rpushies

This just in from Ida, the new course will be called "This is Scouting." Thank you Ida ~Rick From the October Cubcast (http://www.scouting.org/CubScouts/Cubcast/October2008.aspx), about 9 minutes in: /And by now all new leaders should be trained in Fast Start, Youth Protection and Position-Specific details. New Leader Essentials is also part of the new leader training package. And we understand the national council is developing a brand new version of New Leader Essentials thatwill be called "This is Scouting." The goal is to have that new moduleready online by the end of this year. If leaders aren't trained in one of more of these topics, see your pack trainer for information on training sessions. And if you don't have a pack trainer, talk to your district executive about a solution./

Hello my Scouting friends, It has been some time since Ive posted any comments. The discussion of Wood Badge beads now being available for National Youth Leadership Training (NYLT) is interesting. Having served on staff for both Wood Badge for the 21st. Century and having served as Course Director/Scoutmaster for NYLT, (The new syllabus eliminates the term course director and only offers the title of Scoutmaster.) I would like to share some information about the two courses. Both courses teach basically the same toolbox of leadership skills Vision, SMART Goals, Planning, etc. A few sessions are intentionally modified: WB has the game Win All You Can and NYLT has the game Getting to Know Me; WB has a presentation on Managing Change and NYLT has a presentation on Managing Yourself. These are appropriate changes to fit the age of participants. I see the big difference between Wood Badge and NYLT as not really the course material, but rather the staffs experience. Wood Badge staffs are almost always seasoned trainers with much experience training leaders in Scouting. The NYLT youth staff members are Scouts age 14 and up. Few youth staff members would be called seasoned trainers. The youth staff of NYLT must learn basically the same leadership skills as the Wood Badge staff need to learn. However the youth staff of an NYLT course also needs to learn the training skills necessary to effectively present these leadership skills. Developing the training skills of youth staff members can often be a significant challenge for all involved in the NYLT staff. Because of these differences in staff's experience levels, I believe the skills, hard work and leadership required by an NYLT Scoutmaster to complete a successful NYLT course are no less than those needed by a Wood Badge course director to do the same in a Wood Badge course. Therefore I see it as appropriate for both course leaders to be recognized with the appropriate awarding of beads. The Scouting program is strengthened when both adult leaders and youth leaders are given the opportunity to learn effective leadership skills in Wood Badge and NYLT. It is also my position that every Scout deserves to be trained as a leader! Yours Truly in Scouting, Rick Pushies

Rumor is a new online only training titled "What is Scouting?" will replace New Leaders Essentials next year. Can anyone share additional information or an "official" source to confirm this rumor? Yours Truly in Scouting, Rick Pushies

Bob Mazzuca, Assistant Chief Scout Executive will become the new Chief Scout Executive, effective September 1, 2007. It is worth noting that that Bob started his career in the Yosemite Area Council hedquartered in Modesto, CA in 1971. He later served as the Scout Executive of the former 49'er Council based in Stockton from 1983-1987.

Light bulbs DO NOT emit light! They SUCK DARK! So the discussion should be sucking dark out of the conversation in order to allow room for the light to shine. Another brilliant application of the Dark Sucker Theory! How's that for a twist in the topic flow? Yours Truly in Scouting, Rick

Hi emb021, You wrote, "Also, as to CDs coming back on staff. My understanding is that with 21CWB, Powder Horn, and NYLT, once you have been a CD, that's it." Do you have a reference for this information? I was course director for our council's NYLT course this year and have been asked to serve again for the 2006 course. I just looked into my course syllabus and I do not see any reference to the course director serving for only one course. I know Wood Badge has different guidelines on course directors. I have no knowledge of how the Powder Horn program is handled. I expect it in not a big issue since so few Powder Horn course have been conducted to date. Yours Truly in Scouting, Rick Pushies

Wow! That is cool! Now, how about... well let's make this interesting, Lithuanian! Rick

Eamonn, A very impressive listing of Spanish language resources on Scouting. Now, can you do the list in Spanish? Then I would really be impressed and very jealous! Rick

Hi Chris, Sure you can do the foil cooking on a campfire. Just realize it is a little more difficult to control the temperature in a campfire. Charcoal is used for a number of reasons, one being that you get a consistent amount of heat from each briquette of charcoal. On an open campfire, judging the amount of heat the campfire coals puts out is more difficult. If you do use a campfire, make sure you put your aluminum foil packs on coals and not areas where there are open flames. The open flame portion of the campfire is usually much hotter and your food will probably burn. The aluminum foil your trainers put on the ground just makes clean-up easier and keeps ground moisture from putting your fire out. If you want a good web site to visit on the topic of aluminum foil cooking visit: http://www.reynoldskitchens.com/. They have some good ideas on using foil and some interesting recipes. Hamburger, potatoes, onions & cream of mushroom soup gets old after a while. So new recipe ideas come in handy. One of my favorites is Polish sausage & sauerkraut with biscuits on the side. Oooh the aroma of sauerkraut cooking over a campfire! Nothing like it! and some say yuck, but it brings back great memories of Grandmas house. Yours Truly in Scouting, Rick Pushies

Hi Dave, Congratulatioons on a pack with 100+ Cub Scouts! Sounds like you must have a good program being provided tou your boys. It looks like FScouter has focused on a key issue here. Cubmasters don't determine their replacment. The application for the Cubmaster position requires your signature as committee chairperson and the signature of a representative of Saint Daniel the Prophet Church. So if those approvals have not been given the Cubmaster is not actually the Cubmaster. Food for thought. Yours Truly in Scouting, Rick

Hi Trevorum, You are right on target. My wife and I have been discussing this topic since the hurricanes have brought their devastation to the Gulf Coast. Being a resident of California, the earthquake issue always lingers in the back of your mind. But Mother Nature has a way of challenging us regardless of the state we live in, especially those that live in the state of confusion. My wife and I are probably more prepared than the average person, but in reviewing our emergency plans we found a few areas that could be improved. In doing some web surfing to acquire a few new items for our emergency kit, I found an interesting item. An electronic emergency flare: EzyFlare Electronic Safety Flare it caught my interest and I have ordered one for my wife's car. I'll let you know more about the items once I get my order shipped to me. I like the idea of not having an open flame. Let's see open flames near dry California roadsides, now that could be an incendiary situation. A no flame flare sounds good to me. But I doubt it will be an item included in my next backpacking trip! Yours Truly in Scouting, Rick Pushies

Hi John, I understand you wanting free web hosting. I am curious why you are looking for 50+megs of space? When I was webmaster for our council web site, the whole council web site with 7 districts, Order of the Arrow and lots of graphics only took up about 30 megs of storage. Large amounts of free bandwith is also a curiosity. Visitor traffic to a Scouting related web site is just not that high. BSA's national web site may get tens of thousands of hits a day but few councils get that amount of traffic, if any. With our council site we averaged 150 unique visitors a day and less than 300 page loads per day. So I don't see bandwith for a Cub Scout Pack really being that important. As for the free part of your request. Just about any "free" web hosting service will also give you "free" banner ads to go with that "free" web hosting. You might want to consider paying for your web hosting to get away from the "free" banner ads. You should be able to find web hosting for less than $6.00 a month. If your heart is set on the "free" hosting, just Google "free web hosting", you'll get more information than this forum can offer. I have yet to find a hosting service that is hostile towards Scouting. Or, just set up a Yahoo group for your pack. It will do the job of helping with communication and you can do some things like polls that are not that easy to do in html. Hope this helps. Yours Truly in Scouting, Rick Pushies

Hi btps, An ongoing battle, communications. It seems to me that if the people in the troop (the Scouts, their parents and the adult leaders) are excited about the program, communications seems to be much easier. The method of communication seems less important than what the expectation a great program brings the communications process. If the Scouts are fired up about their Scouting program, they seek out information about upcoming events. Then parents start calling leaders wanting to know the details about upcoming event. Then the communication can take place, because the recipient of what you are communicating sees value in the information. If the program is so-so and there is not excitement linked to the program, well it really doesn't matter how much communication, what type of communication or basically if there is any communication. The people just don't care because the program being provided doesn't give them reason to be interested in the communication being attempted. You can have pretty newsletters, great web sites, send out emails till your blue in the face. If the program lacks, the communication lacks because the information about the program has no interest for the receiver of the message. I've seen many flyers stuffed in backpacks and book bags at the end of the troop meeting, never to see the light of day again. But when that white water rafting trip, kayaking trip, backpacking trip, (fill in the blank _______ exciting trip) flyer is given to the Scouts, somehow they remember to give that flyer to Mom and Dad. They remember because the program they are receiving fulfills the promise of Scouting, ADVENTURE! In my old council (I moved after 25 yrs and have only been in my new council 2 years.) we converted from a newsletter printed and mailed to over 4,000 registered Scouters to an electronic version of the newsletter. After fighting for almost a year to get those 4,000 Scouters to register their email address so we could send them the new electronic newsletter, we were able to get less than 700 email addresses registered. Some in the council thought it was because people still did not have computers and email. That was true in years past, now about 95% of Scouting households have computers and email. In fact over 50% of those homes nationally have a broadband connection now. We came to the conclusion that the large majority of people had not been reading the printed newsletter, it just went into the trash another piece of junk mail. They did not read the printed newsletter, so why register their email for an electronic version they won't read. The printed newsletter was always out of date and not very exiting. We got the best response from our volunteers when I was doing a weekly information update that was sent out electronically in the form of an email. The number of readers was still low, but based on the feedback we received the short, timely information update was being read and seen as valuable. The low readership of the council newsletter was just linked to the lack of exciting program being communicated. The readers got tired reading about fundraising and membership issues, which is what the professional staff wanted in the newsletter. Often the date of the event had already passed by the time the newsletter was received. They Scouters and parents wanted to read about exciting program information that they could get involved in, duplicate for their unit or district and just basically wanted to hear about good things happening within Scouting. So my take on communications within units is to provide a great unit program for the Scouts. Once their is a desire to receive communication about the program, then just about any method of communication will work. They will beg for you to communicate information about the program and they will receive the communication in any way they can get it. Program, Program, Program! Yours Truly in Scouting, Rick Pushies

Hi mdeckerz Interesting fund raiser. Based on the information you have provided with only adults selling the alcohol I don't see a problem. Has the unit submitted a Unit-Money Earning Application and received approval by the council? If not than that would be another issue to look into. If the adult leaders were drinking in the presence of Scouts that would concern me. But just selling the beverage seems like a good fund raiser in terms of the finances brought in. Yours Truly in Scouting, Rick Pushies

Hi Hunt, Seems that would be an issue for the board of review for the Eagle Palm to consider. As I expect you already know, one of the purposes of the board of review is to check to see what kind of experience the boy is having in his patrol and troop. If there has been no experience because he has disappeared from the program, that then becomes an issue for the board. I understand you frsutration and concern, sounds like another episode of Eagle-ing out mentality. Yours Truly in Scouting, Rick