose more kids

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I'm sorry, but with all the news of late, Train and Carly Rae are saying they (and all their handlers and agents and managers) didn't know about the BSA membership policy? BS! They knew and didn't care until their fans called them out. Disingenuous at best, but likely just spineless.
If these acts are pulling out of entertaining at the Jamboree, because of the BSA membership policy, then I hope that whoever plays the Super Bowl half time show also knows that the NFL has an unwritten rule which basically is "Don't ask, don't tell." As far as I know, there are no openly gay players or coaches in the NFL.
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