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$850 for the "honor" of taking 5 days off of work and travelling to do volunteer work for an organization that makes a profit off of an event like this? No thanks. When you total up what you pay BSA plus your PTO and travel, frankly I'd rather invest the money in a better trip like to Philmont, Seabase or NT. Better yet, head to Alaska and do a high adventure camp there. Far more bang for the buck.

 

$1200 is what you spend. Many other councils the cost is twice that...for one Scout!! I can send my kid to Philmont once and NT once for that same cost. I can send him to Kandersteg for the summer and still have money left over to travel around Europe after I'm done.

 

Financial aid dries up fast and goes to those who know how to work the system, so forget that.

 

As I've said, I've been there twice. Once as a Scout and once as an adult. It is okay but I wouldn't do it again. It checks a box but if I had it to do over I wouldn't do it. I'd save my money and have a truly great adventure that I will fondly remember.

 

5 days!  It'll be more like 10.  My employer is considering allowing 5 days as overhead that he can write off, but won't decide until right before.

 

Our council is charging ~$2300 to go to Philmont.  Wow inflation and then some, when I was a scout in 93, I went for $750.  My son wants to follow my footsteps to Philmont, but unless the scouts in his unit really up their tolerance for high adventure, he'll probably do the OA Trail Crew. 

 

Back to Jamboree - OA Staff 16-20, $450 or $475 - #operationarrow - there's another option for our youth, bypassing your council's overhead.

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Our council is charging ~$2300 to go to Philmont.  Wow inflation and then some, when I was a scout in 93, I went for $750.  My son wants to follow my footsteps to Philmont, but unless the scouts in his unit really up their tolerance for high adventure, he'll probably do the OA Trail Crew. 

 

Don't go with council...ever. Try other units. They usually have a spot or two...especially if you are wilderness first aid trained.

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I'm kinda in @@Krampus's camp on this one.  A Scout is Thrifty.  I never attended Jamboree as a youth, but I went as 2nd ASM to a contingent.  Yeah, we camped as patrols, but it was still an major adult run operation.  The SPL and ASPL did NOTHING the whole time. The 3rd ASM (one of my Eagle Scouts) and I hung out together.  It was a good experience, but had I paid more than the $650 I paid out, I wouldn't do it again.  At the prices indicated by those on the forum, I would much rather be backpacking Denali or canoeing the Yukon.  It would be cheaper.  A Scout is Thrifty.

 

You are right when you say it is a major adult run operation.  That is more of a dislike for me than the cost, one of the reasons why I was more interested in being staff than ASM.  Council designed units of a specific make up doesn't seem ideal.

 

There is the practical side of logistics and timing.  I'm sure we've seen our troops take more than a reasonable amount of time to form a patrol and select a patrol leader, imagine trying to do that with a bunch of scouts from around the council and have it make any sense.  There is a group of scouts from three units that wanted to form into a patrol for jamboree.  They were told no, but that the  council does try to group contingent troops by location, so, they might end up in the same troop / patrol, but they really didn't provide details.  That is all well and good, but what if it were a group of NYLT staffers from all corners of the council that had that idea?

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As 2nd ASM I was in charge of forming patrols and getting boy leadership together.  Put all the boys in one big field, said we need 4 patrols of 8 each and SPL and ASPL, and went and got coffee.  When I got back, it was all done.  SPL had even made a list of who was leadership and who was in each patrol.  It was the last boy led thing they did for the activity.

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When I was at More Rain State Park in '77 we were so boy led that we build a rain gutter regatta in our camp site. Invited anyone to enter a "boat" for a fee. The money was put in to a general fund run by some kid from Queens. I got the feeling he had experience with off-track, illegal betting before. He kept the money, gave odds and handled pay outs. This ran from Day 2 through the last day of rain on Day 5. The proceeds went to our patrol's ice cream fest on the MB Mudway on the last day.

 

100% boy led. ;)

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Expenses:    Staff, more than 12   days.    Scout/participant, maybe 10 days.  Both set by national, non-negotiable.   Staff is expected to arrive early to set up, stay a day or two (!) later to take down, clean up.  AND...  National uses pro people to help set up and take down and rearrange and re-purpose and sell off.   ?Profit considerations?  Maybe.  Cover expenses? Absolutely. 

Plus   Travel:  Can't amortize that . Folks from California and Hawaii and elsewhere, well, I understand their angst.  Maybe National could arrange a discount per mile traveled to help encourage far away folks, but then near to folks would cry "unfair", canst but please but some....

Plus extra sight seeing along the way, overnight stays, ...   I remember my Troop going to Philmont by private car caravan, staying along the way at cooperative army bases , National Guard Armories. Rarely hear about that now.   You've come that far, might as well see something more than the inside of The Summit....

Plus Council uniform stuff:  Patches, tshirts, flags, banners,

Plus:  souvenirs Patches, tshirts, coffee mugs for GDad, pins for the home SM,  it mounts up.

Plus  extra (we use to call it) Gedunk.   Ice cream, a burger at the Base Camp,  Cellphone useage,  extra Duct Tape at the Camp Store ("I told you to include that in the duffel!"),  rain poncho at Jamboree store ("I thought mom packed it"), 

It adds up....

Plus  ? You name it....

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If you are in the right council it may be a "bargain". 

 

$2,300 to sleep in a tent and eat lousy food for one week is not a bargain in my book.

I do not understand why councils want to do that, it can't help but keep attendance down.  I'm on my Council's Jamboree committee, and the very first decision we made was to not have any side trips, grand tours, etc.  We're charging the cost of getting ready, the cost of traveling there and back, and the cost of attending, and that's it.

 

If anyone is interested in going and has a council that is turning it into the Grand Tour of Scouting, you might want to call around to other local councils, or even reach out across the country to find someone who will let you join their contingent and travel with them.  There is no rule that you have to only go with your own council.

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I do not understand why councils want to do that, it can't help but keep attendance down.  I'm on my Council's Jamboree committee, and the very first decision we made was to not have any side trips, grand tours, etc.  We're charging the cost of getting ready, the cost of traveling there and back, and the cost of attending, and that's it.

 

If anyone is interested in going and has a council that is turning it into the Grand Tour of Scouting, you might want to call around to other local councils, or even reach out across the country to find someone who will let you join their contingent and travel with them.  There is no rule that you have to only go with your own council.

Excellent perspective T2Eagle, thanks.

 

I'm not a jambo person, so it's interesting to read these threads.   Given the choice between jambo and attending an obscure no-frills council camp somewhere, I'll choose the latter 100 percent of the time.

 

If I'm going to spend more money, a high adventure trek would be my preference.

Edited by desertrat77
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As 2nd ASM I was in charge of forming patrols and getting boy leadership together.  Put all the boys in one big field, said we need 4 patrols of 8 each and SPL and ASPL, and went and got coffee.  When I got back, it was all done.  SPL had even made a list of who was leadership and who was in each patrol.  It was the last boy led thing they did for the activity.

 The thing is that jamborees are not intended to be traditional scout led out doors programs or back country adventure and solitude. Instead they are there to offer something entirely different. It's much more about meeting new people from new places and experiencing something entirely different from the normal program

 

My group was lucky enough to have 5 explorers go to the world jamboree in Japan last year. All of them came back with silly grins on their faces and completely knocked over by the whole thing. One of them is off to Norway this summer to stay with friends she met in Japan. There's nothing quite like it!

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.... More Rain State Park .... the last day of rain on Day 5. ... MB Mudway ...

by way of retrospective disclosure: USGS topo shows the stream that was dammed to make Lake Arthur: Muddy Creek.

 

In a broader picture of cost: Jambo has never attracted more than 5% of membership.

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 The thing is that jamborees are not intended to be traditional scout led out doors programs or back country adventure and solitude. Instead they are there to offer something entirely different. It's much more about meeting new people from new places and experiencing something entirely different from the normal program

 

My group was lucky enough to have 5 explorers go to the world jamboree in Japan last year. All of them came back with silly grins on their faces and completely knocked over by the whole thing. One of them is off to Norway this summer to stay with friends she met in Japan. There's nothing quite like it!

 

Yep, I as 2nd ASM and my Eagle Scout 3rd ASM, were chastised multiple times for not hanging around camp and watching the boys.   The last thing I wanted the boys to do was hang around camp.  Near the end of the time, they assigned me a time I had to be in camp at which time I kicked all the boys out of camp and told them to go someplace interesting.  Once the camp was empty I left too.  :)  I got in trouble for that too.  :(

 

Some adults on this side of the pond have some strange concepts regarding how a BSA troop is to be run.  If one is going camping, they camp.  If one is at Jambo, the last place they need to be is in camp.   I met more people from all over the world at our national Jambo.  I was surprised at how many internationals were there.  It was great. (Except the parts where I was getting yelled at.  At least I know they'll never ask me to do it again.)

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I do not understand why councils want to do that, it can't help but keep attendance down. I'm on my Council's Jamboree committee, and the very first decision we made was to not have any side trips, grand tours, etc. We're charging the cost of getting ready, the cost of traveling there and back, and the cost of attending, and that's it.

 

If anyone is interested in going and has a council that is turning it into the Grand Tour of Scouting, you might want to call around to other local councils, or even reach out across the country to find someone who will let you join their contingent and travel with them. There is no rule that you have to only go with your own council.

I suspect councils do it (make jamboree pricey) for a few reasons. It's their shindig so they want a nice one. It's seen as a must-do event even though it's over-hyped. Most council big wigs couldn't do a normal high adventure camp so the biggest plop-camp ever is more their speed.

 

We tried getting another, cheaper council spot in 2010. That proved more difficult (due to time needed to research and make contacts) it was easier to get World Cup tix. In the end my scout simply made the thrifty decision that a week at Disney for the family was the better bargain. Smart kid.

 

Of course I could have given him both (because he did his best...sorry thread mixing :) ). But he would have never learn a valuable lesson...one he keeps with him today.

Edited by Krampus
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Find one's home base on a map.  Draw a 500 mile radius around it.  One now has thousands of inexpensive trips to choose from.  In my case even internationally.  Canoe areas, 20,000+ lakes (Sorry Minnesota, but Wisconsin has 10,000 lakes too), rivers of any challenge level, fishing, camping, national forests, hundreds of miles of national hiking trails, bike trails, State and National Parks, etc. and if one watches closely, there is a National Jamboree in 2017 that costs $850 Canadian and is open to youth 11-14 in Nova Scotia.  Let me see.... West Virginia or Nova Scotia?  Hmmm.   Maybe the Cub National Jamboree in Ontario would be closer.  :)

 

If one is going to only think of great trips as defined by BSA, they are going to miss out on some really neat opportunities out there.

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Find one's home base on a map.  Draw a 500 mile radius around it.  One now has thousands of inexpensive trips to choose from.  In my case even internationally.  Canoe areas, 20,000+ lakes (Sorry Minnesota, but Wisconsin has 10,000 lakes too), rivers of any challenge level, fishing, camping, national forests, hundreds of miles of national hiking trails, bike trails, State and National Parks, etc. and if one watches closely, there is a National Jamboree in 2017 that costs $850 Canadian and is open to youth 11-14 in Nova Scotia.  Let me see.... West Virginia or Nova Scotia?  Hmmm.   Maybe the Cub National Jamboree in Ontario would be closer.  :)

 

If one is going to only think of great trips as defined by BSA, they are going to miss out on some really neat opportunities out there.

 

You mean like this?

 

http://www.freemaptools.com/radius-around-point.htm?clat=51.507351&clng=-0.127758&r=804.672000307346&lc=FFFFFF&lw=1&fc=00FF00&mt=r

 

Yup, 8 countries I think if I want to go international, but that's Europe for you. And yes, there are a lifetime of opportunities just in that little bit. One of those countries I've never been to, and I went to Switzerland when I was 1, so I don't remember it!

 

Ian

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You mean like this?

 

http://www.freemaptools.com/radius-around-point.htm?clat=51.507351&clng=-0.127758&r=804.672000307346&lc=FFFFFF&lw=1&fc=00FF00&mt=r

 

Yup, 8 countries I think if I want to go international, but that's Europe for you. And yes, there are a lifetime of opportunities just in that little bit. One of those countries I've never been to, and I went to Switzerland when I was 1, so I don't remember it!

 

Ian

 

THANKS!  13 states and 2 Canadian provinces!  All within a day's travel!

 

I've been to 48 of the 50 states and excursions into Mexico and Canada.

 

Alaska is #1 on my Bucket List.

Edited by Stosh
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