Dear Scouting Leaders:
Thank you to all of you who were able to make the Townhall webinar this past Tuesday evening and hear about our Council’s COVID-19 re-opening plans. It has been a challenge to plan a re-opening of our facilities and programs/events, given the uncertainty of the COVID-19 crisis and the myriad layers of regulatory direction.
The Greater Los Angeles Area Council (“GLAAC”) leadership team wants you to know that many of our volunteers and staff have been working tirelessly to bring programs and events to our Council youth who recently have had limited options to engage in Scouting or other activities. While it has taken time to understand the issues and implications, our sole intention was to bring our members a safe program as expeditiously as possible.
In our Townhall conversation, we shared our research about the regulatory framework as it impacts our Council as well as our planning and timelines for re-opening various aspects of the Council. These documents have been updated and posted on our Council website
www.glaacbsa.org/Scouting_at_Home
. As we stated, these re-opening plans will be fluid and subject to evolving
COVID-19
waves as well as regulatory guidance.
We received one piece of guidance this past Wednesday from
the County of San Bernardino where they declined to provide a permit of our “Adventure Weekend” and Cub Scout Resident Camp program (formerly at Camp Cherry Valley) at Hubert Eaton Scout Reservation
(near Lake Arrowhead).
While the County was complimentary of our protocols and plans, they were very clear that “no overnight Youth or Family camping was going to take place in San Bernardino County without further guidance from the State of California” (there are 158 Youth/Family camps in San Bernardino County).
However, we have a clear plan of action with our abbreviated calendar below for re-opening our Scout Shops and our “Valley” camps (Trask, Cabrillo, and possibly Firestone). Currently, guidelines only allow youth programs to meet under the auspices of a supervised program such as day camp. We know there is a huge desire for Scouting programs to continue. Therefore, we will provide programmed opportunities at our Camps so that our Youth members can participate in programs or service projects.