Tokala

Venturing in my Council has largely been left to find it's own way. The Asst Scout Executive is the staff adviser to the VOA. The VOA meets monthly. When I became VP of Program, I started to attend VOA meetings when the schedule fit. They had a multitude of adults involved and after a few months, I tasked one as being the representative for the Council. This helped them focus a little bit.

The VOA plans an annual Venturee and the Council supports them with staff for COPE/climbing, shooting, cooks, etc. Last year, I arranged a 3-day event at our summer camp specifically geared towards Venturers and outdoor Bronze award requirements. The ones that attended had a great time and completed pesky requirements that they didn't have the resources to do within their Crew and the summer camp staff could offer. This year, I increased it to a full week and hope to have even more challenging programs for them.

The biggest issue that I have seen with Venturing in my Council is the VOA is only representing about 3 Crews. They fail to communicate that it's for all the Crews and get the remaining Crews involved. I've also noticed that all of the Advisers to Crews have a philosophy that the youth determine their program and that they should do nothing to encourage them to do anything. That's not being an adviser. That's just sitting on your butt.

The VOA staff adviser and I have been discussing how to get the VOA functioning better and hopefully by the end of the year we'll have a more enthusiastic and representative group.

Who's with me? Who else is going? I've got my usual staff job with Administrative Services/Logistics. Yup. I pay the fee to haul all the materials around the campus so that the participants have a good NOAC experience.

West Central Florida Council operates 2 weeks of traditional Boy Scout camp, one week of Venturer camp, and a 3-night Webelos resident camp. As VP of Program, I am working to increase attendance. As the Lodge Adviser, I am forcing the Lodge to meet it's commitments to promoting camping.

Sounds like a great trip! It's also stone crab season this time of year, so you could always check into adding that to your program. Careful though, they can crush a finger with their claw!

Sand Hill Scout Reservation run by West Central Florida Council is a little farther south than MacGregor-Smith and has better facilities. You can find info at www.sandhillscoutreservation.com. A ruthless plug by the WEst Central Florida Council Program VP

Depends on the position. Executive Committee positions are vetted by our Council nominating committee. I serve as the VP of Program and am responsible for recruiting camp directors, training chair, camping chair, etc. I have more available opportunities for leadership than I do volunteers. I do discuss these decisions with my staff adviser and the Scout Executive.

I'm an usual choice for a VP position since I am not a heavy financial contributor. I have always been involved with troop, district and council level events. Even as Program VP, you'll find me emptying the trash, clearing a trail or whatever else needs to be done. I don't consider myself different now even if I do serve on the Executive Committee.

Similar situation with a troop I was involved with years ago. The troop treasurer had skimmed/defrauded the troop account of about $14,000 by the time it was discovered. The individual worked for the Sheriff's office and was quickly fired. They did pay the troop back all of the money that was stolen. The troop committee realized it was handling the bank account poorly and made adjustments.

My Lodge has a committee that approves adult nominations. We include the Council Camping Chairman, Lodge Adviser, and Lodge Staff Adviser. We recently had an adult nominated that has been a troublemaker for the last year concerning Cub Day Camp and Council. He's not a team player at all. He was denied due to his attitude and the part that says adults are nominated for what they can do for the Order of the Arrow and not as a recognition/award. Even though he was denied and it was communicated to him, he still showed up at registration for the Ordeal. We suspect it was just another opportunity for him to make a scene and bad mouth the Council.

After graduating high school and saving, I bought a '69 Camaro hardtop. Then I commenced to customize it, rebuild the engine, paint, etc. I remember having a box of parts left over from building the engine and my parent's asking me if I knew what I was doing since I had so many parts left. I picked up the "How to Rebuild Your Smallblock Chevrolet" book and told them: "If I can learn calculus and chemistry from a book, I can rebuild an engine from a book." Then I turned the key and disturbed the neighborhood with open headers

I sold that car a few years later and swore I would own another and it would be a convertible. In 1995, I bought my '69 Camaro convertible. I proceeded with a frame-off build on that car. Then I bought a '55 2nd series, big window Cjevrolet pickup to be the tow vehicle. It ended up with an LT1 and 4L60E drivetrain, 20" Boyd's, air ride, and a hand built interior.

My parents always criticized spending my money on these projects, but now they stand in awe of what I've built and that they are actually worth a lot of money.

No offense taken from anyone. I know my comments stir things up and many times that is my intention. I grew up in this Council as a Cub and Boy Scout. This is the first time I have been "allowed" to serve on the Executive Board/Committee. I would never attempt to limit a units opportunities. The flip side is I have units tell me that they won't go to our camp (for no apparent reason) and then gripe about having to pay some camp use fees. If our own units supported our summer camp, we wouldn't need the camp fees. Since the unit leaders don't see the budgets and what it takes to keep the lights on and the water running year round, I can make comments like that to make them see things.

Some might think that I am serious, but those are the stubborn ones that won't support the camp anyhow. The rest begin to realize how we can all work together. If we discontinue our summer camp, I see the property sold and our Council merged with the neighboring Council. Then those people will realy have something to gripe about.

moose and JW, you lack the background knowledge to appreciate my comments.

And, my SE loves my sense of humor, lack of tact, because I say the things that need to be said so people don't keep making the same mistakes.(This message has been edited by Tokala)

You have earned your beads and are Wood Badge trained. Based on your history that you listed, you know more about Boy Scouting than will be taught during a Wood Badge for the 21st Century course. It's not so much Scouting-related as it is managing skills.

As Council Vice President of Program, the change over to the Tour Plan has fallen onto my shoulders. My take so far on the reasons why they changed boils down to 2: closing the Region offices, and shifting responsibility to the Council for review. We will make the change on March 1 as required, but I still need to sit with risk management people and decide on our Council policy/procedure. I've already had the question arise about liability if the Council doesn't ensure that the unit is meeting all the standards fro youth protection, hazardous weather, seat belts, auto insurance limits, etc.

Selfishly and with a smidgeon of vindicativeness, I'm temtpted to deny a Tour Plan to any Council unit that wants to go to any summer camp not our own In reality, I wouldn't set that as a policy, but it is tempting.

West Central Florida Council budgets training events to have "excess revenue". That's Council speak for profit. General rule was 10-15% contingency. If a course director doesn't bring in the contingency there is no reprecussions. When I ran JLT/NYLTC I would take some of my "excess revenue" and purchase new equipment for the camp/training such as coolers, igloos, chef kits, stoves, etc. It was something that wasn't permitted, but I tend to push the limits sometimes!

Our budgeting has become more realistic lately. We have evaluated what it costs to open a builing or use a building for an event. Instead of budgeting a contingency, we now actually build the cost for the building into the event. That money gets deposited into a camp use fee and goes to maintaining/operating the camps. We always heard how expensive it was to run the 2 camps, but all those contingency funds were never divided between camp use and program revenue. Now we do and it's allows for us to demonstrate to the general Council membership how the monies are used.

My Council typically offers up to four 50% scholarships. No free rides. People tend to follow through when they invest their fair share. The troop that I was registered with would contribute 50% of the fee to attend also.

I would prefer less adherence to political party rhetoric and more governing by common sense and the well-being of the electorate. I just don't see that happening any time soon. As long as the legislature oscillates between "cut taxes and spend Rebublicans" and "tax and spend Democrats" we're going nowhere fast.

Here's a link to the information at the National website.

http://event.oa-bsa.org/events/is2011/

I get chills when I see comments like "we took back the House". Maybe I'm too idealistic and sonce the Legislature "belongs" to the citizens. I'm ignoring the obvious owning by lobbyists and corporations for the moment. Perhaps, once people start thinking in terms of "winning" and "losing" we could actually make some progress improving our government and country.

Until then, I'm afraid we're mired in one big mess. Solutions aren't going to be found in political party rhetoric and campaign ads. Solutions are through and compromise and working for the good of their constituents not just the "blue" or "red" ones.

And the voters are so intelligent in Florida that they elect a man that had the largest fraud case with Medicare. Worst return on investment ever: spend $73 million of your own money to get a job that pays $100,000.

trainerlady: We hold our courses at our camps. We DO NOT add on all the "schwag" that many Councils like to do. We don't add a t-short, jacket, stuffed critter, ad naseum and jack up the price. Each particpant gets a mug/cup and a patch. We realize that it's difficult enough to recruit people and adding $75-125 of fluff won't help...or make the course any better.

nolesrules: Sorry, even if the mercury doesn't ever rise above 50 for 3 days in Florida, it will always be 72 and sunny at Gilwell!

Back during Boy Scout Wood Badge days, my Council (West Central Florida) ran a course on 2 year cycles. Even then sometimes we scrambled to meet the minimum number of participants. When WB21C came around, that tradition continued because "it's what has always been done". We now run on an 18 month cycle with the courses altering between spring or fall. We average around 40 participants. It's still difficult to recruit even with it priced at $175.

Late summer-fall courses can be problematic.....it's the height of hurricane season and you have to keep updated on the weather.

What do you think the minimum number of youth are needed to have a Chapter and make it successful? 10? 25? 200?

At some point it's not practical to have chapters or the each ditrict has a chapter mentality. Are we really giving a youth a chance to experience leadership and growth if we don't have enough Scouts and advisers to make the process work?

West Central Florida is developing criteria to give people waivers on the outdoor skills training. We haven't got anything in writing yet. We'd probably have better results if we just asked everyone to take the training.

Good training seems to get people enthused and motivated again.

The new numbering system seems to follow the ones used by the other regions. Why not make things a little more consistent?

People get confused when I tell them I went through Wood Badge course SE-463.

As for verification that a person completed their ticket, I didn't do it because I didn't trust them. I did it because it offered a chance to sit one-on-one with a SCouter you've worked with for possibly 18 months and evaluate the experience. I usually do more of a start,stop,continue evaluation with them. I ask questions like

"What went well that you would do again?"

"If you did the same thing again, what would you do differently?"

"What materials from Wood Badge helped you with your ticket?"

I do agree about WB21C being a generic course for leadership skills. It should be marketed that way as well. To market it as training to make people better Cub Scout leaders or Boy Scout leaders is a little misleading. It shouldn't be promoted as a way to improve Scouting skills or program management.

I have thrown the idea out to the training committee in my Council that we develop our own Boy Scout leader training and use the old Boy Scout Wood Badge/11 leadership skills format. It could probably be done in 1 weekend. Unfortunately I didn't keep a copy of the syllabus to develop the plan.

As Council vice president of program, I can push this along and see if I can get any traction. I'm just busy with other program issues right now.

I would guess that there is a wide variety of how people manage ticket completions.

When I served as a coach counselor and then as a ticket counselor, I would either via phone or face-to-face, review everything with the person. It gives the person a chance to evaluate their performance.

After that and I agreed that they met their goals, I would notify the course director that they had completed their ticket. I would also forward a few dates that they supplied for when they would like their bead ceremony to take place. The course director then coordinated the date for the ceremony with the rest of the staff and the person.

Maybe you should contact your ticket counselor again or the course director and give them a couple of dates you'd like to receive your beads? They may be distracted or have forgotten.