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With the lawsuit news and everything going on with my council and district, I am depressed.  When the opportunity arose to work on district camporee, I jumped at it with the hopes It would cheer me up. Me and the other two folks working on the camporee agreed to invite the SPLs and any PLC members to attend the Roundtable to get input from them on camporee. 3 Scouts from 2 units showed up. I admit, I was hoping for more to attend, especially since one of the Scouts was my son, and I have been bouncing ideas off of him from the get go. But I think it went well, and the Scouts will be pleased.

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Need some brainstorming ideas that were not covered last night due to lack of time. What are some ways to encourage district unity among the Scouts, and more importantly, among the adults?

Long backstory short, the new district is comprised of three old districts. 2 of those districts have some deep-seated rivalry/hatred from before I got here. that I cannot understand. At one point neither district wanted to work with the other, and when we had to share a DE, it was from another district that is actually further away. The third district does their own thing and could care less about the council.  They are the furthest away from the council office, in one of the poorest and most rural areas in the nation, and have always been treated as a redheaded stepchild. When they got DEs, they didn't last long and were always looking to leave.  So they have received very poor service from the council.

This district camporee will be the first full district event since the merger on January 1, 2020. Because of COVID, we have no true district committee, just the previous three district committee carrying on until the new district gets organized. And with no DE and Chairman to help organize the new district, it has been a challenge. So I need to come up with ways to promote unity.

We are off to a shaky start. Last nite's meeting only had Scouts from 1  old district represented. Adults from 2 of the old districts were there.

Due to logistics,  we will have multiple troops in campsites. I already know that troops from the different old districts will be sharing campsites. Another long story short, for a long time the council did not take care of this camp and individual troops had to make repairs, pay for improvements (i.e. waterlines and spigots, pavilions, fire rings, etc). So each troop is protective of "their campsite."

But what are some other ways to promote unity?

 

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Pushing @Eagledad's idea, how about getting adults from different districts to work together to run events for patrols? Or organize them? Have a campfire just for adults and, again, mix up the adults from different districts and have them put on skits. That could be fun for the scouts as well.

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31 minutes ago, MattR said:

Pushing @Eagledad's idea, how about getting adults from different districts to work together to run events for patrols? Or organize them? Have a campfire just for adults and, again, mix up the adults from different districts and have them put on skits. That could be fun for the scouts as well.

We have had the troop adults cook the Saturday night meal for everyone. But, you could also do training for swimming, rappelling, boating and so forth. Fun stuff that would pull all the adults into the same group. 

Barry

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Please keep the ideas coming!

 

@MattRHaving adults from different counties of the new district is the game plan. Planning on having a cracker barrel for the adults, and I hope this helps.

 

@Eagledad,  That was once a tradition in the old district, and had to be abandoned because of the new NCAP accreditation standards. Even though we have been a unified district since January of 2020, at the council camporee this year we stayed in our old areas. The area my old district was at had a potluck where every unit from the old district brought food. It was believed that would be OK per NCAP.  When I suggested that for the district camporee,  I was told, "NO!" Apparently the guy who organized the potluck, who is also helping to organize the district camporee,  got in a bit of trouble over the potluck.

As it is, the cooking contest raised concerns. Apparently one of the former districts used the cooking contest as their district wide dinner. And they got into trouble over that. We had to make sure we have adult judges sampling the food, and not Scouts. In the past the OA members in the camporee trading post would serve as judges as a way of saying thank you for working the weekend.

Again please keep ideas coming for I want to unify this district. And I will post more details about council/district faldercarb in the appropriate thread.

Edited by Eagle94-A1
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Im not thinking competition, or judging, or potluck. I’m thinking adults get together to cook the meal. We did this at a trooperee where the adults roasted a whole pig. It’s an all day job. You could have several shifts where each member of the shift is from a different troop. There are adults that love that stuff.

Barry

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  • 9 months later...
7 hours ago, Better4itall said:

Hey @Eagle94-A1 How did the Camporee wind up going?  What worked, what didn't?  Any advice from the trenches? 

Overall everyone had fun but one troop, and that was on me. When I get stessed, i say stupud jokes. One of my jokes was putting the 2 "antisocial" troops together because both want to be away from others. That one SM did not appreciate the joke and was mad. He expressed his displeasure all weekend. Ironic thing is my troop is the other "antisocial" troop.

 

Did a standard cook off with guest judges. That worked well for the units. The judges however almost went into diabetic shock with all the sweets.

 

Events events went well and everyone had fun.

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