UOS vs. Pow-Wow

[Bayou Beaver]

Our council has done University of Scouting since I have been an adult leader and this year they are doing a Pow-Wow instead. What is the difference?

[fleetfootedfox]

In our council, Pow Wow is a Cub Scout thing. UOS is both. The format may be different too. I also have found Pow Wow to be more fun, probably due to the emphasis on games and songs.

[emb021]

AFAIK, in most councils, Pow-Wow is strickly a Cub Scouter event, while UOS is aimed at all scouters as supplemental training.

 

[SSScout]

Are you sure it's "instead of" and not really "and"?

 

Most Councils do both, at opposite ends of the year.

[ghermanno]

IMHO,

 

This past year, I had the honor of teaching a class at the UoS. I also attended different classes during the time I was not teaching (I earned my BA). It was the first UoS I had attended. I have attended many Pow-Wows.

 

The difference is, to me, like day camp versus summer school. Pow-Wow is meant to teach/rejuvinate Cub-Scouters with Crafts/Skits/Songs... The UoS teaches the importance of Skits/Songs/Crafts but also staffing, scheduling, funding, reporting,... More administrative versus hands-on participation.

 

If you have the manpower and want a GREAT Cub Program, then I would emphasise Pow-Wow for Cub Scouters. If you want recognition, certificate, and administative skills, I would reccomend UoS attendance.

 

I would NOT schedule anywhere near the same timeframe as you need people to run both programs and good trainers are hard to find. Pow-Wow requires energetic, smiling, singing, trainers that can enable the Scouters to get up and get involved. That's where they practice what they will use at the Den/Pack meetings and posssibly what to do if plan "A" falls through and you need a plan "B" or "C"...

 

Just my $0.02.

 

YiS,

 

Rick

 

[Lisabob]

I am interested to hear what you are all describing because it doesn't fit what I have seen. Around here, councils seem to have moved away from offering Pow Wow at all, and instead incorporated the former Pow Wow material into their U of Scouting curriculum. The cub-focused end of U of S remains focused primarily on the hands-on, recharge your batteries, fun side of cub scouting.

 

One of the benefits I see to this approach is that it allows for more interaction between leaders in different parts of the BSA program. A lot of webelos leaders attend some of the boy scout sessions to get a better feel for the program for which they are preparing their webelos scouts. There are also usually some sessions focused on webelos-scout transition and den chiefing that draw a diverse crowd of scouters and even some boy scouts.

 

Another benefit is purely logistical, but it cuts down on having to find the resources to run two separate, major, programs.

 

 

[ghermanno]

Fisrt I need to appologize. I don't know where my head was when I posted the last post. It appears I confused, in my mind, Commissioners College with UoS.

 

I felt the UoS was an oversized Pow-Wow with BS Roundtable and Basic Training thrown in for good measure. I did not attend the Cub side but was told it was OK. Some classes excellent and overattended and some boring and one person in class.

 

Training here is ussualy planned on Wednesday for Saturday.

 

Again I appologize for my mistake.

 

YiS,

 

Rick

[emb021]

"I felt the UoS was an oversized Pow-Wow with BS Roundtable and Basic Training thrown in for good measure."

 

Think to keep in mind is that there is no national standard for UoS. Each council does their own, and the quality and presentation can vary widely. Some use it as just a means to provide standard training (basic and many supplemental stuff). Some go beyond that to develop excellent training courses for the different BSA programs. Many go further to add in a 'degree program' to encourage future attendence (ie take certain courses each year and get a degree- bachelor, masters, etc).

 

 

[SR540Beaver]

In our council, Pow Wow is traditionally held the first Saturday of November and contains training for all BSA programs.

[Buffalo Skipper]

First of all, Pow-Wow is a BSA sanctioned and recognized activity. University of Scouting, though organized and supported by a council, is a council effort, and there is not national curriculum, and is not recognized as such.

 

Cub Scout leader Pow-Wow is an official supplemental training activity for Cub Scout and Webelos Leaders, and is intended to be run on the district level.

 

Any council which organizes a UoS program creates whatever they want, and it will vary greatly from council to council. I have heard that many councils do incorporate a Pow-Wow into their UoS program. Most Scouting Universities are single day events, but others are weekend mega-events.

 

Speculating here, it is possible that Scouting Universities evolved from cub scout leaders who liked the idea of a Pow-Wow and wanted to create a similar experience for Boy Scout leaders; or it may have come from the Commissioner College program. Then again, it may have come from both.

 

There has been an effort to organize one in our council, but it has not happened yet.

[ChaiAdventure]

BF

 

Interesting that you say that UoS is not nationally recognized. While I agree that there is a wide disparity council to council, I would say that national does recognize the program. Proof in point would be that UoS is specifically mentioned as fulfilling the annual requirement for various training knots.

 

I do think that if the trend continues to have UoS replace Pow Wow, that national needs to do "some" standardization of the program, degrees, etc.

[ScoutNut]

I have never heard of any Pow Wow done as a District event. Every one I have ever attended, or seen info on, has been done at the council level.

 

There is a LOT of time, effort, and money involved. It would have to be a REAL big district to be able to afford it, and to swing the attendees needed to be able to pay for it.

[ScoutNut]

Just checked on the BSA National site and BSA recognizes BOTH University of Scouting and Pow Wow. There is no mention of any kind of a "national curriculum" (and I have never been given one to use in the Pow Wow's I have staffed).

 

http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/CubScouts/Training/powwow.aspx

 

 

[Buffalo Skipper]

Scoutnut,

Like I said, it all varies from council to council. We have no real expense with a Pow Wow. Just alot of legwork to coordinate the trainers and the schedule. We typically us a large church with plenty of training rooms, and lots of seating. No need to spend money. The only expense we have ever had is coffee and lunch, which is covered by the modest registration fee. Each trainer make his own copies, but mostly that is done at the scout office.

 

I think it is a matter of scale. We are a district, and we have a 8-hour Pow Wow with maybe 4-6 classes offered each hour. Most trainers do 2-4 classes throughout the day. Apparantly your local experience is different, which is exactly my point.

 

My mistake on UoS being nationally recognized. That must be a recent change, because just a few short years ago (and on many of the Adult Award forms I have on file, UoS is not listed, only Pow Wow). Sorry about that.(This message has been edited by Buffalo Skipper)