What is the right amount of District Events?

[Amangi Mizin]

I would like to know how many events your district has for Boy Scouting and Cub Scouting and how it fairs with mine. We are doing 6 BS events and 5 CS events a year. These our council events but since my council is about the size of most districts, I would ask it in that manner. I personally believe this is too much and would like to trim it to 3 a year for each. (Fall, Winter, and Spring event each)

 

There are multiple reasons for trimming it down (lack of volunteers, resources required to plan, budget, and staff, not required for JTE, etc.) but I would like everyones opinion.

 

[emb021]

Depends on what you count as event.

 

Is a one day training event an 'event'.

 

Most annual events around here:

 

* Camporee

* Scout Show

* University of Scouting (major one day or weekend training event)

* Advancement/Merit Badge event (many times a weekend event)

 

What else?

 

[NealOnWheels]

Are they meeting the needs of the units?

 

If any of these events have weak attendance then that should be a signal that it should be eliminated or changed in a manner that would bring better attended. If it is strongly attended then it should be kept as is.

[Basementdweller]

Holy smokes.....

 

What else do the troops have time to do???

 

That takes care of 7 months of scouting outings if you count summer camp....that only leaves 5 months for individual troop outings.....

 

We have had zero for years.....

 

 

We are planning on a spring and winter camporee.

 

 

I gotta ask.....with that many events how well attended are they????

[infoscouter]

If you're talking just about district events - for Boy Scouts:

Fall & Spring Camporee and a Klondike

 

For Cub Scouts - Fall, Spring and Winter day camp type events and a Loop-a-Looza.

 

For all - a Scout show at the local mall, which includes the district Pinewood Derby; and the district awards dinner (mostly for adults, but families are welcome & Eagle Scouts & Silver Award recipients are invited)

 

OA events for those who qualify. The OA runs an ice fishing derby which is open to the public, but primarily attended by the Scouting community.

 

A local Venturing Crew runs an 8 week long swimming course on Saturdays, which is treated like a district event - they have access to our online registration system, etc.

 

Eagle preview twice a year.

 

Trainings - too numerous to list.

 

So that's just our district. In addition there are council-wide events, like the merit badge day at the National Weather Service, or the Latino Scout festival. Events like that may be appropriate for your council and are 'special interest' types of things.

 

The last thing I would think about is whether the events are needed for JTE. The first thing I would consider is quality and value. Our camporees are outstanding, Scouts from other districts attend our camporees, both to get our ideas or as substitutes for their own, because theirs are so poor. Our Cub Scout events are starting to get the same reputation.

 

If your scouts are staying away in droves, then consider how to improve a few events, rather than having several poorly done. However, if they're well attended and the evaluations are good, why is there a problem? If they're losing money, you need to raise fees or get a better control of the budget. Most of our events generate a (small) surplus or break even.

[Basementdweller]

Out DE said that all District events must net 60% profit....

 

With a donated campground, no patch, no supplies provided, no group cracker barrel...

 

I want to know where my $15 are going????

[Eagledad]

Don't think about this in setting number of activities, think in quality of units. Idealy district activities are intended to guide an expected level of performance from its units. If the units are doing well, the district doesn't need to provide a lot programs. If your units are strugging, prioritize a list that will best help the units.

 

When a district committee is limited by volunteers and resources, it should only provide activities it can do well. If your committee can't do one well, then save the volunteers time and energy for activities it can do well.

 

Barry

[ScoutNut]

Here most districts do a Klondike, and a camporee for Boy Scouts, and an event or two for Cubs.

 

There are a number of council events that are done in conjunction with a district, or outside organization. Some are for Cubs, some for Boy Scouts, some for Venturers, and some for everyone.

 

We have a number of OA events.

 

You do what you can afford with money, resources, and volunteers. You keep what the Scouts attend, and toss/redo what they do not.

 

We have consolidated some events at a council level which enables us to have more resources available, and to have greater attendance. Also, districts coordinate on their event dates so that you don't have every district doing a different activity on the same day. This enables Scouts to attend activities that interest them in other districts, which helps boost the attendance numbers of that event.

[Eagle732]

Basement, I don't know about every where else but here the Council charges for use of it's facility. District, Unit or individual scout, all get charged for using the council's camp.

 

Not sure what the OP is asking. Are you asking how many CS and BS activities a District holds or how many District activities a unit attends?

 

[Basementdweller]

the event I am whining about was held at a Donated AMVETs campground. Zero cost.

 

 

 

[Eagle732]

I just assumed and you know what happens when you assume;)

 

Our winter camp at the council camp costs $8 per person, no food, patch and camp fee included.

Don't know where your $15 goes, patches are about $1.50 each.

Maybe it goes in the FOS (Fund Our Salaries) pot?

For a lot of scout families every dollar counts. I don't know if councils are sensitive to the that.

We try to keep costs down by going to a lot of state and national parks.

[Eagle92]

District events for Cub Scouts:

Cubmobile (Oct)

Pinewood Derby (January)

Webeloree (March usually, may be April this year)

Day Camp ( June)

 

District Events for Boy Scouts:

District Camporee (Oct.)

 

District Events for Both:

Memorial Day Service Project

 

Council Events for Cubs:

Resident camp (August)

Camp Boddie CS Family Camp Out (Oct)

Camp Charles Family Camp Out ( usually Oct, this year Nov. And this is the Better of the two camp outs )

 

District Events for Boy Scouts:

District Camporee

 

Council Events for Boy Scouts:

Aquatics Weekend (Aug)

Hornaday Award Weekend (Sept)

Chowan University MB College (Oct)

Shooting/Climbing Weekend ( Oct)

another Hornaday Award Weekend (NOV)

Eagle Outdoor Weekend ( Nov)

Wintercamp (January)

another Hornaday Award Weekend (Feb)

Plunder of the Pamlico Fishing Tournament ( Mar; including it with BS although it's open to anyone b/c it's on moving water, verboten for Cubs)

Council Camporee ( April)

Barton College MB Day ( May)

another Hornaday Award Weekend (MAY)

June and July = Summer camp

 

Council events for both:

Camp Charles Fishing Derby ( Sept)

Scouting for Food (February)

 

As you can see, my council is heavily focused on Boy Scouts. Then again, I have been told by a member of the council camping committee that "Cubs don't need to camp." Also a lot of district and council folks focus on Boy Scouts, and forget everyone else. Even had one dist. person say that in a Cub Scout Event- Boy Scout event conflict, Cubs need to change the date since Boy Scouts have priority.

[Tokala]

Each of our 3 Districts typically holds an annual Boy Scout camporee and a WEbelos crossover. That's it. We hold a Council-wide camporee every 3rd year. We try our best to keep the District and Council stuff to a minimum to allow the Troops to plan their own calendar.

[CCbytrickery]

Our council puts on:

Frog Jog twice a year (camping)

Cuboree

University of Scouting

First aid training (various levels including wilderness)

Multiple camps, including Winter and Summer camps for Webelos, aquatics camp and day/twilight camps.PWD (district and council)

Various Shooting days (so boys get more time with archery/bbs)on Saturdays during the year

District dinner

Fall shooting day (for all, including siblings/adults--that's a mess!)

Various BS events (not involved there yet, so don't know what all they do)

Roundups at the schools

More that I'm forgetting, I'm sure!

 

 

Busy yes.

My thought is I don't care how many events they do, I just want them to do the events that they do right.

 

Example: Council did a Scout Safari at the zoo. There were 4 classes, with 14 or 15 spots per class, and if you didn't attend for a class, you didn't get the patch. Our district is the biggest in our area--our Cuboree last year was over 2000 people, if I remember correctly; the next closest district had 500 attend. The council has a large area, and they get a lot of participation from our district. It would have made sense to add more classes.

 

They had sign ups for the classes and check in for the classes if you had signed up early outside the zoo, but no clear direction on which line was what. If you didn't check in early, you lost your spot--even if it wasn't your fault--the lines were very slow. They had bouncy houses in the zoo, in the big clearing--but wouldn't allow the zoo to staff the bouncy houses (since they weren't YPL trained)...but didn't provide anyone to staff them either. That was mass chaos. My husband and a few other leaders tried to help while they were there, but there were bigger scouts pushing around little scouts and climbing and jumping from the tops of the slides, etc.

 

 

Example: Day camp 2 years ago. The camp director and camp admin are married. He spent the training session we had the day before camp started talking about their marriage and his daughter (who was about 4 and cute as a button, and was monopolizing his attention, while we were waiting to learn what we were supposed to be doing over the next 5 days!) The next day---mass chaos. No one had assigned dens. People still registering. People still paying. No drop off point. No one watching scouts/siblings just dropped in the parking lot--I put myself by the lake and sent off dozens of kids away from there! Nothing was set up, no water or coolers or tent shades.

 

During the week, the director rode his horse around camp. Yes. He rode his horse. Kids would dart in front of the horse, try to touch the horse--saw it kick out and rear up more than once. Not to mention the poop left everywhere. When he wasn't on his horse, they were riding around in their golf cart, ignoring their venture scout volunteers (they were venture leaders) and harping on the other volunteers. My daughter came to help us out, and had tied her sleeves up on her shoulders with string. She was informed that was not the correct uniform and to take them down--meanwhile, their daughter and her friends were wearing cut off shorts and midriff tops without a word.

 

After both of these debacles (and a few others), both DH and myself told the council that if they needed help with anything, to call. He has handled big events before--over 500 people--and I am the organizer. Only one phone call so far, and that was from the woman who was thrown into the day camp admin position this year, because the other two that usually ran the daycamps up and quit the month before--with nothing done on them.

 

I think the council likes being in charge, even if they have no idea what they are doing. DH is trying to get in, so he can help more, but if you don't have Eagle or WB, you are pretty much out of the loop.