Re: Adult Training Awards (BSA)
MAJ (")
Tue, 4 Mar 1997 23:50:25 +0000
I am SO VERY GLAD that someone FINALLY asked this question!
It's going to sound VERY sexist, but it's the truth!! So....
*sensitivity disclaimer here*
Dave Hultberg asked a really great question that I finally got the answer
from the National Director of Cub Scouting (before he was replaced) in
1990.
>I'm curious as
>to why the Cubmaster award medal is on a ribbon that you wear around
>your neck, but the Scouter's medal pins on above your pocket.
There has been only four Cub Scouting awards available for Cubbers
in the past: the Den Leader Training Award, the Den Leader Coach Training
Award, the Scouter's Training Award as a Cub Scouter (various positions)
and the Cubmaster's Key Award.
The GREATEST thing that happened during the field testing of the new Cub
Scout Leadership Awards was a flood (wrong word, sorry those of you living
along the Ohio, like Jessica is!...a whole LOT) of comments about the older
awards. See, the older awards were made primarily for MEN, and those few
women that would earn those awards had a LARGE
problem wearing them correctly on the old Cub Scout leaders' blouse.
Women, as we all know, are NOT made equal in the upper torso area, and some
have been "blessed" with large busts (there, I've said it!) and others with
smaller busts....the challenge was to create awards that BOTH
males and females would be able to wear without a lot of staring (although
there would be still a lot of staring when the female Cub Scouter would
wear the square knots correctly!).
The answer was to re-create ALL of the Cub Scout leader training awards
(which started an INTENSE fight within the BSA's Uniform and Insignia
Committee, because there was a strong fight to make ALL training awards
"the same way") so that any Cub Scouter would be able to wear them
confortably and WITHOUT A UNIFORM IF NECCESSARY (so that
those in rural/urban areas of the BSA that can't afford a uniform CAN wear
the award with civilian clothing, though the BSA DISCOURAGES THIS
HIGHLY!!).
So, the new Cub Scouter Award, the Cubmaster Award, the Den Leader Training
Award, the WEBELOS Den Leader Training Award, the Den Leader Coach Training
Award and the Tiger Cub Leader/Coach Training Awards were all designed as
pendant-type awards, with the only distinction being the color of the
ribbon holding the traditional Cub Scout
diamond and Universal emblem.
In doing so, there became less of an emphasis on the square knot and more
on the pendant-type award. Once again, the BSA listened to those "in the
field" and at the same time solved one of their most embarassing problems:
how to award a training award to a female Cub Scouter without the potential
of "being fresh" nor without the fear of "injury" to a part of the female
anatomy that the woman prizes.
That's why.
GREAT question....I've been holding onto that gem for YEARS...*hehehee*
Settumanque!
(MAJ) Mike Walton ("no such thing as strong coffee,...") (502) 827-9201
(settummanque, the blackeagle) http://www.vhm.com/~uscardnl/
174 Chapelwood Dr., Henderson, KY 42420-5036 kyblkeagle@aol.com
blkeagle@dynasty.net or waltonm%po2.hq@taacom.army.mil
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