Jambo Hype !

[fotoscout]

This is a duplicate of something I recently posted in the Jamboree thread. My appologies for it, but I think the topic needs a much larger exposure. Foto.

I've had enough of the over the top hype being communicated about this Jamboree. It's time that we started to get some solid information and instruction passed along to us. To say it simply, my comfort level is low and getting lower!

National needs to park the PR machine. The Jambo website has nothing but hype, the leaders guide is pitifully puny, and the leaders are frustratingly uninformed. As a parent of a Scout who plans to go, and past Jambo leader myself, I am really very concerned. It seems to me that National has not moved beyond the "sales" phase of this event. Yes, yes, I've heard all the rhetoric about the great things being done at the Summit. But none of it appears to have morphed into a logistically sound operation. At the bare minimum, I expect that we'd have had a thorough understanding about meals by now. We don't!

As you all know, this is not an inexpensive event. I will give it until the end of February. At that point if my comfort level has not significantly increased, I will cancel my son's registration.

Foto

[Stosh]

I have heard from day one when Summit was designated as the Jambo site, it was going to be a fiasco. It hardly comes as a surprise.

 

New venue and 3 years prep to do what AP Hill could pull off??? I don't think so.

 

Pie in the sky is not the same thing as boots on the ground.

 

For those going, it's going to be a real test of "Be Prepared" on the part of the participants.

 

Stosh(This message has been edited by jblake47)

[OldGreyEagle]

I have to admit to being a little confused, it was not all that long ago the Forum was up in arms at the wimplification of scouting. Of how easy BSA was making things. Philmont was taken to task for its "sidewalk wide" trails and the lack of necessity of scouting skills.

 

I thought the Sumitt was decried for its "Disneyland" approach to scouting and now we have upset people because that will not be so?

 

Yes, the first time at the Summitt will not be for the faint hearted. It will be a rugged experience that will live on long after the "canned" experiences of AP HIll have faded. 50 years from now, Youth can say, the Jamboree at the SUmmitt? Let me tell you about the first one, cause I was there. That doesnt happen often, its an experience I look forward to with much anticipation

[BDPT00]

Agreed.

Well said.

BDPT00

[fotoscout]

I don't know about "Disneyland" and I really don't know what that means in terms of the Jambo. A little roughing it is fine, after-all it's a scouting event. My concern is that this is a city of 50,000 inhabitants that literally comes to life overnight. I'm not yet comfortable with notion that national can provide a safe and healthy environment for all those people. As for execution of the program, I also see that as very wanting. Too many different stories, and not enough firm detail.

 

National has gone hog wild overboard to hype the high adventure acitivies, it they can't fullfill the hype then the Jambo will be a failure. Not one Scout should get turned away from an activity because of a lack of capacity at that event.

[shortridge]

"Not one Scout should get turned away from an activity because of a lack of capacity at that event."

 

As much as I share the skepticism, that scenario happens weekly at summer camps around the U.S. Resources and time are both limited. Jambo is no different.

[fotoscout]

Yes I agree, that happens at summer camp all the time. But I have to tell you that I don't remember one instance of a scout getting turned away from anything in 2010. Certainly they had to secure tickets or schedule some activities, and sometime they just arrived too late in the day, but as long as the scout did his due diligence he was not turned away.

 

I respectfully differ with you...........the Jambo is different. No summer camp, not one of them anywhere in the country has the resources that the Jambo does. If the Jambo falls short, it only because the commitment by National was limited. Some of you might remember that one of the early plans floated for the first year at The Summit involved a plan to limit participants at the Jambo to approximately 15 or 20,000 total participants. That plan was obviously scraped.

[Twocubdad]

Oh, yeah. What was the Big Deal OA thing which was hyped for months as the be-all, end-all highlight of the jamboree? Then, lo and behold, half-way through the jambo we find out there aren't enough time slots for all the participants to make it through. Every troop was short-changed a quarter or half (forget which) of its ticket and forced to decide which of its members couldn't attend.

 

Or the hundreds and hundreds of Scout participants who were essentially blocked out of the main stage show with Mike Rowe because visitors and staff flooded in a took their spaces?

 

Trust me. Communications in general and the Leaders' Guide in particular SUCKED in 2010. I think the main thing AP Hill had going for it was that much of the operation was by continuing resolution and so many of the folks just knew to do what they always did.

 

Although I'm not attending this year, I'm still connected on the mailing lists from my old staff group. No one has much info at all.

[Tokala]

I'm excited about going. I was at the first and last Jamboree at AP Hill and now I'll be at the first at The Summit. I don't expect things to be ready. I don't expect them to have enough staff. I think the physical fitness requirement is sabotaging their ability to recruit staff. I have worked OA national events staff in logistics since ArrowCorps5. The OA always had it's own logistics depot filled with the supplies that our groups have requested. At The Summit that is all be coordinated by the Jamboree folks and that concerns me. I look at my journey this summer as one of the guys that "writes the manual" for OA logistics at future Jamborees at The Summit.

 

Some info that I heard while at the OA National Planning meeting is that they have 29K participants. It's not nearly as well attended as AP Hill. Could be the economy, locations, etc. Also, our Council COPE/climbing chairman is on the staff for COPE/climbing at The Summit. He says that they are short on staff by more than 500 based on requirements in West Virginia state law.

[JoeBob]

Follow the money:

 

Jambo is having trouble convincing volunteers to pay for the chance to work for them? I wonder why?

 

Session One for over 26 costs $850. And I may be required to come a week early for training.

 

Never been. Never going. (I'm not the fool my Mama raised...)

[Tampa Turtle]

Jambo is too rich for my blood. I'll be taking the boys to the UK this year...

[OldGreyEagle]

So, JoeBob, what is the answer?

 

Have staff pay less or nothing and have the participants pay for staff when people are yelling bloody murder about the already exorbitant cost (and they may have a point/)

 

This Jamboree is going to be an adventure, it could be a total unmititagated diasaster or it could be fine, likely it will fall somewhere in between

 

If we go in expecting a disaster, yeah, a disaster will occur, if you are postive, the experience will be more likely positive. What do I think will happen? I don't know, thats why I am going.

[Basementdweller]

Honestly,

 

I don't mind taking a week off work.

 

I don't mind volunteer.

 

I don't mind paying for my food for the event.

 

I don't even mind buying the staff uniform.......

 

I do mind them making a profit from the adult staff.

 

I don't spend $850 on food/grocery store trips for the entire family for a month. So lets use $5 per meal and $10 per shirt. so 21 meals is $105 and $30 for tshirts.....I would do it for $135.....NOT $850. ridiculous. Yep old national making a profit on the backs of volunteers.

[fotoscout]

OldGreyEagle, as an adult I completely agree. We make decisions based on the things that excite us. Had I been able to go this year I may have made the same decision you did for the same reason. It could be fun to be in the middle of an unmitigated disaster.

 

However, the decision making process is different for the kids. My son expects to have a first class adventure. He expects to be busy doing things all day. He expects that "Scouting" will put on a show that's organized, thoughtful, and fulfilling. He is not going to experience the adventure of an unmitigated disaster. He's a kid, he wants to have a good time, he doesn't want to spend his days being frustrated by the demons of Scouting. And that's why they need to get us more solid information. At this time, I just don't see the event coming off in a way that is satisfying to the kids.

 

You and I may appreciate the chaos, and ultimately the rectification of an unmitigated disaster, but the kids will not.(This message has been edited by fotoscout)

[Tokala]

I don't mind the cost. My report date is July 9 which is days earlier than I anticipated. Thus, I have to hand off the camp director job in order to be at the Summit on time. I agree it is expensive. Boy Scouting at a National event always has been.

 

I bet all the concern about an unmitigated disaster is through adults eyes. The vast majority of kids won't know if the event went smoothly or imploded. If their tents don't leak, the food is decent and they have stuff to do, they'll be content. Besides, if you went in 2010 you would know that the only activity that they participate in is patch trading