things learned during the last years camping

[red feather 10]

Worked a bit with using and making alchohol stoves. High adventure canoeing in Canada taught me quite a bit about things that I thought I knew. Learned how to bake pumpkin pies in a dutch oven. Learned more about more with less styles of camping.

 

How about the rest of you?

 

yis

[le Voyageur 72]

A rusty frizzen pivot screw will keep the frizzen from flying back, and making the gun go bang.

 

Canoes will always pin where there are no anchor sites available to set up a pulley system.

 

No matter how hard you work to keep a crew safe on a flood swollen river,the CD will always find fault with your decisions.

 

You will always get a kid every week who is allergic to everything but pizza and whine..

 

Goodwill is the place to shop when the river gods take your gear....

 

 

 

 

 

[OutdoorThinker 10]

I'll be more specific, the things I learned from a summer on summer camp staff

 

-- Boy Scout campfires are more than just fire, they include songs and skits.

-- Scoutcraft is not Handicraft

-- How to tie the basic BS knots

-- A crazy repitoire of Boy Scout camp songs, that I enjoy singing when I am trying to fall asleep, which my roommate really does NOT enjoy.

-- How to lash

-- Flashlights are overrated

-- What a blue card is and how to fill one out

-- The pure joy that is the Youth Protection film

-- A bright green plastic mug, dubbed a SUPER MUG can be the unofficial theme of an entire camp season

-- How to splice

-- Being sick at summer camp is NO fun, especially when sick for three weeks with no voice...and doctors who have practices in the woods are probably crazy, they wont diagnose you with real illnesses they'll make something up..I had "de sinus" this summer.

-- Some things, like camp rivalries, cant be changed no matter how hard you try

-- There is nothing grosser in the world than a Scout getting sick on an outpost on saurkraut night

-- Nine weeks go by in the blink of an eye

-- Very little is as rewarding as making a homesick scout smile

-- No matter how much it rains, the show must go on (AND IT RAINED A LOT)

-- As long as you shower more than once a week, your cleaner than the scouts

-- I am going to get married at the chapel at my camp

-- Camp staff is like the mafia...once you're in you're in for life

-- The best birthday presents come in Darth Vader masks during terrible thunder storms

 

[red feather 10]

Outdoor sounds like you had a great summer. You had hope that no one has pictures.

 

LV, had to chuckle about the Goodwill Store thing do that scene myself.

 

Come on the rest of ya, I cannot believe that only LV, Outdoor and myself are the only ones that learned something this summer.

 

yis

[hops_scout 9]

I learned a lot in the last year. I'll see what I can remember:)

 

--Rock Climbing is sweet, but Rappelling is by far the best part:):)

--Patrol cooking is a decent method during summer camp though not when you are with the NSP:(

--Rain sucks

--Tug-of-war is sweet right after it rains, but your leather work gloves are now ruined:)

--Giving Cub Scouts compasses with built in whistles was a bad idea

--LNT

--Use of bear bag

--I am an awesome rifle shooter, too bad I didn't take the merit badge

--Camp Joy sucks compared to others (Yes Purcelce our Camp Joy)

--Plumbing at summer camp is great, though watch out for flying plungers:) Inside joke/will explain if needed.

--Cots and partner in a 9 by 8 foot tent does not work; especially for a week. Especially when the tent is only 48" tall.

 

Guess thats it for now at least. I'll try thinking of more.

[Adrianvs 10]

Well I guess I learned a few things on summer camp staff last year.

 

- The best camp theme will always be "summer camp"

- Scouts can easily be convinced that a state of war exists between Eco-Con and Scoutcraft.

- If you learn the day before that nearly one out of every four scouts in camp has signed up for your two-day Environmental Science session...it's no problem.

- Give the scouts a good time and the scoutmasters will have one too.

- Twenty-nine year old veteran staffers are not above using a band of first year campers to ambush another's area with shaving creme and toilet paper.

- Chemical stump remover isn't THAT toxic.

- All ceremonialists should know that there is a difference between aprons and breechcloths.

- Staffing isn't a job; it's a vocation.

- Sometimes even scoutmasters need someone to talk to.

- Inspectors can find the camp on fire and still give you an excellent rating.

- Performing the Beans skit for a half an hour feels like three minutes.

- There will always be an 'expert' scoutmaster joining a merit badge each week.

- Some aquatics directors seriously expect the mighty chief to wear a personal floatation device.

- The mighty chief will never wear a personal floatation device.

- Merit badge counselors exist to envliven a scout's interest in a subject and help him to complete the requirements, not keep him busy for a set amount of time.

- If a staffer claims that he was told to drink glow stick fluid by the camp director, he is likely misinterpreting the discourse.

- You are on call and under inspection from 7:30 am to after 10:00 pm.

- Yes, science can be fun.

- Rest assured that somewhere in the corner of some forest in North America, the Tap will live on.

- Meals can be as entertaining for the scouts as campfires.

- The rainbow may be shattered and the earth re-covered by flood, but the mighty chief will never wear a PFD.

- No lock on earth can make the boathouse impenetrable by staffers.

- Despite what you may have heard, the staff has never cheated in the Cardboard Boat Regatta.

- The riot is an approved scout activity.

- When the nurse fakes an injury to stay another week, you know that you're doing something right.

- This is your home. The rest of the year, you are in exile.

- Your primary mission is to recreate the magic you experienced as a youth. If you succeed in this, the rest will have fallen in place.(This message has been edited by Adrianvs)

[Eamonn 61]

Sad to say I didn't get to summer camp this year.

Still life was as hectic as ever.

As a Wood Badge course director I learned that E-mail is a great method of communication and it works.

I found out that people don't check the messages on their cell phones.

It is safe to have two ministers on staff even if they are of different faiths.

Never Ever allow the Assistant Scout Exec. Order the T- Shirts!!

Even people that you have thought of for years as "Stuffed Shirts" can surprize you and be the life and soul of a course.

The 2X3 Day course is a lot harder on the Staff then the 6 Day course.

People have a lot of hidden talents and will rise to the challenge.

Then there was JLTC.

While I was not a staff member it is part of the Council Training and I was in and out making sure that they had what they needed.

It rained and rained a lot.

While I feel sure that all the youth staff members were prepared and had gone over the Syllabus. There were times when I wasn't so sure about the Scoutmaster.

I spend a super night eating pizza with the youth staff and found out more about what they think about Scouts, their troop, their district and council then I have at all the meetings that the council has.

At the feast I looked at the tables filled with a bunch of really great Lads. The uniforms were none too clean, they were tired but they were smiling. I thought how lucky we are to have such a fine group of lads in our council and that as long as we have Scouts like this Scouting is alive and well.

Eamonn

[OutdoorThinker 10]

Adrian,

"This is your home. The rest of the year, you are in exile." SOOOO TRUE!!!

 

I wasn't supposed to do the whole Boy Scout camp thing. I was ironically supposed to have a job at Girl Scout camp. While waiting far to long to see if I got the job, I began looking for other options (what can I say, I am a college kid and I NEEDED a job). This was March (by the way). I was told I should call the Boy Scout council to see if they had any holes at the camps. I emailed OGE on a Sunday night to get the council's phone number.

 

Monday morning before my class, I checked my email and called council probably no earlier than 11:00 that morning. Well, I went to class, had lunch and I believe I went back to bed, because I was feeling under the weather --- the phone woke me up. It was the program director. He had called the SM of the troop that I have the greatest honor of being attached to who gave him the green light to hire me.

 

'What job do you want?' He asked me. "I have an archery range director position, asstiant cook, assitant first year program director, and Scoutcraft Director opened.'

 

Hmm. I thought. I am not very good at archery, dont want to be in a hot kitchen all summer and why wouldnt I want to be a director over Asst. Director. "Scoutcraft Director, I guess."

 

"All right. This weekend we have a training up at camp. You should come. You can meet the rest of the staff. By the way, you know YoungSpikedEagle, right? He'll be working at camp this summer too."

 

"Okay. cool."

 

By two o'clock OGE had an email in his in box that said I was just hired to be the..um..i think it was called Scoutcraft Director.

 

Email response: "You mean Handicraft Director, right?"

 

Nope, Scoutcraft Director.

 

Well, signing on as the job I would take over this summer and get a different job next summer was apparently a myth. I was totally bitten with the camp bug almost instantly.

 

The rest is what you call history. Here I am in November, campsick beyond belief...anxiously waiting seven months until camp starts again --- this year, the Commissioner.

 

 

 

[Adrianvs 10]

Outdoor Thinker,

 

I think that I can relate as a fellow campsick college student and I'm glad that you stumbled upon the joys of summer camp staff. I became ecology director this past year as the previous director (who has a PhD in Biology) decided to become an archery instructor. heh, How's that for following your interests? Anyway, I may be selected as program director next year but would be just as happy to continue where I am.

 

At least around here, no one staffs for the money and it is hard to justify to others why one would work at camp for the whole season. It will always be worthwhile for me, however.

 

We've had female Venturers on staff in the past, and it seems they fit in well with the program and enjoyed themselves. Last summer there was a female Venturer "pseudo-staff member." I guess you could consider her a CIT (counselor in training), but the camp director insisted that she was a camper. Anyhow, she assisted the aquatics staff while earning her BSA lifeguard. She plans on being on staff next year and if I am program director she certainly will. She has a real appreciation for the program and what it has done for her younger brothers who are in scouting. Coincidently, the other female staffers (two sisters) were also on aquatics staff. In retrospect, it seemed easier for the female staffers when there were two of them. Do you have any perspective on this? Were there other female staffers with you? Would it have been different if there were or weren't? I would like to get some perspective on this as it was hard at times for her to balance her roles, especially in the eyes of others.

 

(I'm an unrepentent thread hijacker , but feel free to answer privately or in another thread if you wish.)

[OldGreyEagle 5]

Things I leaned at Summer Camp

 

Be very careful of who you give the Council's phone number to , you never know how it will be used

 

Summer Camp operations is a real eye opening experience when your son is on staff

and sometimes too much knowledge IS a bad thing

 

Going to the Camp to bring props for skits every 2 days or so doesnt take that much gas

 

Having two Crew members on Camp Staff can be exhilerating and nerve wracking at the same time

 

Its a lot more fun talking about roasting a pig over an open fire than actually doing it.

 

When the Princess of Precipitation is on Camp Staff dont expect a lot of dry days.

 

An 19 year old female ASM can ride in my car in the front seat, a 19 year old female Venture Crew member cannot.

 

If you want to make a birthday special, show up for dinner during a monsoonish thunderstorm that wipes out the power in the camp and wear a Darth Vader outfit, complete with mask, cape and light saber (and dont forget, DV's is red, not blue)

 

Camp Staffers that major in Philosophy and Forensics will get the I Kant jokes and will appreciate the statment that scouts taking the existentialism merit badge should not look into the soul of their tentmate for answers, even if no one else does.

 

A cow that's lashed together in scout craft can look more like a moose than bovine.

 

 

 

(This message has been edited by OldGreyEagle)

[dan 10]

I learned that 13 year old scouts are not strong enough to portage a canoe.

I learned that portage is not a French word meaning uphill both ways. If you carry a canoe UP 200 feet, you are going to have to carry it down at least 190 feet or 210 feet.

A beautiful walk in the woods is ruined with a canoe on your head.

No matter where you place a lightweight stove in camp at least one person will not see it and try to walk over it.

No matter how much spice you put in dehydrated food, most of it is still bad.

Dehydrated food will keep you very regular.

 

Would not change one thing about this trip!

[Big_Dog 10]

When the high during the day is 107 and it cools down at night to 86, that's not reallllllly all that cool.

Fire ants like your clean clothes, too.

Latrines have a real purpose.

No matter what boys tell you, after they've hiked/played/worked all day, they'll eat the cabbage in a dirt burger.

It takes a big dog to weigh 300 pounds.

Webelos parents can be a lot of fun when they discover the joys of camping - Boy Scout style.

Never try to make dumplings in a vegetable soup. (the lads nicknamed it beef dump)

When a scout starts volunteering information about his moms tatoos, shut down that conversation quickly.

The joy of hoisting a brand new troop flag for a brand new troop.

This is what fun is all about, wish I had done this as a kid!!!

 

bd(This message has been edited by Big_Dog)(This message has been edited by Big_Dog)