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As far as I know, there are no formal CDC guidelines yet issued for the opening of summer camps. There are draft recommendations that the CDC issued however that were intended to keep communities safe. They outline the following: - They seem to envision only day camps opening - Camps in earlier phases are limited to kids from the same local geographic area -- in the draft guidelines local appears to mean municipal - No mixing of kids or staff from high and low transmission areas - Enhanced social distancing measures in place - Large group facilities or activities clos

Don't see how National would weigh in on this. It would erode their bankruptcy argument that councils are autonomous. That is why they would only issue standards/guidelines to councils which choose to go ahead with their camps. The guidelines/standards is the CYA for National. Any departure from those is on the camp staff/ council that hired them. My bet is, most of the holdouts are biding their time hoping for some relaxation of restrictions or state guidelines that give them some room to operate. But hope is not a course of action 😁

Once again Cub Scouts because thats where am at now. I am hearing talk of wiping down all the BB guns, bows, arrows, etc before each new group comes up. I just don't see how that is possible. Time wise and effectively.

I have questions on how well these camps are going to do getting enough supplies to do all this disinfecting and sanitizing, especially as most people can't get their hands on it right now. Figure if you were doing meals in shifts, you really aren't accomplishing much if you don't add time in between to sanitize for the next group. I spent a little time time today sifting through some of the requirements for typical summer MBs we see from our kids. Either if we were to go through council camp or go off and run our own thing, there are some requirements I struggle with how you could do t

I'm sure it is one of many factors that are going into the decisions to cancel camp. Social distancing is going to have to be a part of any camp operation at this point. Large gatherings at campfires will need to be altered to allow spacing between individuals, frequent hand washing will be a necessity (I personally don't know of any camp that has hot water at every campsite, and I also am reticent to become the handwashing police), camp wide activities may need to be altered (like inter-troop relay races, OA call outs, etc.). I also dread the parents who send their kid off to ca

to essential workers? Follow CDC and state guidelines for child care facilities similar to what the YMCA is currently doing, as well as state camp guidelines. It would not be a moneymaker nor an advancement factory. Camp would be downsized and basic - focused on fun and outdoors. Social distances limits group sizes to 10 (patrol size) per area (classroom, campsite). Patrol camping. We would be helping others and learning how to make our camps safe with this new threat. Essential workers would have to press their state governments to extend child care to camps. If that happens

Councils can follow the advice of state and local health officials and operate summer camps, as long as the insurance companies are in accord. For instance, some governors (Maryland, for example) have already declared that camping is again on the "allowed" list of things that are safe to do if precautions are taken (there might be youth camp-specific declarations as well). If state officials approve and if the insurance companies say they will cover the liability of summer camp operations, a council is then in the position to consider opening. Of course the council cannot operate a camp rec

The Egyptians really nailed it, didn't they?

I could get to the Circular through another path - probably something wrong with the link on the main page. NCAP-Circular-No-14-002-2.pdf

This one of those post that makes me shake my head in bewilderment. 1. How does it equate to endorsement because National took a photo of youth wearing neckerchiefs using friendship knots? 2. I’ve know Crews that used them well before world Jambo, as was suggested (I think with tongue firmly in cheek). In fact, I my NSJ necker is laid together with world contingent necker and tied in friendship knot (it also has a unique slide in one side that was gifted to me). 3. Some youth prefer knots, some prefer slides, let them choose. (Although I can see a unit asking them to choose one or t

Bump! I've been counseling Citizenship in the Nation by telephone conference call, and I'll be signing off the first batch of blue cards next week. If anyone has scouts who need this badge, I'd be happy to add them to my next session. Or if you want to do it locally, my website will give some inspiration: http://richardclem.com/citizenshipnationonline.html The next session starts on May 19.

Indications are they will refund all fees. Send a note to the council and they should process quickly

Without denying the possibility of intentional obfuscation, there could be a receiver-operator thing going on here. Only a fool would look at any cadre of kids and say they are 100% safe -- as in zero accidents, injuries, or infections will occur every day they are at camp. One might with 100% confidence be able to say that they are safe relative to being at home for that week. That's no consolation to the parent who is 100% confident that their child is 100% safe at home over the same time. The entire framework of Bayesian statistics is built around a proposition that people ha

And now something completely different.

"Your email was shared with Scouting U from our Member Care Team. I have reached out directly to [GRC SE] and share Scouting U's position on which trainings are not to be delivered in an online format. While everyone is operating in the best of intentions during this unprecedented time, there are some trainings that we feel are better kept for when we can get together again in our outdoor learning environment." I guess someone at National doesn't agree with the way they're conducting IOLS...

but, "fire-building" has the word "building" right in it... LOL

IMHO, we are thinking about this wrongly. It seems to me that we need our trained, registered, MC's and SM's who have developed conferencing abilities (and we have a lot of them) to be prepared to host meetings of scouts with themselves, or scouts with other adults (be they SM's, MBC's, MC's, district representatives, etc ...). This could be via phone, the internet that Al Gore and I built, or ham radio. Basically, we need to get back our "1 hour a week". The goal should not be doing only the MBs that you can complete during confinement. Rather, the goal should be learning what you a