Mysterium Compass

[CubsRgr8]

So, just what was the story with Mysterium Compass? My son and his friends were all fired up about earning all the segments. Then they were told MC had been added as a mandatory 6th segment, but it was reserved only for OA members (?!). Later, they were told it was open to all scouts, but both times they tried to attend, the lines were do-you-want-to-wait-3hrs-? long that they gave up. They just gave up on both MC and earning all the segments.

[Stosh]

Communications, coordination, etc. were very bad at certain times throughout the Jamboree. One day we would get a piece of information, the next day, it was contradicted 180-degrees.

 

On MC, we were notified we were given a limited number of tickets for a certain time period to be handed out to our boys as the SM saw fit. I'm thinking we got 20 tickets for our 36 boys. We decided to first have all the OA guys go, then by merit. If the boys were not given a ticket, they could get in the stand-by line and try to get in that way. Those going early in the morning usually got in with no problems.

 

I know of a few of the boys went early and stood in the stand-by line and got through multiple times.

 

Sorry this information is day late and a dollar short. But as I said before while trying to put the best spin on it, communications really sucked.

 

Stosh

[jhankins]

What was it exactly? I'd love to hear details.

 

I know there were history of lodge patches, and a neat ceremony at the end, but there's no substance to the description.

[CubsRgr8]

Thanks for the info. Since I first posted, I finally discovered some info about MC on the Jambo website. Here's the link (scroll to the bottom):

 

http://leadersupdate.bsajamboree.org/page/3/

 

Frankly, why would Jambo make MC one of the six activity segments when it only had the capacity to accomodate slightly more than half the scouts that attended? Every other segment could be earned (theoretically) by every single scout attending Jamboree. Grrr.

[Stosh]

You're going to get second-hand info on this, in that no adults were allowed to participate. Maybe some of our younger forum members would have some idea of what it was all about and pass it along to the rest of us old-folk.

 

Stosh

 

 

[shortridge]

Sounds like something out of a Pullman novel.

[SR540Beaver]

Information funneled to our Jamboree committee before we got to Jamboree that a troop of 36 would be limited to 18 tickets for youth and no adults would be able to attend. The reason as I understand it is that they made this year's "show" bigger and more immersive than previous shows. In the past you sit in stadium seating and watched a show. This time it was interactive and involved water slides and such. Instead of being able to seat 500 people at once, they took small groups thru. Probably a little too ambitious or they should have built two to accommodate everyone.....but that would have cost twice as much and been twice the effort. It was not limited to OA members. In fact, our Lodge Chief was the SPL of our Jambo Troop and he chose not to go so someone lese could go. Actually, a number of our older scouts and Arrowmen did the same. We took the number of kids who wanted to go, wrote that many numbers on pieces of paper and then the boys drew numbers. If they were 1 thru 18, they went. We actually had some who drew a winning number decide they didn't want to go and gave up their ticket to a buddy. There were times that the stand by line was packed, There were other times, especially towards the last few days of Jamboree where there were only a handful of people in line.

 

My Jambo guide that we were given where the boys had things signed off for rockers is packed away at home. I'd be interested in seeing what it said if anything about earning the MC rocker. Just wondering if going to the Scouting Vault open to everyone including adults was a secondary activity that would count. Many of the rockers were of a "do 5 ou of 9" variety.

[VigilEagle04]

"In fact, our Lodge Chief was the SPL of our Jambo Troop and he chose not to go so someone lese could go. Actually, a number of our older scouts and Arrowmen did the same."

 

Interestingly enough, I was thinking that this would be my position on it were I a youth during this event. I think it's important for the younger Scouts to go through if it's limited like that. It give a great exposure to the OA, and it will seem a bit more special to them. I think it shows great character that the older Scouts with you decided to take that route. The next time you see that young Lodge Chief, you can tell him a former Lodge Chief commends him on his actions.

 

As for that specific rocker, as freely as some of these things were given out, I would honestly have given it to every Scout, whether they went through or not. Those who volunteered to not go would definitely get it. At the end of the week, those who had tried the long lines and didn't make it in would have gotten it as well. Just my opinion on it. Holding back an achievement because of forces outside their control is not fair as I see it.

[SR540Beaver]

Vigil,

 

I'll tell him when I see him at our Summer Fellowship next Friday! I'm a Chapter Adviser. Unfortunately, he is in a different Chapter. While I have some really great guys, he is an outstanding young man.

 

I was 1st ASM for Jambo and the SM had the rockers. I'm pretty sure he was fairly liberal with them.

[Tokala]

My Jambo job was to support the OA staff at the 4 activities (Service Corps, Mysterium, Indian Village and PaceSetters). I know that Mysterium was set up for youth only (not limited to OA members) and ran groups through almost in patrols (not sure of the number in each group). There were two parts to the Mysterium Compass:

 

One was the "Vault" which was open to anyone (youth, adult, particpant, visitor). It was a large tent with a lot of patches and memorabilia. It included wood badge, uniforms, and patches...lots of patches.

 

The other part was the Mysterium Compass which was youth particpants only. It included various interactive activities, inflatable obstacle courses, a "show" and the waterslides at the end. I believe that they only planned on about 20K going through the experience. The budget was huge, incomprehensible even. I heard mixed reviews from Scouts that participated. Some thought it was dumb beyond comprehension and others were inspired.

 

[Bando]

"My Jambo guide that we were given where the boys had things signed off for rockers is packed away at home. I'd be interested in seeing what it said if anything about earning the MC rocker."

 

Scout Guide had next to nothing about the Mysterium Compass, and didn't list it as one of the rockers. The rockers in the guide were the 5k, Activities, Outback, Action Center, and Duty to God.

[Twocubdad]

My beef was that this was something which was heavily promoted to us and, in turn, we promoted it to the boys. It was supposed to be the greatest thing since sliced bread. We hand no clue about the limits on attendance until one of the SM meetings after we arrived. It's hard to comprehend how they could screw up something like that. It would be like not having enough room for every to get in the arena show -- oh, yeah, that happened too.

 

I've yet to get a straight answer as to what it was about. When I asked my guys how they liked it, I got one "great" and one "eh".

[Lisabob]

My son's jambo troop got enough tickets for about 1/2 of the boys to do MC. The decision was made that older boys would get priority with the reasoning that they would be ineligible to attend future jambos. I don't know if that was the right or wrong decision - but it is what was decided.

 

So as one of those "older boys," my son did the MC. He liked it - a lot - and from his description, I kind of think it may have had more impact on older scouts than on the youngest fellows, anyway. It sounds like a lot of it was about decision making, ethics, group dynamics and mindfulness (for lack of a better word).