MandatoryTraining again

[ljnrsu]

I can only use my council as a guide for the first two times I took YPT. As the training at that time was given by council.

 

My first two YPT cards did have expiration dates written on the bottom of the card. First time I took YPT in Oct 1999 card said expires 10/2003. Second time was May 2003 this time the card said expires 6/2006.

 

Took the on-line YPT in April 2005. This time the card has no expiration date.

 

I understand that our district is suggesting/recommending that YPT be taken every 3 years. With the on-line version that seems easy enough to do.

[Bob White]

In the content of the YP vidoe a question is asked of the panel regarding how often the training should be taken. The response is that the BSA recommends it be revisited at least once in a three year period.

 

However councils has the authority to determine its own requirements, also some activiteis can require that the the training be done within a year of the activity.

[nldscout]

I can shed some light on some of CNY's quetions. I am on his council Training team from a different district.

 

We was approached by the CE about implimenting mandatory training for all leaders. The 3 yr timeframe was what we advised him would probably take to get to that point. The CE is serious about dropping units if they defy the mandate. There is plenty of time to attend training IF YOU WANT TO!

 

Insurance had nothing to do with discussions as the carrier for Liability Insurance is the same nationwide. It is solely an issue of un trained leaders putting on a substandard program. He felt as did many of us that a Trained leader almost always puts on a better program.

[stlscouter]

I have 9 YPT cards, one for every year of JLT training I've done and all except one have all the corners, after all they are like the totin' chip card- right?

[mdutch]

Exactly STL, you are allowed to abuse up to 3 scouts before you have to go through training again

[rpushies]

As a victim of child abuse, the post: "Exactly STL, you are allowed to abuse up to 3 scouts before you have to go through training again" and the previous posts about having corners taken off are VERY OFFENSIVE! HOW DARE YOU MAKE A JOKE ABOUT CHILD ABUSE! You should be ashamed for making such insensitive comments. CHILD ABUSE IS NOT FUNNY!

 

Yours Truly in Scouting,

Rick Pushies

[pmickle1027]

1) mandatory training sounds great to me, but it seems like a way to lose adult volunteers. The Troop requires ypt, but to get the adults to leader specific training is difficult. I personally have completed all that I can, but to take a weekend off to attend the outdoors part is impossible. Most of the adults in my Troop work most weekends so when we take a weekend off its to be with our boys. If it becomes mandatory the council had better get off the dime and start being more flexible with it, for example come to the Troops campout, offer it at scoutcamp( I have been pushing this and actually had to go out of council to find at least ypt at the camp we chose.) As far as dropping a Troop because the adults cant or wont get trained sounds like a great example of scouting spirit to me. Lets do that and just inflate the numbers again.

[mdutch]

Rick,

I apoligize if you were offended by my post. I was simply trying to point out the absurdidy of what Stl was talking about, to emphisise the importance of making sure child abuse is stopped immediatly. Again, I am sorry if my post offended you.

 

-Eric

[rpushies]

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, welll 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

[Lynda J]

I am a stickler for training. I think that Leader Specific should be required every 5 years. I am glad that YPT is required to be renewed but have a problem with it being allowed to be taked online.

It simply does not have the impact of sitting in a group of people, watching the film and talking about it.

 

EVERY BOY HAS A RIGHT TO A WELL TRAINED LEADER.

[fgoodwin]

Lynda J writes:I am glad that YPT is required to be renewedI have never seen a National requirement, in writing, that YPT be renewed. Many Councils have a local policy, but those policies vary as to frequency of renewals. If you've seen a written requirement from National that YPT be renewed, please share.

[Lynda J]

I don't know about National but our council require it every 3 years. I renew First Aid is 3 years CPR every year.

[Owl62]

CNYScouter,

 

Do I understand correctly that in your council that the current version of the Scoutmaster/Assistant Scoutmaster Course and Outdoor Leadership Skills Course is required even if a Scouter has completed the previous "Scoutmastership Fundamentals" course?

 

While Scouters can attend these courses more than once, it can get expensive and might actually cause untrained Scouters being denied or delayed in attending courses.

 

I think that attendees of the previous course should be grandfathered and considered trained.

 

Will your council require Wood Badge? If so, what about those who completed Wood Badge prior to 21st Century Wood Badge? We are told that a Scouter can only attend Wood Badge one time. In our council if you have already attended Wood Badge training, you cannot attend again unless you attended the old Cub Scout, or Explorer Wood Badge.

 

I do support Scouters being trained, but to retrain unless there is a National BSA requirement or for specific reasons for specific persons, may not be productive.

 

Our council does not "require" training but strongly encourages it and most Scouters get trained. I think many of our Scouters get as much of not more from Scouting that the Scouts do. I heard one guy say that his employer actually paid for his attendance at Wood Badge and paid him while he was at the course. Our unit also strongly encourages training and the COR, CC, SM, and, two of the 4 ASMs, and some of the committee members are trained (one of them attended the old Scoutmastership Fundamentals course) are all trained and the COR, two of the ASMs are Wood Badge trained, One Committee member is Wood Badge trained, and one of the Committee Members is attending the Wood Badge course. All of our unit Scouters keep out YPT up to date which in our council is every two years. Many of our unit Scouters are multiple registered and trained as Cub Scouters, Venturing Scouters, unit commissioners, district committee members, etc. Our district offers leader training each spring and fall, and our council offers a "University of Scouting" once a year, and Wood Badge training usually 5 times a year. (Most of those courses are FULL all the time). Powder Horn as been offered twice in our coucil that I am aware of with another planned for next year. And our council and district try to keep course fees as low as possible. Some of the courses like YPT, Safe Scouting, Safety Afloat, Safe Swim Defense, Climb on Safely are free. Course now the Council actually having accurate records of that training is another issue. I just make sure that I have documented proof of attendance at training courses. As is often said "Keep those cards!" I have a whole separate nylon wallet that I carry with all my Scouting training cards in it.

 

 

Interesting.

 

 

[John-in-KC]

As anyone in the military will tell you, there are MANY opportunities for "mandatory training" in the Armed Forces. I derive my observations from nearly 30 years of participating, accepting and/or suffering through said training. My observations have to do with the quality of the presentation itself...

 

- IF the speaker is rousing and engaging, and the topic is interesting, a majority will likely participate.

 

- IF the speaker is making an effort, and the subject is so/so, a few "springbutts" will participate, but a few will be "gathering wool."

 

- IF the speaker is dull, and the material has been sprayed with ether (most BSA adult training books) or electronically treated (many BSA videos ... have YOU seen Safe Swim Defense and Safety Afloat recently) then the audience will "zombie" right through the training.

 

Training works when:

- The audience has a positive stake in the outcome.

- The presenter does not read the %%%% powerpoint verbatim.

- The supporting materials (videos, etc) are realistic.

 

My thoughts.

[CNYScouter]

Owl62-

Perhaps nldscout is in a better position to answer this as he is on the training committee for another district in my council, but Ill give you what I was told about mandatory Training in our council

 

The current version of the Scoutmaster/Assistant Scoutmaster Course and Outdoor Leadership Skills Course will be required but anyone who took the previous version will be grandfathered in.

Any SM training course taken before this will not count and any SM/ASM will need to retake the courses.

 

I do not know if this has anything to do with this, but I was told (by more than one person) that in my district we have a great deal of long term Scouters who took SM training 25+ years ago and have never taken anything since. They are never seen at Roundtables or training sessions and are just not involved in scouting outside their own units.

IMHO, the council is doing this in hoping this will bring about better run and a better quality scouting experiance to more units and to get more units to follow the program.

 

Many of these "oldtimers" have just forgotten how to present the methods or have just using the "that's the way Troop XX has always done it" method.

 

Wood badge will not be required.

 

Our council also strongly encourages training however very few adults are taking training. Almost all training this year in our council has been canceled, including Wood Badge, due to not enough people signed up to hold the course.

Scoutmaster/Assistant Scoutmaster Course and Outdoor Leadership Skills Course is offered twice a year and has filled up the last few times it was run.

In fact I was just asked to be on staff for the next session the end of Oct.

 

My district has no Wood Badge trained SMs (30+ Troops) and WB has been held only once in the last 12 years.

It was full 2 years ago, but this year I was only one of 10 people who had registered.

 

Our council is having our first Scouting University in a few weeks. I have also been helping to put this together.

I do not know how well attended it will be but are expecting 200-300 attendees.