Re: Ready Troop & Explorer Advancement (long post)
Amick Robert (amick@SPOT.COLORADO.EDU)
Wed, 30 Oct 1996 12:04:26 -0700
On Tue, 29 Oct 1996, Larry Jones wrote:
> My advancement chairman is working on a reciprocal deal between our Troop
> and the local Law Enforcement Explorer Post. According to Chris, when he was
> a Scout in the late 70's- early 80's there was a designation called
>
>_Ready Troop _. He asked me to find out if it is still an available option and
if so what are th
> requirements.
>
There is no longer the "ready program" or the Emergency Service Explorer
Program. In these programs there was an armband and a patch/certificate
for completing training; however the program was discontinued.
There is a new Specialty in Exploring known as Emergency
Management Exploring, for which there is a program helps book you can
order from your local council. Our Emergency Management Explorer Post 493
was developed as a prototype post to test this program two years ago and
has been very successful. You may wish to look at the Post web page at:
http://bcn.boulder.co.us/community/explorer/
One major event we do every year and which is described with photos in the
web page is the mock disaster; over 120 Explorers and Scouts join together
to put on their own mock disaster. They completely plan and conduct it
with only adult advice, but no adult participation. One emergency manager
said he "wished that some of his adult teams were as talented and well
trained as the Explorers in handling real emergencies.." quite a
compliment!
There are also other program helps books on Emergency Medical
Services/Health Careers, Firefighter/Rescue, Law Enforcement, Sports, High
Adventure/Outdoor, Computing/Engineering/Sciences/Technology,
Law/government, and just about any other area of specialty interest. The
Council/District operations guide has an appendix listing all exploring
literature and videotapes/training programs available.
Networking with Explorer posts is highly advantageous for Districts. The
Explorers very much enjoy doing service for Scout events. We use our
Emergency Management, Law Enforcement, High Adventure, Wildlife, and other
specialty posts to help with our Klondike Derby, Scout Show, Fall
Camporee/Rendezvous, and our Alpha Phi Omega/Explorer Post 492 conducts a
Merit Badge University for the District Scouts every Fall and Spring with
over 300 Scouts attending each session.
Exploring also provides a very attractive program to keep older Scouts in
Scouting. Many of our Explorers belong to a Troop and to one or more
Posts. They get to wear the Forest Green Uniform and/or a specialty
uniform such as law enforcement, division of wildlife, or just a custom
polo shirt with the post logo and their name on it. For the younger
Scouts the Explorers are "ten feet tall" in the words of one of our
parents, and they aspire greatly to become 14 and join Explorers. So it is
a double positive, to get them to be active in their Troops and to want to
be involved as an Explorer when they are old enough.
> Here the Post's fall under the District, but we have no Explorer Training
> nor are there any Explorer representatives on our District Committee.
You should definitely have a District Exploring Chair, an Exploring
Committee composed of a Service Team (Exploring equivalent to
commissioner), Sales team (new post development), Program Chair, Explorer
Officer's Association Advisor, Communications/Public Relations chair.
I would strongly recommend that you obtain the Exploring Council District
and Operations Guide. It is a very comprehensive manual of organization
for Exploring. Also get an Explorer Leaders handbook which is designed
for use by both youth leaders and adult advisors.
Also, try to get an Exploring Training Instructor to provide you and the
Explorers/Advisors with the new Explorer Advanced Leadership Development
Workshop. This will get your youth adult leaders into a very excellent
working relationship and help them get their programs well planned and
run.
If you have the opportunity, go to the week long Exploring Seminar at
Philmont, usually in August; you will be trained by topnotch National
Exploring Faculty such as John Wolfgang and Donna and Larry Cunningham.
They have probably forgotten more about Exploring than most folks will
ever know and they are some of the "very best" folks in Exploring.
You may also wish to subscribe to the Explorer-Net Discussion Group to
share ideas on Exploring with other posts throughout the country and with
Venture and Rover units internationally.
Take advantage of the Exploring folks and posts that are near you; they
can be a "gold mine" of experience and ideas to help you strengthen your
program and relationships with local posts.
Sadly, Exploring is often the "forgotten cousin" of Scouting, and yet it
offers tremendous opportunities for teenagers that traditional Scouting
programs may not be able to provide; by having Exploring and traditional
Scouting units in a "dovetail" relationship, both programs can be
strengthened and grow.
I have several "tips for starting an Explorer Post" posts I have sent out
on the Explorer net and would be willing to forward them to anyone
privately upon request.
> Could someone please give the details on how advancement does work
> in the Explorer program.
Scouts or former Scouts who later join Explorers and who are First Class
or above can continue to earn traditional Scout ranks of Star, Life and
Eagle in an Explorer Post without being affiliated with a Troop. Otherwise
they would need to be concurrently registered in a Troop or Varsity Team
to get the lower ranks. Our Explorer Post is High Adventure/Outdoor, but
we are affiliated with a Troop and the Explorers maintain concurrent
registration and do their ranks through the Troop.
THe new Explorer G.O.L.D. award is now available to explorers which is
designed to be the Exploring Equivalent to Eagle Scout Rank, and requires
similar leadership and project management/participation in Exploring
activities, events, and service. The local council should have the
application form and requirements. An Explorer Advisor and Post Committee
members must review the application and sign off on the requirements as
they are completed. A final Board of Review is convened to approve the
award. It is a very attractive pendant medallion with a blue ribbon. Gold
Award recipients can wear the red,white,and blue square knot previously
used for the Explorer Silver Award, or more recently the Achievement Award
(now discontinued).
> Our District Commissioner has been talking about trying to start up a District
w
> ide High
> Adventure Post to cater to the youth that are interested in getting more outdo
or
> time than
> what they are getting at the Troop level.
As noted above, this is a highly successful way of keeping older Scouts in
Scouting and still allowing them to participate in their troops if they
choose to do so. We have operated an affiliated post/troop for 16 years
and have had great success with keeping older Scouts even up to age 21
while they attend the University and continue to be active with the Troop
and Post.
Remember too, that Exploring is a coed program and that nationally more
than half of all Explorers are female. Most Explorers have never been
affiliated with traditional Boy Scout or even Girl Scout units. We just
invited three Girl Scout Troops to concurrently join our High Adventure
Explorer Post, and it appears they are very excited about what we do and
want to be a part of it.
THe advantage of Exploring is that young women can be members of the Post
and not just "guests" on camping trips and activities which is a
restriction of the Venture/Varsity program. This really seems to be a
plus for our Explorers.
Hope this helps; if you need more details, please contact me privately
Best wishes...
Bob Amick, Explorer Advisor, High Adventure Explorer Post 72, Boulder, CO
and Exploring Training Chair, Longs Peak Council
Terry Howerton Sakima Group, Inc. SCOUTER Magazine Kansas City | 
