About the Boys - reply
Jim Van Hecke (vanhecke_j_f_jr@LANL.GOV)
Mon, 22 May 1995 08:26:44 -0700
The purposes of Scouting are character development, personal fitness, and
participating citizenship. Camping is a means to those ends, not an end in
itself.
Life is full of problems and inconveniences...so is camping, sometimes.
If you are attending a formal Scout Camp, then they have to impose certain
guidelines in order to maintain some consistency throughout the entire camp.
In any camping environment, you have to eat, and that means some amount of
cooking and clean-up, in addition to the normal camp stuff. The only addition
to that placed upon you by the camp seems to be the uniform issue and the
flag ceremony.
If you only camp once a year, then the boys may have a legitimate gripe,
since all their camping experiences would be in the structured environment of
a Scout Camp. If, however, you do other camping in addition to the Summer
Camp, (which I hope is the case), then the advantages of being in Scout
Camp and the ready availability of program, merit badge councelors, etc. will
probably outweigh the minor inconveniences of uniforms and flag ceremonies.
Both types of camping have their place, and both are perfectly acceptable, but
they do not work well together, at the same time and in the same place.
I hope your "leader boys" will reconsider, and take advantage of the summer
Scout Camp opportunity they have. Their attitude seems to indicate that they
may have missed what are the real purposes of the BSA.
Jim Van Hecke I used to be an Owl...
vanhecke_j_f_jr@lanl.gov
Camping Chairman
Great Southwest Council, Albuquerque, New Mexico
Kshippehellen Kitchkinet - Swift Current Guide
Terry Howerton Sakima Group, Inc. SCOUTER Magazine Kansas City | 
