Webelos transition is nuts

[King Ding Dong 540]

Eagle92, My boss busts my butt, I don't need Cubs to do it as well. My boss pays better.

[Sidney Porter 104]

If the incoming Webelos 1s want to get everything completed in one year , i would schedule a couple webelos camping trips. You can knock out a lot of activities if you are spending Friday night, all day Saturday and Sunday morning together.

[King Ding Dong 540]

If the incoming Webelos 1s want to get everything completed in one year ' date=' i would schedule a couple webelos camping trips. You can knock out a lot of activities if you are spending Friday night, all day Saturday and Sunday morning together.[/quote'] The boys could do that but would still require the leadership to revolt against the stated rules. AOL requires the six month participation after June 1, 2015. At that point they fall under the new requirement that state the must earn the 4 core adventures, however the 3 elective adventures can be substituted for earned activity badges. The rules are subject to change but as they stand now there is no way around those 4 core adventures for AOL.

[jc2008 25]

My son is a Bear (going to Webelos 1) this year and we will just do what we need to do to get his Den the Arrow of Light in 2015 under the new program.

 

Its not that hard to do, just embrace the program and get it done. Scouting is more about the journey and community for us, not about what bling and awards they earn along the way and if we have to blaze a new trail to get my son's final award, well that is exciting, not awful. Someone has to do it!

 

[jumpyg 10]

The transition document clearly states these Bears are not going to be able to finish under the old requirements. This is nuts. Well it looks like they could do Readyman 1st year as an elective and have it count for AOL. I am not going to do Citizenship twice.

 

I am in the same boat with my son's Bear den.

 

It's a little weird that our Webelos will have pins from the old program and the new on their Webelos colors. Very odd that we aren't grandfathered in.

 

It looks like every rank requires earning the Cyber Chip, correct? Not sure I agree with this. My den earned it this past year, and it is certainly useful. I understand the curriculum changes for grades 4-5, so it would be fine to earn it again to learn new things. However, having to earn it in both grades 4 and 5, with the same requirements, is overkill. Luckily this won't apply for my den, but it will be a problem in the future.

[blw2 433]

 

The boys could do that but would still require the leadership to revolt against the stated rules. AOL requires the six month participation after June 1' date=' 2015. At that point they fall under the new requirement that state the must earn the 4 core adventures, however the 3 elective adventures can be substituted for earned activity badges. The rules are subject to change but as they stand now there is no way around those 4 core adventures for AOL.[/quote']

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Oh never mind..... I see.... 6months after completing the 4th grade or since becoming 10..... no way around it.

[mashmaster 783]

I started an online petition that I'm going to get to BSA. It is worth a shot to get this one change made.

 

​Please join this campaign to implore BSA to ease the transition for webelos 1 scouts.: http://chn.ge/1ok1Qav

[blw2 433]

Good idea, but I'm comfortable that this change will happen. I have a feeling that these docs we are looking at are still rather preliminary..... just based solely on what is maybe a bad assumption, but it makes zero sense to not finish in the way one starts. My assumption being that "they" think logically. I'm comfortable that there will be a provision written in someplace, or else the new requirements will in someway mirror the old so that these boys caught in the middle won't be affected.

 

Regardless, I can't imagine that there are very many leaders that would do nothing but continue marching on with the books they started anyway, and they will just jam it down council's & national's throats so to speak. As I see it, the den of WEBELOS is really like one grade or rank really.... not WEB1 and WEB2..... (I don't really know where that came form anyway)....and this "class" happens to run for 1-1/2 years or whatever it is..... August 2014 through February 2016..... so even if a boy joins this den later.... say January 2015 and can some how manage meeting all the requirements..... he would still be working the same program as the rest of this den.

 

On another note, I personally sort of wish or hope that they'll change the AOL patch slightly, so that the last class of the old school AOL, WEBELOS class of 2014-2016, and all those that came before it can be recognized. Not saying that one way is better than the other.... I really have no idea about that...... it's just different.

[fred johnson 936]

What is their "rank" in 5th grade? Is "Arrow of Light" now a rank? ... "Oh my son is an arrow of light" scout. Huh? I'm used to Lion, Tiger, Wolf, Bear or Webelos scout. What happened to parallelism? Most ranks are animals. I could justify Webelos as it is the combination of Wolf, Bear and Lion Scout (WeBeLoS).

 

I've already been dealing with over the years explaining that there is no such rank as "Webelos 2". It's just Webelos. And then explaining that "Webelos" was both the singular and plural form was frustrating. (no such thing as Webelo ... always Webelos).

 

So in their 5th grade year, what rank are they? If they join 5th grade, it seems it would be wrong to call them a Webelos scout since they have not earned and are not working on their Webelos badge.

 

This feels like problems are going to breed more changes and re-design. I don't understand the changes yet, but I'm concerned.

 

I also feel AOL was an aware over and on top of Webelos. Not required, but good to work toward.

[blw2 433]

Right on Fred

What is their "rank" in 5th grade?

Well starting in 4th, they are in the WEBELOS den, working on their WEBELOS rank

by the 5th grade, they have probably earned their WEBELOS rank, and they are still in the WEBELOS den, right?

 

Simple.

 

I get why we started having the 1st year WEBELOS and 2nd year WEBELOS split out..... and then out of laziness, or whatever.... that became shortened to WEB1 and WEB2..... then 90% of folks don't care enough to sit and think about what that really is or where it came from......

 

Then some of those 90% folks get on the committee to decide the new program..... and here we are!

[blw2 433]

A parallel question that may be a precedent to consider.....

In Boy Scouts, what happens when a new edition of the handbook is issued?

Currently on the 12th edition, so this has happened a few times now...... a scout is someplace along the line between crossover and Eagle. What do they do when a new edition is published? Throw out their old book and pick up a new one, starting over?

Continue using their original book?

[Sidney Porter 104]

The more I think about it and look at it the less I have an issue with it (disclosure it doesn't impact me or my son. My son will be a Web 2 next year so he will finish under the old program). But if it did impact us I would compare citizen and building a better world I would only do the stuff that was missing in building a better world. I would also either complete readyman their first year or make sure I cover first responder their 2nd.

 

It appears that you can count activities completed under the old program as electives under the new program. (In my mind that could justify marking off a lot of building a better world).

 

 

[labdogs42 10]

Add me to the group trying to figure out what requirements to do with my son's den who just finished their Bear rank this month. I'd kind of like to just jump right to the new program so I don't have to be so confused. Maybe we can talk about what pins from the current book that we SHOULD do to make transitioning to the new requirements more seamless. And what pins we should probably NOT do since they might end up duplicated or not being used. That would be helpful to me.

[blw2 433]

The more I think about it and look at it the less I have an issue with it (disclosure it doesn't impact me or my son. My son will be a Web 2 next year so he will finish under the old program). But if it did impact us I would compare citizen and building a better world I would only do the stuff that was missing in building a better world. I would also either complete readyman their first year or make sure I cover first responder their 2nd.

 

It appears that you can count activities completed under the old program as electives under the new program. (In my mind that could justify marking off a lot of building a better world).

 

 

Looks like you've digested the requirements and differences a lot more than I have had time to do....

BUT I think the bigger issue is that the leaders would need to actually do just that. It's hard enough to get the time as a volunteer to figure out the whole plan anyway, so the last thing My WEBELOS DL or I want to do is have to figure it out (figure out the old way, then the new way, then figure out the best way to merge the two given where they happen to be in the process..... and that could be different from one den to the next because they marched through the requirements differently..... and even different form one boy to the next!) when there's really no good logic behind changing mid stream (that I can see right now, anyway)

[labdogs42 10]

but if one enterprising leader out there would figure it out and then share their learnings with the rest of us, that would help immensely! Hint hint...