According to the Finnish campers, the rules of the South Korean scout camp were unnecessarily strict. According to the management of the Finnish team, there are no special changes in the rules compared to previous years.
International scout camp Jamboree was organized in South Korea from 1 to 12 August. About 900 Finns participated in the camp.
A 17-year-old camper Jere feels that the expectations for the Korean jamboree were not fulfilled.
“It wasn’t a super bad experience, but it really could have been a lot better,” says Jere.
Jere does not appear in the story under his own name, because it could affect his activities in the patrol.
The camp had to be evacuated due to the danger of a typhoon on August 8. In total, nearly 40,000 campers were moved to evacuation centers in and around the capital of South Korea, Seoul. The closing ceremony of the camp was held in Seoul on August 11. Before the evacuation, the camp had been sweltering in exceptionally hot temperatures.
However, according to Jere, the biggest problem was not the weather conditions and evacuation, but general communication.
“We thought that our own camp flag municipality leaders do not give us good information. It turned out that the transmission of information from the entire Jamboree team worked poorly.”
Finnish campers, i.e. scouts between the ages of 14 and 18, formed 18 camp flags, each with around 35 campers. In addition to them, there were Finnish adult volunteers at the camp who did not belong to the camp flag corps.
Each camp flag association had four camp flag association leaders. The camp flag council leaders were guided by the flag council masters, participant leaders, the management team of the Finnish team and the welfare team.
Jeren in the camp flag union, the situation escalated to the point that people started to rebel against the leaders of the camp flag union.
The campers’ rebellion started when other camp flag units found out about the evacuation decision before Jere’s camp flag unit. Arguments arose in the camp because some knew that evacuation was ahead and some did not.
“People started deliberately breaking the rules. The campers wanted to show that it was annoying. Leaders could be barked at even when they were within earshot. During one night, the flag of the camp ensign had disappeared, I don’t know who took it, but I’m pretty sure it was one of us.”
The camp was tormented by the heat of nearly 40 degrees, which was relieved by the construction of cooling canopies.
Second Camper reached by HS SpongeBob is disappointed with the rules of the camp and feels that the management of the Finnish team kept the campers in the dark. SpongeBob does not appear in the story under his own name, because it could affect his activities in the patrol.
As an example, Paavo increases the home arrival times outlined by the Finnish team. Originally, the policy was that at 9:30 p.m. all Finnish camp flag authorities had to be in the camp. Later, the rule was relaxed and the time was moved to ten in the evening.
“For example, 1.5 hours of the opening was missed, because the Finns had to leave because of their home time. We have come here to create experiences and make friendships across borders. It won’t happen because the rules of the Finnish team are so strict.”
According to Paavo, the flag council leaders got into a nasty mess at the jamboree.
“The problems do not originate in the leaders of the smaller group, but in the policies that are done at the ‘big tables’.”
The camper feels that the principles behind the rules should be discussed.
“At the camp, a meeting was held between my camp flag officers, which also included the persons responsible for the Finnish camp flag officers. One said directly that he will not justify why he is not allowed to walk outside alone.”
According to Paavo, the program at the camp was nice, and he does not blame the camp management for factors beyond their control.
“Of course, no one from the team management can influence things beyond our control, such as the heat and the typhoon hitting, and the camp itself was really fun,” Paavo says and continues:
“As a camper, I only wish that things would be opened up to us from the camp management level.”
According to the camper, the campers and the parents of the campers give an unreasonable amount of work to the camp flag municipality leaders.
Campers Jere and Paavo belonged to the same camp flag corps.
Finland team leader Saara Pajunpää says that the rules were discussed with the participants before the camp at the camp flag council meetings. The communication and marketing manager of the Finnish Scouts also took part in the phone interview conducted by HS Anna Koroma-Mikkola.
“It was made clear to everyone that the team follows the team rules. They took into account the legislation of Finland and Korea as well as the rules of the camp,” says Pajunpää.
According to Pajunpää, the principles behind the rules have also been discussed with both adult and minor scouts.
“There has been a discussion and it has been told why this is the case. Nor do the rules particularly differ from the rules of previous jamborees.”
According to Pajunpää, the decision to evacuate was given to all Finnish camp flags at the same time. The leaders of the camp flag municipalities could decide themselves how to inform the campers about it.
“Some wanted to tell the news to the campers face to face,” says Pajunpää.
Before the camp flags were informed about the matter, the World Organization of Scouting WOSM had time to publish a bulletin about it.
“The notification went out before any country had time to inform their own team about the evacuation. The information spread like wildfire in channels where it shouldn’t have gone.”
According to Pajunpää, the spread of the release messed up the whole picture. Because of that, some of the campers got the information through something other than the Finnish team.
The closing ceremony of the Jamboree was held at the World Cup Stadium in Seoul.
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