fotoscout

We seem to have Scout Executive who's first salvo in any disagreement with a volunteer is to threaten the volunteers' membership with revocation. Does anyone have experience with this? I'm not looking for information on revoking a volunteers membership. I am looking for experience with what appears to be an out of control Scout Executive. It seems that he has done this multiple times that I am aware of. I cannot begin to imagine how many times he has done this that I am not aware of. Thanks for your help.

My reference point for this thing continues to be one of honesty. BSA did not follow the scout law in advertising and hyping the event. IF.......IF, they had come out at some point in time and informed the participants that not all the activities would be available to them, then I'd have nothing to talk about. They would have had to do this in some meaningful way, not in the fine print. But they did not do that. Instead, they hyped this thing to the bitter end, leading everyone on with the belief that they'd be able to participate in ALL the activities that were advertised. I believe that they were intentionally deceptive and dishonest.

In the last week I've had the chance to spend time with a few of the leaders and scouts (BS and Venturing) that attended the Jambo. More and more my overall impression of the event is being validated by everyone I speak with! Most interesting, in a conversation I had with one of the leaders I was told that there was an exodus of adult staff before the Jambo even started and it went on into the first week. Apparently some of the adult staff simply decided that considering the distances and terrain, BSA was asking too much of them. They quit. As the story goes, it was just too strenuous and the setup was too inconvenient for them to stick it out.

It was widely know that at AP Hill there was a parallel training and logistics agenda for the army to setup and support a civilian city of 60,000.

Again I'm not sure what this number should be, but it's not based on 30,000. It's based on the number of kids that participated in primarily two activities (skateboarding and BMX), and we know that for multiple reasons not everyone participated in those activities.

My son had nothing very negitive to say about the food. It seemed to be adequate. He didn't like the whole lunch thing, but was thankful for the exchange stations. Apparently that was something that worked very well. Actually his biggest gripe about meals were the scouts who couldn't even light a stove.....etc, etc......

Let me throw this out there as possibly another example of something that might have gone wrong…………….. As the story goes, between the skate parks and the BMX courses, there were some 40 broken arms per day. I’ve heard variations of the number but I suspect its close. Statistically I have no idea what that number should be, but anecdotally it suggests one of a number of things: 1- facilities that were too difficult for the target audience, 2- Inadequate training for the beginners, 3-Inadequate policing of the activity, or 4-Poor equipment selection for the target audience. Any thoughts??

I was not there. The opinion I’ve formed and the comments I’ve made are the result of discussions with over a dozen Scouts, Venturers, and Leaders that were there. And I’ll admit some the bitterness comes from my original recognition that this thing was over hyped, and lacking hard information during the sales and buildup phases leading into the event. I, like some of the rest of you was able to see a problem evolving early enough for some action to have been taken. That action might have been distasteful. But it would have been honest. Instead they buried the problems. What’s been really interesting is that the story has been consistent. The youth, the adults, the Venturers, and the Boy Scouts have all said the basically the same things. If you’re wondering if I prompted them for similar answers I’ll tell you that I was very careful to just let them talk.

Last time around the kids in our troop did everything they wanted to do and yes some did everything. They invested the time, they worked at it, and they succeeded. It was very doable.

I'm not saying it's the same, but just think for a minute.....................what would happen if you took your family on vacation to a resort that offered all sorts of great activities. The brochures had great glossy pictures of people doing all sorts of great stuff. You wanted to do this, that, and everything. You expected to be able to do everything because no one told you otherwise. On the contrary, the day before you left you checked the website and everything was hunky-dory. Then when you got there, you couldn't do most the activities that were advertised. What would you do, how would you feel??? One thing most of you would not be doing is touting the virtues of the resort and glossing over the shortcomings.

I understand and appreciate what you've said, and I think we all have to say that it could have been a whole lot worse! But I won't give them a pass on this one. They knowingly oversold the event. Both literally and figuratively. Expectations for the scouts were nowhere near satisfied. The scouts all saw the hype, the scouts all saw the videos, and most of them said, "I want to that when I get to the Jambo". But they could not, not by a long shot. BSA took advantage of the good will and beliefs that the scouting community has for the program, they over hyped the entire event and then failed to deliver. I don't particularly care about the food, or the long walks, or the heat. They did not pull off the program in an acceptable way. Too many people that I've spoken to have confused their affinity for the larger program with the Jambo. We all support and believe in the program, and will when necessary defend it. Me included! But I won't allow that to get in the way of making a clear call on the outcome of this Jamboree. The bottom line is that they were disHonorable and unTrustworthy in promoting the event. They were very poorly Prepared to deliver on their promise and they devised some very shady manipulations to cover the deficiencies.

I am not surprised that they would continue the Day of Service. Although I continue to believe that it's inappropriate, opportunistic, and possibly abusive, it's takes the high road and can be defended from the bully pulpit by the powers that be. I will paraphrase what others have said.................The Scouts are not at the Jambo to do Missionary work! If they and their parents wish to do that, they all know where to go to make it happen.

After a few days of questions and answers my son's experience boils down to this, " It was like the most crowded week ever at Disney World, except at Disney World there is always something to do as you walk from one attraction to another". Simply too much wasted time because the lines were too long and there was nothing to do as you hiked from one area to another. As for staffing, pardon my shouting, WHAT DID THEY EXPECT ! They excluded what I would think is 50% of the available volunteer resource when they implemented the weight restrictions. I do have to give them credit for the absolute brilliance they exhibited by scheduling significant numbers of Scouts out of the Jambo proper for huge blocks of time. The marketing gurus even got some to pay extra for some limited availability activities..............rather elitist I would think. But it did get even more Scouts away from the Jambo for additional time.

Sorry, I still believe that there is enough support for the neighborhood by virtue of just being there with everything that comes with it. As for BSA's assumption, it was a very poor assumption! It seems that the scenario that you've laid out basically allows the non-profit to compete with the local for profit operations. That's a long term kiss of death for whichever side of the argument you take. If they really want to be good neighbors, maybe they should start by not taking the bread and butter away from the locals.

I certainly hope I didn't sound like my expectation was that the Jambo should be "Amazing" in a Disney like way. I think it should be anything but ,disappointing. Council OA does service in the council camp. But my understanding is that Service Core and Trail Crew do service anywhere. I didn't miss the memo.........I knew that the Day of Servie was scheduled from the outset. But what really gets me is this report of off site service being done. I think it compounds the insult. BSA doesn't need to curry favor with the locals. Locating there was more than enough. The community should be more than grateful. Job, Jobs and more Jobs. A local year round staff, summers full of campers, and still more staff. That's without knowing what National, the State of WV and the Bechtel family has done for the community. Any rural community would be thrilled to have this facility. Again, this idea of service at the Jambo is my opinion. I think its wrong in this situation.