HashTagScouts

My statement to parents, whether the unit goes forward with attending Council camp or we do our own extended outing later in the summer, the parents must make the call on whether or not to send their child. Camp/we intend to do what we can to mitigate risks, but if the parent has any hesitations, it is their call on assuming risk of sending their child. No one is saying it is 100% safe. Attendance is not mandatory, it is at will.

Ultimately, this echoes my concerns with the BSA trying to run the HABs. Physical distancing needs to be maintained- that means carpools are out the window. You can't physically distance with 5 people in a 5 passenger vehicle, and Everyone is going to need to do shared transportation getting to a HAB. our council seems to be thinking they are going to go ahead, on a pushed back start, for resident camp. Their initial guidance is no where near complete or comprehensive, but the first item addresses that temperature checks will be conducted on arrival to everyone that arrives with the scout, and if anyone has a temperature of 100.4+, all individuals arriving in that vehicle will be barred from entering camp.

Am I the only one concerned of the potetential bad press that may come if a cluster outbreak gets attributed back to one of these programs at the HAB this summer? I can just imagine the story will be how poorly conceived it was on the part of the National BSA to move ahead with these, while the local Councils were calling off summer camps".

Two VERY exceptional proposals that should absolutely be part of the org that comes out of the other side of bankruptcy. I would only add in your first one, for emphasis, "let Learning for Life be Learning for Life, and let Scouting be Scouting. It confuses the marketing of Scouting when Posts and Labs are suddenly considered part of the same program as Scouting in marketing materials, when they are not."

I wouldn't necessarily take it on your shoulders that everyone in the unit is up to date, but you can certainly make sure your DLs are all set, and then send it off as a report to the committee as a general statement for their next committee meeting (assuming they even have them) - "just making you aware" type of message.

Perhaps a structural decision will be increasing transparency on these types of meetings- why can there not be a link for the "general public" to view some sessions with microphone/chat turned off?

Many parts of the US are still struggling to have enough supplies to continue testing on healthcare workers/first responders/high risk groups, and supply chain is going to take more time to ramp production. and that is assuming we will continue to obtain materials from abroad to feed the supply chain. I've heard it rumored that Spirit of Adventure Council has pulled the plug on summer camp- have you heard that directly from anyone in council?

Go to your COR/IH. Committee Chair at the Pack level is the position they appoint, and cubmaster is appointed by them, so you are unfortunately not on equal footing here to deal with it yourself. Not having valid YPT is not okay.

As the article says, "mostly stayed at home". Take aside the nursing home folks, the imprisoned folks, and what you have left are the rest of us- those who are making weekly trips to the grocery store or the hardware store. Again, the point of the stay-at-home was not that we wouldn't see a spread it was that we wouldn't see a massive swell that would overwhelm the health system. Now, we should be slowly taking steps to begin to resume some activities. Be smart, and not try and go 100 mph in a week.

I am all for building ourselves up to troop level in the longer term by starting with smaller group activities. The biggest hurdle at this point is having a place to do it. From what I am seeing around New England, state campgrounds are going to begin opening later in June, but with limitations- no group sites available, and no "gathering areas" open (playgrounds, observation areas, waterfronts, etc.). Two minimal camping areas we have used in the past have not given any indication they will allow overnight usage at this point, though we are keeping in contact with them hoping in the second half of July they will allow them for single unit usage and we are planning for patrol level groups to use them. I'm still waiting to see with many of the scout properties if summer camp is not doable, will they be allowing unit usage on a diminished capacity basis. So far, my research is telling me that the few that have said anything about summer beyond "summer camp is not happening" have given some statement they hope to run weekend activities (no overnights, and with smaller numbers, by advanced signup only). My son and another member of his Crew are planning some day trips for june, presuming our Council doesn't clamp down on Scouting activities beyond May.

Pine Tree Council (Maine) has cancelled resident camp at Camp Hinds and Bomazen. Looks like they are going to offer some day activities on weekend dates starting in July to better mitigate risks. I think the biggest hurdle that Maine camps have had to deal with is dining halls- both in terms of meals, and that they are also considered the safe-haven structure in case of severe weather (and if you can't use the dining hall for the later, then you really can't run camp).

Oh, I know. My dad is down there, and it is not a good situation. Many old timers there think this is all a hoax, and continue to leave the house or get together with their friends. Just waiting for the call that his whole 55+ community is ill.

Considering that most individuals are not driving from their home location to the HA bases, and are often going to fly, risk increased. Dade County is one of the highest hit areas in Florida- I wouldn't fly through Miami right now, and I don't expect it to be flat there come July 1.

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 camp with one disposal-type mask that gets destroyed by sundown on day one.

Here in MA, facemasks are a state mandate whenever out in public, for anyone age over the age of 2. The signal from the Gov is that will be with us through the summer, and possibly even into the school year. I fully expect it will be a requirement for camps.

I was just saying tonight that all the rumored adjustments we have to make for resident camp, I can't imagine what would need to be done at cub camp. Hard sometimes keeping 13 year old from grabbing at and wrestling with each other- can't imagine how that goes with the younger kids. And trying to get them to keep their masks on and not touch them/adjust them 20,000 times a day.

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 them in "social distancing". First Aid for example, I'd so much rather things are hands on rather than lecture of "theoretical first aid", but I can't see having the kids pawing at tech other doing bandages and such. Archery/rifle shooting a good instructor will try to lean in and help the kid who is struggling sighting their rifle- can't see that happening much right now. Handicrafts, you really would need staff to watch everything like a hawk to wipe down the handsaw after one scout uses it and another picks it up. My head started to swim at how many MBs would probably be partials versus completes.

We are beginning the groundwork of plans for our own summer camp, hopefully the last week of July. Normally we would have been at camp week 1 (June 28-July 4). We are looking at later into July to allow our local area to settle, and let families adjust to anticipated "re-opening" the state in June (we are in MA). We have an ASM who's family owns a tract of land in Maine with lake frontage, so we also have to respect local governance there. Thankfully the property is abutted by other large private tracts, so we will be nicely distanced from others and will allow us to sufficiently be isolated, both for our benefit and that of others. Several of of our youth, including mine and our SM, are camp staffers, so we will let them determine our daily scheduling, but we are probably going to make our camp week Sunday-Thursday or Monday-Friday, and try to avoid higher travel days, so that when we inevitably have to stop on the way to/way back we avoid big crowds at rest stops. Primarily, I want us to have our BSA guards give opportunity to the young kids who need swimming MB and rank requirements, and offer some badges like pioneering, mammal study, cooking, geocaching, nature, etc. for the mornings. If we have an adult who wants to offer something in the handicrafts area, and is going to take it upon themselves to have the needed supplies and materials, that will be fine but don't want to leave it at the feet of the kids to have to do the gathering for it. Mostly, as it will probably be our first overnighting opportunity in 2020, we want the kids to have plenty of time to just relax and make their plans on the fly for the afternoons (pick up wiffleball games, working on skills, taking hikes, etc.). We'll be running a virtual Communications MB session next week, and I anticipate we'll have 5-6 kids working on that, which gives us a good resource to have them running opening or closing ceremony at our camp, a Scout Vespers one evening, and I'll let one of them be the "camp commish" to run morning/evening colors MC for the week to complete their badge requirements.

Katahdin Area Council (Maine) jsut announced cancellation of the summer camp season at Camp Roosevelt.

We are awaiting any concrete statements. We only have 7 kids signed up at this point, where we would expect 18-20. Council only just sent the checklist for camp staff to upload forms/training certificates/etc yesterday. MA pushed the end date for stay-at-home from May 4 to May 18. Based on what Maine has announced as state plans, as of tomorrow they enter "phase 1", and while they were not exactly explicit in stating "summer camps", their guidelines wouldn't be looking to see groups of greater than 50 until 7/1 at the earliest (all 3 phases do call for anyone who is a non-resident to quarantine for 14 days upon entering Maine, so there is that). I think I and SM are both of the mind that MA will follow what similar to what Maine is doing, and we won't see our summer camp open before 7/18, which basically kills the summer. Looking at both Katahdin and Pine Tree councils, they have not made any updates to their Covid-19 statements for a few weeks, so that leaves me feeling melancholy.

MBCs don't pay. This is why there is a difference between "registered adult" and "registered adult leader". MBCs are not required to take any training beyond YPT and MBC training. They are not satisfactorily a leader, as they don't actually lead- they consult on Merit Badges. For the purpose of a virtual meeting- OK, no problem, adults are not expected to be leading troop meetings, the SPL is. What troop org chart have you ever seen that has MBCs on them, and what reporting lines they have?

Agreed. MBCs are required to go through background checks for obvious safety, and to take our YPT to be familiar with the Scouting program (bear in mind, it was not the intention of the early days of Scouting for MBCs to be the troop leaders, they were to be the people in the community that were subject-matter experts for Scouts to interact with). BSA does make it confusing with flip-flopping on the use of term "adult leaders" and "registered adult", but, an MBC is not expected to be a "unit leader", and thus is not intended to be a supervisor within any other part of the Scouting program other than MBs. It was pointedly said during our summer camp pre-meetings that National does not consider a registered MBC to satisfy the two-deep leadership for units attending camp. Only SM/ASM/Committee members can fill those roles (any one of those dual registered as an MBC, obviously is a different matter).

Agreed. I organized Family Life MB for our group- perfect time to work on projects at home with family members and "be present" to do chores for 90 days, Music Mb same- able tow work on learning a new jig; and we'll be doing Personal Fitness Mb in a week or so for the same reason. Leave the Nature and E Sci for another time.

I personally would have zero problem moving to virtual for some of the items, like Leave no Trace instruction. But it shouldn't be a full repalcement, just that when things become more safe you could have a shortened in-person one nighter where everyone camps Friday night and the hands on outdoors stuff like fire-building and woods tools could be done, and everyone goes home by 1:00PM on Saturday. But, seriously, are any of us really going to think we would want our kid being supervised in a campout come fall by someone who got their trained badge from Zoom?

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