Need To Look Into Sea Scouts.

[Eamonn 61]

Talking with some of the older Scouts who were at the Jamboree from our Council, they seem to be interested in joining Sea Scouts.

As yet I have only looked at what I could find on the web and have not read the Sea Scout Manual. I will of course do so in the very near future.

We do not have a Ship in our Council, the nearest one is next door in Greater Pittsburgh and there is one in Wheeling West Virgina.

I do aim to contact both and see if they will let me along with a few of those interested visit and see how they have set things up.

It does seem that trying to get a new ship up and running is going to very a fairly expensive undertaking. While I am sure we could get a lot of support from the local community, the Council is having a very hard time when it comes to finances and I sure as heck do not want to do anything that would take money away from the Council.

This is very much in the idea phase at the moment. But I think we could without too much effort recruit 30 -50 youth members and there is no shortage of organizations that would be willing to sign on as a Chartering Organization. Along with others who would be willing to donate money.

While I would be a lot happier if we could find someone with more knowledge about Sea Scouting, for the start I would be willing to be the Advisor /skipper. While I'm good at knots and that sort of thing. I know very little about ships and boats.

I will be trying to come up with some sort of a budget. Does anyone know what the cost of uniforming a youth member is?

Eamonn.

[LovetoCamp 9]

Eamonn, The Sea Scout Youth have two uniforms, work blue and dress white. You can contact Jackie at www.ships-store.org to get exact uniforming prices, but you can buy both Sea Scout uniforms for less than one Boy Scout uniform. www.seascout.org is one of the best, informative web sites I've seen on the internet. Westover, WV is home of the National Flagship, picked as the best Sea Scout Ship in the nation this year. I'm certain the Skipper in Westover would love to talk to you about Sea Scouts. Send me an email if you want to talk more about it.

[seabear 10]

You can write to the Navy Uniform Support Center at 1545 Crossway Blvd. Suite 200, Chesapeake ,VA. 23320or fax them at 1-800-551-6289 .

I highly recommend that you go thur the Sea Scout Manual, Also contact your council for support in literature,flyers, and a video.

On obtaining boats and equipment, etc... Check out the SSM(p.324). As for training, the websites of councils near you could help. As well as attending SEABADGE . Powderhorn could help in some of the programs as Sea Scouts are part of the Venturing program.

 

Many a Ships started out with canoes., One ship that I started many years ago we build our own dories, later one we build currans.

I have a copy of my old Skipper manual on Cd I'll be happy to send you (e-mail me).Best of Luck, Smooth Sailing

[emb021 16]

Uniforming.

 

Actually, like Venturing, you are not required to obtain a Sea Scout uniform. Most of the ships I am aware of in my area only use the uniforms for formal occasions (ie meetings), and go with t-shirts/shorts while boating.

 

Actually, there are 3 Sea Scout youth uniforms:

* light blue work uniforms (dungaree/chambray)

* white crackerjack uniforms (summer whites for formal occasions)

* navy crackerjack uniforms (winter navies for formal occasions).

 

Most ships here in Florida have their youth either have the light blue work uniforms or white crackerjack uniforms. Some have the kids use a white pilot shirt similiar to what the adults wear instead. I've also see other things, like coast guard style uniforms and the like.

 

In Sea Scouting, you will pretty much ONLY be required to be in full/complete sea scout uniforms at regional/national sea scout events.

 

Get the Sea Scout Manual. It will explain the uniforms and the insignia. Others have given the resources for getting uniforms. I HIGHLY recommend the Ship's Store. They are a source for sea scout insignia for youth & adults that you can't get from National.

 

I will say that getting Sea Scout uniforms is WAY cheaper then getting BSA uniforms...

 

Michael Brown

[LovetoCamp 9]

I understood Venturing to be part of the Sea Scout Program.(This message has been edited by Trail Pounder)

[LovetoCamp 9]

Our Council's Powderhorn in 2007 will most definately include many Sea Scout activities and have Sea Scouts actively participating somewhere in the program.

[emb021 16]

"I understood Venturing to be part of the Sea Scout Program."

 

NO. Sea Scouting is part of Venturing, not the other way around. Sea Scouting is one of the 5 'specialty areas' of Venturing, along with Outdoor, Sports, Arts/Hobbies, and Youth Ministries. The National Sea Scout Committee is a sub-committee of the National Venturing Committee.

 

Being part of Venturing means that all Sea Scout Ships are a special kind of Venturing Crew, and all Sea Scouts (and their leaders) are members of the Venturing program and participate in Venturing program elements (advancement, training, etc).

 

Michael Brown

[Stoutwalker 10]

Eamonn: There are directions and proceedures for creating a 'Land Ship' for Ships that do not have a vessel. It can be done pretty simply with basic carpentry skills and ropework, or even just creative positioning of a meeting hall. I know, not the same, but it helps until the Ship can afford to purchase some means of aquatic conveyance.

 

Check out the current Sea Scout manual (it may have the plans for the Land Ship), if not, the older editions definitely do contain them.

 

Basically, you set the meeting place up in the outline of a ship, with ropes, chairs, benches, whatever.

 

On Uniforms: There is also a Tan Uniform. The BSA was selling Sea Scout tabs for the pockets out of the Nat'l Catolog a while back.

 

BUT, the Ship can designate whatever uniform they wish. I knew a Ship on Long Island that used a T-Shirt and Jeans as thier official Uniform, I tried to organize a Ship when I was a pro that was thinking about adopting a more'Yacht' like outfit, shorts and T-Shirt, with a historical 'Pirate/Privateer' unifrom for special functions.

 

As has been pointed out already, you do not need to use the traditional Naval uniforms, although they do look very nice.

 

And, you should get the Sea Scout Manual. It is (IMHO) one of the best publications the BSA has produced. It is CHOCK FULL of nautical info and tradition.

 

I showed it to the curator of a Nautical Museum on Long Island, NY and he almost signed up to charter a ship on the spot (had it not been for the Supreme Court case, he would have!).

 

Go for it, search a ship out, start a new one. It's a great program that I wish was available back home when I was a kid (Yes, I grew up on an Island that had NO Sea Scout ships. That number grew to 2 when I was an Adult).(This message has been edited by Stoutwalker)

[LovetoCamp 9]

Eamonn, I would follow the uniform guidelines that are in the current edition of the Sea Scout manual. Work blue uniform and dress white uniform for the youth. Hand out a uniform sheet. First uniform is work blue uniform and this is required. Blue chambray shirt ($12), black web belt, silver buckle ($3.50), blue trousers (where jeans), black shoes (where your own), white tee shirt (your own), black socks (your own), navy blue ball cap ($8). Uniformed for $20 plus patches.

 

Give them the email address of Ship's Store and let them order and buy their won gear. www.ships-store.org.

 

(This message has been edited by Trail Pounder)

[Bob White 20]

Actually Michael... Trail Ponder is right in many ways. If you look at your councils By-Laws as well as National's you will find that the Commodore of Sea Scouting in your council has a seat on the council executive committee, the Venturing coordinator does not. In fact Venturing is shown as a sub-committee under the Sea Scout Commodore.

 

Venturing is an infant in the BSA as compared to Sea Scouting which began just two years after the founding of the BSA.

 

[Stoutwalker 10]

On the subject of uniforming:

 

Not to contradict, or disregard, what Trail Pounder has to say, because his suggestion is economical and still well within tradition, I would suggest that if you do organize a Sea Scout Ship, you have the Sea Scouts themselves vote and decide what uniform, if any, they desire.

 

But, the Scouts should be equipped with the proper info to make a reasonable decision: pircing, appearance, expectation of durability, etc.

 

After all, Sea Scouting/Venturing is supposed to be their chance to make their own decisions.

[LovetoCamp 9]

It is a well known fact that a Venturing Crew can design their own uniform. I understand the laisse-faire type of leadership that Venturing is supposed to have. But, Sea Scouts has an advancement program that has withstood the test of time and in the manual there is a description of the current Sea Scout uniform standards which, in my opinion, should be followed. I don't understand how you can be a Sea Scout Ship and not be uniformed in the Sea Scout uniform.

 

You can have work blues, dress whites, and then a class B uniform for working and boating. I believe the uniform adds greatly to the Sea Scout program.

[LovetoCamp 9]

Hi Eamonn,

 

I think the first purchase should be $12 for a Sea Scout Manual. What a fantastic job they did on putting that together.

 

P

[Bob White 20]

I agree with TP, if you read the Sea Scout manual you will see that the uniform is far more specific than that of a Venturing crew.

[Backpacker 11]

Bob

The amount of misinformation you give out is amazing to me.

 

First if you look at any National structure flow chart you will see that Sea Scouts is now part of the Venturing division not the other way around, even though sea scouts has been around longer,that is straight from a National Venturing representative who just gave some training sessions here so please get it straight. Sea Scout ships have been decreasing at an alarming rate due to the high cost of maintaining a boat and insurance, not to mention the fuel costs. Due to this decrease it was decided to put sea scouting under the Venturing division as it is not large enough to warrant its own division.

 

Second, I don't know where you get the idea that a Sea Scout commodore is part of a councils executive board, it's not in any official publication. Most councils don't even have a commodore position to start with since most only have maybe two or three ships, and by the way in my council the Venturing chair is on the board.

 

When you give out this wrong kind of information you do a disservice to all scouters, so please check your facts first.