Title: INTERNET SCOUTING
Author: Michael F. Bowman
Company: Attorney at Law

SCOUTS-L
----------
CAMPOREE
IDEAS

 Date: Sat, 18 Nov 1995 01:06:25 -0500 (EST)
From: "Michael F. Bowman" <mfbowman@CapAccess.org>
Subject: Re: Scouting's Image - Camporee Ideas

Doug Nunnally raised a great question that may tie in directly to the 
discussion of Scouting's Image.

Consider the theme "Bringing Scouting to the Community."  Sounds hard or 
whacky? Certainly it would be challenging, but consider:

Try to have the camporee in an area accessable to the largest population 
areas of your Council or District and advertise like mad for visitors.
Go for broke with posters in libraries, grocery stores, schools, 
churches, meeting halls, or anywhere people go.  Use radio, Public TV spots, 
Cable TV spots/announcements, newspaper special interest stories, etc. 
Ask every Scouter to advertise via e-mail links.  Get the word out.  Now 
comes the show part.

Arrange a very large demonstration service project - something to benefit 
the community that is really visable for Saturday Morning - could be as 
simple as cleaning up the park you are using and planting several hundred 
trees, or a giant litter campaign in all directions from the camporee 
with special patches to participants and awards for recycling contributions.

Show off your best fun activities on Saturday Afternoon.  Pull out the 
stops to do whatever the facility will allow.

Have a show and do mall or display area and encourage displays, exhibits, 
etc. form each unit about their activities that is in an area where any 
visitor has to pass by to see anything else.

Invite media people to a special pancake breakfast and lunch steak cook-out 
with a very strange admission fee - microphone or camera. :-)  

Combine the camporee with Scouting Roundup and advertise everywhere that 
this is where youth and parents can come sign up to join.  Of course 
you'll have to have the commissioners mobilized to link new Scouts to 
units and a place to do this, but why not.

You get the idea - sell the program, invite the community to see, invite 
new members, etc.     Above all else, though, make sure that the 
activities are fun and engaging to maximum extent practicable.  

Of course this is just the genisus of an idea and needs development, but 
I would guess that some gung-ho Scouters in your area could build on it 
and do much better.

Every Scout gathering is an opportunity to make the game of Scouting fun 
and help the Scouts grow and this still has to take precedence.  But why 
not also see each gathering as an opportunity to sell the program to the 
community it serves and to other youth that might benefit?  

Speaking only for myself in the Scouting Spirit, Michael F. Bowman
DDC-Training, GW Dist. Nat Capital Area Council mfbowman@CAPACCESS.ORG

Date:         Mon, 27 Nov 1995 08:28:35 -0500
From: Mary Lee Foley <MFOLEY@UTNET.UTOLEDO.EDU>
Subject:      Re: Scoutings Image -Reply

Reading about camping in a city park in Buffalo (Don: Delaware Park?)
prompts me to relate info on our urban camporee.

For 3 or 4 years now we've held our district's fall camporee in a city park
here in Toledo.  It's in a decent area, but few people generally go to that
park after dinner for the usual reasons.  Several years ago, Joe Montes,
an enthusiastic and very active Scouter, tried to persuade other leaders
that Walbridge Park would be a good place to show off scouting skills
and it wouldn't require much travel.  (It's at the edge of the district, but
that puts it within 5 miles, tops, of every unit in the district.)  Joe died
before seeing his ideas come to fruition, but now we have the Joe
Montes Memorial Camporee there and an outstanding scout is given the
Joe Montes Award at Saturday's campfire.

But I digress... I meant to tell you about logistics and public relations.  The
park is about 200 yeards deep, from the street to the river and about 1/2
- 3/4 mile long.  It's also free of undergrowth, being populated with trees
and a FEW bushes.  This means we can see most of the activity from the
center, and keep an eye on things from almost anywhere in the park.
While we know the police keep a special lookout over the weekend, a
local Explorer post actually provides the security.  (I think they get a
donation from the district to the post.)  I have been on the planning
committee for a couple of weekends and have attended with my troop.  I
have never heard of any security problems.  And the one time a kid did
something really stupid and got hurt (minor injury but caused some
concern,) the fire department took about 1 minute to get there.  (Side
note: you should have seen the traffic control as soon as we heard the
siren about 1 block away.  The firemen had NO trouble knowing where
to stop!)

Being in the city has other advantages, too.  We had another crew from
the fire department later in the day.  The kids got to climb around the truck
and talk to the crew after a demo.  The Dept. of Natural resources had
canoeing demos.  Other weekends have included people from the local
... oh, what are they called ... hunters and scouts and storytellers
resembling those of 100-200 years ago.  Local government officials
come out sometimes, generally to present special awards; the
newspapers generally print a picture or two along with a story; and
people driving by honk and wave!

Whenever we camp outside a Scout camp, we gather everyone for a
service project on Saturday.  The fall camporee is easy: the zoo is
across the street, so the committee arranges for us to do manual labor
over there.  It's great PR, too.  Boys in scout uniforms can be seen all
over the zoo after the project because we intentionally schedule free
time then.

All in all, it's good for the boys, good for BSA and good for the
neighborhood.

Mary Lee Foley
Pack 71 - Den Leader Coach, Newsletter Editor
Troop 71 - Advancement Chairman, Newsletter Editor
Anthony Wayne District - Cub Scout Activities Chairman
Toledo Area Council, Toledo, Ohio

Date:         Tue, 28 Nov 1995 13:53:59 -0500
From: "Norman J. MacLeod" <gaelwolf@SSNET.COM>
Subject:      Re: Anyone there?  Camporee Ideas Needed

Doug -

I designed and managed a Camporee based on kite-flying as the primary
activity - with a Highland Games secondary theme in case the wind
didn't play.

In the event, the wind was just fine, and the Highland Games was a
fantastic success.

There were no complaints from the Cubs or Scouts. One adult thought
there was too much for the kids to do (he was complaining), and I
replied that I had PLANNED that there would be too much going on for
any Scout to do everything!

We rounded out Saturday with a "Posh Meal" a British competition
where each Patrol is expected to put on the fanciest feast possible.
Leaders from other Troops are individually invited by the Patrol as
guests (and judges). The Patrols were warned of this event months in
advance, and many went to great lengths to be in the competition at
the top end (I still don't know if the Patrol with the good china and
the gold-plated flatware had asked permission to take the hardware
camping for the weekend...)

There were flowers in vases, cloth napkins in rings, tablecloths,
printed menus, and multiple-course dinners in many campsites.

The campfire was fairly standard, but with a twist, since we wanted
the Scouts to actually SING for real. We had a traditional folk group
come to play live music for us. A sneaky technique that worked quite
well. They stayed after the campfire programme to play some more -
and about half the camp stayed to hear them!

We planned departure for early afternoon on Sunday, which gave plenty
of time for a Scouts' Own that was run by the senior Scouts. This was
followed by a Stratego wide game.

Perhaps some of these activities would fit what you are looking for?

        Norman

Date:         Sun, 11 Aug 1996 08:16:19 +0000
From: Per Pettersson <per.pettersson@gymnasiet.monsteras.se>
Subject:      Hajk (very long)

I recieved a letter that asked me to send in the hajk to the scoutlist,
so here it is. It4s a long story but I hope that it4s good reading and
will give you some new ideas.

I4ll try to give you correct information about our hajk. This was a hajk
that was organiced like a star. We had control 14 in the middle and the
other 13 in a circel with about 10 minutes way to go from one control to
the next. We could start 13 patrols at the same time. They all started
in the middle and had the controlmanager of each control to guide them
out to the controls. When they arrived to the first control (one patrol
one each of the controls 1-13) there was a briefing about the control
and so it started. All patrols started at the same time and had about
15 minutes before they had to go to the next control. As we had 14
controls and dinnerbreak (30 minutes) the whole hajk took about 4 hours.
For the patrols that not started on control 1 there was a jump from 13
to 1 as they went along in the dark. Now over to the controls.

Control 1: Slalom with a canoe. We had 7 gates on a sea and they should
paddle through the gates in a specified order. The time for full (10)
points was 2.30 min. then they lost 1 point/minut.

Control 2. Another canoe-challenge. This time it was the strength that
was the main thing. We had five cans with 3 litres of water in each of
them. The cans where attached to a rope with about 1/2 meter between
them. The other end was attached to the canoe so when the scouts
paddled out in the lake the rope went through a block up in a tree and
down to the cans. For each of the cans that where lifted from the ground
the patrol gained 2 points, max 10.

Control 3. Fire. Light a fire in a specified spot and then make it move
to another spot and burn of a rope thats about 30 centimeters over
the ground.

Control 4. Judgement of a distanse. There where 5 different lights
that the scouts should tell how far away they are.

Control 5. Course with obstacle. They had a rope that was streched round
trees, over rocks and so on. The rope was about 25 meters long. On one
end of the rope there was a bucket with water. The control was to move
the bucket to the other end of the rope without spilling any water. The
rope went through the handle of the bucket and it was not allowed to
untie the rope. Points after how much water there is left in the bucket.

Control 6. Lifeline. Throuws on different targets on the groud or up
in a tree.

Control 7. The bunker. In the bunker there is about 20-25 things that
have something to do with scouting. Its not dark, its black. And no
light. Find and identify so many objects as possible in 3 minutes.

Control 8. Treatment of an injury. In our case it was a broken leg.
How to do it, and how to call for help.

Control 9. The fire is loose. There was a fire, a firepump and a lake.
It was not allowed to move the firepump. There was also a bucket and
three tins. One tin had a hole in the bottom, the next tin had three
and the last tin had eight holes. The bucket was full of holes in the
bottom and about 10 cm. up on the edges. The bucket should be white so
it can be seen in the dark. If they havent put out the fire in 1 minute
it will explode (a firework).

Control 10. The knot. 10 different knots in bags. One in each bag. The
scouts shall tell the name of each knot by feeling on the outside of
the bags.

Control 11. Slime. 10 different buckets with slimy things in. It can
be cold porridge, cold spagetti and so on. In five of them there is
a small piece of wood (like a dice) with a letter on it. Make a word
with the five letters.

Control 12. Lashing. The patrol shall lash a threefoot? with two
crossbars. All of the patrol shall stand on the crossbars while the
patrol-leader runs three times round it. Make sure that the sticks
is in different lengths. This will make it more difficulty.

Control 13. Orientation. The patrol will be given a startingspot.
>From that spot they shall go x meters in a specific direction, now
they will get a new direction and go x meters. This will be repeated
5-7 times and when they are finished they should mark the place.
Measure the distance from the patrols spot to the right one.

Control 14. Burner. In Sweden all of the patrols have their own
"kitchen" with a paraffinoil-burner. Tell the patrol to pour in oil
and to light it. Now shall the patrol tell you when there is enough
oil left to burn for three minutes. When they tell you, you4ll start
a watch to take the time until the oil is finished and the fire is out.

Each of the controls had a possible point of 10. But the patrols could
gain up to 5 extra points in behaving, both in the control and when
they arrived to it.

I think that this is about everything that we did that night. It was
not so difficulty but it was dark. We called the hajk The Lantern.
The patrols had only two oillamps. By the way, the patrols made their
own dinner (as usual) in the middle of the night.

If there is something thats not clear, please mail me.

--
Per Pettersson ;-)

Mvnsteresgymnasiet
Tel.    +46 (0)499 17500
Torggatan 15
                                        Fax.    +46 (0)499 17338
383 31 MVNSTERES
                E-mail. per.pettersson@gymnasiet.monsteras.se

http://bip.concept.se/user/perp/perp.html

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