malraux

5 minutes ago, InquisitiveScouter said:

Logging to sell...raise money for council...and often with disastrous results.

One of my ASM's does environmental impact plans and assessments for the state.  He has been shocked at the devastation he has seen at our local camp, and at the two out of council summer camps he has been to with us since his son joined the Troop. 

The council I grew up in did the same...logged our remote lake camp for cash in the 80's (really trashed the place), then logged our main camp just before selling it in the 90's and moving all ops to the remote camp.

That’s really unfortunate because they really should have a method to do managed logging to help improve the financial situation of the council while also managing the health of the environment. 

5 hours ago, Chisos said:

As for Webelos/AOL...spin 4th/5th grade off to be less affiliated with the Pack.  They need to get away from the K to 3rd grade set.

I’ve said this before but looking at other countries scouting programs, they tend to have a k-2 program, a 3-5 program, a 5-9 and a 10-12 or higher program. That might be a better structure long term because the variances are so high otherwise. What’s appropriate for a first grader is not the same as a 5th grader. 

35 minutes ago, carebear3895 said:

Membership fees are expected to go up again THIS YEAR. Then slight increases for the following two years

That seems bad. Especially with everything being semi-shutdown for 6 months, it’ll be really hard to justify another fee increase. 

I’ll be shocked if more than 20% of summer camps run. 

44 minutes ago, BAJ said:

In the minutes to our district Roundtable this week, they shared that at this point a third of BSA camps nationwide have announced being closed for the summer.

That seems like an underestimate or an out of date count. This past Friday saw a bunch of cancellations. 

8 minutes ago, 69RoadRunner said:

I just got this email.

It is with a heavy heart that we inform you that, after a thorough review, the National Capital Area Council has decided to suspend our resident camp programs at Goshen Scout Reservation, Camp William B. Snyder, Camp Airy, and the Day Camp program for the 2020 summer season. We know camp is an important part of every Scout’s summer, and this decision was not made lightly. This is not the end of our summer programming, however; NCAC has assembled a team of volunteers who are designing a fun, exciting alternative program that provides advancement opportunities for our Scouts. More information on these programs will be coming soon.

That’s almost word for word identical to the message my council just sent out as well.

11 minutes ago, ItsBrian said:

Do you mind telling us the state?

Sure, Lincoln Heritage Council -  Central/western KY.

My council just officially canceled all June day and resident camps. Currently planning on having events in July. I’m still skeptical of that happening either but I guess they have to plan as though they can. 

2 minutes ago, InquisitiveScouter said:

Wonder if I should take the course, just for the cert?

At the CSDC level, the online cert is good for one year only. 
 

edit: oh click the link. 3 year cert for resident camp stuff. That’s potentially useful. 

Our week of day camps just got "not canceled" as well. We aren't doing the send home program, but we are doing a single day event on Saturdays at the end of the summer at the council properties. It's not ideal, but its the best we can do at this point.

To be fair, while local camps might happen, high adventure ones are going to be less popular. And ordeal seems more compatible with social distancing rules. 

Pretty sure ours are about to. There’s a big conference call tonight on the subject, at least on the cub side. But our governor has basically said no camps or pools open till July. 
 

as a side note on that, does anyone have actual signup numbers. Ours are dead. No one signing up, no one asking about it, etc. even if it were allowed, we’d have to cancel because it doesn’t make any financial sense to run a camp with 5 kids. 

3 hours ago, HashTagScouts said:

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?

Yeah, I find that the baloo training is a bit broad and could be condensed a bit, or handled with more stuff online. There a bit of paperwork, some generic stuff like ceremonies, etc that could be done in a remote fashion.

Addendum to my last post, I’m starting to see a few other camps officially cancel. I suspect the big line is how late can we make payments for expenses (food orders, staff contracts, supplies) and still have camp happen. 

Too be fair, I think most camps are waiting till the last minute to cancel. Thus far personally, I’ve only had one camp cancel for my kids this summer, and it was an early June camp. Technically our school is supposed to go back May 4th. That said, at least for day camp no one is even signing up, so the question of if we are having camp is kinda moot. My impression is that resident camp is the same way. 

I can see some value in getting youth to at least the tenderfoot rank via online activities. Lots of webelos moving to the troop are sitting at a standstill from all this right now. Getting at least that first real rank will help keep them invested. 

I have seen some troops do various participation beads as well. Every night camping gets you a red bead, if below freezing a blue or white one, without a tent clear, etc. 

Not to minimize this, but for scout aged youth, I'm far more worried about a non-vaccinated youth bringing measles. However its the issue for all the older scouters showing up for the event, and the youth bringing the virus back to their homes and communities. But yes, I don't know what summer camps for any program will look like for next year.

6 minutes ago, Sentinel947 said:

Our peak of infections is projected to be in Mid May, and we will only somewhat exceed hospital capacity during the peak. I do not think we'll have much of an early summer here if the projections prove true, and our "peak" of cases will be during that time. 

I'm in Kentucky and we have a similar outlook, except probably not exceeding hospital capacity. However, even if things were safe by early June, I don't know how we get ready for camp then.

35 minutes ago, MattR said:

I hate to be the grinch, but most likely all high adventure and summer camps will be cancelled or limited to August. Cancelling the entire summer would actually mean good news with respect to number of hospitalizations because the curve will be stretched out.

Yeah, in theory I should be planning to run a cub scout day camp this summer, but I don't think that'll happen.

My only thought, is there a way to get the scouts to do the production of the shirts?

I would swap out gendered words like manhood for adulthood, even though you are a boy only troop, but otherwise I agree with everything there. 
 

specifically this paragraph: This is a very delicate time for these young men. They are closer and closer to bridging into manhood, and many of them are just beginning to face their fear of that unknown and level of responsibility.

the rest is fine, but otherwise it makes it sound like bsa summer camp is only for boys, when it is no long the case. The later bits about stay out of his tent are not a problem as I assume you do not have a linked girls troop. 

Our council camps are free to units that allow an FoS presentation. 

12 minutes ago, le Voyageur said:

Thoughts on the impact that covid-19 will, or will not have on summer camps

I'm CSDC PD for one of the district camps and I've asked that of our camping director. Basic answer is that we don't know enough to predict yet, we'll have to see.

My suspicion is that it will not be a problem for the summer, as most colds tend to drop down that time of year. It might be a problem for either this spring or next fall. Its also not very dangerous to scouting aged youth.

I wish they made a magnetic holder for service stars so I had an easy way to remove them for washing or to change shirts.