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

[Horizon]

A fair amount of basic training is now online, which helps get people partially trained. While online training is far from perfect or optimal, it beats having NO training. I would love to see BSA get more modules delivered in an online format for those of us who are constantly scrambling for a free weekend or evening.

 

http://olc.scouting.org/

 

As for mandatory...

 

I am a trained soccer coach with AYSO (I hold my Advanced certification). To get there I had to take 3 courses:

U12 training (around 10 hours), Intermediate training (12 hours) and Advanced (15 hours). I was not allowed to take a team to the sectional AYSO plus tourney without completing all of those hours. That is how they forced us to get it done - we could coach, but not tourney play without Advanced certification.

 

Now, I don't know how BSA would do this (make IOLS like Baloo for campouts? Require a trained SM/ASM to go camping?).

 

Training is a double edged sword. It helps the leader, but it can create a significant barrier to some of our VOLUNTEERS. When a volunteer is trying to help and they are told that they can not do something without the required training, you risk losing the volunteer. You can also risk creating a good old boys club of trained vs. not-trained.

 

My two tent stakes of opinion.

[Gold Winger]

Maybe the volunteer who isn't willing to give up the time get trained so that he knows how to do his job isn't the volunteer that we want.

 

We're not talking about the parents who by the paper plates for the annual dinner, we're talking about the people who are responsible for running the program.

 

I'm not a soccer coach but as a sports official I can only wish that I could have gotten away with just 37 hours of training but if I had, I wouldn't have been able to do my job. Well, that's not quite true, I could have blundered about making calls that weren't backed up by the rules and were based entirely on myths. Hmmmmmm . . . sounds like some Scouters that I've run across.