NEPAScouter

My charter organization has supported a troop for 85 years and a pack for 72 years. In my council, and from posts on this forum I know there are units that have been around far longer than my own. For example, one in my own council marked 100 years in 2011. Five or six other units are in their 90s. Five are in their 80's. Which got me thinking... Does anyone know if there are any handy resources for figuring out (even roughly?) the veteran status distribution of units across the country? How many are over 100? over 95? over 90?, etc. We're hoping to have alumni (scouts and leaders) at an anniversary dinner from as far back as the mid 1940's, and I'd like to have some perspectives to cite to thank them, the other leaders/scouts, and the charter organization for their "teamwork through time" toward keeping a tradition of scouting sponsorship going all those years since 1928. Thanks!

Eagle707 scripsit: NEPA, I think you may have misread my comment. I didn't say anything about donors. I'm completely in favor of this award and have been since it was announced. D'OH! I had Papadaddy in my reply, then got messed up while I was editing, and put your name in its place. Sorry Eagle707!

Thanks for starting this thread, Skeptic. Like yours, my council has been awarding an "Eminent Eagle" recognition at our annual Eagle Dinner to one local adult who earned the Eagle rank at least 25 years ago and who we feel best exemplifies the life of service and professional achievement we'd like to encourage our new Eagles to emulate. The award recipient is not required to be currently registered in Scouting. Sounds a lot like the intent behind NOESA, with the exception of no 25+ years of required tenure. Like the DESA, councils aren't required to nominate for it. My council's Eagle Dinner committee decided to stick with what they've been awarding rather than switch over and possibly cause confusion. I think if a council hasn't already been presenting this kind of recognition, the NOESA is as good as any to use. Eagle707, I'm not too concerned about the danger of giving the award to big-money donors, since the James West, 1910 Fellowship, etc. and the council-level Northern Star recognition can be given to non-Scouters, though I admit the possibility of abuse is always there. Moxieman, it sounds to me like the balance NESA is trying to strike between DESA and NOESA is the same as between a Lifetime Achievement recognition and a Meritorious Action recognition. A series of meritorious actions in a career might eventually merit a lifetime achievement award. But some single meritorious action shouldn't be overlooked, either, if such public recognition might spur others on to emulate them. I'm not too sure about the need for linking the number of nominations to the number of Eagle Scouts in a given year, though. One per council per year should be plenty, and I think Papadaddy is spot on with his observation about the challenge of obtaining "nominations which are written well enough to be worthy of the award, and not just 'he's areal good guy'."

Hi folks, sorry for the delay in responding -- had an out-of-town trip. Basement, yep, we are in agreement on the amount of promotion. It's important that the scouts take ownership of this themselves. We showed the scouts the medal and the full set of rockers last summer (borrowed them from the council), and told them to talk with their PLs and SM/ASMs whenever they wanted to make specific progress in the program (e.g. organize *more* outdoor activities beyond what we have). The two scouts were recognized for their camping rockers at last September's COH. Since then, there's been no "adult push," but we have the ASMs keeping track of troop/patrol outdoor activities in the background. We did remind the scouts this month about what merit badges they might want to consider at summer camp for the NOAA program, and we did have to alert some gung-ho outdoorsman fathers that family events could not be counted toward the program, but that's been it in the past year. As an aside, I've been agitating with our council summer camp administration to recognize scouts who finish a rocker or pin or medal while at summer camp with a suitable individual shout-out at the closing campfire. What better place to get scouts peer-recognized for developing their outdoorsmanship than in the great outdoors around the ol' campfire?

Hi Wood_Owl, To answer your particular question, yes, with the following differences from "normal". We hold one-hour weekly meetings (as opposed to the usual 90-minute meetings) through the first week in August, then go to summer camp in the second week of August, then take the last two weeks of August off. We start up 90-minute meetings again on the first meeting night after Labor Day. Except for COH meetings, the scouts wear troop T-shirts to troop meetings during the summer. We get mostly the under-16 younger scouts attending because the older ones get summer evening jobs (local movie theaters). Attendance hovers around 70% of the total troop membership, which is pretty good considering how family vacations, jobs, etc, compete for the scouts' time.

Hey bnelon! Ok, you may be done with your necker issue, but I'm not letting you off the hook on the OP yet ;-). The OP asked about the popularity of the NOAA program, and you mentioned you had been in touch with the designer of the award. Have you heard anything about how much adoption there has been of the award at any of it's levels? Like I said in my original reply we've had a couple get one camping segment with some pins based on what they had been doing as scouts over the last 5 or 6 years. If we're as serious as I think we are about using the award to spur more outdoor activity among our scouts, my 20-member troop might see the potential for one or two of our crossovers from last year to qualify for the medal no sooner than 4-5 years from now, realistically, if we follow what we think is the spirit of the segment requirements. I'd hate to see this program go away before then. Thanks in advance for any info!

Hi bnelon44, You raise a good point. We do have a troop neckerchief that we wear only for occasions like COHs, Scout Sunday services, Boys' Day in Government, troop meetings and BORs. It's white with gold trim and has a patch identifying our charter organization (we're chartered to a Catholic church). We don't usually wear this neckerchief at summer camp or campouts because, well, it wouldn't wear well. We're not about to change it, though, despite that problem -- 50-year tradition and all that. We figure the troop number on our shirts and on our class B t-shirts gives us a way to define our identity outdoors. So, that was the thinking behind wanting to look into a NOAA neckerchief just for our troop's outdoor activities. Interestingly, I agree with you when it comes to the Eagle neckerchiefs, buckles, and other Eagle doodads -- doesn't the Eagle patch or medal do a good enough job showing one's achievement? In the same vein, I'm not a fan of temp patch holders flapping over sewed temporary patches, either. Which is what I can see happening with the "segment and central patch and pin constellation" of the NOAA patch set in our troop. Guess a little more pondering is needed before I propose this idea to the PLC. I really like the NOAA setup for recognizing Scouts who are excelling in the outdoors, just wish it was better executed than as a temporary patch set.

My troop had two scouts earn the camping segment, one with a gold device and the other with 3 gold devices. This year I thInk we'll have three or four more do the camping segment. There are one or two scouts who will probably also earn the aquatics segment. Last year was when we started promoting this award program. I think it's a good way to bring recognition to the outdoor method of Scouting. We're gradually trying to promote the medal as a parallel recognition program to Eagle for the older boys. A minor issue I have with the patch+segments portion of the award is that it looks as though scouts aren't keen on wearing them as temporary patches. I'm looking into getting neckerchiefs made and having the scouts wear the pentagon patch and segments and pins on that. Kind of like a varsity letter for outdoors. They'd wear it at summer camp, and at class-A events during camp outs.

Welcome from a fellow PEE-AYE guy, PABill!

All the suggestions sound like I could try some version of them in my situation. I'll especially try to get some kind of post-cathedral recognition practice going so that scouts back in the troop get to see the recipients recognized, and get the counselors in front of the scouts at a meeting. Thanks for your advice!

Does anyone have advice on how to encourage scouts to work on the Catholic religious emblems Ad Altare Dei (AAD) and Pope Pius XII (PPXII)? My troop is sponsored by a Roman Catholic parish, and the pastor and I would like to encourage more of the troop's catholic members to work on these awards. Here's some background: Our troop regularly holds a Scout Sunday service at the parish church, and is pretty integrated into the life of the parish through 3 service projects each year. About 70% of the troop membership is catholic. The parish has a pack, and we don't have too many problems with getting the cubs interested in working on Parvuli Dei, but there I think the fact that parents are expected to work with the cubs makes it easier for cubs to earn the award given that the parents are also interested. So, the catholic boys who cross over from the pack tend to have earned Parvuli Dei already if their parents are interested. In the troop, we'll give each interested Boy Scout an AAD or PPXII workbook free of charge, and put them in contact with counselors from the local diocese. The counselors (a married couple) meet with the group of candidate scouts outside of the troop meetings, and we like it that way because it would otherwise detract from the candidates' participation at the troop meetings. Each December our troop committee chaplain aid approaches each eligible scout and reminds him about the religious emblems, so that he can start working with a counselor over the January-April time period. The awards' boards of review are held in the diocese in May, and the awards are presented in the diocese's cathedral (not in the local church, like Parvuli Dei) in June, at a time when we can't get the troop to attend as a unit to cheer on their peers. If a scout is even mildly interested, we hand him a workbook and counselor phone contact immediately. We also ask him over the course of January whether he's contacted the counselor. It's at this time that things usually fall through -- the scout keeps forgetting how to use a cell phone. We won't do this calling and scheduling for him because, well, it's supposed to be *his* medal and *his* interest in his faith that we're talking about, not the adults'. Last year we had three scouts work on AAD, (two were brothers), and this year the same three are working on PPXII. But these are the first in 5 years to have gotten interested in the awards, and I'd like to get more boys interested more often. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to discuss these religious awards with boy scouts so as to motivate them to go for the medals on their own outside of a troop meeting? Thanks!

Talk about staying active in Scouting after earning Eagle. He attended the 2010 Jamboree and was the scout who introduced Mike Rowe at the closing show. I knew he looked familiar! He was one of the 3 youth emcees at the closing show. http://www.mikeroweworks.com/2010/07/mike-with-an-accomplished-scout/ Congratulations to Roland!

Here's what the Pennsylvania BSA specialty license plate looks like: http://www.dmv.state.pa.us/images/plates/bsa.jpg All great promotions for Scouting! But the PA ones don't support "vanity quotes." I understand that they are issued only with numbers in numerically increasing order. Roadkill, I hope the plates help the Michigan BSA program a lot!

I think the forum would benefit from nested thread support that lets users see what posts are responses to responses (to responses, and so on...). I think some of the heat in some of the discussions on here comes from users not being able to see what post someone is responding to within a thread.

I usually skim over OA threads since I'm a non-member who, as a youth, was in a troop where OA wasn't promoted. But this thread's thoughtful string of ideas primed my engine with some questions and observations. Hope they're helpful! 1) I'm all for service to camps, council, units, etc., but from my non-member perspective, what is it about OA that would enable me to do more for these entities than I'm already able to do as a non-member? I think this is the general question I have as an adult seeking answers from m3sd3's and SeattlePioneer's ideas. 2) I understand that OA has tried to move toward the "Honor Society" concept and away from the "Honor Campers" concept. Some posters here would like to move back. As an outsider, I think moving back would be a good idea, especially if OA encourages more outdoor activity of its members, either within lodge activities or at the broader unit level. 3) Someone mentioned the need for a JTE for Lodges. I'd like to suggest one measure of the "honorability" of the camping by Lodge members would be how far youth members progress in the National Outdoor Activity Award program. Happy New Year!