The word from Boy Scouts of America National Jamboree on the Air (JOTA) Organizer Jim Wilson, K5ND, is: “Start planning for JOTA 2015. It’s never too early to get started.” JOTA 2015 takes place Friday through Sunday, October 16-18, and the Radio Scouting (K2BSA) website provides some planning tips. The annual JOTA event offers an opportunity for Boy and Girl Scouts and Guides all over the world to speak with each other via Amateur Radio, and its success relies on cooperation of local radio amateurs and clubs.

Wilson's extra-early JOTA advisory aims to boost JOTA involvement in the wake of a somewhat disappointing 2014 report that showed participation had dropped over the past two years. In 2013, JOTA participation was down by nearly 4700 over 2012, and it dropped a bit further in 2014, which recorded 7208 Scouts and 5589 visitors taking part in the annual on-the-air event.

"[W]e recognize that we need to do a better job promoting the event to Scout Council staff and volunteers,” Wilson conceded last fall, after the 2014 report was posted. Wilson has attributed part of the decline in JOTA participation to a failure of some stations to file after-event reports.

“Our survey of those that did not file a report revealed that a few didn’t run the event due to other issues,” Wilson said in a JOTA e-newsletter over the weekend. “One was dodging a hurricane. Others said that time got away from them, and they just didn’t file it.” According to the 2014 report, 354 stations registered to participate, but only 205 filed reports.

Wilson recommended that JOTA teams designate someone to record the data and file the report after the event. He also steered JOTA planners to some program suggestions for JOTA 2015.