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Encyclopedia WinterCampica - Suggest Change
Current Entry: Nights
For many years, Winter Campers have tracked attendance by camps and nights. Under this scheme, participation in activities isn't as important as where you spend the night. Campers have long used this because it wasn't important and because it served their purpose. Knowledge that making it to Winter Camp in time for bed was what counted certainly made it easier for campers to miss activities. Jobs, spouses, and family obligations usually occur during the day, leaving those with such entanglements to head for camp after fulfilling their other obligations.
Even so, a movement began in the 2000s to consider days instead of nights, but it gathered little traction. For many, it's a slippery slope: Nights are clear, you're there or you aren't and it doesn't matter if you've slept. For days there could be an argument about participation if someone didn't attend any activities.
Rather than try to resolve these issues, we've just left the scale in place to measure participation by nights. Admittedly, this is the way most camping in Scouting is tracked. Normally, Arrowmen have to have spent 15 nights in camp including a long-term event, so the measurement is nights. Days are much harder to measure for everyone, which is probably why we submit to the tyranny of nights. (SD)