CNYScouter

The Sea Scout Ship has been asked to "judge" a Raingutter Regatta. When I was a CC of a Pack we did do one of these so I am familiar with them. I am looking for some fun ideas we can do to spice things up. I really dont have much idea what they are expecting from us. I think just a couple of us showing up in uniform is all they are really looking for. Any ideas?

Our council has gone to internet advancement reporting. I have one Sea Scout working towards his Eagle and used this for the first time to record a couple of MB's he had earned. While looking through the awards it showed an award for "Sea Scouting Lifeguard" It also lists BSA Lifeguard. I did a search for the requirements but have come up blank. I didn't see a patch or award for this in the Scout Catalog either. Has anyone heard of this and know where to find the requirements (if they exist)?

In the syllabus of SM/ASM Leader Specific Traing in the Troop Organization session under Patrol Descriptions New Scout Patrol (A new-Scout patrol may hold frequent patrol leader elections so that each boy has the opportunity to serve for one or two months.)

I didnt get what I was looking for but it doesnt look like it exists. The G2SS implies that a registered leader is covered but doesnt come out and say so. (which is what I was looking for) Dont get me wrong I think this shooting club is doing a good job with teaching shooting. They understand the safety needed around firearms and do a good job teaching the Scouts this also. They just dont seem interested in Scouting only the insurance it brings. A lot of the attitude I see from them is the lack of knowledge of Scouting program. Where the BSA has real expertise is in hel

The Ship hasnt gotten anyone near this requirement yet. Currently we are getting ready to attend the regatta in Maryland on Memorial Day. I dont know how many are going yet but at least a couple of us will there. I think the Ship has this on the schedule for the fall. Our Mate told us that one of her friends teaches this for the Power Squadron. We are planning on using them or trying to get someone else from the local Power Squadron. I am planning on taking The Squadron Boating Course which does cover the basics of piloting if it is ever offered close by again. They a

This is just another example of where the CO has no real idea of what is going on, how the Scouting program works and were told the only responsibility it had was to supply a place to meet. When my DE sold the Ships CO (and this shooting crews CO) on the Scouting program he used as the big advantage for a Scout unit was the BSA liability insurance and the supplemental liability insurance our council provides. It took a phone call from me and 2 calls from the head of the Ships CO to get a copy of the charter agreement and insurance information from our council If a council is going

My son has been shooting pistols with a new crew that just started. A question arose from a new leader of this crew about being covered with BSA liability insurance. He wanted to know where it said that as a registered BSA leader he was covered by this insurance. His main concern was that allowing 14 to 20 year olds to fire pistols in NYS has only been permited when a new law was passed in Aug. 2006 and this is totally new to most pistol shooters and pistol instructors. I didnt know for sure where this is stated so I did a search though the BSA material I had and on-line but the onl

I have to say being in a co-ed Ship has brought about some unique situations. In the near future I can see an issue coming up. One of the young ladies in the ship has a younger brother, currently in Scouts, who wants to join the Ship when he turns 14 in September. She doesnt want him to join. I think she sees the ship as her thing and doesnt want him around. So far she hasnt put much effort into the Ship. Shes lucky to make every other meeting. She been to most of our activities but doesnt seem to be around much during the planning part nor does she seem real interest

My youngest is starting school in the Fall. As we have the Loins Cubs for Kindergarden he has the opportunity to join Cubs then. I still don't know if we are going to start him in Cubs this early yet. Form what I have ben hearding this program isn't doing that well and I know that not all Packs are using this program yet (or even if they are going to continue with it). The Pack that used to be in his elementary school folded a couple of years ago so I need to find a Pack to join. Living in a very populated area there are easily 50 packs within a 20 min. radius for us. I ha

A couple of the Sea Scouts are also involved with target shooting. They have asked about the Venturing Shooting Sports Achievement Award. From the application it says: While working on the Ranger Shooting Sports elective, you are required to complete one of the following disciplines: air pistol; air rifle; archery; muzzle-loading rifle; shotgun; pistol; or small bore rifle. However, if you go beyond the basic requirement and complete five of the seven disciplines, you will earn the Venturing Shooting Sports Outstanding Achievement Award. The Ranger Shooting Sports Electi

I guess that is really some bells and whistles. This doesnt even compare to most of the District events I have gone to. But if they are losing 30-40 scouts a year and having to replace of the Troop every year, they would need to do something this big. This seems like a big number of scouts to be losing a year. Are most Troops seeing this percentage of loss? I think that what you are doing is great and will pay off in the long run. I think some of what you are seeing has to do with the thread about the schism between Packs and Troops. Most Cub Scouts and their parents do

Chippewa29- I'm curious. What are the the bells and whistles that the other Troop uses?

I have to go with the canned Dinty Moore Beef Stew also. One other thing we used was the sliced turkey and gravy in the boil in bags served over rice or mashed potatoes. They came frozen and we used them to keep other stuff cold. Easy to cook and not much clean up. These were great on a cold day. My son has tried these and likes them but the stores around here stopped carrying them a few months back.

Now that I have almost finished my Wood Badge Ticket, I just need to sit down with the Boatswain and work with him to put the finishing touches (and rewrite) the Ships plan to attend the Regatta on Memorial Day, I need to start working on some new goals. The first one will be to get the committee functioning as they should. I have a parent who has volunteered to be Treasurer and outside of getting a CC that will fulfill the role (first on my list) what other Committee positions would you concentrate on finding? What priority would you give to finding each position? I know w

I now understand why we have so many units that do little or nothing to support our council in the way of FOS, popcorn sales or even attending District events. It seems that our council has its own form to use for MBCs. You have to keep trying to you find the right person who has it. Council level volunteers are much help. All I get from them is to contact my District. And around and around it goes. I think a lot of this has to do with the DE leaving. He did everything. Now that he is gone no one else has any idea what to do. Beavah, this is what I had in mind whe

As a way to promote the Ship we have discussed holdiing Small Boat Sailing Merit Badge classes this summer. To do this we first need to get one of the leaders registered as a MB councilor. I thought this would be pretty easy to do but no one in my district can tell me what I need to do to get someone registered as a MB councilor. I know that an adult application needs to be filled out. I am told that there is another form that needs to be filled out but no has a copy or knows how to get one. The council web site says to contact your district advancement chairman but our dist

pargolf44067 I know what you mean about not being prepared. When I find out about an activity I think the Ship might be interested in attending I get info about it out to the members. No one, not even the adult bother to read it and are not sure about going. The Boatswain or I send the whole time telling about the activity but people still can't make up there mind about attending so a decision gets put off. I just came tonight form a SHip meeting where I tried to get Sip members to take on a task. I couldn't anyone to commit to taking on a task, not because they didn't want t

One thing the Ship has yet to draw is the bored older Scout. My son is the only Sea Scout that was in Dirt Scouts and in the 3 years he was in a Troop he had no opportunities to learn how to plan, heck I dont he was ever asked if he had any ideas for activities or trips. Knowing that the youth didnt have planning skills this has been an area where I have spent a lot of time trying to teach the Scouts. They dont seem to have problem deciding on something to do, but as Eamonn has stated it hard to plan something when you never know who it going to show up for the next meetings and it ba

I know the Ship is still fairly new but trying to get the Ship members to actually plan out an event is one area that we still need to work on. And from mnay of the Troops I am seeing and hearing about it is a pretty common problem. All of the Sea Scouts are involved with other activities; some are even in Venturing Crews. They seem to bounce around to the different activities, but arent around to plan them. They show up once in awhile to find out what is going on but getting them to sit down and plan an activity just isnt happening. Eamonn talks about cafeteria Scouting. I d

Ever been a unit number 666? ( I have seen an Explorer Post near here with that number. I've seen it on an "Adopt-a-Highway" sign so I don't know what the Post does.

As far the whole rechartering process this year in our district its really a mess. Our District has no UCs. Our DE got a promotion earlier this month and has moved to another council. To save money our SE is not hiring his replacement until April, a month after the recharters are due. They are still trying to get the Centennial Quality Awards done. The DC has said they hope to get them all in by June or July. I gave our IH and COR the syibuss for COR training to look at. I think they read it as one of them actually called and tried to setup a meeting with the DE about the char

We are in the middle of recharting. There is always a push to recharter on-time. A question was asked to me What happens if we dont get it done? What really happens if you dont recharter on-time? How long before the charter runs out? If you are late with rechartering is a unit still covered by the BSA insurance? How long can you be late before a unit is no longer covered? I have heard of units that were 7 or 8 months late in getting their recharter done and they are still around. It doesnt look like anything happened to them (except they didnt make quality unit that

When I look at the OLS syllabus I can see where we have cut down on time for some of the sessions. To get everything in, we start hour earlier one morning and 1 hour earlier the other morning. But I dont see how making the trail lunch 1 hour instead of 1-1/2 hours and eliminating the 2 hour open discussion period takes away from the course. I do agree that tying to cram too much in such a short time is not a good thing but I think the council training staff decided that its better to have leaders get training this way than then them not taking it at all (which was happening when we r

After taking 1-1/2 years off, Sea Scouts has gotten my son thinking about working on obtaining Eagle. Hes not that far off only needing 6 required MBs and a couple of non-required MBs. He has finished the POS for Life and will have no problem with the POS for Eagle. He has started to think about his Eagle project and I want to see what everyone thinks about one he seems to want to do. I found out that our CO, a non-profit Sailing Club, received a grant a few years ago to build a kiosk (a permanent bulletin board) promoting Recreational boating. The club leases its clubhouse fro

Our council combined SM Specific and Basic Outdoor Skills over 5 years ago. One of the reasons was that adults were taking Basic Outdoor Skills but not the SM Specific. This is the only training that our council holds that fills up and has a waiting list. We do the first part of SM Specific on a Tuesday night from 7pm to 10pm. Two weeks later the rest is cover from Friday night to Sunday afternoon getting out about 3:00pm. Before they leave on Tuesday night each patrol has to have a Patrol name and elect a patrol leader The time between these sessions allows the participants to