Why Am I Doing This?

My name is Eli Musselwhite, I am a Boy Scout from Auburn, Alabama. I am the Service Chairman for the Order of the Arrow (OA) - an organization connected to the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). My job is to keep camp Frank G. Lumpkin (FGL) in good condition. However, I decided I wanted to take it a step farther after comparing camp FGL to other BSA camps. I realized that camp FGL, despite being larger than many other camps, was only having a fraction of the attendance. For example, Camp Daniel Boone, a well known BSA camp, has around 700 acres and has an attendance of about 5000 people at summer camp. FGL has about 900 acres, but only about 900 people attend summer camp. So, I decided that something needed to be done; after looking at my options I decided that building cabins would be the best thing for camp. They increase camp capacity, attract more people, and are more comfortable than the current tents. So the cabin project began...

Process of Approvals

Unfortunately, the path to approval is a long one. Camp FGL is owned by the Army Corp. of Engineers and only leased to the Boy Scouts. This means that in order to build anything permanent you not only have to get approval from the camp properties committee, but also the Corp. of Engineers. This process can take months or longer. In fact, the cabins will take at least six months to get approved. However, that doesn't mean I can't continue to make progress. Currently, I am working on building support throughout the Council and improving my presentation.
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Finding a location

   Now that I have the cabin design, I need to decide where the cabins are going to be built. I have two main options.

  1.     I can build the cabins on one of the southern peninsulas of camp. After looking at the peninsulas, the best option will be the 2nd one (the one highlighted in red toward the bottom-left of the picture). This is the best option due to the fact is has a decent amount of fairly flat, clear ground. The view is awesome and the location will encourage future camp expansion. The only downside is, in order to build the cabins on the peninsula, we will have to run water/power/sewer down there.
  2.     I can also build the cabins at campsites 5+6, this wouldn't require us to run many power cables or any water and sewer lines. The ground is mostly flat and little clearing would be required. The only problem is we would be replacing tent platforms that are currently there, meaning we wouldn't be expanding camp.

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Cabin Design


     These are the cabins I plan on building at camp FGL. Through my research I found that four-person cabins are used at other large camps and are very popular, there are problems however. Many of the other cabins are cramped, resulting in no room to place bags and people often hitting their heads on the ceiling. To combat these issues, I decided to enlarge the cabins both horizontally and vertically. This allowed me to include shelves for personal belongings and gives the occupants plenty of head room. This cabin will also feature a large porch and a cloths rack for added comfort.

In addition to being very comfortable these cabins will also add more housing at camp so more people can stay in camp at once. This will allow camp to host larger events and activities.

The cabins are also a great marketing tool. People would much rather stay in spacious cabins, than leaky tents and hammocks.

    
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