Attendance at the Jambo - Entitlement OR Honor and Privilege?

[mpaull]

p.s. to my previous post.

 

I believe the strict answer to the question is that it is both. You are entitled to go by virtue of your membership in BSA, and when you go, you should consider it an honor and privilege and prepare accordingly.

[emb021]

"Being somewhat new to Scouting, I was curious as to why this event only occurs every four years? Someone mentioned that if you only get one shot at it, then you are going to go - ready or not. I assume the reason is fiscal, but would every three, or even two, years be totally out of the question?"

 

putting on a Jamboree is a MASSIVE undertaking. Doing it more often is really out of the question. Jamborees, both National and World, occur about every 4 years. Keep in mind that people are working on the Jamboree 4-2 years out.

 

 

[RememberSchiff]

From Scout Guide Jamboree 2010

http://www.bsajamboree.org/filestore/jamboree/pdf/410-153.pdf

 

Page 18

"Participant Statement of Understanding

and Code of Conduct

Statement of Understanding:

All participants (Scouts and leaders) are selected (note it does not say entitled) to represent their local councils based on their

qualifications in character, camping skills, physical and personal

fitness, and leadership qualities. Therefore, all adult and youth

participants and their parents or guardians are asked to read the

Code of Conduct and Statement of Understanding as a condition of participation. It is with the further understanding that serious misconduct or infraction of rules and regulations may result in expulsion, at the participants expense, from the jamboree. Ultimately, we want each participant to be responsible for his or her own behavior, and only when necessary will the procedure be invoked to send the participant home from the jamboree.

The units adult leaders (Scoutmaster and assistants) are responsible for the supervision of its membership in respect to maintaining discipline, security, and the jamboree Code of Conduct."

 

jump to next page

 

"7. Cheating, stealing, dishonesty, swearing, fighting, and

cursing may result in expulsion from the jamboree or

serious disciplinary action and loss of privileges. The

jamboree headquarters must be contacted for the expulsion

procedure to be invoked. There are no exceptions.

 

10. I will demonstrate respect for unit and jamboree property,

and be personally responsible for any loss, breakage, or

vandalism of property as a result of my actions."

 

So the rules seem rather clear, the enforcement less so.

 

 

 

[John-in-KC]

From everything I've seen, it's sort of self-selection: You have the bucks, you will be selected.

 

Cynical? Probably. Realistic? Certainly

[Eagle92]

Don't know what, if any age requirement is now a days for Jambo, But I remember it use to be 13 by Jan 1 of the year attending, so If you were going to the '89 Jambo, you had to be 13 by Jan 1 1989.

[Lisabob]

Eagle, for the 2010 Jambo a boy had to be at least 12 years old by July 1, 2010 (and couldn't turn 18 before August 3). They also had to be at least 1st class rank.

[Twocubdad]

The age requirement was lowered prior to the '05 jamboree when the decision was made to delay the next one to 2010 to coincide with centennial. If they had stuck to the old ages, this time there would have been no Scouts with previous jamboree experience. As is, we had a few 17-year-olds who were there in '05 and served as SPLs and other leadership positions.

 

Although I know one of our contingent troops had some real problems with homesick kids, our 12 year olds did great. We had more problems with a couple patrol leaders -- including one Eagle scout -- who had absolutely no leadership ability. We also had issues with several boys from particular troop where the adults do all the cooking and cleaning on campouts. That they were responsible to their patrols for cooking, cleaning, getting food and water was a foreigh concept to them.

 

Entitlement? Honor? Privilege? None of the above. The requirements are what they are.

[mikecummings157]

I had the privilege of attending as 1st ASM of one of our councils contingent troops. As other folks mentioned, the really important part is to shake the troop down before you get there. We were able to go into the Jamboree with our eyes wide open on some of the issues that the kids had and were better able to deal with them. Its a real growth experience for these boys to learn to work together with scouts from other units.

 

I would hope as a parent if my son was one of the boys who needed extra attention to succeed at the Jamboree, he would get it. Our group of Scoutmasters took the approach that we had 34 sons for the duration of the Jamboree. We had a great experience.

 

[Basementdweller]

I am sorry you had a tough trip. It happens

 

hmmmmm, Got a funny story. My patrol for the 1st ap hill jambo was nicknamed the bad news bears by the SM before we left. I was elected Patrol leader and somehow We jelled at the Jambo.

 

 

I will never forget the Dinner when we realized it had happened. The SM wouldn't eat with us "Cause we would just screw up his chow". We had the ASM's eat with us. We just cooked dinner per the instructions, cleaned up and realized that the other patrol had not set down to eat yet. The SM said we cheated making dinner some how. We held our head a little higher that night and the rest of the Jambo. It became a matter of pride to beat the other patrol with food prep and clean up. The food even tasted better as I remember. The ASM spent the rest of the jambo harassing the SM.

 

The SM was so mad at us by the time we left he refused to shake my hand when I offered it. We Scouting Flunkies showed up the cream of the council, which as it turned out was his Brown Sea Patrol.

 

 

The moral of the story......Hang with it, you never know when good things will happen.

[3347]

I was fortunate to be selected as a 2nd ASM for one of our council's contingent troops. I attended a NJ in 1973 as a youth and had sent my two eldest sons together to the 2005 NJ. This time, I sent my youngest, who just made the cutoff (12th birthday in June)and was the youngest in his troop.

 

While he was among those that we had concerns about entering the Jambo, he passed with flying colors, as did many of the others. The ones that seemed to have the most difficult time were the most surprising.

 

There is a challenge to long-term camp with 36 boys who have not worked together for more than a weekend outting or two. Our adult leaders and youth leaders did a marvelous job of providing leadership where needed and following the patrol method. I was very proud of the troop, as well as my son. We may have to discuss another run in 2013 at the Summit.

[Stosh]

I was 2ASM and had a conglomerate of boys from multiple troops. All gelled well, had a great time, no one got sent home, one boy left due to homesickness, but for the most part I was impressed.

 

One patrol had my 4 boys, 1 ADD, 1 austistic, 1 auditory learning disability, and one with authority problems (knows everything about anything). They had a great PL from a different troop. VERY impressed with this young man.

 

Stosh

[SR540Beaver]

jblake: "one with authority problems (knows everything about anything)."

 

Just one? Lucky you! We had 36 of them!

[Tokala]

I attended the first Jamboree at A.P. Hill with my Council's troop as SPL. My parents made me pay half which was about $200. I was 17yo at the time, so it wasn't that difficult. This fee included the Jamboree fee, bus ride to/from AP Hill, touring Jamestowm, Williamsburg, and Busch Gardens Williamsburg, as well as t-shirts, neckerchief etc. I don't appreciate the economics of the time to know if this fee was prohibitive for Scouts.

 

Now in 2010, I paid a staff fee that was 2x what I paid for the whole trip 29 years ago. It definitely made me stop and think. With a Jamboree fee paid to National of close to $800 and a total contigent fee of close to $2000, I have to say that attending Jamboree is an entitlement. I would guess if I check the Council troop roster I would find few minorities.

 

Scouting preaches diversity, but they largely price themselves out of the range of actually accomplishing that goal.(This message has been edited by Tokala)

[Leif]

My 13 year old son didn't seem to have any problems. He mainly complained about some older scouts who wouldn't do any work in his patrol and also older scouts sleeping in when they were suposed to get the food for the patrol for Breckfest. All and all a good trip but he was a bit horrified by the scouts who were stealing patchs from other scouts. He was glad they had MPs around. He says he wants to go again but I told him this time I want to go to.

[Scoutfish]

You know...sometimes, when you are thinking a certain way...you just take for granted that everybody has the same mindset as you.

 

So anyways, in my original post, I said that Jambo should be an entitlement.

 

I still think so, but what I did not convey was this:

 

Jambo is a BSA program and a BSA oppertunity. All scouts in good standing should be entitled to go -BUT- it is not BSA's place to take them by the hand, nor does that mean BSA has to be financially responsible for each scout to go.

Things cost, There are expenses and costs for EVERYTHING. BSA was not able to do this for free, so the scouts should not expect a free ride either.

 

But shouild all scouts be entitled to go? Yes!