Trapped by the seasons

As a Scout group, we have traditionally done 4 camps each year: 

• Fall camp is at the beginning of October (2 nights)
• Winter camp is at the beginning of February (2 nights)
• Spring camp is at the beginning of June (2 nights)
• Summer camp is in August at Halliburton Scout Reserve (7 nights).  Less Scouts tend to come to summer camp though because it is a big financial commitment for parents/guardians and is a week long so I hesitate to count it as a camp

I was skimming a report the other day from a University of Waterloo student titled Membership Retention in Scouts (Morland, 2007).  One of the recommendations that caught my eye was to have more activities and camps.  Morland proposes an outdoor activity each month including 6 camps throughout the year.

Why have we always stuck to 4 camps?  Maybe it's just because there happen to be 4 seasons so it's convenient to refer to them by the season they occur in.  This is reinforced by the fact that there are the 'Year-Round Camper' Badges divided by the seasons (though Fall/Spring is one badge).

Essentially what I'm getting at is that it's fairly arbitrary that we have 4 camps.  Why don't we do another Winter camp in December before the Winter break? Or in January shortly after we get back from the break.  Or maybe one in April to fill the gap between Winter and Spring camp.  Or how about a shorter camp earlier in the summer?  

One of the arguments against an additional camp is that it will require more planning time for leaders and another weekend lost.  I would argue that the Scouts should be doing the bulk of the planning and preparing anyways and the independence and confidence they gain from the process is much more valuable than the skill of learning to tie 4 different types of knots.  In terms of the time commitment for leaders, not every leader needs to come to every camp.  Too many leaders at camps has lead to a lack of Scout participation around camp which leads to a lack of them acquiring important camping and survival skills.  Too many leaders and it undermines the independence we are trying to foster among the Scouts.  An additional thing to consider is that camps could be 1 night instead of 2.

As head leader, I'm making it a Troop Goal for the program to follow Morland's suggestion of having at least 1 outing per month.  Also, we will have a 5th camp.  I think being outside as often as possible and fostering independence are 2 key ingredients in keeping Scouts year to year.