Scouting as a Contiuum

Heresy, I say, It is heresy. Scouting in the US is not a contiuum but 4- 6 seperate programs that should not be mixed. I love making input where I think I can change things that can be changed.

Some of you may ask why I said 4-6 programs. Well, lets look at continuum theory first.

Continuum (theory), anything that goes through a gradual transition from one condition, to a different condition, without any abrupt changes or "discontinuities".

Traditional non LDS scouting does not operate as a continuum. We have a lions pilot, who will have to reregister/transfer next fall to participate as Tiger Cubs. You have Cub Scouts in 1st through 3rd grade. Webelos are regulated by the pack and participate in pack activites, but operate somewhere between Cubs and Boy scouts. Many will argue the break or discontiuity bewtween cubs and Webelos. There is a very hard break between Webelos and Boys scouts, as you must fill out a new registration form to move from pack 458 to troop 458. Then there are hard breaks between Boys scouts, and Venturing. Varsity unfortunately seems out in left feild unless your in the LDS church.

I'm not a member of the LDS church but from the rules I see looking into their program there is a a smoother transition from program to program. The LDS packs are geared at age level boys not grade level. A tiger is a tiger from 7 years to 7 years and 364 days. Bang bang bang right up the ranks into Boy scouting. Where the program structure changes right into the patrol method. The LDS scouters, I talk to say the boys know exactly what happens after they get their Arrow of Light and turn 11. They go right into the church's boy scout program.

I am in a pack and have always been in packs outside of the contiuum. My pack has no default scout troop, but we have 7 troops in a 4mile radius of our meeting place. Our boys don't see the next step in scouting. We are always trying to get a Den cheif and show the boys the rest of scouting. A den cheif to recruit our boys to his unit. Yet, all they see is their parents as the leaders. Our webelos leave and the boys never see them again. Its not very continuous.

I hear RUMORS that national is tweaking the requirements for Arrow of Light. Possibbly making them more equivalet to scout or even tenderfoot. The purpose being Webelos retention for the scouting continuum. Our pupose doesn't stop, and our program doesn't either. It is continuous from first grade to 20Yrs old. As a Parent, I would like to see my son leave scouting with Arrow of Light, Eagle Scout and The Venturing Silver Award having conitued throughout the whole program.

So before National releases a new Webelos book and tweaks the program for next years webelos. How do the requirements for AOL and scout or tenderfoot stack up?

To be continued. (How the requirements stack up today.)

Good Ideas @ BSA

It's been a while since my last post. I need to get back into it, for me. It helps my mediocre typing skills.

I find it ironic this week that the BSA Innovation Engine email comes from Good Ideas @ BSA. They had some ideas that I' don't know where they came from. Sometimes it is a good thing they don't let scouters post up our comments about the ideas there. So here are some of the past weeks ideas.

Guide to Safe Scouting.

How about an update that includes a policy on Airsoft guns?

Um, how about this as a policy that addresses Airsoft Guns.

Pointing any type of firearm or simulated firearm at any individual is unauthorized. Scout units may plan or participate in paintball, laser tag or similar events where participants shoot at targets that are neither living nor human representations. Units with Council approval may participate in formally organized historical reenactment events, where firearms are used and intentionally aimed over the heads of the reenactment participants. The use of paintball guns, laser guns or similar devices may be utilized in target shooting events with Council approval and following the Sweet 16 of BSA safety. Council approval means the approval of the Scout Executive or his designee on a tour permit specifically outlining details of the event.

(However, law enforcement departments and agencies using firearms in standard officer/agent training may use their training agenda when accompanied with appropriate safety equipment in the Law Enforcement Exploring program.)

Not to rant, Ok I want to rant, but this is already in the G2SS.

Internet Advancement Reporting

When the Troops and Packs do not have any advancement, they are supposed to send a NULL report to council saying they had no advancement. IA does not have a way of doing a submission. It would be really easy for them to have a PDF file print out an advancement form with a statement saying No Advancement for this time frame.

How about we save both the volunteers and staff time by changing the default to only turning in a form when there is an advancement?

Training Completed/Training Not Completed Reports

Training Completed Reports and Training Not Completed Reports currently provide the unit, position, name, address and telephone number of the volunteers. If the email addresses were provided on these reports, the District Training Chairs could easily sort the reports for specific training that is needed for each individual needing training and then send them emails regarding any upcoming scheduled trainings.

Why isn't this done already? Today, the best way to catch and involve volunteers and voluntolds is to send an email. They could even poll the people missing training why they haven't attended, bad day, bad time, no babysitting, etc.

Internet Advancement and Cub Scout Packs Advancement Reporting

I think it would be very helpful for the Internet Advancements to include any and all awards that Cub Scout packs provide such as Sports and Academics Belt Loops and Pins, etc., since it would a selling point for the Cub Scout Pack Advancement Chairs to use because many of them do not want to do Internet Advancement now because they cannot create a complete "shopping list" because many awards they routinely report are not available to report on Internet Advancement.

I like this idea. Not so much for the shopping cart feature but the fact that the council would a a full and complete record of offical BSA Awards and Achievements. Still won't get me to use the Internet advancement. Even if I turn in the advancements of the internet, I still have to provide the Scout shop a hard copy to buy the advancements. Pack master generates the form for me.

Incorporating Mental Health issues into Boy Scouting

The H&S Support Committee would like to see mental health issues addressed within the program. They are requesting feedback on the proposal. Their desire is to weave it into the advancement process. SME's are available to support this effort.

While scouting incorporates a good many aspects of physical health maintenance and injury/crisis management in its advancement process, aspects of mental health are not. Yet there are a number of aspects of mental health and illness that could be articulated and incorporated in the scouting education and advancement program.

A colleague talked about this matter with his nephew, who was an active scout. When asked about a scouting program to assess competencies in mental health, that scout suggested it would be a ?great idea? to include this in the content of a merit badge. Indeed, he thought that Boy Scouts should be asked to have the following mental health competencies:

1. Have the ability to recognize signs! of good and poor mental health in oneself and others

2. Know strategies for helping others with mental health problems

3. Be able to provide first aid for acute stress (?psychological first aid?)

4. Be familiar with different types of mental disorder

5. Recognize drug and alcohol abuse and their complications

This scout agreed that knowledge of drug and alcohol abuse and prevention are important, but he thought that material presently is covered fairly well. He suggested that material about mental health could be learned through a combination of reading and meetings with a mental health professional. He thinks that competency could be demonstrated through the combination of a written test and discussion or demonstration (i.e. role playing).

I love the H&S Support committee, this one well detailed idea. I don't think it should be it own merit badge. Yet I think recognizing the pyschological issues is or can be taught as part of first aid. If a person has pyschological issue, you will need to treat them differently while rending first aid.

Finally, the most rant worthy idea I have seen posted on the Innovation engine

Massage Therapy

I know we are all working much harder in the New BSA and it would be absolute heaven if we had either someone come in once or twice a month, or have someone on staff that we could go to for a massage. Even just upper body would help alot. This is a great stress reliever and would give us all a better perspective on the days we really need it.

I love the idea. You need to tell me when to be at the scout office so I can sneak into the line. This would be so beneficial after a rough night at scout camp. This idea was promtly closed.

I think the Innovation engine is a great idea, but let the volunteers and voluntolds at it. Remember the volunteers are the ones that run and deliver the promise, message, and program of scouting. I think the volunteers will be the start of real innovation for the BSA.

Definition of a voluntold: Someone who is in a volunteer position after being told by a child, spouse, boss, government, etc. that they are going to volunteer for such position.

Update to Scouting.Org and the Scouting Community

I've seen tweets from people having trouble with the updated Scouting Community. I'm posting Here so they can see what's been reported.

Issues Since Upgrade on May 31

By Maria Manzella

Please report issues that have occurred since the upgrade on May 31.

Issues reported so far:

Missing avatars

Can’t access the Requests to Review page to check friend requests. Instead it keeps popping back to the profile page.

Dan Kurtenbach (and others possibly) have no member profile. Dan’s posts are being attributed to Richard Shaw.

Server error when uploading an avatar.

Many hyperlinks are not working and simply redirect you to your profile page.

When viewing a friend’s post from the profile page, get the message User Not Found.

All members show joined on 6/1/09.

Continuous planning

My planning agenda seems almost continuous right now.  Last month we wrapped up the SummerPlanning. I've planned out a fishing derby for this weekend and a skit for  our may graduation ceremony in the past month. Now to move on to the Rest of next year. 

I love google calendars  for planning the cub year.   In the past couple of weeks I went to my local school district web site and  transferred all of the Holidays, early release days, and any other important date to  a Google Calendar I set up for my pack. Then I pulled out my council calendar and copied every district and council training date, Cub event, camp, Etc.  

Basically we have a list of events that we as a pack want to do and our normal months to do them. All that's left for the Pack Committee to work out is when.   

We started our annual list  last year,  by sitting down and saying  we always do a blue and gold  and that has to be done in February. We always have a Pinewood derby.  We  give the cars as gifts at the Christmas party so it has to be after December. Then the space derby comes out.  we want to camp X number of times. ( We're currently up to 3 trips per year. ) We need to sprinkle some service projects in as well. Suddenly you have a packed schedule.

For those that want to see the calendar (http://bit.ly/15gR2W)

Next you'll need to set up a meeting with your Treasurer and see how much you spend on each type of event, how much you want to spend, where your going to hold various events, etc. to build your  rough budget.  You can give the total  to your popcorn chair for them to set your popcorn goals. 

And that should be the last of major planning  until fall. During the summer it's just the details for summer events.

 

Keep on moving forward.

When a requirement becomes tradition and leaves the boys behind.

Last April, Our pack went family camping and had a fishing derby.  The Webelos Leader at the time, had asked that the pack buy groceries for a Pancake, egg and bacon breakfast.  It was approved and was a hit.  What has been lost in the short time since  April 2008  and this past weekend is  the requirement and the boys.

Webelos Outdoorsman Activity badge has a requirement for  outdoor cooking.

8. With your accompanying adult on a campout or outdoor activity, assist in preparing, cooking, and cleanup for one of your

den's meals.

Sitting on the bottom of the what matters pryamid, I am amazed at how quickly this evolved.  It took three Family camping events  to go from where it should have been to doing it because we did it before.

From what I can gather here's how it broke down.  April 08:  The 3 or 4 Webelos made breakfast, probablly with some adult intervention and supervision. October 08: The 7-10 Webelos started  making breakfast and the parents started intervening to get breakfast moving. April 09: the leaders and parents did everything.

I am pretty confident I need to fix this because it needs to be about the boys.  After all it was boys fulfilling a requirement that started this. Yet how do I fix this? I don't want to outright stop this, if it is wanted or needed. It has been Sunday Breakfast when we are all packing out. Maybe moving the requiement to only the Webelos.  It was appreciated that they initially fed the whole pack but not required. Or changing the meal maybe  having the boys make Saturday lunch rather than breakfast.  We can deal with an abligatory  mac&chesse with hotdogs or hamburgers lunch.  Then again the boys only need to do this once a year. 

Along with Webelos Outdoorsman requirement 8, Bears  could participate with requirement 9g, or  Wolves in requirement 8e.

The thing is  we need to make sure  a den fulfilling a requirement does not become a senseless tradition that puts extra load on the parents and leaders. Let's Keep it fun.

Training Variations

I was in a chat room and the topic of training came up, it wasn’t the normal every boy deserves a trained leader vs untrained leader vs how to get people trained.  The discussion was how can we afford to get trained? This took me back a bit.  It appears that I have a very inexpensive council to train in.

As a Cub Scouter you have access to YPT, Fast Start, and “This is Scouting” for nearly free.  You can do this even before you have a BSA ID number.   You only need access to a internet connected computer for an hour or so for each course.  I say worst case scenario would be having to buy time at a FedEx/Kinko’s store for  $12 or $24 an hour in my community.  Oddly enough I hear some councils do not have broadband services to their offices, but that may be a resource to you.

The first course that requires in classroom effort would be the Position Specific courses.  Where I’m at I believe the cost is $2 council wide for about 2 dozen doughnuts and copies.  On occasion at the council sponsored courses they have given out Cub Scout leader book and the how-to book if you get trained  in a certain window. If your council or district makes it a practice to provide the Leader book and the How-To book, $20 would be a fair cost in my opinion. If your district or council has to rent facilities for the training expect that cost to also come out of your pocket.  I think you should be able to find a church or another community organization that would be willing to give you the space for free.

The course that really threw me was some people were asked for $50 for Basic Adult Leader Outdoor Orientation.  I have taken the course twice and taught it once.  I paid $7.00  for each  time I attended.  The first time I took the course, Outdoor Leader skills for Webelos Leaders wasn’t included. The  courses are very similar  and my council has opted to provide both courses at the same time. The trainers I have had  and I were very particular in stating this applies to Pack Overnighters and this applies to Den Camping. We had about 20 pages of handouts.  We have two meal plans  that our BALOO uses; Foil Packs and Wraps.  Both plans keep lunch under $5 a person.

The one exception to my cheap training experience has been  Wood Badge. I paid $160  about 1 year ago. We paid extra for WB activity uniform shirts.  All the participants were issued hats, though not BSA Supply hats.   I heard people say they paid over $200 but not over $300.

I moved on from being  just  a Cub scouter to also being a Commissioner this year. My Commissioner basic training was free.  I also attended our University of Commissioner Science for the paltry sum of $5.00.  At either of my Commissioners training sessions I was entitled to the Field book of Commissioner’s Service.  One person said their Commissioners University was $150.

Am I bragging about how cheap my training is? Yes. Do you have to pay the fees your council charges? No.   Does my council give some things up, because of the cheap training? I believe we do.  We do not have a Pow Wow or University of Scouting.  Both things that give you training in areas not generally covered in most scouting training.   I have four councils near me that I also look at for training.  They are 90, 163 or 210 miles away. Some of them a geographically large enough that it is actually closer for some of them to use my district.  I have seen people from all four of the other councils at our training sessions.  The council that is 90 miles from my home is the one I watch most often for training opportunities as the trip only adds $20 to the cost.

If you think the cost of your training is to high offer to help the district or council to be thrifty and help them find locations that you don’t need to pay for. Help them find local companies that will allow them to run off copies at cheaper rates.  Only run off copies that are useful to the training.  Above all offer to help give the training once you’re trained.  Tell them you’ll pack a lunch rather than get a catered lunch. If you look there are probably a lot of ways that you can lower the cost of training for all or volunteer to help in the offices to reduce your costs.  May be you could set out a roundtable and babysit other leader’s kids for donations to send you to training. Just remember to support those that support you.

I have a long story about how roads today are all based on the size of a Roman Hoarse’s posterior.  It all boils down to  that’s how we’ve always done it, even though there is new technology. Don’t accept that  training costs what it costs, maybe there is something you’re overlooking.  Rather than hand out  $10 of copies  why not  scan and email them out or burn them to a $.30 CD. 

Time to dust off the planning hat.

Ok  is everyone up on their Chairman duties  for this time of year.  You should have recharter done or wrapping up.  You should have moved on to planning the summer.  We want to wrap this up  soon. You should have the summer shcedule ready for the April Pack meeting. 

We had to wait until this last round table to get the information on one of our normal  summer events  a tented sleep over on the local texas league  ball field.   I have a hard time getting behind the local team.   I grew up  in the radio broadcast area of both the Omaha Royals and the Kansas City Royals. I was able to go see the guys in Omaha  and then listen and often watch  them when they moved up to the big leagues in Kansas City. Our local team as I mentioned is Texas league which is a third string farm team for the Padres.  Who are the Padres?   Within 6 hours driving time we have  the Houston Astros and the Texas Rangers. Why is our team farmed by the Padres. Any way  it's a great family time. I took my son to both events last year and had a blast though we didn't camp on the field. 

Last year we had a summer fun night at a local soccer field.  we had waterballoon games and  learned how to play Ultimate Frisbee bee bee . The committee decide we want to stretch this out this year and instead of  just 2 hours we're going to try  a whole day.   then we are also going to  do another two hour session later in the summer.  

Last but not least  our raingutter pool party.  What better place than a pool to have a raingutter regatta? We use this to cap off our summer. 

This is all to try and get our summertime pack award.  Now is also the time  to start planning the next years program.  Group campsites in stateparks fill up fast, You may already be too late for a fall campout.  Why do you need to start  all this planning so soon?   Districts are looking for Popcorn Kernals. Trails-end  will be visit you areas soon.  You need to have a plan to create a budget.  You need a budget to set popcorn goals, and boy do we have a steep goal this year! we had a record year last year. Now we have to try and beat that.

Get out there and plan so you can take a summer break too.