emb021

Uh, as you are from the Czech Republic, I think you would want to get the Venturer Handbook put out by your scout association. I seriously doubt you would get much value from the one put out by the Boy Scouts of America.

"A Nationally sactioned (weekend or one day) refresher for the Wood Badge for Boy Scout Leaders and title them Wood Badge for the 21st Century trained is more desirable than adding another week of camping to the already limited calendar." While I agree, it has yet to happen, and I see the chances of such growing dimmer. When 21CWB was rolled out, I was told that such a course was coming. I had gone thru the priod WB course (BSLWB), and wanted to get 'up to speed' on the new one. I kept expecting this mythical course to show up. I would hear things like 'some group is working on it unofficially', 'its being testing out', etc. Nothing every came of it. I tried getting on staff for a 21CWB course, but it took me several years before I succeeded. Now, if you haven't been a participant or staff on a 21CWB course, you have to go thru it again as a participant to be allowed on staff. So why provide this refresher now?

"Just an update - my council sent out an email with some info this week. Estimated cost will be about $2000 and they're interviewing adults at the end of this month." Sad. They are months behind most everyone else. The 2 councils I work with are rapidly filling up their slots. I frankly wouldn't be surprised if they are full by the end of the year, with waiting lists. The Jamboree website now has a 'bulletins' area, with one so far. It states that 12,000 have registered on-line (including youth, staff, leaders), over 6,000 being youth. There appeares to be 8,100 staff positions.

"My understanding is that LFL is not "Scouting," correct?" Most definetly not. LFL was started by the BSA to provied after-school 'character training' not tied into the traditional scouting program. Kids involved with the program are participants, and so neither they nor the adults involved must met BSA membership requirements. Exploring that is part of LFL is strickly the career-awareness part (Law Enforcement, Fire/Rescue, Medicine, Law, Engineering, etc.). As many posts were chartered to government bodies, again, following BSA membership requirements was an issue, hence the move. "That would be still like asking a Scout troop to move an account to a 4-H group." Or any non-BSA group. In fact, there is no national policy regarding doing this between BSA groups.

Explorers still exist. The BSA moved the career-awareness Posts to Learning for Life, a whole-owned subsidiary of the BSA. regardless, Explorers aren't part of the GSUSA. Frankly, this is little different from the situation of a scout leaving one troop and going to another. No guarantee that the 'money' in their 'scout account' will go along.

MANY council have a "Scouting University". However, they vary greatly. Some are just all day events, some are weekend events. Some council just use it as a forum to provide basic training, some offer national supplemental training, others go further and organize more original training. And so go even further to organize a degree program to encourage participants to come back and take further courses. But however your council does it, you'll probably get something out of it.

I have to echo what Eagle77 said. This is something that was discussed on Arrow-L last month. While its sad that a camp is closed, it is understandable in this situation, due to the high costs of maintaining the camp in a flood area. Its not like some cases where the camp is being sold off for money or the like. I would hope that the property is preserved in some manner, which could preserve its historical significance, even if it can't be used as an active scout camp (either summer or weekend).

BW is correct. The problem is you have people in your council who think the Gold and Silver reviews should be run like a Eagle BOR. They are not! I believe in addition to the resources BW gave, that the Advancement Guideline booklet also covers this information, and is the guide that the District/Council Advancement Committees are REQUIRED to be following. Be advised they do revamp this book at least once a year.

"The merit badge councelor's list is maintained by our Council. Most other date is kept on ScoutNet, so it makes no sence to maintain and update a separate district database." And having a separate district database may lead to the council database not being updated. Not a good idea. Any district info should be an extract from what's in the council ScoutNet database.

spangler- hopefully you resolved your issue to show the orientation. As a new crew, I encourage you and your crew to use the correct terms. We are the Venturing program, not the venture program. There is a difference.

If no one in your crew has gone thru the course, its really vital that someone have completed a CDC for it. Just picking up a syllabus (any syllabus) and presenting it without having previously experienced it is not a good idea. They are working to bring the CDC and Staff development training down to the area level, to make it available to more people.

"Even though emb is apparently a paperwork scofflaw like me." My troop wasn't a 'paperwork scofflaw'. Advancement reports were ALWAYS filled out and turned in. When they were, patches/skill awards, cards, and mother pins were picked up. If the boy was already given the rank patch or skill award, that item went back into our stock. We were, depending on the amount of advancement, turning in advancement reports about once a month. Have a stock of skill awards and lower ranks ensured the boy would get those items now and not 2-3 weeks later after the report was turned in and items picked up from the scout shop.

Since atleast the 80s, the concept has always been on "immediate recognition". This is what we were trained! That is, the boys should be recognized IMMEDIATELY for advancing. My troop (and I would think most troops) did this. The night the boy completing advancement, he would be called up at the end of the meeting and it would be announced. My troop kept a stock of skill awards and lower rank patches (scout thru 1st class), and so we would give the boy the skill award or rank. Once we turned in the advancement report and got back the awards, cards, etc, if we hadn't already given the boy the patch (usually rank or merit badge), we would again call him up at the end of the meeting and present the patch. At the court of honor (we usually held 3 a year), the boys would be more formally recognized, be presented with the rank/merit badge cards, and mothers pinned. So if you troop isn't doing this, they are incorrect, as immediately recognition is, AFAIK, part of basic adult training.

I'm going to take a different tack with this issue. First off, I see 2 different issues. The first is that member of your unit don't know what's going on in terms of upcoming events. You said "my troop had no idea about the Scout Jamboree until I came on board". I assume you are speaking of the National Scout Jamboree, and not a local event. A big problem I see with 'communications' with many people is that they are very passive about communications. Unless someone tells them something, they are ignorant about it. They make no effort to find out what's going on. Let's use the NSJ as an example. Members of your unit most certainly should know about it. Jamborees are mentioned in the Scout Handbook. There has been info on the upcoming one in Boys Life (I think) and Scouting magazine. There is certainly info on it at the National website, and National has a whole separate website for it (been up since about May). Most councils now have info on it on their websites and are getting people signed up. Now, while your council might have done a better job of getting info about it to your unit, the members of your unit have little excuse to not know. They should be checking out their council website and council newsletter (whether on-line or paper) for upcoming events. Some districts may also have websites as well. Relaying entirely on the council/district to get you fliers isn't the way to go. People need to be more proactive about stuff like this. The second issue I see is different. You said "I keep attending the roundtables and find out one thing, and then find out later the district changed the information between roundtables." Your district shouldn't be making changes so often. That will just make for problems further on. In most cases an event is planned out 6-12 months in advance. The time/location for such events is not something that can easily or should be easily changed. Once its set, its set. You also mentioned that your unit went to an event and no-one was there. Was the event cancelled? If so, why weren't you contacted? Were you signed up for the event? Many times events need a minimum number of people to happen. They may very well have cancelled the event because NO ONE signed up. If you didn't tell them you were coming, that might have been part of the problem.

National now has the Insignia Guide on-line: http://www.scouting.org/Media/InsigniaGuide.aspx A Denner is the equivalent to a Patrol Leader. You typically have a new Denner each month. No idea if appointed or elected. The old Insignia Guides and the Cub Scout books used to show how the denner tabs were pinned on. Cub scouts don't have epaulets. So a cub scout would have the denner tab pinned in about the same location as the epaulets. If you have Webelos Scouts wearing the tan uniform, the cords are worn under the epaulets, but without the tab.

"Varsity Teams don't have Patrols they have Squads, and I don't think that they use patrol emblems to designate Squads." While Varsity Scout Teams have Squads, AFAIK, they do use patrol medallions for them. There are really only a few differences between a Boy Scout and a Varsity Scout uniform. Varsity Scouts wear the blaze orange loops instead of red. Varsity Scouts wear the "Varsity" strip above the Boy Scouts of America strip. Varsity Scouts have their own office patches, hat, and jacket. Someone can double check in the Varsity Scout Manual on the patrol medallions.

"Who would usually be the contact person between my troop and the Council/District?" There are actually 2 different people. First off, you have the Chartered Organization Rep, who represents the Chartered Org (NOT the Troop [or Pack or Crew]) at the council and district, and is a voting member of same. There is training for this position and certain duties/responsibilities. Secondly, your troop should be assigned a Unit Commissioner. Commissioners are the 'third leg' of scouting, and their main purpose is quality control. Ideally they should be dropping by your unit on a regular basis (once a month or two) to see how things are going, and help ensure you have a quality program. If your adults need training, they will work to help you out. They may also ensure you know what's going on. There is, of course, monthly district Roundtables, which you seem to be aware of. Now, others from the council/district may drop by from time to time, but the only one you should really expect is your Unit Commissioner.

"The troop committee want a varsity group (14-18) because half of the boys in our troop is that age. The other half age range is 12-13. That is the explantion they keep giving me. They do not want Venturing, just Varsity." Does your troop committee understand that Varsity Scouts are a separate unit from the troop? These boys will basically be moved out of the troop and form a Varsity Scout Team. A VS Team not some kind of adjunct to the troop or the like. Prehaps what they really want is a Venture Patrol (NOT to be confused wiht Venturing). A Venture Patrol would just be a patrol of older boys WITHIN the troop which can do high adventure stuff on their own, BUT still be part of the troop and be the junior leaders.

"A simple, straightforward declarative sentence would put a lot of questions to rest." Sometimes I think that a lot of the 'discussions' on-line (and in person) about BSA policies/procedures would go away if National was a little better about putting things in writing. "But the paragraph then winds up with the extremely broad statement: "A uniform, if any, is the choice of the crew." That sentence, combined with the phrase "recommended field uniform," undoubtedly creates uncertainty and confusion." Well, the statement about Uniforms in the Venturing literature must be read (and understood) in total. Too many people take that final statement and ignore all the rest. They ignore the statement about the recommended uniform that specifies the color of the pants/shorts to be worn with them. They ignore the statement about the recommended shirt that says you must follow uniforming policies about insignia placement, including the use of the green loops (or silver or gold). They ignore the statement that use of the tan Boy Scout uniform is NOT an option for Venturers. They really need to read the entire statement, not just cherry-pick one part of it.

Another knot that Venturers may wear is the Venturing Leadership Award knot. This award is available at Council, Regional, and National levels. If the Venturer is also a Boy Scout, then certainly they can wear this knot on their boy scout uniform. Here's a file at the National Venturing Cabinet site on knots that Venturers can wear: http://www.nationalventuringyouthcabinet.org/files/Knots.pdf

"What about the Venturing Silver or Sea Scout Quartermaster award knots? If a boy is dual-registered in a troop and a crew/ship, can he wear these knots on his Boy Scout uniform if he's earned them before he's 18 in his crew/ship?" That is correct. Keep in mind that Ventuers can wear the Silver knot on their uniform all the time, as there is no patch for that award. Further, in venturing most people are ok with youth wearing the eagle and AOL knots on their venturing uniform, especially if the youth is over 18.

FWIW, the councils in my state have been fairly stable since the 1940s or so. The only new council was when one was split out of another in the 1960s. However, about 10 years back or so, another council went under. AFAIK, National shut it down, and the territory was turned over to another council (the new one that was formed back in the 60s). It was not a merger. The camp property became the property of the other council. The SE of the old council was fired, and the DEs of that council were put on notice (shape up or be out).

"- James E. West Fellowship Award (though I'd love to meet the Scout who donated $1,000 to his local council)" Keep in mind that you can receive the James West award by having SOMEONE ELSE donate $1000 on your behalf. Many OA Lodges present 1-2 James West Awards a year to its members, many of them youth. So there are youth out there with it.

FWIW, I had a similiar problem when I was a SPL. I had one kid who's attitude was that only his parents or another adult could 'tell him what to do', not some other kid. Sorry to say, I'm not sure how this was resolved or if the kid just eventually dropped out.

Have your lodge try to order them thru National. They may still have some. That's really the only way. National Supply never stocked them. Your only other avenue is thru the collector network.