then located individuals in their states and forwarded to NRPA the names and addresses of individuals agreeing to participate in the study. Each of these persons was sent a letter of inquiry (Appendix C) and an information packet (Appendix D). (See ATTACHMENT I for a list of state contacts.) Note-Appendices referred to herein are approved in separate bindings. Agency Recipients of Letter of Inquiry for Information on Youth Camp Safety I. PUBLIC AND/OR QUASI-PUBLIC A. Outdoor-Oriented Boy Scouts of America,* National Council, North Brunswick. N.J. 08902. Camp Fire Girls, Inc., 1740 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10019. American Youth Hostels,* 20 West 17th Street, New York, N.Y. 10011. Pioneer Girls, Box 92, Wheaton, Ill. 60188. Rainbow Girls, Box 768, McAlister, Okla. 74501. B. Serving the Disadvantaged Boys Clubs of America, 771 First Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10017. Girls Clubs of America,* 133 East 62nd Street, New York, N.Y. 10021. National Federation of Settlement and Neighborhood Centers, 232 Madison Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10016. Big Brothers of America,* 341 Suburban Station Building, Philadelphia, Pa. 14103. C. Vocation-Oriented National Grange Youth Programs,* 1616 H Street NW., Washington, D.C. 20006. Junior Achievement, 909 Third Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10022. Future Homemakers of America, 2010 Massachusetts Avenue NW., Washington, D.C. 20036. Future Farmers of America (Youth), National FFA Center, Box 15160, Alexandria, 22309. 4-H Youth Development,* Federal Extension Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C. D. Religious-Oriented National Jewish Welfare Board, 15 East 26th Street, New York, N.Y. 10010. B'Nai B'Rith Youth Organization, 1640 Rhode Island Avenue NW., Washington, D.C. 20036. Salvation Army,* 120-130 West 14th Street, New York, N.Y. 10011. Youth for Christ, Box 419, Wheaton, Ill. 60187. United Boys Brigades of America, 1211 West 40th Street, Baltimore, Md. 21211. Youth Life, 720 West Monument, Colorado Springs, Colo. National Council of Young Israel, 3 West 16th Street, New York, N.Y. 10011. United Synagogue Youth, 218 East 70th Street, New York, N.Y. 10021. Order of DeMolay, International Supreme Council, 201 East Armour Boulevard, Kansas City, Mo. 64141. International Order of Job's Daughters, 719 South Boulevard, Oak Park, Ill. 60300. Christian Service Brigade, Box 150, Wheaton, Ill. 60187. National Catholic Camp Association, 1312 Massachusetts Avenue NW., Washington, D.C. E. Other Youth-Serving Young Men's Hebrew and Young Women's Hebrew Association, 135 East 32nd Street, New York, N.Y. Young Men's Christian Association, 291 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10007. Young Womens' Christian Association, 600 Lexington Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10022. American Youth Foundation, 3930 Lindell Boulevard, St. Louis, Mo. *Responded. Sons of the American Legion, P.O. Box 1055, Indianapolis, Ind. 46206. United Community Funds and Councils of America, 345 East 46th Street, New York, N.Y. 10017. Optimist International, 4494 Lindell Boulevard, St. Louis, Mo. 63108. Rotary International, 35 East Wacker Drive, Chicago, Ill. Lions International, 332 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Ill. Kiwanis International,* 101 East Erie Street, Chicago, Ill. 60611. Association of Junior Leaguers of America, Waldorf Astoria, 305 Park Avenue, New York, N.Y. II. NATIONAL PROFESSIONAL AND SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS National Audubon Society, Nature Center Division, 1130 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10028. U.S. Ski Association, 1726 Champa Street, Suite 300, Denver, Colo. 80202. National Swimming Pool Institute,* 2000 K Street NW., Washington, D.C. 20006. National Rifle Association,* 1600 Rhode Island Avenue NW., Washington, D.C. 20036. American National Red Cross,* 17th and D Streets NW., Washington, D.C. 20013. National Archery Association of the United States, 2833 Lincoln Highway, E. Ronks, Pa. 17572. National Field Archery Association, Route 2, Box 513, Redlands, Calif. 92373. National Safety Council,* 425 North Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Ill. 60611. National Water Safety Congress, Lake Cumberland Reservoir, Jamestown, Ky. 42629. Outboard Boating Club of America, 307 North Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Ill. 60611. American Association for Health, Physical Education and Recreation, 1201 16th Street NW., Washington, D.C. 20007. National Campers and Hikers Association, 7172 Transit Road, Buffalo, N.Y. 14221. American Camping Association,* Bradford Woods, Martinsville, Inc. 46151. National Science for Youth Foundation, 763 Silvermine Road, New Canaan, Conn. 06840. Appalachian Mountain Club, 5 Joy Street, Boston, Mass. American Country Life Association, 327 La Salle Street, Room 228, Chicago, Ill. III. ORGANIZATIONS SERVING SPECIAL POPULATIONS National Association for Retarded Children, 2709 Avenue "E", East Arlington, Tex. 76011. Council for Exceptional Children,* Department of NEA, 1201 16th Street NW., Washington, D.C. National Easter Seal Society,* 2023 West Oden Avenue, Chicago, Ill. 60612. American Foundation for the Blind,* 15 West 16th Street, New York, N.Y. 10011. 1. National organizations B. VISITATIONS Due to the quantity of information published by or available from certain national organizations, it was decided that visitations would be appropriate to selected organizations in the New York City and metropolitan Washington areas. Appointments were made by phone with the Boy Scouts of America, Girl Scouts of the U.S.A., Camp Fire Girls, Inc., American National Red Cross, YMCA, PWCA, The National Swimming Pool Institute and the American Association for Health, Physical Education and Recreation. During the visitations, project staff collected appropriate materials, discussed the status of youth camp safety and the effectiveness of agency standards for camps, obtained information on education programs, and received recommendations for members of the consultant panel. *Responded. 2. State agencies Visitations were made to selected state agencies in all Continental State: but New Mexico and Minnesota to increase the accuracy of evaluating enforcement procedures. Records of regular, mandatory inspections were the prime source of evaluation data. Staff visited two states having camps which were surveyed by Century Research Corporation to review inspection records. Camps were identified for which a sanitarian had completed the Century Environmental Survey Form. It was noted that for these camps the sanitarian had recorded several questionable environmental and sanitary conditions. Appointment were made with persons in charge of camp inspection records for the two states surveyed by Century and for two additional states not included in their survey. The main purpose of the visits to these four states was to obtain first-hand information on inspection and enforcement procedures and review actual records to identify if and when violations were noted, and if follow-up or enforcement action was taken. Special attention was paid to camps chosen in the two states falling under the Century survey to compare the violations the state inspector found to those found by the Century Sanitarian. It should be noted that the Century survey was substantially more comprehensive than that of any state inspection; for this reason, some of the areas found lacking by Century were not actually in violation of state regulations. To allow for reasonable comparison of the Century and state inspections, only the areas of commonality were considered. C. CORDURA "COMPILATION OF LAWS" The Cordura Company is a computing and software group with offices in Sacramento, California. Because the Manpower Resources Division was compiling state and local laws pertaining to camps, cooperation between project staff and Cordura was appropriate. The Cordura due-date for completing the compilation was to be after the due-date for this report, and therefore it was necessary for project staff to retrieve the state laws from another source (state contact persons) to have the information on time. It should be noted that Ms. Charlotte Williams of Cordura did cooperate with project staff, however, by forwarding as much data on state laws as had been collected by their investigation. In a sense, the fact that state laws were in some instances collected by both agencies acted as a validity check on the data. D. CONSULTANT PANEL/EVALUATION MEETING A panel of consultants with expertise in the area of youth camp safety was used in the evaluation of contributions and state regulations and enforcement procedures. Panel members were selected from among recommendations made by Cordura Company, Century Research Corporation, national organization staff and state contact people. The evaluation conference was conducted on August 20-22, 1973 at the National Recreation and Park Association, Arlington, Virginia. (See Appendix F. for a list of participants.) Consultants were provided pertinent information by project staff. Century Research Corporation provided resource information and presented a status report on the illness and injury survey. The letter of inquiry mailing to 59 national organizations yielded a 27% response. Sixteen responded. The following organizations provided the bulk of information on youth camp safety: American Camping Association. American National Red Cross, Boy Scouts of America, Camp Fire Girls, Inc., 4-H, Girl Scouts of the U.S.A., National Easter Seal Society for Crippled Children and Adults. National Safety Council, and Young Men's Christian Association. A bibliography of the materials collected from these agencies is attached as Appendix G. All of these organizations, with the exception of the Red Cross, publish books on camp standards directed toward the camp administrator, which contain information on facility and program organization. The Camp Fire Girls, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts also have materials geared to training youth in various activity areas related to camping. These three organizations and the American Camping Association conduct leadership and camp management workshops on both national and local levels. The Red Cross publishes primarily water safety and first aid materials and offers a variety of courses at many different levels in these and other fields. The Red Cross Standards and Certificates are recognized and used by the majority of the other organizations listed. Since swimming plays a large part in most camp activities, it should also be noted that the National Swimming Pool Institute publishes a booklet entitled "Suggested Minimum Standards for Residential and Public Swimming Pools". The National Rifle Association publishes materials on hunting and firearm safety, including "NRA Shooting Program for Camps" and "Session Plan for Camp Instruction". 2. Local park and recreation agencies The mailing (4,000) to local park and recreation agencies yielded an approximate 4% return. Many of the materials received did not relate directly to youth camp safety in resident camps. Some of this material included information on forest fire protection, general traffic and home safety, bother some or poisonous snakes and insects, and poison controls around children. Other material was specifically related to campgrounds or day camps. Most of the "camping programs" sponsored on a local level are day camps. Many of the recreation departments offering a program of this sort sponsor some special training program for the day camp staff within a training program for all summer staff. When available, the departments' recreation leader's handbooks are usually used for the day camp program personnel also. Six cities replied that they have resident camp programs and that they have developed materials for such a program. This material includes information on training programs, specific activity safety and general program safety. (See Appendix H.) Other resident camps mentioned were usually affiliated with a national organization such as Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts, and the publications of these specific organizations were used as standards or guidelines. 3. State contact reports and Cordura compilation Laws and regulations were received from both Cordura and the state contacts. New Mexico and Minnesota, however, did not respond to the state contact persons or to the Cordura survey. In most cases, if a state did not have specific camp regulations, the general regulations applicable to camps, e.g., sanitation, water supply, swimming pools, etc., were obtained. 4. Cataloguing techniques The following cataloguing techniques were employed to organize the information retrieved: a. A central file was established, with a folder for each state. b. Retrieved state laws from each state were separated into predetermined categories of regulations for classification purposes. There were 19 categories in all, with numerous subcategories. A master list of these appears in Appendix I: c. A checklist comprising all categories and subcategories was developed for each state. For each category, it was noted whether (1) regulations existed, (2) no regulations existed, or (3) suggested standards existed. If the state had established a suggestion or a regulation, it was noted if the regulation or suggestion was (a) specifically directed at camps or (b) was general but appropriate for camps (e.g., general sanitation regulations, fire marshall regulations, etc.). The latter category was check if, under specific camp regulations, it stated that complaince must be met with a general regulation. (Copies of The state checklist are attached as Appendix J.) d. A summary sheet was developed to summarize the individual state checklists. Tallies were made of the number of states that had (1) no laws or regulations for each category, (2) a regulation for each category, and (3) a suggestion for each category. (See Table 1.) In addition to New Mexico and Minnesota, for which no information was obtained, Georgia and Texas were not included in the summary sheets. Both of these states reported that they were currently developing regulations pertaining to youth camp safety and could not provide information at this time. Out of the 46 states included in Table 14, only 27 required camps to have an operating permit or license; this should not be confused with food service permit or inspection which is required in all states. Of the same number. only between 17 and 25 require camps to be inspected. (This number varies between 17 and 25 because some states require an inspection before the original opening of a camp, and some states specify that a particular authority has the right to inspect the camp, but does not specify whether the inspection is mandatory.) Many state regualtions do not cover camps run by a parent organization and religious group. Therefore, these camps could operate without having to adhere to any regulations besides those that the national organizations may provide. Variations in the aspects of camp operation covered by regulations can easily be seen in Table 14 by checking the number of states having regulations covering each of the designated categories. Sparse and very general comments were received as a result of communication between state contact persons and state agency personnel regarding the adequacy of enforcement. Most of the comments indicated that enforcement procedures were good or strict; however, a number admitted that enforcement was very difficult due to a shortage of inspection personnel. TABLE 14.-SUMMARY SHEET OF STATE LAWS ON YOUTH CAMP SAFETY |