Re: Super Summer Camps (Southern Region)

In a message dated 96-12-26 22:30:59 EST, you write:

Dan Brown made some excellent points in his commentary about summer camps.

Let me start by noting that, had anyone (including my Scout Executive),
bothered to check my original post on December 15th I never said or implied I
was an employee of any council, just the opposite, I said I was leaving Camp
Thunder at the end of 1996. But on to reply to some of what Dan said.....

<<However, I disagree when he describes some of the rivalries that exist out
there
as healthy.>>

The healthy rivaly I refered to in my original post between many of the
better camps is not a situation one of one camp trying to take troops from
each other most of the better camps are already at capacity or even over it.
What I have noticed is that the better camps and councils send staffers and
executives to visit each others camps during the summer and off season. They
actively compare notes and share ideas with each other almost a year in
advance. Other councils just change the dates from the previous year and up
the price five bucks then photocopy the same bland leaders guide sometime in
the spring, which is way to late as far as I am concerned. I hope Daniel
Boone, Thunder, Kia Kima, and Blue Ridge never stop studying each other and I
solicit the other council Camping Committees in some of these 3 - 5 week
council summer camps to take their obligations seriously and start
invgestigating what works elsewhere at successful camps so they can improve
their own camp programs.

>>Therein lies the problem. Those camps that survive will be those that
have the
the foresight and werwithal to expand and create new programs. Those that
do
not will fall by the wayside or become a financial drain on the council.
This may well be good old American capitalism but it lacks any long term
planning on a scale of decades. For instance, what happens to the camp
property that has to close? I doubt that many councils can afford to
maintain a property the is not generating income or they would not have
closed it in the first place. What happens if the suviving camp with the
fantastic program is 400 acres being encircled by suburbs while the closing
camp in another council is 400 acres of wilderness surronded by a national
forest. If we lose the latter for a lack of foresight and money, can we
depend on the former to serve our needs forever. If councils close thier
local camps and send thier scouts to some of these new super camps, will
other programs such as cub scouting, weekend camping, and training be
affected by the loss of camp properties? I do not know of a single council
that uses its property solely for boy scout summer camp. There are other
questions that could be asked along these lines but I will leave these to
others and get to my point.>>

Actually many councils have secondary camps that no longer function as a long
term summer camp. Valdosta (Alapaha) Huntsville (Jackson) are two that come
to mind. {{Here it might be telling to note that Huntsville (Tennessee Valley
Council) with cease to operate as an Independent Council at the end of 1997,
it is being taken over by Birmingham}}. Many more councils have secondary
properties they either own or lease ($1 a year type arrangements). In
Georgia Savannah, Atlanta, Macon Columus and Augusta Councils all have
secondary council controlled properties besides their regular long term
camping facility.

Dan mentioned urban sprawl. Fortunately two Georgia Councils recognized this
problem in recent years. Savannah (Coastal Empire Council) closed their
tired old Camp Schtraun which literally was surrounded by sub divisions and
opened a wonderful new camp 10 years ago (Blue Heron). It is remote with
only a paper mill as a neighbour (you can't see it but if the wind is blowing
right you know its there). Savannah now has a camp to take them well into
the next century with lots of room to grow.

Columbus Georgia (Chatahoochee Council) is even a more interesting example of
what can and is being done to plan for the future. The current council is
the result of two earlier mergers and the council found itself with five
summer camp properties (three of them capable of operating as a fully
functional summer camp) but the council had no money and an attempt in the
mid 1970's to develope a new camp (Calloway) was largely an expensive failure
as it relied on the older Camp McKenzie across the road for the dining hall
and other operations. For two years (1994 & 1995) the council did not even
try to operate a summer camp but something positive and wonderful happened.

Columbus has been growing a lot in recent years, their two main camps
(Calloway & McKenzie) were just over the county line in a neighbouring county
with a much lower property tax rate. This made the commercial value of these
two properties very attractive. The recently sold both properties and took a
long term lease on an uncompleted state park right on Lake West Point. This
site, with lots of shore line on one of Georgia's largest lakes has paved
roads, water lines, etc. Now with the money from the sell of two pink
elephant camps they are already underway building on this new property. When
it is finished Chattahoochee Council will be the only camp in Georgia to
offer Water Skiing as a regular summer camp program and the facility will be
great. As a nice bonus they will still have the old George H. Lanier Council
Camp Pine Mountain, which is old and small but with cabins and a huge
swimming pool built 50 years ago by German POW's the camp is a wonderful Cub
World Site. My hat is off to both of these councils who took the necessairy
steps to shore up their long term camp programs. Chattahoochee's new camp
will be less than 50 miles from Camp Thunder and should help to relieve the
jam of troops who have been unable to get into that summer camp.

<<BEFORE we go any further down this road, I think we need a long term
accessment at the council and regional level of our needs. Camp properties
and
potential camp properties are getting scarce. The trend is to close camps
and I am aware of no council that has the plans or funds to buy a new one. I
realize that this
suggestion is an affrount to the supposed independence of councils, but I
fear that the current approch is a mistake. I agree that we must close some
camps due to financial realities but I don't think we are going about the
selection process in the right way.>>

Dan, closing down any camp is a painful decision but each year BSA National
is upping the requirements and expectations and standards for operating a
summer camp. Part of this is liability, part is the realization that a
poorly ran camp can have a devistating impact on the health of scouting in a
council. A troop that spends a week at a hell hole Merit Badge Mill with
terrible food, bad counsellors, and a dead program can itself fall apart
within a year. I think Dan's sugggestion for regional assessments is a good
idea and I understand that there is a regional camping committee and, for
Southern Region at least, an Asst. Regional Director for Camping, Mr. Tom
Moore who oversees these kind of things. No one should get excited about the
closing of any BSA camp, but I don't have a lot of sympathy for councils who
maintain Camping Committees only on paper, where the SE is waiting for
retirement and has lost any interest in bettering the camp, where BSA Supply
Division is regarded as the total solution and only source for operating a
Camp Trading Post that is set to go out of business on the day it
opens...with all of the contents being removed at the end of the summer camp
season and shipped back to North Carolina) where the Camp Directorship is
given out as punishment to the DE who failed to raise their FOS goal or as a
kind of a hell week training course ("lets give the new DE Camp Director
duty...if he can survive that he can survive anything" mentality). Some
councils may dedicate their camp to being an excellent Cub World and put in
place a program for their troops to go out of council. I would rather see
three ordinary councils operate one or two good summer camps for Boy Scout
Troops and each have a smaller Cub World type camp near their population
centers than having those same three councils each trudging along, regarding
their camp as a necessairy evil or a financial black hole. If a council
really gets in gear and makes the extra effort to become a super camp, more
power to them! They do a lot for Scouting. Camps like Thunder, Daniel
Boone, and Blue Ridge help to take the load off of Philmont. National wants
more councils to develope regional High Adventure Bases. Philmont can't grow
more without damaging the ecosystem from overuse.

Thanks Dan for writing us on Scouts-L with your keen insight on summer camps.

YIS,

Ed Henderson
16 year staff veteran of BSA Summer Camps
Retiring as Business Manager & Chaplain of Camp Thunder, Flint River Council
'96
??? Who knows where I will end up for 1997 ???
My comments are mine alone. I would never claim to speak for my Scout
Executive, the Executive Board, staff or volunteers of our council. Only
Jack Sears, the SE for Flint River Council (JSears4414@aol.com) does that.

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