BSA to Pursue Negotiations to Establish National Scouting Center

[MissingArrow]

National issued a press release today about entering into negotiations with sites in Virginia and West Virgina to explore the vision of a National Scouting Center.

 

Press Release Courtesy Scouting News

http://scoutingnews.org/?p=1031

 

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Boy Scouts of America to Pursue Negotiations With Sites in Eastern Region to Establish National Scouting Center

 

As on outgrowth of an 18-month process aimed at establishing a permanent home for its iconic event, the national Scout jamboree, the Boy Scouts of America announced today that it will enter negotiations with sites in Virginia and West Virginia to explore the vision of a National Scouting Center. The National Scouting Center will comprise three major areas of focus: the permanent home for the national Scout jamboree, a new high-adventure base, and expanded opportunities for national leadership and outdoor skills training. The vision for a National Scouting Center evolved from an intensive, highly competitive site selection process that drew 80 proposals from 28 states.

 

The site selection process, referred to as Project Arrow, was overseen by a committee that narrowed submissions to three outstanding finalist proposals from Virginia, West Virginia, and Arkansas. Today, after serious and thorough consideration, the BSAs National Executive Board took action to proceed with further investigation and negotiations with Virginia and West Virginia. Plans call for placement of the permanent home for the BSAs national jamboree in Goshen, Rockbridge County, Virginia, and the new high-adventure base in Fayette and Raleigh counties, West Virginia.

 

This new vision of a National Scouting Center represents an incredible opportunity for the BSA, our Scouts, and the nation. In its entirety, the center will offer a new American landmark-a multipurpose, year-round destination for Scouting activities that will become the epicenter for the best that Scouting has to offer, said Jack D. Furst, chairman of the Project Arrow Committee and retired partner of the private equity firm HM Capital Partners. It will be a dynamic place where people from all over this country and the world come together to share their common values, partake in Americas best leadership programs, and challenge themselves through rigorous outdoor activities.

 

Furst noted that although an important step has been taken, there is still much work to be done. We are moving from vision to reality, and there is still much process to go through.

 

Serving as the home for the Boy Scouts national Scout jamboree is a great honor for the commonwealth of Virginia, said Patrick O. Gottschalk, Virginia secretary of commerce and trade. We are committed to this process and know that we have a tremendous amount to offer in the long term to this time-honored celebration and the organizational goals of the Boy Scouts.

 

Kelley Goes, cabinet secretary of the West Virginia Department of Commerce, says her state is eager to continue progress with the BSA. We appreciate the Boy Scouts recognition of what our land has to offer with its spectacular and diverse topography. There are opportunities to bring new adventure outlets to Scouts, and we look forward to continuing this discussion.

 

Experiential learning activities, such as the ones offered at BSA high- adventure bases and the national jamboree, are a core element to fulfilling the BSAs mission of serving Americas youth with character-building opportunities. Both the jamboree and high-adventure bases reflect the skills and values of Scouting appreciation for the outdoors, physical fitness, environmental conservation, and understanding our national heritage.

 

Every four years, the BSA hosts a 10-day jamboree celebration that draws more than 240,000 Scouts, volunteers, vendors, and visitors. Annually, the BSAs three existing high-adventure bases, Philmont, Northern Tier, and Florida Sea Base, serve more than 50,000 youth with 20,000 more wait- listed. The new proposed adventure base would complement the existing three and help meet the demand for high-adventure activities with completely new programs not offered elsewhere.

 

Furst says the BSA extends its sincere thanks to the jamboree site finalist in Saline County, Arkansas. We are so grateful to Governor Beebe and the officials of Arkansas for providing us such a compelling option, and showcasing their states great leadership. Their incredible site had many outstanding elements, Furst said.

 

Among other criteria that were considered, potential jamboree sites were to:

* Have spectacular natural beauty

* Have water for recreational activities

* Be at least 5,000 acres and available for donation, long-term lease (100-plus years), or sale

* Be within 25 miles of an interstate or a four-lane divided highway

* Be within 150 miles of a commercial service airport with medium or large hub status

* Be in an area with adequate medical services

* Be accessible year-round via standard modes of transportation

 

The BSA partnered with McCallum Sweeney Consulting in Greenville, South Carolina, to aid in the search and evaluation process. During the more than 18-month site selection process, a three-phase, systematic review and assessment approach gave each proposal thorough consideration.

 

About the Boy Scouts of America

Serving more than 4.6 million youth between the ages of 7 and 20, with more than 300 councils throughout the United States and its territories, the BSA is the nations foremost youth program of character development and values-based leadership training. The Scouting movement is composed of 1.2 million volunteers, whose dedication of time and resources has enabled the BSA to remain the nations leading youth-service organization. For more information on the BSA, please visit http://www.scouting.org

 

More information about 100 Years of Scouting can be found at http://www.scouting.org/100years(This message has been edited by missingarrow)

[skeptic]

Once again they pass up a chance to make travel a bit less expensive for those of us on the West coast, and even midwest. Granted, perhaps the choice was the best available; I do not know what may have been offered more centrally. But I was truly hoping that they would settle on something about mid country. Ironically, I was just reading in an old Scouting Magazine from 1932 about the original gift of Schiff. Of course they sold that off. We will have to see.

[SR540Beaver]

Hmmmm, I can't say I'm surprised.....but I am disappointed for personal reasons. I would prefer that the Jamboree be more centrally located in a little cooler and/or drier climate. The heat and humidity is stifling in Virginia in late July. I think the greatest deciding factor is the proxemity to Washingtom DC. It is the DC touring that really cranks up the price of Jamboree and puts it out of reach for many boys. In 2005, our cost was $1900 with 5 days of touring. In 2010 it will cost $3000. Touring DC has becomee the extra added "value" of Jambo that didn't exist when it was held at different locations around the country. Don't get me wrong, I love DC. I've been there three times now. But I have my doubts that anywhere other than the DC area had an ice cubes chance of being chosen.

[Hal_Crawford]

As someone who has camped at Goshen Scout Reservation every year since 1996 I applaud this choice. I hear what Skeptic says about a central location but by the same token I look forward to the new high adventure base in the mid Atlantic region. It is a long trip to Philmont and the mountains of West Virginia will provide a different set of challenges for hikers.

 

While more humid than what many westerners are used to, the Goshen area will be a lot nicer than AP Hill.

 

I don't know what they will do there to accommodate the Jamboree numbers but if you want to see what is there now visit http://www.boyscouts-ncac.org/openrosters/ViewOrgPageLink.asp?LinkKey=15974&orgkey=1933

 

There are currently seven camps on or near Lake Merriweather. Bowman and Marriott are patrol cooking boy scout camps; Olmstead is a dining hall boy scout camp; Ross and PMI are cub scout camps; Baird is a high adventure base and Post is the reservation headquarters camp with health lodge, COPE course and climbing tower.

 

The reservation is 4000+ acres adjacent to another 35,000 state wild life game lands.

 

Goshen is about 3.5 hours from Washington DC and close to the I-81 corridor. I-64 is also nearby.

 

Trivia:

Camp Marriott is named for the Marriott family that founded the hotel chain; Ross is named for a bicycle company, PMI for a company that runs parking garages and Bowman for the distillery that bottles Virginia Gentleman.

 

Fighter planes from Langley AFB and Oceana NAS often buzz the lake. It is believed that many of the pilots are former scouts who camped at Goshen. Perhaps they are practicing bombing the dam.

 

I think this will be a good move for BSA. Hope it all works out.

 

Hal

 

 

[shortridge]

Hal -

 

I didn't read the release to indicate that the new Jambo site would be at Goshen Scout Reservation, but rather in the area of Goshen, Va.

 

The release also talks about ongoing negotiations about the sites with the states. If a local council property were simply to be handed over to National for a Jambo site, the state wouldn't really play a role, as it'd be an internal BSA thing.(This message has been edited by shortridge)

[Hal_Crawford]

Shortridge:

Wikipedia is wrong (Shocked I say, shocked)! According to them it is less than 1 square kilometer. The entire reservation within a 1000 meter square? I have hiked enough of the trails there to guarantee that is wrong. Heck, the lake is 450 acres!

 

According to the their web site it is 4000+ acres. The adjacent state land that is used for Lenhok'sin High Adventure makes the total close to 40,000 acres.

 

Look at it on Google maps: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Goshen+Scout+Reservation&sll=37.97668,-79.453812&sspn=0.078347,0.151234&ie=UTF8&ll=37.976274,-79.447289&spn=0.074964,0.151234&t=p&z=13

 

The reservation surrounds the lake and extends up into the hills.

 

That being said I think they will have to expand beyond the existing camps and facilities to handle the numbers for a jamboree. Because of the lake a portion of the area is underwater. I must confess I have never been to the jambo but I have spent a good deal of time at Goshen. I don't know if the commonwealth is planning to transfer land to BSA. The non-state owned area around Goshen is pretty depressed so they may be planning to buy more acreage. I will be interested to see how it all plays out but I am relatively sure the reservation will form the core of the Jamboree site.

 

Hal

[sheldonsmom]

We were hoping for something more centrally located too! DC is a nice enough area but wouldn't the Black Hills have been great....especially in the summer! C'est la vie. Once more we are just flyover country.

[Tokala]

I heard rumors that Goshen SR was being consider while staying there for ArrowCorps5. It is a large facility with the lake in the middle. It's also an old, run-down camp. If it's chosen, National should level what infrastructure is there and start fresh.

 

Seems one of the major criteria is closeness to DC. I thought that they might try to shift the site further west to ease the travel requirements for Scouts from the west coast.

[shortridge]

Hal,

 

< grin > Yeah, I quickly realized that wikipedia figure was wrong, and edited accordingly. My computer was having a hard time loading up the NCAC Web pages (the openrosters system seems to be pretty time-consuming to load), so I went with what I could easily get.

 

If they're going with Goshen SR, it seems to me they probably would have just come out and said that.

[Hal_Crawford]

Shortridge:

Wiki's acreage reminded me of Star Trek Episode where the universe kept shrinking until it was about 200 meters square.

 

Like Tokala, I've been hearing rumors for for a while that they were looking at Goshen. I am pretty sure that the reservation will be at least part of the Jamboree site.

[emb021]

So much for the rumors I heard that Nevada was being considered. Looks like the finalists were Virginia, WV, and Arkansaw.

 

I thought it might be neat if they got the park they used in Idaho for Jamborees in the 60s.

 

 

[Buffalo Skipper]

I think the location is excellent. That is not to say Goshen, VA is excellent, but if you make that area the center of a 500 mile radius circle (roughly the distance for a local tour permit), it covers a significant amount of the nation's large population centers. This was not a stipulated requirement, but I would be surprised if it was not taken into consideration.

 

Not to knock the WestCoasties, but there are very few areas out west where such a circle would include more than 2 or 3 similar sized large population areas. And as was posted earlier, Philmont is more west than east.

 

Applying the same logic, I am actually more curious about the High Adventure base. Details like what exactly in the 2-county area are being considered, goals of the camp, program, name and target "opening" date. Working with a young troop, I would hope this would be ready to go by the time most are 14-15. That would be an experience for the boys--to go the first year!

[artjrk]

I have spent 3 summers at Goshen for WEBELOS camp. Beautiful place. The weather in that mountainous area of Virginia is quite different from AP Hill. Out of 21 days only one was considered hot and humid. There were several nights that were down right chilly. I don't know if this new site will actually be at Goshen SR or adjacent to it.

 

As for the centrally located issue. Yes Geographically it is not but as far as population is concerned is is much more central to a larger number of scouts.

 

I grew up about 1/2 hour away in the valley so I may be a bit prejudice.

[SSScout]

Hal: Don't forget the "supercamporee" planned for that 2010 summer before the REAL NJ? NCAC was talking about 10,000 at Goshen? I recently received a email asking for an opinion about holding it over the Memorial Day weekend? Their idea is this would take the place of any District Spring Camporee?

Trial run? Jammed roads? Organization test?

[GKlose]

SSScout, we had a similar event (MassJam '08) last Columbus Day weekend, in the northeast. I don't recall the total number, but I think it was around 7000 scouts, not including staff, at a fairgrounds on Cape Cod. Surprisingly small, to me, event area. Five councils or so, covering at least MA, NH, CT and RI.

 

I was skeptical at first, but honestly it was an extremely well-run event. I had two small quibbles about things, but neither of them had much to do with the organization itself.