BuLa – all Swiss guides and scouts will be familiar with this expression, and it'll immediately rekindle memories of the smell of a campfire, friendships and guitar songs. "BuLa" is the Swiss Guide and Scout Movement National Jamboree.

The Pfadi EXPO/exhibition during the 2022 national camp traces the development of the movement. Using treasures from scout archives, pictures, badges, stamps and postcards on the subject of scouting as well as the past nine national camps from 1925 to 2022, it documents over a hundred years of history.

In 1912, the first Scout units were founded in our country, but it took until the 1st Swiss. Scout camp in Bern in 1925 before the first official postmark was used on a camp postcard. 3000 scouts took part in this camp from 27.7. to 4.8. and, thanks to the pretty postcards, a relatively large amount of camp mail was dispatched, so that today one can still come across a cover from this first national camp from time to time.

Goms will become a tent city from 23 July to 6 August 2022. The 30,000 BuLa participants will experience a varied camp programme and explore the Goms. Over 5,000 volunteers will be on duty. That is almost 10,000 more than at the last edition. 300 young people travel from abroad.

The camp management has a budget of 25 million Swiss francs. Fifty per cent of this comes from camp fees, 25 per cent from on-site sales and merchandising. The remaining 25 per cent is generated through sponsoring and donations. The main partners of the BuLa are Migros Valais, Swiss Post and Mobiliar.

From 24 July 11 a.m. to 4 August 2022, 4 p.m., an International Scout Stamp Exhibition will be held again after 14 years on the occasion of the National Scout Camp of the Swiss Scout Movement in Obergoms. Interesting exhibits from Switzerland and abroad will be on display at the former airfield in Ulrichen (VS). At the same time, a multilingual special show on the past federal camps from 1925 to the present will be shown for the first time.

Future needs origins ...

If someone were to set about writing a history of the Swiss Scout Association, he would actually find very few occasions on the basis of which the development of our movement could be shown. This is a consequence of the federalist structure of our Confederation, in which the main focus of activities can be seen above all in the cantonal associations and the affiliated divisions.