NeilLup

Hello, Emb is exactly right. At one time, the award of 3 or 4 beads was a "badge of office." This meant that one wore those beads only as long as one held the office which was during the course and for 2 years after while people completed their work. However, that was honored pretty much in the breach. Very, very few people stopped wearing their 3 or 4 beads. The 4 beads for Course Directors became permanent in 1973. I'm not sure of the date for 3 beads but believe that it was during the '90s. It is now considered both a badge of office and a recognition.

Did you sent a note to the Chief Scout Executive (Bob Mazzucca) thanking Janice?

On the BSA National Website, there is now a Beta Test of an interactive spreadsheet for the Venturing Crew standards for Journey to Excellence. It is available for all leaders to use, play with and comment. The write-up asks that Cub Scout and Boy Scout leaders check it out and comment as the same format is planned for Cub Scout and Boy Scout spreadsheets also. The request is for comments to JtE@Scouting.org as soon as possible but by March 14th, 2011. Comments to the list are great but I would imagine that making a real difference would require the comment to go J

1) One of the wisest senior Scouters I have known said "We say that Scouting is a youth program, and indeed it is. But truly successful Scouting is an adult program run for the benefit of youth. If the adults are having a good time, and enjoying themselves and each other and having fun and it is clear that good things are happening, the youth will come." 2) I regard Scouting for adults as something like an emotional bank in this area. When we have a good experience and have fun or are rewarded, it puts "chits" in our personal emotional Scouting bank. When we have a negative expe

This thread reminds me of a thread from a few years ago discussing a 16 year old young man who was receiving his Eagle Scout award and wanted his girlfriend and son to attend. As with many such things in our society, there is no one, uniform, consistent answer. The posted answers range from "throw the harlot out" to "provide continuous, welcoming support." I suspect that in any reasonably diverse group, those sentiments would be present. To me, the attitude of the young woman would be of significance. a) Is it "I made a mistake and I'm going to do my best for the chi

Congratulations to your son and to you. Neil Lupton Eagle 1959

I would only add one thing to CalicoPenn's good suggestions. If one Scout attacked another, particularly a 17year old almost adult Scout, that isn't just a matter for the institution and the unit, it is also a matter for Scouting. It is a youth protection issue. This matter should be brought to the attention of the Scout Executive of your local council. I would suggest contacting the Scout Executive and stating that you would like to talk about a youth protection matter. Then give the full facts as best you know them. The Scout Executive will make a full and fair investigatio

Hello Brotherhood, In the previous round of webinars, we did have one at 8PM Central and attendance was exceedingly sparse. Participation was the least of any webinar we held. We perhaps could have had one that late this round but we hoped the one at 7PM Central would be acceptable. Oak Tree, concerning customer service for government organizations, I have a Scouting friend who was a reasonably high level official for the IRS. He spoke once about the problem of providing customer service for the IRS and the problem is the difference between what the IRS has to consider good c

Hello UCEagle, If you've participated in one of the other webinars, it probably isn't worth it to participate in the Commissioner webinar unless you would be presenting that webinar to other Commissioners. This one is specifically tailored to Commissioners but probably isn't so different that you'l learn that much particularly if you're familiar with KPI and a Balanced Scorecard. Neil

Hello John, That idiot would be me We held the first round of webinars: 1) during the work day 2) in the evening of the work week 3) on the weekend. The webinars during the work day had far and away the best attendance. Evenings during the work were second and weekends were very sparse. You will forgive this idiot for noting the people voting with their feet and scheduling the second round in line with attendance on the first round. All the webinars except Commissioners were recorded and are available on the National website: www.scouting.org >>

There are now several webinars (about 1 hour or less) scheduled for Commissioners who will have the responsibility of implementing and guiding much of the Journey to excellence program. The link to sign up for the Journey to Excellence Commissioner Webinars is: http://journey-to-excellence.kintera.org/commissioners Scheduled Webinars: Thursday 12/2 1pm Central All comrs. Wednesday 12/8 2pm Central All comrs. Wednesday 12/8 7pm Central

Hello Eagle 732, You haven't identified which is your council, so it's tough to know exactly what they do. If by skimming 30% off the top, you mean that the course is expected to pay for -the use of camp including maintenance and depreciation -the cost of the pros and administrative staff who support the course Then that's an interesting way of looking at it. I know that my council adds, where possible, a 10% contingency and does ask that camps be paid for. I know that it doesn't skim money off the top.

(This message has been edited by neillup)

Hello John, From what I understand of ISO 9000, it is a bit much to say that Journey to Excellence is ISO 9000 like. I also am surprised by your saying that the standards and metrics are confusing if one takes the effort to read the requirements rather than just saying "This is too complicated. I can't do this. Hate, hate, hate!!" I would respectfully suggest that the Journey to Excellence metrics for a Troop are items that any Troop should know. The Troop should know how many overnight campouts they went on during the year. The Troop should know how many service pr

Hello Eagle, Thank you for your thorough review of the Journey to Excellence program and consideration how it applies to your small unit. I believe that the interests of small units and large units were considered in putting together the program. If I may suggest, let's consider each of the requirements as they pertain to a small, one patrol unit, 10 boy unit. a) Advancement - at the Bronze level, a 2% increase would mean that one more boy advances than did last year. However, achieving Gold would only mean that either 7 boys advance one rank or else if advancement was po

Many more materials on the Journey to Excellence program are now on-line. Journey to Excellence is the performance and recognition program which replaces the Centennial Quality program. The URL for the program is: http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/Awards/JourneyToExcellence.aspx or go to www.scouting.org >>Volunteers and then the link is on the bottom right Materials available are: -- webinars for Packs, Troops, Crews, Districts, Councils - scoresheets for Packs, Troops, Crews, Ships, Districts, Councils (Teams being developed) - frequently

Hello Camilam, You raise some very good points. I don't think that anyone has a problem with one knot, or a few knots or likely even several knots. The problem and risk can come when an individual has so many knots that it risks looking silly under normal circumstances. Or when knots, or lack of knots is used to make an individual uncomfortable. I have seen an individual with at least 21 knots -- seven rows. I fear that this did seem to be a bit much. But I kept that to myself. If it made him happy and encouraged him to do good things for youth, more power to him.

rd, Deacon and VigilEagle, I hope I'm not being repetitive. Boy Scouts and Eagle Scouts are not the only members of the BSA and the only ones with whom we should be concerned. I believe that Cub Scouts, particularly younger Cub Scouts, are impressed with square knots. They probably don't know what they mean but they like the idea that their leader has them.

Hello Platypus, 1) Please do send your comments and critique to JtE@scouting.org 2) These are the requirements for the first year of Journey to Excellence. If experience shows that a substantial number of Troops are meeting these requirements, then the requirements will be tightened up in future years. But right now, if most Troops met those Gold requirements, it would be a big improvement over where we are now.

As I see it, the purpose of adult Scouters is to provide great Scouting for youth. And the purpose of uniforms for adults is to help the adults provide great Scouting for youth. And, as a corollary, the purpose of knots for adults is to help those adults provide great Scouting for youth. How can this happen? 1) Many youth, particularly at the Cub Scout level, are favorably impressed by their adult leader in uniform and by the recognitions which the adult has earned. So if I'm going to make a presentation at a Cub Scout Pack, I've learned to wear my knots. 2) Some leaders

I understand that a Scouting's Journey to Excellence scoresheet for Teams has been written and is in the process of being approved and published. I believe that the problem is that this program has substantially been done by volunteers and the group working on the Team requirements was a bit slower than the other groups.

The Journey to Excellence program documents are now on-line. Scouting's Journey to Excellence is the quality and performance assessment and recognition program that replaces the Centennial Quality Awards program. The URL is: http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/Awards/JourneyToExcellence.aspx Or go to www.scouting.org >> Volunteers>> Scouting's Journey to Excellence Any questions can be sent to JtE@scouting.org The program goes into effect for districts and councils on January 1. For units, it goes into effect at their reregistration.

dScouter15 seems to think it's too easy and NJCubScouter seems to think it's too hard. Does that mean that by the "Goldilocks standard" it's just about right to start?

Hello JM, I'm sorry if I"m stating the obvious, but I'm sure you realize that you don't need to achieve Gold in every standard to rate overall Gold. If you make Gold in most areas and Silver or Bronze on others, you'll make overall Gold. So if you believe that your Pack is the size that you want, there's no requirement to grow even to make Gold.

"Personally I would have liked to have seen a higher standard for number of short-term camping trips, PLC meetings, and more emphasis on youth leader training (just looking at the Troop-level requirements), but this definitely seems like a big improvement over previous "quality unit" programs. " Part of the Journey to Excellence program is continuous improvement and review of the requirements. At the council level, for example, the plan is that each year, the standards will be reviewed and set for the next year based on the performance for the previous year. So based on actual perf