Cub Camping

[wagionvigil]

It seems that Cub Long Term Camping is on the decline. is that the case around the country? At one time our council had a waiting list for their Cub Long term camps this year we actually cancelled a couple of weeks. I am going to try in the near future to look at long term camp 10 years ago and Long term Camping today. I must wait for some details to put it together.

[gwd-scouter]

I can speak only about our Council's Cub Resident Camp Program, as I attended as a leader since they began (1995), was camp director for five years after that, and am aware of the numbers the past three years since I left Cubs and moved up to Boy Scouts.

First few years (95-97) were small, only about 75 scouts/parents. New program I guess and the word hadn't really spread. 1998 was better with about 150 scouts/parents. 1999 saw an increase to around 175 scouts/parents and in 2000 we were preparing to close the registration. Our camp can't handle more than 300 for Cub Resident Camp and we were getting close. Actually wound up with 297.

Years 2001-2003 had somewhere around 275-290 each. Year 2004 dropped a bit, but 2005 and 2006 for some reason really had a decline with 2006 having slightly less than 200 cubs/parents.

Only my opinion here, but part of the reason for the decline in the past three years (other than the obvious that I am no longer the Camp Director ) is for the past several years our Council Camp has offered cub/parent weekends through the months of October and November. These split weekends (Fri night to Sat noon or Sat night to Sunday noon) cost about $10 as opposed to the four day resident camp charging somewhere around $75.00.

[scoutaholic]

I don't know the numbers for cub & webelos resident camps in our council, but I can tell you some reasons why they aren't higher.

The LDS Church sponsors 99.9% or the packs in our Council. The LDS church cub policy is that they can't do overnight camps.

Our council charges $85 per person. If the camp were better organized, and the staff trained, I could see that price for the cubs. I don't see any reason that a parent (who has to be there so their boy can camp) should pay $85 to eat bad food and sit on the sidelines with nothing to do for 3 days.

[ICanCanoeCanU]

Maybe the council in your area should be looking for sponsers other than LDS churches. Since the rules of LDS conflict with thoughts in the scouting program, this doesn't seem like the best combination.

[riverwalk]

Please share how other Councils address this. For Cub Scout overnighters, only approved sites are allowed to be used. In some Councils, state parks (with correct facilities) satisfy this. In my Council, only Council camps are now approved for Cubs. Yet many of these families won't go to these camps as facilities are often less adequate than some state parks. We have the form to try and get other sites approved, but so far nothing is approved. So what do y'all use, that has restrooms and showers?