Bando

"My Jambo guide that we were given where the boys had things signed off for rockers is packed away at home. I'd be interested in seeing what it said if anything about earning the MC rocker."

Scout Guide had next to nothing about the Mysterium Compass, and didn't list it as one of the rockers. The rockers in the guide were the 5k, Activities, Outback, Action Center, and Duty to God.

Then where was the exclusion? I mean, it's not that big of a deal, but if the intention was for youth only, that should have been communicated clearly in the materials and transmitted clearly to the powers-that-be on the ground before and during the Jamboree. In the guide book, and in Central Region, it wasn't.

And it would be a lot better if the publications and information provided for the Scouts actually reflected the program on the ground, not only for things like TOAP not being there, but also for the fact that a youngster who wanted to earn all the rockers had to either hope he was one of the lucky few in his troop to get a Mysterium Compass ticket, or go waste a huge amount of time waiting in line for a standby spot to get into the show. Kind of misguided to make one of the rockers a very limited ticketed event, and also not to have said rocker in any of the publications until it was mentioned in the Jamboree Today newspaper. I hope there were Scoutmasters who were willing to give a kid without a Mysterium ticket credit for at least making it to the Vault.

Regardless of whether or not you could earn the patches, though, the rocker program is a great way to pace yourself to see the Jamboree. It was definitely helpful for me.

That's per person.

My council was $1500 for both scouts and adults. Round trip by bus, 2 days/1 night in DC, a duffel bag, a few t-shirts, maybe a few patches. Shakedown campouts were extra, I believe. Tents and equipment were sold off at cost to council troops at the end.

Well, someone should have told the Commissioners and Subcamp Program people that. And if you actually read the Scout Guide, it never even remotely states they can be earned ONLY by youth. I just got mine out and read through it--it isn't there. It's frankly pretty poorly written to begin with, but that's beside the point. (Shouldn't the guide book reflect program areas that are actually there? Anybody ever find TOAP?) Also, it wasn't known during the Jamboree that the rockers only fit the youth patch, so it's not like that could have been used to justify youth-only.

If program areas were gladly stamping books for adults, and areas were open to adult staff and leaders' participation (whether at any time or at specifically-designated times), there was no reason to believe during the Jamboree that rockers were solely designated for youth. It pretty much can't be denied the entire rocker program was a bit flawed and miscommunicated this time around. Don't want adults to try to earn them? Put it in the book.

There seemed to be a lack of information about the rockers across the board. Commissioners seemed to rather willy-nilly hand them out with no real idea of how it was supposed to work. I saw bags of rockers thrown in the trash in our subcamp because they thought they were just extras!

Also, there were many staff members who were uncertain about whether or not they could earn them. I know a few that used their free time to do as much as they could as adults and earn them all, and then had to scramble to fight through ill-informed commissioners with conflicting directives about rockers to even get the patches. There was never anything to say that adults -couldn't- earn them, and at past Jamborees they were handed out to adults. I figured if they handed us the guides with the stamps, and the areas were allowing adults to go through and were stamping them at the end, adults were eligible. In the future, that should be communicated better.

As for the 100% patch, yes, that's definitely for adult leadership. And troops were given 12 of them along with enough rockers for 36 kids, though they weren't told the 100% patches were for adults. I know one of our contingent troops was planning on trying to procure more for the additional kids who earned all their rockers. Seems rather odd to hand out enough for 4 adults to have 3 patches each while only giving the kids enough rockers for 1 set.

Overall, a quite confusing system with the typical Jamboree "well, so and so said this, but then we heard so-and-so tell us that, so... (shrug)."

"Out of a rather large sub-camp at Jambo, we had only 3-4 buglers. "

Which has a LOT to do with Nationals de-emphasizing the skill over the course of the past decade. I was the bugler for my Jamboree troop in 2001. There were a lot of us, I remember more than a few mornings or evenings when I'd have the bugle on my lips ready to play and a kid in a neighboring campsite would start up. Heh, guess my guys got an extra minute here and there. I could buy a 2001 Jamboree bugle out of the catalog. I'd have to find my Scout Guide, but it was a leadership position in the book, as I recall.

This time around? No bugle in the catalog. Not emphasized to troops. And not even a leadership position for the troop in the Scout Guide. Instead we got just about the worst recording of Taps in the history of the world played at 10:15PM over the PA, Retreat AND To The Colors played back to back over the PA (and, I think, out of order, never mind that they're played at two different times of day) on the last evening, and a smattering of buglers here and there valiantly keeping the skill alive.

Again, with a minimal amount of work, the BSA could reinvigorate bugling as a vital troop skill, and why not use Jamboree as a launching point for that? Heck, if anybody from Nationals is reading this, hit me on a private message, I'll volunteer to head the movement. Get a bugle in the ScoutStuff catalog. Emphasize the leadership position for musically-inclined youngsters. Work through summer camps to get kids involved, for those camps that don't. Encourage troops to have their own buglers (after all, being your troop bugler at Jamboree is a memory that lasts a lifetime, something I can attest to). Don't play it over the PA, either.

As we've seen nationally, with the military now using tape recorders mounted in dummy bugles for veterans' funerals, there's a need out there for buglers. Let's fix that!

-Bando, Passionate Bugling MB Counselor

When I went to Jamboree as a Scout, I think I earned 4 merit badges. And still had time to do tons of other fun things. One was a fairly obscure merit badge I wanted to earn at home (Atomic Energy), but couldn't find a counselor, so I took about 6 hours of program time to do it there. Ended up having a blast, and it was one of the greatest experiences of my scouting career. Something that stands out a decade later. The other 3 were an afternoon out there with my buddies shopping for things we could do quickly. Yeah, a little cheap, but we all ended up with radically different badges we never would have attempted at home, and learned a little something along the way. The counselors know what they're doing, they're passionate about their field, and it's a good a way as any to earn a merit badge.

I don't understand the Scoutmasters who absolutely tell their kids NOT to earn a merit badge at Jamboree. Here's an opportunity to earn most or all of nearly every merit badge on the list. Yeah, sometimes a kid will take some time away from doing activities you think they -should- be doing, but as long as they're not going to Jamboree to do something mindnumbingly easy to find a counselor for at home (who goes to Jambo to take First Aid, anyway?), why not encourage them to try a new skill and have some fun? I earned Veterinary Medicine at Jamboree. Never would have given that a shot at home. Send the kid off to Fish Hook Lake to earn Fishing in a morning or two doing something that's both fun AND program. Why not?

Merit Badge Midway is just another program option to get kids thinking outside the box and do a little advancement along the way. It's an incredible resource. Why not try to get them to utilize it instead of treating it as a waste of time, as so many adults at Jamboree seemed to do?

Yeesh. Public Schools are now considered "socialist?"

I don't even know where to start with that.

It was quite fun to be walking one direction at Jamboree and see literally dozens of Scouts coming the other direction wearing the old garrison caps with big smiles on their faces. I wanted one for myself, but it seemed the adult visitors only wanted to trade them with kids for full sets of patches (through an intermediary kid, presumably). Guys were coming in for the day with stacks and stacks of the things to trade, and the kids were gobbling them up. Gotta say, they look GREAT with the new uniforms, which is quite surprising indeed.

Bring back the garrison caps! (and the red-topped knee socks!)

I wear my knots, and if I earn more, I will wear those, too. Right now it's only my three earned as a youth, AoL, religious, and Eagle. Someone who meets me for the first time can look at my shirt and see the journey I've taken in Scouting. They're conversation starters, a way of knowing at first glance what someone is bringing to the table. I know who to introduce to that Life Scout dragging his feet on his Eagle project. Or the youngster not sure if he wants to bridge over from Cub Scouts. "Look, see those two knots? Mr. Smith earned his Arrow of Light, and THEN became an Eagle Scout!"

If I see a Scouter show up in a uniform with no OA flap, no knots, no Jamboree patch or temporary patch, just the bare minimum of stuff, I wonder "what's this person been up to all along?" or, "what can I do to encourage this new volunteer to participate more fully in the program and serve our youth better?", or "was this person a Scout as a youth?" Even "why isn't this seemingly veteran Scouter not yet in the OA?" Why disguise your experience?

I understand why someone would find rows 6, 7, and 8 of knots excessive. But I see no problem with a Scouter (within reason) sharing his experience in Scouting through knots on his uniform. And see absolutely no point in showing the bare minimum on your uniform. Yeah, it's a little bit of ego, but why be ashamed of the places Scouting has taken you and the training and opportunities and recognition it has provided along the way?

emb021, I highly doubt you could have gotten back in line and managed to get even a second patch, much less 4. Lines at the Trading Posts were reaching blocks long by the 8AM hour. And, yes, they were all adults.

HOORAY! Nationals actually gets one right!

Now all they have to do is put a bugle in the Supply Catalog again and we're all set to go!

I most certainly did just that, loudly reminding those booing around me that a Scout is Courteous. Got a few cross looks and a few discrete thumbs up. It was an embarrassing scene to watch, and left me in a pretty sour mood for a good long time.

I hate to say that I agree with the sentiments regarding patch trading this time around. It's always been a big part of Jamboree, but I never recall seeing so much un-Scoutlike behavior surrounding it. I saw adults who were visitors taking advantage of adults AND youth, using middlemen to trade for popular sets from kids and then swiftly take their daily take to the big memorabilia show in Fredricksburg that night. I saw patches on blankets on the road near QBSA that still had the price tags on them from the night before!

Let's also take a moment to discuss fake patch sets. Now, the Hooters set has been a time-honored Jamboree/NOAC tradition, but the line was crossed last Jamboree with fake council sets, and that continued this time around. I saw the man peddling the Avatar set using a (likely) non-Scout youth and a stack of bagged patches to actively rip off Scouts who thought what they were getting was the real thing. I watched the kid come back and forth from this man's blanket on the roadside, the man handing him another stack of bags and telling him to go a mile down the road to trade where the kids hadn't seen the patches yet. It was sick. Yet there was no convincing some kids you'd meet along the way that the set from a "Visiting Troop" from Belize was fake. And they probably had no idea the kid they were trading with was a double agent of sorts. They were even introducing new border colors and variations as the days went on to make kids trade more. I bet you'll be seeing those kids' patch sets on eBay this week.

The patches have gotten out of hand. What should be a way to identify different councils and the uniqueness of their locales has turned into ways of out-patching the others, trying to make your set the "hot" set of the Jamboree. Is there any reason for a council from Utah to have a 40-patch set? Or a council from Michigan to have a 20-patch set? Why should every patrol in every troop have a different JSP? Heck, I saw "jacket patches" this week that would have no hope of actually fitting on the back of a jacket! Maximum one patch per troop, one patch for staff, one jacket patch, one OA flap. That's it. Maybe even more restrictive than that and say one patch for youth, one for adult leaders, one for staff, plus OA and jacket patches. Actually enforce size and shape regulations. After all these things go on BSA uniforms, so they should actually adhere to guidelines.

There also needs to be set guidelines on the conduct of visitors to the Jamboree (i.e., no credentials around your neck and a patch blanket? Personal walk to the parking lot from Jamboree Security), and a revamp of how the actual Jamboree program is offered so that there's incentive for the kids to actually go do stuff instead of spending their week staring at a road behind a blanket. If there's no 20-patch set for a kid to be tracking down, there's more time for him to be participating in the once-in-a-lifetime opportunities the Jamboree program offers.

It's not friendship trading anymore, and it needs to be. Profiteering and preying on kids should NOT be a part of Jamboree, and trading should be done only by paid participants. Frankly, I don't understand why visitors are so rampantly allowed into an event we all pay out the nose to go to, even if they can't participate in all the activities, but that's just me.

Has nothing to do with the political left 40 or 50 years ago. Has nothing to do with security concerns. Has nothing to do with how hot it was in 2005, as this Jamboree made provisions this time around to make sure the Death March didn't happen again. And it certainly has nothing to do with The View or the ACLU or anything else.

The fact of the matter is that Scouts and Scouters IN UNIFORM booed the President of the United States. Period. And the BSA added to the disrespect by refusing to show the President's message during the actual show. Ted Nugent deserves his shot to congratulate the BSA during the show, but the President of the United States and the Honorary President of the BSA gets an afterthought intermission filler slot 15 minutes before the the show began?

If it was President Barack Obama ®, would this have happened? Where's Duty to Country in all of this?

Nope. Unless he managed to somehow get out of the harness and helmet in about .5 seconds. It was pretty clear from my vantage point he swapped out with a body double once the guy descended to the stage.

Although, really, that would have been about the greatest stage entrance in history had he done it legitimately.

Speaking of socks, does anyone know of some forgotten stash of red topped knee socks? I'm down to my last three pairs with elastic. I feel naked wearing the shorts with ankle socks.

Extremely disappointed in the large number of Scouts and Scouters who loudly booed the message, and even more disappointed that the organizing powers that be placed the message 15 minutes before the show began.

As Scouts we promise to be courteous, to do our duty to our country. All involved failed miserably tonight. I don't care who it is or how you feel about him. You do not boo the president. Period. Especially while wearing a Scout uniform. And the message of the Honorary President of our organization merits more than lull filler, even after Wednesday. It's been such a wonderful Jamboree full of kids trying new things and making new friends. This was an ugly moment and I wasn't the only person in that arena who thought so.

Anybody who still thinks this is true should go take a gander at the NESA booth at Jamboree this week, featuring actual certificates with Obama signatures. Myth: Busted.

You might be surprised to know there are a lot of folks in his "base" at AP Hill this week who are quite devoted to Scouting. I'm one of them. But this is the situation the BSA puts itself into when it takes a pretty blatantly discriminatory policy and puts it at the forefront of it's identity as an organization. Yes, the Supreme Court has given it the right to do so, but the BSA has to live with it.

I look at this situation and think that a bunch of adults got in the way of thousands of young men having the opportunity to see a sitting president in the flesh. Any sighs of relief about security procedures are total hogwash.

It's nothing new. They were

out of jacket patches yesterday, mugs, probably now out of belt buckles, random things here and there. Who knows I'd they're rationing anything, the staff doesn't know anything. Most of it is utter Chinese made crap anyway.

Staff arena show was cancelled tonight at first whiff of a storm that never came. Thanks.

Yep, wifi works but is getting slow and tempermental. Expecting it will be difficult or unusable when the masses arrive. Ticks are quite bad. Safety is a HUGE priority with frequent drills and audio announcements, which are nearly unintelligible. Major plans in place to ensure hydration and safe arena show mobilization. Water is available everywhere you look. Get to the trading post asap, they're getting sparse already.

This one is being spread all over Fort AP Hill this week. I'm convinced most people here don't want him anywhere near that arena show because they think it's true. Shame they don't realize how great an opportunity it is for the boys to see a sitting president.

BadenP, that's a GREAT idea.

There's no reason there can't be more than one, or that a youngster who holds another leadership position can't bugle as well. My troop has 3 young men who rotate amongst themselves, though I think only one is actually the official bugler.