Re: AAC Summer Camps (LONG!) 2/2
Patrick LAM (plam@CS.MCGILL.CA)
Tue, 24 Jun 1997 12:51:36 -0400
Hi Mike,
On Tue, 24 Jun 1997, settummanque, or blackeagle (Mike Walton) wrote:
> I feel that we've went too far with summer camp for Cubs, Pat. Here's why
> I feel that way.
>
> When a Cub Scout joins a Den, the expectation in the past has always been
> working alongside his friends and doing community things with those friends.
> When the word "camping" comes up, the Den Mother and later Den Leader simply
> replies "That's something that you have to look forward to doing when you
> are a WEBELOS Cub Scout in a couple of years". The Cub is satistified and
> those few Cub Scouts not, are encouraged to camp with Mom and Dad and the
> rest of his family.
This has been the expectation in the past in the BSA. Scouts Canada,
even when we were BSC, had no such expectation. I'm not sure if we've
done weeklong camp for (all) Cubs since we started in the 1910s, but our
local Cub camp is 40 years old, and we've had Cub camp at the very
least since then.
We've also never been emphasizing the Six (den) as the fundamental unit
of Cubbing; it is a very different programme here. We certainly don't
separate the pack into age-group sixes.
Heck, we even take Cubs winter camping. They would usually stay in
cabins for the weekend, mind you, but it is done.
> Day Camp is FINE for Cub Scouts. Overnight camp isn't, in my opinion.
It's perhaps not the overnight part, it's what's actually done in the
programme that's important.
> My contention is that Cub Scouts should not be exposed to resident camp
> until they become WEBELOS Cub Scouts, so that they will have something to
> look forward to and WANT to become Boy Scouts. Right now, we have so many
The fact is, Scouts Canada has resident camp for all Cubs. But given the
nature of these contentions, it is hard to say who is right... it's not
something easily quantifiable.
> So, unless the PROGRAM of that Troop addresses those "new Scouts" that come
> in from WEBELOS with strong outdoor programs, many of those former WEBELOS
> Cub Scouts will wonder "Why did I graduate? Why didn't I just stay in the
> Den until I turned 11??"
This is the troop's problem, not the pack's problem.
pat
Terry Howerton Sakima Group, Inc. SCOUTER Magazine Kansas City | 
