Re: Need high adventure alternative BSA/GSUSA - Pine Knoll

I should have known, everything about the Blue Ridge Council's Summer Camp
Program is first rate! Anyone who has not seen their video (it is almost as
good as ours <<<G>>>) should call & order it. If I had to pick 10 Boy Scout
camps & Councils in Southern Region that get it right I would choose (in no
particular order).....

GA * Flint River Council, Thunder Scout Reservation/Lawhorn Canoe Base
TN * Council based in Memphis, Kia Kima Scout Camp in Hardy Arkansas
TN * Middle Tennessee Council, Boxwell Scout Reservation
VA * Blue Ridge Council, Pine Knoll/Camp Ottari/Camp Powatan
GA * Northeast GA Council, Camp Rainey
NC * Council based in Ashville, Camp Daniel Boone
NC * Council based in Gastonia, Camp Bud Shields
KY * Council based in Paducah, Camp Roy C. Manchester
SC * Council based in Charleston, Camp Ho-Non-Wa
DC * Capitol Area Council, Camp Goshen
TX * Sam Houston Council, Camp Strake & other camp properties

That is not to say there are not other good camps. I have tried very hard to
stay on top of BSA summer camping in our region but I am sure there must be
excellent camps I am not aware of. There are other examples of fine camps
all over the country like Yagwoog in New England, Peaceful Valley Scout Ranch
in the Denver Area Council, etc. These camps, I know, year after year,
invest in their camps, promote their camps, the council leadership does not
view the camps as a necessairy evil, and they don't serve up the same warmed
over lame programming. In all, with few exceptions, these are the camps that
attract many out of council units because they are worth the drive, these are
the camps that unit leaders rave over, and come back to year after year.
There are other councils on the fast track up, who are in the stages of
becoming regional high octaine camps like Mac Morris in Western Tennessee
Council, and Camp Sidney Dew in Northeast Georgia Council or Camp John J.
Barnhardt in the Albermarle Council of North Carolina.

Then there are the camps with so much potential who are being handicapped by
poorly ran council leadership. The Coastal Empire Council in Savannah has a
10 year old wonderful camp (Blue Heron), and even launched a Deep Sea Sailing
Program but the camp, at best, will only operate three weeks this year. The
Scout Executive there did not even show up at camp the entire Camping Season
of 1993 to meet with staff or Scoutleaders, his only concern was how often he
could yank his professional staff back to the office (Camp Director &
Business Manager) to raise even more FOS funds (this despite the fact that
the Senior DE who served as Camp Director in 1993 easily had exceeded his
goals, two months after camp he resigned after 10 years of steller service to
Scouting just to get away from the slave driving executive who apparently has
no clue how to manage an effective and vibrant long term camping program.
That hell hole of a council is a career ending place that has hamstrung a
camp with great potential while causing a great number of the professional
staff to leave. Similiary, the Central Georgia Council in Macon had an
Executive so intent on making the council look good on paper, he created
dozens of paper units, while his personality (something like the Nuclear
Power Plant Boss of Bart Simpson's dad on the Simpsons) caused his
"promotion" to a desk job in Irving Texas. Later I heard that he was going
around the country doing a study for the national office on successful scout
summer camps (like how would he know if one came up and bit him). We as
volunteers need to recognize that a dynamic Scout Executive can do a lot to
set the tone for how a camp operates, and an awful one can kill a camp and
kill a council. Your only hope then is that they will promote him out of the
way to Irving Texas!

Other councils have no business in the summer camp business, running two and
three week camps that end up costing the council thousands of dollars they
are forced to go in the hole each year. Look at camp Tolitchee in Waycross
Georgia, or Alaflo in Dothan Alabama or the camp that no one apparently wants
to go to in DeFuniack Springs Florida operated by the Pensacola Based
Council.

Come on people!!!! We are not talking rocket science here. A good camp
requires effort, if your council is so hung up on FOS and Membership at the
expense of good program, it is like spinning your wheels in the mud. A camp
with vibrant active programs invited donors to give, and attracts scouting
families like a magnet. It is no accident that when our council started
investing in our camp, both our membership and money increased along with the
investment in our camping and other programs.

YIS,

Ed Henderson
Volunteer Scouter of the Flint River Council

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