Re: EOA
William H. Sills (whs@idcnet.com)
Fri Jan 09 12:47:46 1998
Dear Cameron:
It was kind of you to respond to my posting. I'll respond in the body of your
message.
cameron mulder wrote:
> This was a interesting reply to me because one of the most vocal supporters of my
> council forming a EOA was our council commodore.
Perhaps I wasn't clear about my PERSONAL support of the EOA. I believe in the BSA and
work hard on having all of its programs strong and relevant. However, I have been in
the BSA for better than 50 years. I am pretty biased at this point. :-) Remember, the
thread was about what our bosns and their ship's companies wanted. I never miss an EOA
meeting and do my best to have at least the Squadron Chief Boatswain and each ship's
bosn attend with each skipper, my Vice Commodores and me. Sadly, we have attended many
EOA meetings where the Sea Scouts were the only ones in attendance. Several times, the
meeting was then cancelled. That's not a good way to get Sea Scouts excited about
taking a school night and driving an hour to a meeting they weren't sure about in the
first place. :-)
>
>
> William H. Sills wrote:
>
> > (1), Six said the Squadron Quarterdeck (Wardroom) sufficed for all of their
> > program needs;
> >
> >
>
> Our council quarterdeck meeting take place as part of the EOA meeting. There is a
> time at each meeting for ever Explorer Cluster to get together.
Our QD is held at one of our yacht clubs. Because our squadron is so active, a
combined meeting would take way too long.
> > (2), Two felt the EOA was important, three felt it was useless and one didn't
> > care;
> >
>
> The question is what should a EOA do to make it important?
> It should concentrate on social activities and sporting events.
>
> > (3), Six wanted the EOA to focus its efforts solely upon council & multi
> > council get togethers; and
> >
>
> That is what my Council EOA works on the most
Now, you and my bosns agree. :-)
> > (4), None wanted the EOA to spend their time on training.
> >
>
> This is very interesting because personal i like to learn about Leadership styles
> and how to be a better leader, which is what my EOA does
That may be because we have so much Sea Scout training activity that a more generic
session might not have much value. Remember, Sea Scouts have Ship QD training, POTS,
Nautical Skills Weekends, Leadership Academy, Long Cruises and SEAL. I'm not certain
that more training would be very appealing. <VBG>
> > This may be because that, other than age, Sea Scouts in ships have little in
> > common with posts. Also, Sea Scouts, at least in our area, have little room in
> > their calendars for Explorer activities.
> >
> I have heard this from ever different type of Explorer post out there, usually
> from the advisor. They say well were different from every other post so why
> should we go to EOA meetings? Well because at EOA you learn about different parts
> of EOA, different pogrom ideas that other posts like you have done, Awards
> available to all explorer and ones that pertain to your cluster and you get to
> meeting new people, plan council wide events and have fun.
Unlike all other Explorers in posts, Sea Scouts have been separate since Baden Powell
and his elder brothers George and Warington built and sailed their own boats and
camped on them and/or on the beach. In our local council, we are the majority of the
Exploring Division. We train Explorers and Scouts in our specialty areas, take them on
cruises, teach them SCUBA, ice hockey, roller hockey, sailing, water skiing, ice
boating and conduct the only pistol and revolver courses in our part of Wisconsin and
Illinois. Our Sea Scouts are constantly traveling out of council to sailing races,
Rendezvous and Regattas. They tell me that they really don't want to allocate any more
time to meetings. :-) However, if the meetings were to set up a social activity or
something that they might not do within the Squadron, I'm certain that they'd be
interested. Right now, they go to EOA because they know that is part of the bosns job
description.
> For our next EOA meeting we have a morning meeting which will center on
> information about different exploring awards, recognition's, and scholarships.
> We cover that in our Squadron QDs. Plus, it is hard enough to get them up before the
> crack of noon except for racing and hockey games, etc. <VBG>
> A
> session about finding out what type of personality you have which will help you
> find your leadership style and ways to improve yourself,
That's in Leadership Academy and SEAL which are nationally approved Sea Scout Training
courses.
> and we will be working on
> the Fall Council Explorer conference.
The Sea Scouts are working on our Central Flotilla meeting and election of Flotilla
Chief Bosn.
> Then after lunch we will be going rock
> climbing or to a movie, depending on what the group decides to do.
This time of year, everything is dropped if we have good ice. We will all be ice
boating. We also have a Squadron ice and roller hockey rink, warming house, Zamboni
shed, etc. We play ice hockey on weekends when we aren't ice boating. There is little
interest in missing any of the foregoing. <VBG>
> We will also be working on the EOA organization. Forming our Explorer cluster
> committees, getting chair people for each group (such as sea exploring, law
> enforcement exploring, ect...)
> See, we are already formed and meeting. They elect their Squadron Chief Boatswain
> during the spring QD.
>
> So i don't see why any explorer wouldn't want to be doing this, your learn and you
> have fun. But i am bias because i am the EOA chair.
My Sea Scouts have told me that often the Explorers that enjoy EOA and PACE are
interested in different things. My kids run their program with as few meetings as
possible. They want to be sailing, ice boating, cruising and learning the skills to do
them. Again, Leadership Academy and SEAL cover their leadership and management skills.
What has worked for us is having Explorers participate in OUR activities. We even
invite their officers to our QDs.
> Thanx for your input its something that will help us with our EOA program to make
> it better so every post fells they are getting something out of it.
See <G> you said "...every post..." It is amazing how much referring to my Sea Scouts
as Explorers and saying things like "...every Post..." when they are in Sea Scout
Ships, turns them right off. Try to use their terms and titles and always say "ships
and posts", "advisors and skippers", Explorers and Sea Scouts (or Sea Explorers) and
presidents and boatswains. Respect shown to their program goes a long way toward
making them feel welcome and that is the main requirement if you want Sea Scouts to
participate in EOA and Exploring Division events.
Finally, youth "vote with their feet". If EOA is active, useful and does interesting
things, it will be well attended. If it is too generic and is just another indoor
meeting, it will not succeed. Further, youth, except in ships, generally have a short
tenure in Exploring. That means the EOA must constantly be revitalized and
reorganized. That means that meetings must begin and end on time, the EOA officers
must plan fun events, follow through and not cancel them. Then and only then will EOA
be successful.
YISS;
Bill Sills
Skipper SSS Hathor (1)
Sinnissippi Squadron Commodore
>
>
> Cameron Mulder
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