If you are securing your camp site through the Local Council, no extensive investigation of it will be necessary. You will know that it is suitable and will be able to get all the desired information about it.

On the other hand, if it is a new site just discovered, a proper investigation should be made and you should speak to the owner and secure the necessary permission for its use. Then you must be sure that the Scouts know and live up to any promise that has been made about the way in which it will be used.

Who Investigates

In an old Troop, the Camp Committee established for the occasion will take care of the investigation, while in a new Troop, it is advisable to have the Troop Leaders' Council do it through a Green Bar Patrol short-term camp. And that does not mean to give it a cursory "once-over." It means that all factors that enter into a happy camping experience should be considered as they are related to that particular site.

You hike to camp if you are old hands at packing. You put up tents and improve your set-up as a by-product to a wonderful good time.

It is discouraging and not very helpful for the general morale to have the Troop eaten alive by mosquitoes, punkies, ants or yellow jackets, to have the

Scouts become infected with poison ivy, to have tents trampled down by roaming cattle, to have visitors hanging around all day, or to be forced to tote water and wood over too great a distance. For these reasons the investigators should spend a night on the site. This is the only way to be sure it is suitable.

3. Making The Announcements

For a short-term camp the announcements should be made well in advance, so that the Patrols will have time to discuss the problems involved and get together their personal and Patrol equipment.

Here again, as was true of a hike, the boys should be made to feel that you are not having the camp just to have another camp (although this really is sufficient reason), but rather that there is a very special purpose, whether this be specific training for a Council Camporee or for the summer camp, or living up to the Troop's tradition of "A camp a month," or simply making "Every Scout of Troop 18 a First Class Camper!"