NEW youth official leadership position: Webmaster

[gracekouca]

Hello,

 

I was told by my son's SM there will be

an official new youth leadership position :

WebMaster.

 

Any ideas or websites I can check out?

Thank you.

 

[John-in-KC]

Welcome to the Forums.

 

Right now, I've not seen any literature on the specific position.

 

That said, BSA and local councils have internet guidelines.

 

Ask your son to contact his Patrol Leader/SPL and (finally) Scoutmaster to seek out Council-specific guidance. Your son almost certainly can google Scouting internet guidelines and get a host of webpages.

 

As far as responsibility, if I were currently a SM, I would expect the Scout to develop and maintain the website, to include a calendar of events, and to include content delivered him by the SM, SPL, and Committee Chair.

 

Have I answered your question for the moment?

[Apache Bob]

I am on my computer all the time but do not have a website or have I ever set one up. Doesn't it cost to have a website?

If so will the Council office pay for the website for units that don't have the money to set one up?

[emb021]

"Doesn't it cost to have a website?"

 

It can. But there are services out there that offer free websites. I'm an officer in 2 clubs and we have websites hosted on free hosting sites. www.orgsites.org is one such service.

 

Don't know if there is a service providing free hosting for scouting unit websites, but who knows.

 

"If so will the Council office pay for the website for units that don't have the money to set one up?"

 

Nope. If a unit wants a website they are on their own. Don't expect the council to take care of this. Be nice, but don't expect it.

 

[gracekouca]

Hi,

 

Thank you for all the info.

 

My main concern is, will the webmaster position be recognized as a leadership position at BOR later?

[walk in the woods]

According to National's web site, yes. http://www.scouting.org/sitecore/content/Home/BoyScouts/AdvancementandAwards/2010RankUpdates.aspx

 

 

[Eagle92]

Grace,

Welcome to the forums. Lots of good info here for you and your SON to get. from the MBC question and the POR question, it sounds like you are not letting your son do what he is suppose to do. I'ld let him do all the grunt work

 

Also the two new PORS won't count until Jan 1 when the new requirements go into effect, if I'm not mistaken.

[Hal_Crawford]

Are there places that offer free web hosting to scout troops? Gee I don't know. Oh wait! Look at the right hand margin to the right of this screen. You might have to scroll up or down but there it is "Free Web Hosting at Scouter.com".

 

Some times the answer is right there all the time.

 

 

[neonmkr]

I have this on my list of new business for our next committee meeting. I was thinking of asking for a Webmaster advisor to assist the youth elected to the position. Does this sound reasonable?

[Hal_Crawford]

Neonmkr:

It sounds reasonable to me. I am currently the webmaster for my troop and I am beginning to think about how to transition to a scout as webmaster. None of the scouts have expressed an interest yet but I am sure they will. I am currently hosting the troop site on my own dot mac account and the site is built with mac software so these are some things that may have to change.

 

Make sure that an adult who isn't going away has access to the site. We are on our third website, the first two having been set up by dads who disappeared (one's son quit and the other family moved away). In both case's we were left with a site that could not be edited or updated as we did not have the password.

 

Welcome to the campfire. What part of the Husker state do you hail from? I used to teach at UNK (back in the 80s, when it was still KSC). Though I was happy to return home to Virginia, I still have fond memories of my time in Nebraska.

 

YIS,

Hal

[neonmkr]

Hi Hal,

My plan is to have the password in the hands of myself, the SM & the Advisor. That way he has a couple of backups. Plus, in case of sudden departure we have backups. Whether or not we provide it to the youth is something we will have to discuss. It might not be conveinant this way but then every time we change Webmaster, we won't have to change passwords. This is all in the early thought stages so I'm running alot of things through my head.

As far as my location, it's Lincoln, and since the first game is a week away...GO BIG RED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[JerseyScout]

A giant thumbs up to National for adding this on.

 

Our troop had a crappy looking website that myself and another adult revamped information-wise over the course of a year (it had been neglected for three or four years).

 

Then one of the Scouts took it over last winter. This scout, a kid only in 7th grade, took the site over (his father had been the adult who helped me revamp it) and completely rebuilt it by himself. And by himself, I mean, he did it with no help technology-wise from anyone. The finished (but constantly being improved) project is beautiful, in my biased opinion better looking and better laid out than our award-winning council webpage. It's got a list of events for the year, pictures galore (either get release forms signed by parents and don't label the pictures with names, or else lock down that part of the site), a troop FAQ, a copy of our newly-resurected monthly newsletter, necessary Scout forms (permission slips, medical forms, suggested camping equipment for a weekend trip list as put together by the Scouts), and tons of other stuff.

 

The picture section is especially popular, as it allows parents to download pictures to either a) keep, b) make prints of, or c) share in facebook and other social networking forums. I also hear my Scouts say all the time, "Oh yea, I took that picture where I was hanging upside down from a tree fighting off three wolves with a stick and made it my picture!"*

 

Upcoming additions are the troop merit badge counselor list and possibly the ability for registered troop members to leave comments

 

The young kids make us older folks look incompentent technology wise, give them the reigns and let them go nuts. A well-made, well-laid out, picture laden, kid-run website is a great front for any troop, and a great recruitment tool to boot.

 

Anyone who is looking for a website that is working for one troop, you can PM me and I can send you the link.

 

* = This event has not actually happened yet, but kids being kids, one of them will figure out how to do it.(This message has been edited by JerseyScout)