World Jamboree and Home Hospitality

[Cambridgeskip]

I wasn’t sure whether to put this in Scouting round the World or issues and politics. I’ll go with scouting round the world but won’t mind if the moderators decide otherwise….

 

I’ve been following the transgender thread with interest, and with the one exception about dealing with periods have held back from commenting, despite being tempted a couple of times.

 

Both on this topic and previous controversies it is clear that the saying about USA and UK being countries divided by a common language still holds true. There are an awful lot of people in the UK who assume that because we share a language we have more in common with the USA than with mainland Europe. Personally I think they are very wrong, we have more in common with the Germans, Dutch, French and in particular the Danes than we often realise.

 

That’s by the by.

 

What I wanted to ask was this. And it’s out of genuine interest and not trying to pick a row.

 

In just over two years time USA will host the World Jamboree, jointly with your neighbours in Canada and Mexico. Part of the Jamboree experience is home hospitality, where scouts from contingents from all round the world are hosted for a few days by the families of scouts from the host nation either before or after the main camp itself.

 

Historically the contingents from Western Europe have been among the biggest and scouting in Western Europe is about as liberal as it gets world wide. I think every European national organisation is coed at least at an umbrella level, all where I have heard one way or the other are entirely open to LGBT members and at least 4 are open to atheist members.

 

With all that in mind how do you envisage home hospitality operating? I will leave that question as open as possible as I am curious.

 

It would be nice if this didn’t turn into a rehash of gay/trans/coed discussions. I’m simply curious as to how you see it panning out.

[krypton_son]

I wouldn't think that there would be any issues.  The policies of other countries Scouting organizations are probably not a very big deal to us.  I think the point of our pushback with the transgender issue in the BSA is just the principle of it  (at least to me anyway).  I don't hate transgenders.  Never have.  And I have no problem with them being in a Scouting program.  Just not a group designed for boys only.  I imagine that that is the same for most of us that are against it.  I would never force myself into the Girl Scouts even if for some reason I wanted to be a girl.  But it's our program, our history, our group.  Scouting from other countries is those countries group.  If they've chosen to let them in, then that's on them.

[qwazse]

The German's beer booth is likely to be a more pragmatic concern.

Anyway, the whole point of world Jambo is cultural exchange. Half the discussion of "BSA" being more "Scouting USA" stems from scouters' favorable impression upon meeting international units.

[krypton_son]

The German's beer booth is likely to be a more pragmatic concern.

My God, that would be my favorite part.....

[gumbymaster]

I hadn't really given this much thought. 

 

I don't really know when they start putting our the call for volunteers for this; I haven't heard anything yet from either National or NCAC.  I guess they are still caught up in getting the National 2017 Jamboree together.

 

Being near DC, and about 5 hours from the Jamboree site, and having a fairly large house with a lot of pull-out couches, I'd probably be glad to host several scouts.  No restrictions on gender or gender identity here.  Language may be a different issue, we can probably cover German and French reasonably (but I expect a lot of them also learn English); but I'm willing to try with others - Google translate seems to work pretty well these days.

[NJCubScouter]

Cambridgeskip, there are actually at least three places this thread could have gone:  Here, I&P or the "Going to the next Jamboree?" subsection under Open Discussion.  There is already a generic World Jamboree 2019 thread there but this could remain a separate thread. I do not see any need to move this thread to I&P, as long as it sticks to the specific issue of "home hospitality" at the World Jamboree and does not get into another argument over what the BSA's (or any other country's) policy should be on gay/transgender youth or coed Scouting.  I also do not think it is necessary to move it to the Jamboree-specific section because the title "Going to the next Jamboree?" is a little narrower than the question you have raised.  So I am fine with leaving it here, at least for now.  Other moderators may differ.

 

As for your question itself, I did not realize that this was part of the World Jamboree experience for Scouts from other countries.  I guess I just assumed that the Scouts arrived directly at their campsite at the Jamboree and left directly from there.  It sounds like a nice addition.  So I guess my first question would be, how have hosts and visitors been "matched up" for past World Jamborees?  Do the hosts have some role in choosing the the Scouts who will stay with them?  Or does someone in the host country's Scouting bureaucracy (in this case the BSA) do the matchups and the kids go where they are sent?  And who does the "recruiting" of families to be hosts and what kind of information are the potential hosts given?

 

I realize I have answered your question with more questions, but I think that once there is a more of an understanding about how this usually works there can be a better discussion of whether different membership standards may affect the process.  My guess is that they wouldn't.

[Cambridgeskip]

 

As for your question itself, I did not realize that this was part of the World Jamboree experience for Scouts from other countries.  I guess I just assumed that the Scouts arrived directly at their campsite at the Jamboree and left directly from there.  It sounds like a nice addition.  So I guess my first question would be, how have hosts and visitors been "matched up" for past World Jamborees?  Do the hosts have some role in choosing the the Scouts who will stay with them?  Or does someone in the host country's Scouting bureaucracy (in this case the BSA) do the matchups and the kids go where they are sent?  And who does the "recruiting" of families to be hosts and what kind of information are the potential hosts given?

 

I realize I have answered your question with more questions, but I think that once there is a more of an understanding about how this usually works there can be a better discussion of whether different membership standards may affect the process.  My guess is that they wouldn't.

Yes it's pretty standard! Some national contingents also have a pre Jamboree camp to get the whole contingent in one place before hand.

 

In terms of matching I honestly don't know. I know that typically each unit stays in the same locality and normally pairs of scouts go to each family. Two of ours went to Japan, I'll ask how they got matched. The photos towards the bottom of this page are from the home hospitality part of Japan.

 

The German's beer booth is likely to be a more pragmatic concern.

 

 

It's called The Black Magic and the non alcoholic beer it serves is extraordinary. As is the tent itself! Bottom right of this photo from 2007 UK. The big black tent is the place.....

[Stosh]

In the US

 

Adventure Scouts USA

Pioneers

Trail Life USA

GS/USA

Royal Rangers

Hope Scouts

Navigators USA

Pathfinders

Heritage Girls

Camp Fire

Frontier Girls

Awana

Caravan

Moriya

 

Just to name a few, why does everyone have to dump all over the BSA?

[krypton_son]

It's called The Black Magic and the non alcoholic beer it serves is extraordinary.

 

 

What??  I almost fainted when I read that.  Balderdash I say!

[Col. Flagg]

In just over two years time USA will host the World Jamboree, jointly with your neighbours in Canada and Mexico. Part of the Jamboree experience is home hospitality, where scouts from contingents from all round the world are hosted for a few days by the families of scouts from the host nation either before or after the main camp itself.

 

Historically the contingents from Western Europe have been among the biggest and scouting in Western Europe is about as liberal as it gets world wide. I think every European national organisation is coed at least at an umbrella level, all where I have heard one way or the other are entirely open to LGBT members and at least 4 are open to atheist members.

 

With all that in mind how do you envisage home hospitality operating? I will leave that question as open as possible as I am curious.

 

It would be nice if this didn’t turn into a rehash of gay/trans/coed discussions. I’m simply curious as to how you see it panning out.

 

The Bechtel camp is not very close to any major cities. And West Virginia -- and I say this having gone to school there -- makes Blackpool look like Barcelona by comparison.

 

The state itself has great mountains (by East Coast standards, around 3,000-4800ft), some awesome rivers, decent climbing (in the north) and some very nice forests. Camping around there is decent, though camp grounds can vary in quality. Besides the Interstate roads, the local roads are dangerous at night...mostly due to deer that love to run out and chase your car.

 

You are pretty far from any major city. Richmond is a good 4.5 hours. DC proper is closer to 6. Charlotte is closer to 4. Winston-Salem closer to 3. Cincy is 4.5 and Pittsburgh around 4. Knoxville is around 4. You get the picture. Any hosts would likely come from that area I suppose.

 

If I were bringing a group I'd want to show them:

• Washington, DC for the usual sites.
• Drive to Harper's Ferry and look around the local Civil War battlefields.
• Head south along the Blue Ridge in VA hitting the Lurray Caverns...pretty cool.
• Overnight around the New River Gorge and take an outfitter down the white water. If that is too croweded, try the Nantahala a bit further south.
• I'd hike some of the Appalachian Trail if there was time.
• Work my way to Bechtel for the event.
• After the event, I'd try to hit the Outer Banks before heading home.

Edited February 2, 2017 by Col. Flagg

[Cambridgeskip]

In the US

 

Adventure Scouts USA

Pioneers

Trail Life USA

GS/USA

Royal Rangers

Hope Scouts

Navigators USA

Pathfinders

Heritage Girls

Camp Fire

Frontier Girls

Awana

Caravan

Moriya

 

Just to name a few, why does everyone have to dump all over the BSA?

 

I'm not dumping at all Stosh. It's simply a case of BSA is the WOSM recognised national scout scout organisation, so they are the host organisation. Hence asking about the potential culture clash with BSA.

 

 

 

The Bechtel camp is not very close to any major cities. And West Virginia -- and I say this having gone to school there -- makes Blackpool look like Barcelona by comparison.

 

The state itself has great mountains (by East Coast standards, around 3,000-4800ft), some awesome rivers, decent climbing (in the north) and some very nice forests. Camping around there is decent, though camp grounds can vary in quality. Besides the Interstate roads, the local roads are dangerous at night...mostly due to deer that love to run out and chase your car.

 

You are pretty far from any major city. Richmond is a good 4.5 hours. DC proper is closer to 6. Charlotte is closer to 4. Winston-Salem closer to 3. Cincy is 4.5 and Pittsburgh around 4. Knoxville is around 4. You get the picture. Any hosts would likely come from that area I suppose.

 

If I were bringing a group I'd want to show them:

• Washington, DC for the usual sites.
• Drive to Harper's Ferry and look around the local Civil War battlefields.
• Head south along the Blue Ridge in VA hitting the Lurray Caverns...pretty cool.
• Overnight around the New River Gorge and take an outfitter down the white water. If that is too croweded, try the Nantahala a bit further south.
• I'd hike some of the Appalachian Trail if there was time.
• Work my way to Bechtel for the event.
• After the event, I'd try to hit the Outer Banks before heading home.

 

 It will definitely be interesting to see where the home hospitality takes place. With Canada and Mexico joint hosting I assume some units will go over the boarders so with that in mind I also assume they'll go all over USA as well. When Netherlands hosted in 1995 it was too small a country to host everyone so some units went to Sweden and UK!

[ianwilkins]

As for your question itself, I did not realize that this was part of the World Jamboree experience for Scouts from other countries.  I guess I just assumed that the Scouts arrived directly at their campsite at the Jamboree and left directly from there.  It sounds like a nice addition.  So I guess my first question would be, how have hosts and visitors been "matched up" for past World Jamborees?  Do the hosts have some role in choosing the the Scouts who will stay with them?  Or does someone in the host country's Scouting bureaucracy (in this case the BSA) do the matchups and the kids go where they are sent?  And who does the "recruiting" of families to be hosts and what kind of information are the potential hosts given?

 

I don't know if it's the usual thing for other contingents from other countries, but I know it's pretty standard for the UK contingent. One of mine that went said it was one of the highlights of her Jamboree last year. I mean, there you are, 14 or 15, and from a fairly normal bit of the UK, and you are dropped into a Japanese family's life for 4 or so days. Extraordinary. Anyhoo...

 

http://ukcontingent.co.uk/ho-ho/

 

One of the best parts of any international experience is a home stay, as it provides the opportunity to live with a family and experience their day to day life and see their country as no tourist normally can.   This is the reason why we build the UK Jamboree experience around this and from the beginning requested home hospitality for every one of our Units.   We also wanted to provide each Unit with a very different experience so requested hospitality in each of the 47 Prefectures from Hokkaido in the north to Okinawa in the South.   We have been delighted that The Scout Association of Japan has been able to accept this proposal and accommodate the UK Contingent all in every prefecture!

 

So basically it comes back to local scouting, I would guess that an area would say "yes we can do home hospitality", and then try and recruit scout families to host. I have a vague memory of putting out requests for hosts in 2007, I guess it depends, but it was really just "host families wanted", and they were expected to show them "normal life" and see the local sites. How much exact matching is done, well, it might vary considerably depending on the time available to those doing it! You'd like to think they would try and match roughly by age, gender might be a bit more of an issue, but I guess they might see if there are siblings or something. Logistically I'd imagine that each unit (around 36 young people plus adults) would end up in more or less the same place.

 

I'd imagine with it being a joint Can/USA/Mex then yes, I'm sure some units would go from the Jamboree site to do home hospitality in those countries.

[Back Pack]

ROFL...I cannot imagine BSA using technology to link up anyone for this. They have a hard enough time making sure their members' data gets entered in to the recharter system (correctly) before June. I can only imagine the chaos this will be if BSA is involved.

[SSScout]

Camb:   In advance, welcome to 'Merika !    All the suggestions above are good and correct. A lot can be found out from 'our friend Google'.

 

Some more to note:  National Capitol Area Council has two nice campsites, I dare say will be gearing up for hospitality:  Camp Snyder, near Haymarket VA, and  Goshen, in the south part of VA, near Goshen VA.  Also, other nearby Councils may offer camp hospitality, notably Baltimore Area Council and  Blue Ridge Council.  Tidewater Council , out near Norfolk VA, and there are others .... 

Be advised, there is NO railroad near The Summit.  Closest AMTRAK station is Thurmond West VA, (? 30 KMs by road? )  but the road into Thurmond will not allow (it ain't big enough) busses.  Unless the West Virginia Highway folks really do some work, the roads into Thurmond are SMALL.  Then too,if you look at the map, one might be led to think you could HIKE into The Summit, cross country.   We will see.  International folk will be coming into BWI-Thurgood Marshall (Baltimore) or Dulles (Wash DC/VA) or Philadelphia (a long ways) or somewhere else, and bussing into The Summit.  

Stuff to see/do:  Harpers Ferry, US Civil War,   Beckley WVA Coal mine (into the dark !) , Washington DC, Baltimore MD (Inner Harbor, Ships, etc.), Richmond VA has many sights.   

IH hostels in Harpers Ferry, Wash DC. and Philly.  I think the Baltimore hostel closed.  

 

Time to start planning, I guess....

[Stosh]

I'm not dumping at all Stosh. It's simply a case of BSA is the WOSM recognised national scout scout organisation, so they are the host organisation. Hence asking about the potential culture clash with BSA.

 

Sorry, @@Cambridgeskip, that post is actually in the wrong thread, my mistake, my apologies.