Northern Tier High Adventure Program: An Objective Critique

Leisure Services Management Assessment Project

Northern Tier High Adventure Program: An Objective Critique

As you are no doubt well aware, this entire project has been a labor of love for Matt and I. As a group we ran into one road block after another. If nothing else, this project has taught me that everything will not go smoothly, no matter how good the intensions and how to persevere in the face of adversity.

Northern Tier High Adventure Program is the Boy Scouts of America's oldest national high adventure program. Northern Tier was created in 1923 and operated out of a simple station wagon with a canoe rack. Northern Tier moved to its current location of Charles L. Sommers Wilderness Canoe Base in Ely, Minnesota in 1943 and expanded to two more locations; Northern Expeditions Canoe Base in Bisset, Manitoba in 1972 and Donald Rogert Canoe Base in Atikokan, Ontario in 1982.

Northern Tier's vision statement was adopted from the Boy Scouts of America. The vision statement from the Boy Scouts of America is as follows: “The Boy Scouts of America will prepare every eligible youth in America to become a responsible, participating citizen and leader who is guided by the Scout Oath and Law”1. Northern Tier has drafted their own mission statement and it is as follows: “The mission of Northern Tier High Adventure Programs is to provide high quality character development experiences for all of Scouting’s participants through challenging wilderness adventures - featuring expedition canoeing and extreme-temperature winter camping - in the rugged North Woods of Minnesota, Ontario and Manitoba”2. Being that Northern Tier and the Boy Scouts of America have been so closely interrelated for ninety years; it makes sense that Northern ...

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...smissal are also all delved into in great detail by the plans employed by Northern Tier. The importance of these plans cannot be stated enough. These plans ensure that Northern Tier can continue its daily operations and remain in compliance with state and local laws. These plans also give a sense of assurance to parents of scouts, this assurance is crucial because scouts come from all over the country for the experience at Northern Tier.

Northern Tier puts a lot of effort into its planning process. Programs are added and discontinued regularly because of how much stake Northern Tier puts into their evaluation process. I feel Northern Tier puts too much stock into the opinion of its participants. Evaluating trends is a very intelligent way to gauge what is working and what is not, but putting so much stock into the opinions of pre-teens seems strange to me.