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

John-in-KC, In the Order of the Arrow adults are advisers, not advisors. I'm not sure why the spelling difference, but I was put in my place on this topic earlier this year. There is probably some sort of special meaning to the -er versus -or. Maybe one of the OA types can clarify the difference. So advisers we are, advisors we are not. Yours Truly in Scouting, Rick

Hi Oak Tree, This little note is coming to you from the Live Oak District, Los Padres Council. In the Language of Scouting on the National web site ( http://www.scouting.org/identity/los/ ) there is this definition of the Crime Prevention award: "BSA National Crime Prevention program The BSA National Crime Prevention program has four components: youth, family, community, and unit-each with its own role in the program and suggested activities. Developing crime prevention coalitions and initiatives with local United Ways, law enforcement, and other agencies is a key component of this BSA program. I recently was told that the Donor Awareness program is still an active program but that it is not being promoted currently by national. I expect the same is true for the Crime Prevention award. If I find more information I will send it your way. Yours Truly in Scouting, Rick Pushies

KF5WT, You wrote, "Just having these numbers in a computer file somewhere in counsel headquarters is itself a security concern. If a criminal were to hack into the computers inside our counsel office building, or steal a backup tape while pretending to be a member of the cleaning crew, we would all have major problems on our hands." The data you are referring to, Social Security Numbers, etc, is not and should not be stored at the local council level. It is stored in ScoutNet database which is stored on the computers at the National BSA office in Irving, Texas. The data is input and accessed by the local councils through a Wide Area Network (a WAN - Not the World Wide Web.) that each council is required to be part of and pays good money to maintain the secure connection. If that wide area network connection went down (and it does on rare occasion) your council would be hard pressed to tell you what unit you are registered with or even if you are registered. That information is just not stored locally by the council. So your concerns about the data being stolen at the local level are not realistic. As for the the stealing of back-up tapes, you will get very little (if any) personal information about volunteers. It will give you all the memos written by the office staff, grant proposals, and records of who is running events, etc but not their social security numbers, or other personal contact information. So relax, the probability that someone is going to steal your personal information from the local council office is pretty minimal. I know this how this stuff is handled at the council level, because I used to be the network administrator for our council computer network. The personal data BSA collects about volunteers like you and me is a great deal more secure than you would lead people to believe by your post. It seems someone told national to "Be Prepared" when they put together their computer plans. Yours Truly in Scouting, Rick Pushies

Hi FScouter & meamemg FScouter wrote, "I heard that from a very reliable council source. But I don't have anything in writing and am not sure it's even been announced. So I'll have to say that until it is written in a BSA publication accessible to all, it's not official." Just an FYI, this is official. I communicated with Bill Steele, Associate Director Cub Scout Div. on this topic a while back. He made it very clear that girl members of Venturing Crews can in fact be den chiefs. There was a lot of confusion on this topic because the definition of Webelos Den Chief on the Language of Scouting web pages had an error that said only male Venturers could be den chiefs. That error has now been fixed and the definition reads: "Webelos den chief A Boy Scout, Varsity Scout, or Venturer who has been appointed to help direct the activities of a Webelos den." You will notice that there is no longer a reference to the Venturer being only a male. If anyone knows of how well female Venturers are working out as den chiefs, it would be interesting to hear about the successes. Yours Truly in Scouting, Rick Pushies

Check out the "Skills" page on the new Boys' Life web site: Flipbooks Knots - Flipbook Learn how to tie a variety of useful knots. Tool Care -Flipbook Learn the proper way to sharpen a knife or ax. There is even a "Pedro" Boys' Life screen saver available to download on the downloads page. Pedro sure has gotten ugly over the years. What happened to his nose? But I still love my Pedro Patrol! "Always on the run, having fun, Hee Haw, Hee Haw! We are the best by Scouting's test, Hee Haw, Hee Haw!" Should be a Wood Badge Patrol! That should bring forth a few comments!

A site focused on Youth Leadership Training http://lpcylt.org/

"Take a chill pill dude" and "To all of you trying to answer for me, I have one thing to say. BUTT OUT! I do not need you defending what I say. I meant exactly what I said, there was nothing said here that anyone should have gotten all wrapped around an axle over. So chill." OK, nldscout I'll take your "chill pill" and do my best to "chill." Will you in return please at least try to understand why I got "wrapped around an axle" over my perceived concern that someone was making fun of children being abused?? "Scout's Honor", I am asking this in all sincerity. I'm not looking to create conflict, but rather to understand your position. Based on your posts so far I am at best confused about your position. Help me understand. Yours Truly in Scouting, Rick Pushies

Hi MajBob, You might want to visit the sites listed below: http://www.scouting.org/identity/ http://www.scouting.org/webmasters/units.html http://www.scouting.org/identity/los/ Having been a council webmaster for some years I have a number of Scouting related graphcis. Contact me off group and we can make arrangements to get you what you need. Yours Truly in Scouting, Rick Pushies rpushies@yahoo.com 805-925-9144

Hi anarchist, You wrote, "I hope you know that I didn't accuse you of calling nldscout names ...I was just asking you (in a somewhat lefthanded way) not to think he was a bad guy ..." No fears, I was just trying to let you know that although I did not like the comment from nldscout, my response was an attempt to engage the conversation further so I could understand. Thoughts of other responses bounced around in my head till I realized that would not be nice. So, no bad guy identified in any of these posts. I appreciate all the compassionate responses. Making such personal information known leaves me feeling a little vulnerable. You guys know a lot more about me now, than I will probably ever know about you. That is the way things are in life sometime! By the way, I just found out some very interesting information about why I have gained so much weight over the years. It seems the reason for my weight gain is due to the large amount of knowledge I have gained over the years. So I'm not fat, I'm just really intelligent and my head couldn't hold anymore knowledge so it started filling up the rest of me. (If only it were so!) Well rounded Scouters take heart, we're just a lot smarter than the skinny people of the world! See I still have a sense of humor, honest I do. Yours Truly in Scouting, Rick Pushies

To Everyone, Eric (meamemg) posted an apology to the post I took offense with and I accept his apology wholeheartedly. I have included my response below. Anarchist, In response to your comments: "and yes rpushie, Nldscout did probably mean it (chill pill) but him not knowing your history, I would not hold it against Nldscout." I don't hold it against Nldscout. My response was, "Take a chill pill dude" nldscout, do you really mean that? Am I to sit back and watch people make fun of abusing children and remain silent?" I did not call him names or make accusations, I just asked questions. I admit to being hypersensitive to issues relating to the abuse of children. Some days more so than others. Although I expressed my anger in my posts, it was just that an expression of anger. I did not threaten anyone or call them names. I just shouted out my anger, the anger of a little boy caged in the body of a grown man. If my anger offends, I am sorry. Yours Truly in Scouting, "little" Ricky Hi Eric, Apology accepted! Actually I went and took a look at a number of your other posts once I calmed down a little. I realized that I probably took your post in a manner that you did not intend. You appear to be much too good a Scouter to make such a comment with any malice intended. I don't apologize for my response, although it was probably a little over the top. Let me explain a few things. As a boy, Scouting was my sanctuary. When I was involved in Scouting, I was not abused, I was not told to go wait on the front porch with my packed suitcase for the people from the orphanage to come pick me up, I was not made to kneel on uncooked rice in the corner because of my bad behavior and I was not physically in fear for my life. Now this is pretty powerful stuff for a little kid to deal with. When I went to a Scout meeting in my uniform I automatically had a group of friends, I had adults that helped me, the adults always kept me safe and I had fun! Fun was pretty important stuff for me. If we moved to a new town there was always a new group of friends waiting for me at the troop meeting and a new group of adults to keep me safe. Scouting was a powerful influence on me. So, when it appears that one of my fellow Scouters is making fun of children being abused, well I go a little nuts. We, Scouters protect children! There is no joy for a child that has been abused. It does not go away, ever! You just do the best you can day by day. Yours Truly in Scouting, Rick Pushies