History question

[John-in-KC]

What was the first year BSA had National Camp Standards?

[RememberSchiff]

2013?

"The purpose of the BSA’s National Camp Accreditation Program (NCAP) is to help councils elevate camps to new levels of excellence in delivering Scouting’s promise to youth . Councils will engage in rigorous review of camps and properties, continuous improvement, and correction or elimination of substandard practices .In addition to the national camp standards, the NCAP involves three separate but interrelated cycles that both support the standards and ensure that camps meet continuous improvement goals: (1) the multiyear Authorization Cycle; (2) the continuous camp improvement program, which has multiyear and annual components; and (3) the annual Assessment and Accreditation Cycle . The annual cycles started in 2013 and the multiyear cycle will be phased in from 2013 through 2016 ."

https://filestore.scouting.org/filestore/outdoor program/pdf/430-056.pdf

https://www.scouting.org/outdoor-programs/camp-accreditation/

[mrkstvns]

Hmmm.

2013 is pretty recent.  What kind of standards were used prior to NCAP?   Did BSA participate in wider, more nationally recognized camp accreditation (like those from the American Camp Association, ACA)?  I wonder why BSA needs to have its own set of standards if they could simply leverage an existing, recognized set of camp standards...

[Jameson76]

We had National Camp inspections back in the 70's.  I recall being a provisional camper, helping tidy the waterfront up.  The guys from "National" came though.  That's what I was told.

As a Program Director and Camp Director we had specific inspection standards and review in early 80's.  Again, the mysterious guys from "National" came though

Edited July 12, 2019 by Jameson76

[RichardB]

John, Standards go back into the 1920's - Post WWI, units were advised to do week long camp during the summer.   It didn't always go well.    Standards where introduced shortly after.   Source is the letters / pre-Scouting Magazine.  I am pretty sure they are electronically archived, it has been a few years since I reviewed.   

@mrkstvns 2013 was when the NCAP program was rolled out and while I haven't found the direct link or source as above, it's my best guess that the origins of ACA's (and a couple of other) original standards came from those early ones of the BSA.     I've got some neat old newsletters from the mid thirties with some standards from the era.   

[JoeBob]

I really enjoyed perusing the standard for grappling hook design.  And you could buy the whole thing through the 'Supply Service'!  Can you imagine seeing one of these on the rack at your local Scout Shop?  I imagine that these were intended more for clearing debris from a swimming area than for body recovery?  Can someone with knowledge of waterfront standards chip in to let us know if today's environmental standards allow us to disturb natural sediment or is that considered destructive to habitat?

The language used to describe the big blunt hook grapple is poignant.  Not only are they considered "useless", they are "inexcusably useless"!  Wooee! Sounds like somebody has had a bad time using a big grapple. 

[RichardB]

Here is the narrative @JoeBob it is probably one of my favorite stories.  Remember this was 1940.  The rusty one was probably from the 20's.  

 

[MattR]

It's just a flesh wound!

[mrkstvns]

3 minutes ago, MattR said:

It's just a flesh wound!

It was when you had "inexcusibly useless" hooks without barbs.

The barbed hooks are much more effective in ensuring that if swimmers survive the near-drowning, they won't survive the rescue.

[JoeBob]

@RichardB, Thank you.  I like the implication that this piece of rescue gear was used to retrieve recently submerged bodies that were resuscitated. 

Reminds me of my EMT class, taught by a Navy Corpsman, who recommended using towel clamps (basically forceps with curved hooks facing each other) to hook a victim's tongue to his bottom lip to maintain an airway while you tended to others.

[NJCubScouter]

Interesting article on the grappling-hooks.  I doubt that an article today would deal with death quite so head-on like that.

[qwazse]

I'm looking for some "inexcusably useless" hooks to make a key-holder for my lake house.