>>What I'm wondering about are these Boy Scout camps. When they are learning rock climbing instead of gear prep and woodcraft I begin to question their value.<<

rant on

I have had those sorts of concerns for years - ever since my eldest went to his first BSA summer camp. I worked for changes from within a unit. I worked for changes from within "the system" for three years as the Chairman of the Camping Committee. My eldest started a new program area and ran it, at great personal financial and time hardship for three years. I started asking to be replaced as Camping chair last fall and I finally have a replacement - after he gets back from Jambo <img src="/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

I don't have much hope that it can be fixed. But let me back up and say the Boy Scouts is an absolutely outstanding concept and it really works - at the unit level. So that is where we will pour all of our efforts for the forseeable future.

So what's the problem with camps? Too many to cite, and nothing stands out as a linch pin. But a big part of the problem is how the whole professional structure is set up; the above-the-unit-level organizations and structure known as "BSA", etc. That seems to be impossible to fix. (Mind you, this is not a slam on the professionals themselves - there are many awesome professionals working as best they can within the framework).

This is a tiny thing, but one thing that truly irritates the fire out of me: Most of our annual budget is salary and benefits for professionals. Our single largest INCOME (eg profit) is summer camp. What's wrong with THAT picture???? It's not the COST that bothers me, it's what we DO with that income that bothers me. Too much professional staff - and too many of them have no scouting background and spend too much of their time trying to raise money that goes to pay them instead of supporting the boys and the people who try to bring the concept to life for the boys - where is the benefit to the boys? Again, overall a great bunch of folks, but this is not a jobs program.

Volunteers are a mixed blessing, as anyone who works with volunteers can attest to. <shrug> We can deal with all those things.

I have written here before that I am confident that our scouts can handle about anything tossed at them and have publically stated the same thing many times. They are a real mixed group socio-economically, family circumstances, parental involvement (or lack thereof), etc etc but they are a great bunch of lads. It's for them and the ones who follow after them that we stay involved.

We are seriously considering NOT going to a BSA camp next summer. We certainly will consider using BSA lands, but I'm working to sell the idea of doing an old-fashioned long-term camp on our own instead of this circus of BSA summer camp (it's NOT just our local camp - we've gone other places).

I went to BSA summer camp once or twice when I was a boy. I have only a couple of memories from those. The family vactions we took - and my dad was adament about a family vaction every year - were where I really learned most of my skills; they were like scouting is supposed to be. Guess I'd like to provide those sorts of experiences to the scouts in our unit. Our sons are now all Eagle scouts, in or starting college, so it's not for "us" that we want to do this; it's for all the boys.

If anyone feels critical of scouting, I challenge that person to do something productive by getting involved with a local troop. I know all the excuses for not getting involved, because I invented most of them myself. I wish I had been much more involved earlier in my eldest son's scouting experiences, but at least I was there with him the last couple of years of his time as a youth. Looking ahead, not back, we will do our best for present and future boys. It's not easy and it takes a huge amount of time.

I've lamented many times how most of the truly experienced outdoorsmen in this country are exceedingly selfish (as a group) - they don't share themselves with youth. Did you know that if BSA had not relented and allowed women to be Assistant Scoutmasters and Scoutmasters, the program would not exist today? Too few men get involved these days. That's a slam on our present day culture and personal "values", and it's a deserved slam. What a sad situation!

rant off

Your question is appropriate.

Regards,

Tom