emb021

"Makes it seem that Boy scouts of America has joined the "No left Behind" syndrome by making an Earned Award an "at a boy" for everyone." While I can understand you sentiment, the problem is the World Crest was never created to BE an award, earned or not. It was meant to be a symbol of world scouting that ALL Scouts would wear to show they are part of a world-wide movement. The BSA kind of messed that up by making the World Crest be something you could only earn. Other countries instead created other patches for that purpose. The BSA kind of does as well, with the Internationa

It kind of happened in one area of my community when I was a scout and young scout leader. In a growing community area there was only one troop. An LDS troop. So all the scout-age kids joined it. But as most people know, how LDS runs their troops is not how most people do it (that's neither good or bad), so this caused a lot of friction between the LDS and non-LDS parents and scouts. So eventually, a second troop was spun off of this unit. Funny thing was the LDS troop was #52. So the new troop was #25.

"Not to split hairs but there is NO OFFICIAL WRITTEN MANDATE from National supporting your claims." No, there is no official written mandate. But its clear that's the direction that it seems to be going, and pretty much the recommendation I'm hearing from higher ups: if under 18, go to NYLT, if 18 and older, go to WB. "IMO, and from a logical point of view Boy Scout and Venturing leader training should be seperate because the programs are very different as are the goals." Won't disagree with you there. I've said this from day one as a current Venturing leader and a past Boy

""Venturers under 18 should go to NYLT and over 18 to WB, that is National policy" - emb021 " "Sorry emb021 that is NOT, NOT National policy." Sorry Baden P, but it kind of is National policy. Maybe not stated that way. (I said 'should' not 'must' or 'have to') ALL BSA members 18 and up are expected to go to Wood Badge, NOT NYLT. The current Wood Badge syllabus says that participants of WB are 18 and older. So 18 and older Ventuers should be going to WB. This is covered in the "Who May Attend Wood Badge?" page from the Wood Badge Admin Guide. I am looking at the 2011

"Another point, position-specific training does not transfer!" well, yeah, that's the point of it being POSITION-SPECIFIC. It only applies TO THAT POSITION. You change position, you need to take the training for that position.

"In the meantime, it looks like now Kodiak is open to Boy Scouts. What for? I think that was done just to "make it fair." Doesn't make a lot of sense to me. " Uh, Kodiak from day one was NEVER exclusively "Venturing only". It was designed such that it could be presented to ANY youth: Boy Scouts, non scouts (say church youth group kid), etc. If you noticed, Kodiak was all about leadership, not about how to run a crew. As to WB/NYLT. As it currently stands, Venturers UNDER 18 should go to NYLT. Those 18 and over should go to Wood Badge. This IS National policy.

This is the file to check out: http://scouting.org/filestore/training/pdf/What_makes_a_trained_leader.pdf

There is a chart at National you need to be following to determine who is trained. It different from the position. AFAIK, Fast Start/This is Scouting is NO LONGER required to be considered trained. By an large, its YPT (and note there are 2 different courses for adults: general and Venturing) and position specific training. SOME leaders will need additional training (IOLS for certain ones).

"we just want them to leave us alone so we can get started." Get over it. This is not how it works in any organization. Part of the job of the councils are to TRAIN the leaders of the units so that they are delivering the promise of scouting to the youth. So saying you want to be 'left alone' is the wrong attitude, and I think most would see this as a warning sign that things may not be right in that group. And I can tell you this is true in many many orgs. Many of the ones I am have groups similar to BSA councils whose job it is to training the leaders of the local groups, o

I like the wisdom of Mr. Garrison: "there are no stupid questions, just stupid people".

Yeah, well, that's my concern with the current NYLT. In an effort to include Venturing (which has a different organizational structure from Boy Scouts), I think they have changed NYLT to be less effective for Boy Scouts. Yes, leadership is leadership. But there are different ways that leadership can be presented (this is something I've written on on-line in the past, but I see to get nothing from it). You can present leadership skills and concepts as such. (whether its to cover situational leadership, servant leadership, goal setting, conflict resolution, etc). Or you can

"Venturers in a Venture Crew choose their uniform" Please note, the program is called Venturing, so the units are called Venturing Crews. "Within the last year a new uniform has been introduced. Grey stretch switchbacks and a dk green performance fabric with back vent." Within the last year? NOPE. That uniform was rolled out a 2-3 years ago. They discounted the prior uniform and I picked up a couple of old shirts that way. I don't care for the new fabric. Its stretching and am told it will melt. Pass. I like 'fishing shirts', but not the material and design of the new Ven

Wasn't aware that Venture had their own uniform. Venture Patrols are part of Boy Scout Troops, and so the boys in the Venture Patrol would just wear the regular Boy Scout uniform.

Around here the councils don't have the numbers to have more then one NYLT course per year, so they are open to Venturers. This is what the current syllabus calls for, so its not an option for councils to run in any other way.

"I don't see what dressing up in fake Indian gear (I've never seen anything that looks like the native dress of any particular tribe in any of our OA events) and doing fake drumming and fake dances has to do with Boy Scouts, being an honor society, or giving service to others." I can't speak for YOUR lodge, but in my area, the gear is NOT fake, the drumming is NOT fake, and the dances are NOT fake. Many people put a lot of time, effort, money, and research into creating accurate outfits, both for ceremonies AND for dance (they aren't the same). The drummers and singers are doing rea

"Tokala's post: Lokota songs in Florida, and Delaware tribe in Oklahoma. Seems a bit odd to me. I don't want to read anything into it, but I'm curious why local tribes or cultures weren't chosen instead. " It depends on the usage. When it comes to ceremonial outfits, most lodges like to use the local tribes for inspiration. Down here in Florida, that means the Seminoles. But when it comes to getting drum/dance teams going, the general style is to following the drumming/dancing that is seen at Pow Wows. This means southern or northern drumming and singing, and following the usu

My experience is similar to Tokala's. Many OA members and many lodges spend a lot of time and effort researching Native American Culture to get it right. In some OA Sections, you get some very high caliber people coming out to teach NA culture. And many lodges have good relations with their local tribes and experts from that area. Yeah, you will sadly get certain individuals, or even certain lodge or sections in which the level of knowledge when it comes to 'indian lore' is pretty poor. But to tar everyone with the same brush isn't right. It's telling that the people who are

Sigh... The purpose for bylaws in any organization is to define how that organization operates. Bylaws are, in fact, necessary and required for pretty much all organizations. Bylaws will define things like membership, officers, meetings, and the like. I'm a parliamentarian. I am familiar with bylaws. I have been involved in writing and revising bylaws for several groups. Bylaws, however, do not deal with behavior issues or issues of policy/procedure. That is NOT their purpose. For instance, what moosetracker mentioned are things that DO NOT BELONG IN BYLAWS, but would (if they

All the troops I know of have summer meetings. Yes, they will have some boys absence because family trips, but otherwise they have meetings. If the troop is away for a week-long trip, no meeting that week. This was one of the differences I had to learn about Boy Scouts vs Cub Scouts.

you have to wonder how much the age shift is due to the action of certain scouters or just a factor of life for the scouts...

I've seen the shoulder patch worn on the right sleeve of some scout troops chartered to AL posts. FYI, there is no such thing as a "Venturing Scout". The youth are called "Venturers". Please use the correct terms.

"Lodges provide a current handbook to all new members for free..We Pay if we lose it or need to update it. " I know of no lodge that provides the current handbook FREE to new members. New members pay a fee which covers ALL their costs. The lodge does NOT pick it up. This fee will usually cover: * the membership dues for the next year * the weekend fee for the event (which will usually include a patch) * lodge flap * sash * OA Handbook * any other materials the lodge provides to the new member NOTHING IS FREE. You really need to learn the concept of 'pay you

Adam S- yes, in the old days there were local scout distributors setup in many local department stories. This was before the days of Interstates and the like, so going to where our council office was was more of a day long trip (up and back). By interstate its about a hour roundtrip. By the 90s or so, the local scout distributors started to drop as National started to setup Scout Shops in local council offices, which were often better run & stocked then the old council shops, and sometimes would run satellite offices at scout camps (in cases where they might be closer to some t

"I just have no idea how to weave the cord so to look proper." There should be places on-line to find out braiding instructions. I would think the cords used 2 ply. (ie, 2 paracord cords braided or woven together should do). But its been awhile since I've looked at denner cords.

I'm an introvert. Frankly, Scouting (among other things) is what has helped me overcome this. It was the first place I was a leader of others, it was one of the first places that I got in front of a group to lead and speak with others. Yeah, those that are extroverts will thrive in Scouting, but so can the introverts (and more importantly, become less of an introvert).