darknite

The overnighters are fun. we went on a canoe trip to an island in the lake for an outpost overnighter. The rain that day broke and we went out. The boys tied glow sticks together, and put on a big show. We stayed up really late just talking and playing around. That was the best of the 2 outpost adventures.

BTW, forgot to mention that the camp director was informed way ahead of time that the boys were working towards a specdific goal. Local merit badge councilors also helped them prepare, and filled out partial slips to indicate the work completed at home. Everything they did was documented, photographed, and had a letter from the advancement chair to certify the work done. The boys spent time in class with the camp staff and other scouts, and had to demonstrate they actually knew the stuff to get the merit badge passed off.

In one case, the boys were able to tell the astronomy councilor "thats not Spica, thats Jupiter. We have been tracking it. We have our drawings from observing, and software star charts showing where it will be in 3 months. We also looked at it an hour ago from a telescope at our camp site"

On the other hand, they didn't complete everything for Geology, so thats one for this summer.

The 3 boys who finished 13 badges at camp started doing the work 8 weeks before camp.

They spent a month tracking planets, spotting constellations, going to the library, science museum and planetarium for Astronomy.

They built rain gauges, made weather observations, visited the local university and TV station for weather.

They taught orienteering skills and set up courses for cubs, webelos, new scouts, and at a girls camp for orienteering.

They spent time with the forest service learning about our local national forest, fire and avalanche control, animals, and water management techniques and collecting specimens and photos for forestry.

Back to the university and science museum, out in the field, and back to visit with the forest service rangers for mammal study.

They spent time online, at local history museum, and visiting a reservation to prepare for Indian Lore.

They spent time helping our church develop a communications plan and had an emergency disaster drill for Emergency Preparedness

They visited the Tandy store to collect leather samples and learn some basic leather techniques foe Leather Working

They went to a clinic offered by a sporting goods store to learn some survival skills, then went on a survival campout with nothing but what they put together in their possibles bag for Wilderness Survival.

This is only a part of the pre-camp done to prep for the badges they earned.

It was a very busy, exhausting 2 months for the scouts, their parents, and us leaders. It was not a case of show up to camp and get 13 merit badges during 6 days. Its not something every scout should attempt. For these 3, it was their goal. They were lucky to have supportive parents, and leaders who almost killed themselves helping these boys aceive their goal, by providing transportation, ideas on where to go to gather information and resources.

As busy as it was, I'd do it again if a boy or boys set a goal to do it. The surprising part was the 2 boys who went to both camps, and felt like the 2nd was a rip off, a waste of their time.

All things said, one week at camp is about equal to a years worth of weekly patrol meetings. While not every scout would have the get to it that those three did, I still expect the boys to work hard and earn merit badges, learn new skills, and advance towards ranks. They and their parents didn't pay (or shouldn't have paid) $170 to spend a week being lazy with only 1 merit badge to show for the time and effort at camp.

Someone mentioned that we teach the scouts how to shoot a rifle, how to fire a shotgun, and blackpowder, and to use a bow and arrow. It might be worth noting that all of those things are used under very strict adult supervision, and locked tightly away. Scouts don't get to keep rifles, bows and arrows, or shotguns in their tents, backpacks, or fanny packs. You could argue that if a scout gets lost, he could fire three rounds as an emergency signal, or break open a shell and use the gun powder to start a fire, or shoot something to eat, or protect himself from a bear or mountain lion.....

I've found that if a kid has a phone, he or she will use it for whatever reason. talking to friends, texting, gaming. That said, I passed my phone around every night at Jambo so kids could call parents and friends to tell them what happened during the day.

On the subject of music, my scoutmaster took a boombox/blaster to the long term summer camps. (never the monthlies) We made a mix of our favorite songs. We listened in the evening when everyone was in camp. To this day, when I hear ... (well, fill in a song, I don't want to date myself) it reminds me of scout camp. My son went to Philmont with me last summer, 2005 just before we went to the Jamboree. He had all of ColdPlays stuff. We listened to it all the way there and back 14 hours each way. Now, when we hear a ColdPlay song, it brings back all the great memories of Philmont. By comparison, out Jambo troop forbid any CDs iPods and etc. as a result, no musical memories from Jambo :-(

I would be in favor of no personal CDs or MP3 players. BUT, a big ol' boombox we can all listen to while making memories is OK by me. Music is a great brain/ memory stimulator. Camp songs are OK, but what are the chances that you will hear Tom the Toad on the radio and get a random happy memory from camp? Probably not very good.

OK, this post is only several months late. (I just found the thread) Brunton makes an entire line of solar recharger products. Check out www.brunton.com/catalog.php?cat=8

Merit Badges, Advancement, Camp Spirit

Our troop won the highest honor in camp, the Baden Powell Award. They have a tough set of requirements. Each boy must earn 5 merit badges, participate in a 4 hour service project as a troop, attend all opening and closing flag ceremonies in full uniform, participate in 2 camp wide games, Have the SPL attend all daily SPL meetings, Have all adult leaders attend all adult leader meetings, participate in at least one outpost overnighter (away from the main scout camp) participate in a scout's own, and participate in the skit night campfire program, and do a camp opening or closing flag ceremony, and earn 10 service beads for performing service in different areas of camp, and at least a 90% on the daily campsite inspection.

Most of our scouts got 6 merit badges, but 3 boys set a goal to get 12-13. With alot of precamp work on pre-req requirements, the 3 boys acheived their goal.

2 of the boys that went with the Baden Powell winning group attended another council camp with half of our troop members that couldn't go to the first camp. The second group also won that camps highest award, the Wakara Arrow. The campers in the second group earned one merit badge the entire week, except for the 2 boys who went to the first camp. They earned 4. The 2 boys that went to the first camp said the second was really lame. No one wore uniforms, no one attended all the ceremonies, no merit badges were required for the Wakara award. They felt ripped off during the 2nd camp.

So, yeah, # of merit badges, chances for recognition, real patrol participation and working hard as a team towards a common goal IS a very important measure of success for a summer camp. When you consider that a troop spends about a years worth of weekly meeting hours during a full week at camp, they had better come back with some merit badges, new skills, and progress towards rank advancement to show for it.

BTW, The boys that earned one badge got equal recognition for their acheivments as the boys with 13. Same with earning the camp honors. On the other hand, if the boys who only earned one make a personal decision to earn more next year by setting higher goals and working hard towards those goals, great. No one will complain. Summer camp is THE Hilight of our scouting year, for activities, advancement, merit badges, everything.

Re: Cooking

Our Troop goes on monthly campouts during the school year, and twice monthly during summer vacation. 2 years ago, one of our council's camps built a dining hall. We tried it out and got into the dining hall food plan. Big Surprise! It added 3 hours back into program time! More free time, or more water front time, or more rifle range time, or more merit badge time. Outside of summer camp we cook in patrols at least 14 times a year. The 3 extra hours per day of program time is a huge benefit. We will probably never go back to cooking at summer camp.