It may be a reality - On the subject of mandatory training

[Joni4TA]

At our Roundtable last night we were informed that our Council sent letters to all the area Scoutmasters that said National had repaired their recording and registration system, and that our Council needed to re-create Adult Leader training records so we could report them to National.

 

It says that each Adult Leader in the unit needs to provide PROOF of completing the required training for their current position. (As in a copy of their training card is preferable and a verbal claim of completion or "completion date" will work, but it's a last resort, and will only work during this amnesty period.)

 

If these records are not provided to Council by April, the Leaders missing training will have to take or repeat their training and provide PROOF to Council.

 

The letter goes on to say how every Scout deserves a trained leader and youth retention in the scouting program is often directly related to the training received by their leaders!

 

Interesting!!!! And I am not surprised at all. I kind of had a feeling this was coming. I agree with required training but I'm just not so sure how it will affect ADULT retention yet. Within the Troop I am affiliated with alone there are 7 Adult Leaders affected by this who need to either A) produce proof of or B) repeat the training.....

 

The letter doesn't go on to say what happens if a leader doesn't do A or B, but my guess is, that is coming next.

[acco40]

t says that each Adult Leader in the unit needs to provide PROOF of completing the required training for their current position.

 

So what has changed? The above sentence mentions required training and you imply that training may now be required?

 

Luckily, I'm registed in a Boy Scout Troop (as Scoutmaster), so I do not specifically require training for outings! (Packs need BALOO) All I need is youth protection and I'm good to go.

[Joni4TA]

What has changed?

 

Our Council has never pushed "required" here. They've "encouraged" training, but NEVER required it. And they've certainly never demanded PROOF of training.

 

And the fact that if folks can't cough up proof they are trained, they are going to be forced to re-train. This is new - that Council/National is making the push for mandatory training "or else."

 

Not sure what "or else" is going to amount to, but I suspect the next step is going to be that they will disallow someone's registration at recharter time if they are NOT trained.

 

And that will definitely be a change!

 

For the record, I am registered in a Troop and trained for my position too.

 

 

[Lisabob]

I'm with a troop where many of our leaders completed their basic ASM/SM training 8-10 or more years ago, and some of our council records show them as "untrained" as a result of this. I think if they were to be told they had to do the training all over again they'd have some fairly harsh comments for whoever informed them of this policy. (On the other hand, there's a good chance some folks might pick up some new pieces of info if they were to do it again and that's never bad.) Some would grumble and go again, but a bunch would probably dig in their heels and refuse. Then what??? How far will council be willing to go with this? Will they refuse to recharter a troop over this? Are they willing to drive off long-time, good, leaders over this? (I doubt it in the former and I hope not in the latter case) If not, where's the stick?

 

We need to be mindful of people's contributions of time, money, and effort. Telling already-trained leaders that they have to do it over because the BSA has lousy record keeping is a way to tick off good volunteers.

[Joni4TA]

Those who were trained with the older courses like Basic Training and SM Fundamentals should be considered trained. My husband was trained in 1990 and he shows up as trained.

[nldscout]

You ask, what would happen? NOTHING.

 

 

Our council and a couple of others have tried the Mandatory traing thing or you can't recharter. First year they would have lost 40% of units. Not happening. They just gave waivers

[Joni4TA]

Yeah nld, that's what I was thinking too. I don't think the BSA is prepared to lose that $10 per person at registration time! So then in actuality "required" training, isn't REALLY required then is it?

[Joni4TA]

Yeah nld, that's what I was thinking too. I don't think the BSA is prepared to lose that $10 per person at registration time! So then in actuality "required" training, isn't REALLY required then is it?

[Argyle]

I'd just like to mention that our unit is a Sea Scout Ship. Our unit leaders are required to be members of the yacht club that charters us, be completely uniformed (khaki, white, blue), and fully trained. We have one skipper, eight mates, and three committee. The direct contact leadership all have had New Leader Essentials, Venturing Leader Specific Training, Sea Scout Officer Specialized Training, Youth Protection, Safety Afloat, Safe Swim Defense, and seven of the nine have participated in the Seabadge Conference.

 

Not getting trained is not even an option.(This message has been edited by Argyle)

[Gunny2862]

Required means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. In my case when I hear BSA talking about required,...

 

What I hear is "required to be considered fully trained in their current position".Also, To be able to wear a "Trained " patch.

Not "Required or you can't play in our ballpark."

 

I believe in training and am pursuing it, I believe that every Scout deserves a Trained leader. I would love for my Committee to be fully trained for their positions, For my ASM to be trained for his. My CC actually is. But I don't have a stick to use on volunteers and neither does BSA - I wish I could afford to provide a big enough carrot to entice them to do it but I am unable to afford that either.

[erickelly65]

I have all my training completed and always have for all the positions I have held. Having said that, I do find the BSA approach annoying with regard to record keeping. They have taken attendance and documented every class I've attend. So where did that data go? Every year as part of our recharter packet we turn in a leader training history. Where does that data go?

 

I typically dont have much tolerance for professionals and organizations that can't keep their administrative and business process house in order. The council's and BSA should be breaking their backs to make life easy for volunteer instead of continuously dumping more and more inane bureucratic hoops to jump through.(This message has been edited by erickelly65)

[GernBlansten]

We just got notified through our advancement chair that all adult training records were lost. She requested us to photocopy our cards so she could send them in or face not being viewed as trained by BSA. We are in Denver so this isn't just a local council thing it seems as Joni4TA is in Texas.

[FireKat]

Notice on our council's website:

"Adult Leader Training Amnesty Period

Over the past few years, the training status of unit leaders has been recorded in the national registration system. System problems have lead to that information becoming unavailable or unreliable. In order to correct the situation, BSA national has repaired the system but we need to re-create the training records for the council." 

It  goes on to explain how to resubmit the information. Check with your local councils for how they want the information or if you even need to.

 

[evmori]

Required means ya gotta go!

 

I have always felt training should be required. Ya fill out the application, turn it in & you are given a training schedule for your position in Scouting. You attend & your application is submitted. You don't attend, you are a parent, not a leader.

 

Ed Mori

1 Peter 4:10

[Gunny2862]

Oh Ed, if only it were so.

 

You wouldn't believe how hard I've had to work to FIND training, much more the training I needed for any position I held at the time.

 

Still not "Trained". Although if it's not delayed, postponed or canceled AGAIN, maybe I will be by the end of the month.