The Council Room

[Jim Culleton]

Does anyone remember the "Master Activity Score Board" that used to hang on the Boyden Chapel porch wall, in the vicinity of where we used to do manual of arms training? The "board" listed all Jr's and Sr's (not sure about Midgets) by name on the left with the various activity headings to the right. Under each activity was an "X" box or a "#" box which was filled in when a camper completed a particular activity throughout the summer. It was a way for each of us to monitor our progress towards achievement of the Honor Camper, and to help avoid too much concentration in just a few activity areas. To achieve Honor Camper we had to be "generalists", having to complete activities in each category i.e. swimming, baseball, camping etc., and in most cases more than once.

I don't remember who was responsible for updating this BIG spreadsheet which obviously was done by hand back in the late '50's early '60's. Maybe it was Irving Vaughan that wrote in the updates which became more frequent as the end of Camp drew near and kids were trying to fill in the activity "gaps" that one may have missed.

That had to have been a huge record keeping job but an important one if one wanted to achieve Honor Camper for that summer. I don't know why I didn't carry a #2 pencil with me to fill out my own entries, but maybe the sheet was covered so that we couldn't monkey with the numbers!

P.S. As I remember Jr's were set up on activity teams named after NE prep schools i.e. Kent, Choate, Exeter, etc. One followed their respective team all summer, although I remember a few "free days" where one could go to an activity of their choice. Seniors had more leeway as they were not set up on "teams" per se and had more flexibility. Not sure about that. Didn't the Midgets go to activities on a "cabin" basis?

The scheduling that went into "who was going where" on a particular day had to be very time consuming for those involved in the planning processes for all three sections of camp!
_________________
'56 - J-9 J. Moulton
'57 - J-11 J. Moulton
'58 - J-4 E. Web Dann, S. Hood
'59 - S-6 P. Leavitt
'60 - S-2 F. Avantaggio
'61 - JA-1 RK Irons
'62 - C-9 JC with P. Freeland
'63 - C-1 JC with S. Borger
'64 - C-6 Councilor

[DavidAyars]

This is going to be more than you wanted to know about this but, here goes.

What I remember from my years was similar, but different in some details, and I may be wrong about some of these, so anyone who remembers better should feel free to offer corrections or additions. In the corner of the Midget Dining Room to the right of the fireplace were two manila roughly 16"x24" handwritten charts that displayed each camper's "activity points", one for Juniors, the other for Seniors. (As I recall, the Midgets had a somewhat different points system, but I wasn't in Cabintown other than for a week as a JA, so I don't remember much about theirs.) The Jr-Sr charts were divided into four areas.

Group 1 was jock sports, like baseball, tennis, and soccer. Group 2 was waterfront activities, like swimming, canoeing, and sailing. Group 3 was stuff that didn't fit into Groups 1 and 2 with emphasis on nerdiness, like riflery, archery, shop, camping, etc. You got one point in Groups 1 through 3 by simply showing up and participating without a major problem in your morning or afternoon activity. Group 4 was achievement points, that you might get for passing a level in swimming, or canoeing, or riflery. Most but not all regular activities had a way of earning achievement points. It was often easy to get one achievement point, and increasingly difficult to get more. Above each of the activities in groups 1-4 was a number that designated the maximum that could be earned in that column . As I remember, the most points you could get for the first three groups, for attendance, in any one activity, was eight. And in Group 4, it might have been a maximum of three achievement points per activity. The point of the groups and of the maximums was to encourage generalization or a liberal arts approach to camp. When you maxxed out the points you could get in one activity, the councilor tallying points would ink that number in. Further points earned there still counted in general points, just not towards Honor Camper awards.

To win the Honor Camper, you had to have a total of 60 points, if you were an 8-week camper. That I remember. (Lots of campers had 70 or 80 points by the end of the summer, and leaders would earn over 100. Rarely, what Bob Vaughan would term an "ace" kid would double out, earning in effect two Honor Campers by getting 120 points and twice the required distributions per group, though there was no such award or recognition officially.) To earn the Honor Camper, there was also a required distribution, though I don't recall exactly what that was. Something like 15-15-10-10 and 10 others your choice, or 20-20-15-5. You might have had to have more achievement points if you were a 2nd year candidate in your section than a 1st year candidate, or if you were a Senior. If you attended fewer than 8 weeks, the Honor Camper requirements were prorated. Most campers got Honor Camper awards. Those few who won Honor Camper awards as Midgets, and as Juniors, and as Seniors won a Gold Camper award when they first got Honor Camper as a senior.

Some campers were highly motivated by points, to the point of whining about them until councilors became annoyed, like a student arguing a test score with a teacher. Other campers really didn't care much at all. Most were somewhere in the middle. They cared but it wasn't their highest priority.

There was a Blue vs. Gray competition in points, updated weekly at campfire, and about that, most campers did care, cheering lustily if their color was ahead. As long as the number of Blue and Gray campers was even, both colors earned about the same number of activity points, but there'd be differences in achievement points, with of course the Blues usually dominating there. Some years, the competition was quite close, *cough* probably due to Gray cheating.

Bob Fox was Program Director most of my years, and he did the activity scheduling, and yes, that was a huge job and there was always griping about some people having more access to some activities (desired or not) than others. And yes, there were prep-school groups for Juniors, with occasional free-choice activity periods. Seniors almost always had elective activities.

Most years that I was there, Bob Vaughan tallied the Jr.-Sr. points. One or two summers, when either he was not there or he was Junior Camp head councilor and begged off, I did it. I think I got $25 or $50 extra for that duty. It did take some time, especially double-checking to be sure the points were tallied correctly (without a calculator). Councilors would hand in to a box? or the camp store mailbox? their activity point sheets for each morning or afternoon activity. Some councilors, you had to chase after, and they'd "guesstimate" the points days or a week later. The way we tried to prevent cheating was by thumbtacking over the activity chart a clear vinyl sheet. I think there were rare incidents where somebody got caught cheating anyway. It wouldn't be hard for the tallier to spot a different style of writing unless somebody was a very good mimic. Old activity sheets were kept for checking if necessary.

One year when I was a camper, Dan Mannis and I were having a running public "feud". We were actually friendly, and grew closer as the years went on. But we pretended to be feuding. Late that summer, Dan had RoV erase all my points and write "The Baron [von Mannis] strikes again." I forget what the ransom was. Repainting the JA-2 platform, or creosoting the turnboards, or burying that summer's dead JAs, I don't know, something.
_________________
Camper: J-8 1965 (Kevin Ryan), J-8 1966 (Mike Freeland), S-6 1967 (Russ Hatch), S-3 1968 (Jeremy Cripps), and JA-2 1969 (Dan Mannis).
JC: J-2 1970 (Bill Bettison) and J-3 1971 (Gene Comella). Councilor 1972, J-5 1973, and JA-1 1974 & 1975

[Jim Culleton]

Great write up, Dave. Much of what you recounted I either never knew or had forgotten. I think I was one of those "fall in the middle" campers that didn't care too much about the points until the last couple of weeks . . . the Honor Camper "crunch time"! I believe that I made Honor Camper in most years but, never having been a Midget, I could not compete for the Gold Honor Camper. I don't remember whether Larry or Dick (brothers) achieved the "Gold" as they were in all three sections during their tenure. I'll have to check that one out!

I appreciate the details as I never really knew all the work that went into activity planning, implementation and recording. You had first hand experience. Interestingly enough I remember on a rare occasion being assigned as a Jr. to the same activity on two consecutive days which wasn't a bad thing if it was an activity that one liked.
_________________
'56 - J-9 J. Moulton
'57 - J-11 J. Moulton
'58 - J-4 E. Web Dann, S. Hood
'59 - S-6 P. Leavitt
'60 - S-2 F. Avantaggio
'61 - JA-1 RK Irons
'62 - C-9 JC with P. Freeland
'63 - C-1 JC with S. Borger
'64 - C-6 Councilor

[Mike Freeland]

The Midgets, like the Juniors, were assigned to teams, but they were Major League Baseball team names as opposed to the Junior's prep school names. When I ws a midget, the Dodgers were from Brooklyn (Da Bums, right?). I was on the (Milwaukee) Braves.

At one point, I was told (by BMB I think) that the point of creating teams was to get the kids out of the tent/cabin group so they could meet and play (or compete) with other boys. It was a great way to mix everyone up. Juniors and Midgets were considered too young to be able to decide to take swimming instruction on those cold August mornings, or to choose anything other than Shop for the entire summer (which is what I'd have done if given the opportunity), so Bob Fox took that responsibility for them.

Bob also had the habit of assigning councilors to the same activities day after day, mornings and afternoons, all summer long. Some (like me)didn't mind that. I taught woodcraft, camping and canoeing when I wasn't out of camp on mountain/lake/river trips. It doesn't get any better than that. I've always thanked the stars in the universe that I never became proficient at archery or, God help me, baseball.

In the later years, I was being assigned (along with some hearty Seniors) to an activity called "Area Beautification". I have no idea how that fit into the point system, but we'd build or repair erosion control timbers on steep trails, clear low brush and tall saplings to free up views (from the Chapel, Boyden and Midget), and ultimately clearing the area near the Big Guest House for the new soccer field. We took down some HUGE pine trees in that process. It was a great way to keep in shape and coated with pine pitch.

Wait a minute, Dave. I thought you were a gray. You lied to me all these years?
_________________
'56-C-9 C. Mosher '57-C-9 Bill Feaster
'58-J-14 H. Peavy '59-J-11 G. Wood, C. Duncan
'60-S-8 R. Leavitt, D. Hemphill '61-S-1 E. Slocum
'62-JA-1 H. Dunbar '63-C-2 (JC)
'64-C-5, (JC) Councilor
'65-C-9 '66 - '72-J-8
'73-JA1 '75-J-6

[Jim Culleton]

No baseball, nor archery nor riflery Mike? I don't blame you on the baseball and archery. I remember when Webb Dan taught Jr/Sr archery out back behind the Treasure House? I don't think I ever hit that straw filled target. My arrow always seemed to slip off of that string that was attached to the bow. I forget what it's called!

I think I spent more time teaching riflery as a JC & councilor in Cabintown than any other activity. For some reason I enjoyed it and I am sure I was only one of a few "lefties" in that sport. The campers seemed to like it as well, laying on those smelly mold ridden twin mattresses at the Midget Camp rifle range down in back of the Midget Chapel. The Midgets used B-B guns and the Jr/Sr's used 22's. Little did I know that I would be trained on how to use an M-16 later on in Army Reserves basic training in 1970.

I don't know who put it there but it seemed that the Midget rifle range always had a portable radio that we could listen to. Maybe I took mine down. That memory escapes me a bit. Fun times.
_________________
'56 - J-9 J. Moulton
'57 - J-11 J. Moulton
'58 - J-4 E. Web Dann, S. Hood
'59 - S-6 P. Leavitt
'60 - S-2 F. Avantaggio
'61 - JA-1 RK Irons
'62 - C-9 JC with P. Freeland
'63 - C-1 JC with S. Borger
'64 - C-6 Councilor

[Pat Freeland]

I had been reflecting on the point system recently while engaged in a mindless task like mowing our yard, and decided that in principle it was dumb. Not totally, the achievement points were sensible but....

First of all councilors had to take attendance, and then turn in the lists, and I for one am guilty of forgetting to do the first, and even if I did I sometimes failed in the second.

Second, theoretically all boys went to all activities they were assigned to every day, so except for the seniors who could choose, the accruing of points was not something they could control.

Third, by the end of the second or third week the piece of paper on which the points were tallied was worn thin by repeated erasings and writing over the smudge.

Fourth, as a kid I rarely looked at my total, except for the achievement points. Toward the end of the year, as Jim said, I'd start to take notice, but if I was deficient in group one points was I, a skinny 11 year old, going to beg Bob Fox to assign Culver to more baseball? Hell no.

Fifth, what can a color leader do to beef up his color's score, exhort his team mates to attend more activities? Two a day, six days a week activities are held, what's a boy to do?

Wouldn't it have been easier if there were a board with each kid's name, and to its right a series of hooks on which some token depicting an achievement could be hung? You win the canoe A card, a token shaped like a canoe with an A on it hangs next to your name. Even stickers or labels would have been easier, no erasing for one thing.

Of course the point totals were affected by winning parade (I suspect some ex-campers will go to their graves believing that parades were fixed), canoe races etc. That was fine by me, it was just the attendance points I thought were an unnecessary adjunct to the system.

I have recurrent dreams about camp being open, in my next dream I am going to do something about the system, maybe bring it up at camper representatives, or planning board.
_________________
Living with wife Vicki happily retired after we moved back to Cornwall, Pa.

[Bob Kennington]

[Jim Culleton]

Hi Bob

Was that Great Lakes Naval Base, MI or Great Lakes, IL? I do remember Great Lakes, IL right next to Highwood and Lake Forest where I went to college. Some great bars in Highwood, IL . . . . . . . . . and where I had my 1st taco! Never knew what a taco was until then and of course Taco Bell has changed all that!

Dick Seal just joined as a registered member here at the Wyanoke site. Dick I remember you and learned a great deal from you with regard to riflery. Please let us know what you are doing after all of these years.
_________________
'56 - J-9 J. Moulton
'57 - J-11 J. Moulton
'58 - J-4 E. Web Dann, S. Hood
'59 - S-6 P. Leavitt
'60 - S-2 F. Avantaggio
'61 - JA-1 RK Irons
'62 - C-9 JC with P. Freeland
'63 - C-1 JC with S. Borger
'64 - C-6 Councilor

[Bob Kennington]

[David Bentley]

Boy, David A has, again, hit the nail squarely on the head with his desription of the Points system. I think the only information I can add to the scheduling process is that in some ways it was "weather-dependent". By this I mean that if the weather was typical good summer weather, my Dad wanted to see active sports, both land based and water based, not so called Group III sports (less active). On not so good days the rifle range, shop, wrestling/boxing, etc., was fine. Also, I remember that there was some "weighting" to the scheduling (regardless of the weather) so that campers were assigned the Group I activities more often than the Group II activities and more often than the Group III activities. After all, if you are at summer camp, living in the out doors, with baseball fields, tennis courts, and simming facilities available you SHOULD use them, be active, and participate in the team sports. Lesser activities, somewhat solo activities, can be done anytime, including when you are not in camp. In reality, you can make a multi-colored gimp lanyard at home, but it may be difficult to sail, canoe, or hike at home.

The job of the Program Director was enormous, and I am glad I was oriented to the waterfront. My personal criticism of the system was with the Group IV points. If you were able to pass an achievement test as a first year Junior, then the next two years didn't really present a challenge in that activity. I mean, the parts of a canoe are the same year after year, the strokes are the same, but there wasn't a lot of room to demonstrate significantly improved canoeing skills from year to year.

As to the men being assigned frequently to an activity, I don't have much to say. If you were classified as an actgive land sports guy, and knew the rules of a sport then you were going to get a lot of that sport. The same was true of the watersports people.

To this day I still remember that one puts the shot, and the new correct term is long jump, even though the older term has a sort of sizzle to it !!

And for you, Pat, the reason we took attendance by had was that we didn't have time clocks to punch in with (oh, no, I ended a sentence with a preposition).
_________________
C-1 49 J-7 52 S-3 55 J-10 58
C-7 50 J-7 53 S-2 56 J-8 59
C-8 51 J-4 54 S-7 57 (JA) J-8 60 - 64
1965 - 1968 Military service
Pine Cone 68 - 75 (with wife,Sherry,
and daughter Tracey)
Wolfeboro - full-time since 1997

[Mike Freeland]

All this talk about riflery reminds me that when I first went to the Jr/Sr rifle range -- 1959 I guess, my first year as a Jr., they had targets mounted on plywood slabs which could be reeled in with a pulley system, just like the big time. I don't remember how long that lasted, but I think by '60 or '61, the maintenance of those things, not to mention ropes pulling off the pulleys all the time, gave way to sending the kids downrange to get their targets. I thought those pulley things were really neat. I think that somewhere on this site is a picture of those. I know there's one in an old catalogue.

I was one of those middle kinds of kids who didn't care that much about the points. I never understood how a kid doubled up on points. It couldn't have been attendance, though I do remember some actvities letting kids out early if they accomplished something significant before the end of the activity period, or finished early, like in riflery -- why stick around if you're not gonna shoot again? Some guys, I guess went and audited another activity for the point. Me, I went back to my tent and relaxed. Anyway, it must've been achievment points or something that let those kids get uberpoints.

Jim, I remember you being at the Midget rifle range. For some reason, despite its proximity to Forest road, the Midget rifle range seemed to me to be the most remote location on the property. I always seemed to be assigned to clean it up during pre-camp. More mosquitos lived there than anywhere else in New Hampshire.

The Midget archery range, on the other hand, was really close to Forest Road. It had an old tent strung up on quarter-inch hemp rope (tent-line rope) behind the targets as a safety backdrop. It was the only protection afforded us car owners who parked just on the other side of that tent. Every once in a great while, a Midget would fire off an arrow which didn't tumble in flight, up over the top of the tent, or which actually had enough force behind it to plow straight through that tent and land among the cars back there. When that happened, time slowed to a standstill among the councilors, and one could hear the slo-mo 'NOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooo" clear up to Boyden Chapel. Shooting was suspended for a few minutes while the arrow was retrieved from the tire. There was either relief or "Oh shit, what're we gonna tell Walt?"
_________________
'56-C-9 C. Mosher '57-C-9 Bill Feaster
'58-J-14 H. Peavy '59-J-11 G. Wood, C. Duncan
'60-S-8 R. Leavitt, D. Hemphill '61-S-1 E. Slocum
'62-JA-1 H. Dunbar '63-C-2 (JC)
'64-C-5, (JC) Councilor
'65-C-9 '66 - '72-J-8
'73-JA1 '75-J-6

[Robert Vaughan]

I am amazingly impressed by the depth of knowledge shown by so many on this site; most impressively are Dave Bentley, Dave Ayars, Mike Freeland, and Jim Culleton.

Keep up the great work.

[Tom Shirley]

Bob,
I have a vivid memory of your fast action at the rifle range preventing a potentially disastrous event. I think I was a Senior so that would have been 1972-73 and there was a camper with a malformed arm. I can't remember his name. He was trying to shoot at the range and was only able to do so in a seated position. At one point he got tired and leaned back but when he did so he pointed the loaded rifle directly at the stomach of Peter Ruggles who was on the mattress next to him. His finger was still on the trigger. I have never seen anyone move so quickly as you did that day. In a flash you were out of you seat, you grabbed the rifle and shot it into the dirt. I saw what was going on because I was sitting next to you but I don't think many of the campers really know what was happening and it was over so quickly. You told him to leave the range immediately and everyone else continued on as normal.

I have thought of that incident often and how poorly it could have turned out if you were not so quick to react.

Do you recall this happening?
_________________
J-1 1970, Marc Liddle from Scotland
J-1 1971, Bob Vaughn
S-3 1972, Steve McDavitt
S-2 1973, Charlie Thomas
JA-2 1974, Dan Mannis
JA-1 1975, Dave Ayers

Proud to be Gray

[DavidAyars]

Wow, Tom, scary story. I didn't remember that one. Fooling around at the rifle range was absolutely not tolerated and safety was always the first priority. Your account doesn't sound like fooling around, more like a lapse in concentration by the camper. There were certain procedures that were followed in strict order just to maintain discipline, to keep everyone mindful of the need to be safe above all else.

Pat, a year ago in this thread, and Mike more recently, wondered how a camper could get a lot of extra points in groups I-III. Actually, that was possible. Only a few OCD kids deliberately sought this out. I can remember a few now-nameless-in-my-memory campers over the years who, as the end of the season approached, would try going to two or more activities in one period, to get a point in each one. In some cases, this was done with the winking approval of one or more staff members, sometimes for good reasons, as in helping somebody reach a goal of making Honor Camper who would otherwise come up a few points short. If done to try and double out (unofficially earn two Honor Camper awards) or just run up color point totals, that was regarded as a form of cheating by many. But more commonly, other campers, on their own or with mild councilor encouragement, did things like offer to write a Daily Log for a point in... I don't know what... now that I'm thinking about it, I think there was a "Miscellaneous" or "Other" category in Group III, just for stuff like this. Some boys might have worked in free time on a maintenance project to make the camp better. And color leaders would call an after-lunch meeting "out by the pump" to encourage their mates to try and get extra achievement points as the end of the summer approached, especially if the Blue-Gray race in points was too close to call.

The points system was far from perfect, and there were ideas floated to make it better. I remember Bob Vaughan and I often bounced ideas off each other the last few years of camp, and I think he did take at least one formal proposal about this to the Planning Board, but it didn't fly, perhaps for the sake of tradition as much as anything else. As I recall, BMB would say he wasn't totally opposed to revamping the points system in principle, but he always had a reason he didn't like any of the ideas floated and didn't see a pressing need to do it. The points system only received minor tinkering during Wyanoke's last ten years.

At one of my son's camps, there was no points system per se. Each boy made a plaque in wood shop his first year that could be mounted on his wall at home and he could earn little placards to attach to the bottom of it which would be marked by staff with a significant achievement in an activity. "Breast stroke", or "98 in Riflery", or "Soccer Team Goalie", that kind of thing. They tried to see that every boy earned at least a few of these each summer. One year, my son got a placard for "Death Plague Cough", because he developed a case of bronchitis that wouldn't quit and would turn heads, so it could be used for humor, too. And the staff kept track of previous awards and the awards were adjusted upwards as expectations arose, so no camper could get a "Basic Canoe Strokes" award more than one year, but he might earn an "Advanced Canoe Strokes" or "5-day Saco Canoe trip" type award the second year he attended.

My two kids attended three overnight camps with decades of family-run tradition like Wyanoke, and all three of these camps had ended the forced-generalist system of assigning activities to younger campers. Many generalist camps now allow kids of all ages to pick all their activities. If they wanted to go to shop every day, they could do that. (Though sometimes, the shop wasn't open... only the waterfront might be available on a few hot sunny days .) Kids were encouraged to be goal-oriented and to be making progress in whatever they did, and councilors were always encouraging each kid to broaden his or her horizons and try new and different things... with mixed success. At many camps, now, I think it's a marketing tool as much as anything else, that "We don't make you do anything you don't want to do". Camps with a forced-generalist program probably saw that they were losing some kids each year who would say, "I didn't want to have to take swimming lessons when it was so cold out, so that's why I'm not coming back". Retention of veterans is important to a camp's bottom line. It's much less expensive to persuade an old camper to come back than it is to find a new one to replace him if he doesn't return, so if you see you're losing kids to something like this every year, and you know your competition allows full camper choice, tradition may fall by the wayside.
_________________
Camper: J-8 1965 (Kevin Ryan), J-8 1966 (Mike Freeland), S-6 1967 (Russ Hatch), S-3 1968 (Jeremy Cripps), and JA-2 1969 (Dan Mannis).
JC: J-2 1970 (Bill Bettison) and J-3 1971 (Gene Comella). Councilor 1972, J-5 1973, and JA-1 1974 & 1975

[Bob Kennington]