Change? What does this mean??

[Eamonn]

Yesterday I received the email that I'm copying.

I do have to admit to not really understanding what it really means!!

 

Fellow Sea Scouter's:

We mentioned a couple of weeks ago that BSA has undergone a

reorganization at the national level, and that Sea Scouting is no longer being administered under a unified Venturing Division. We have posted on the Sea Scouts BSA website a graphic that shows what the new national BSA organization is. If you will point your web browsers as the Sea Scout

Support Committee page

 

and click on the link to BSA Organization Chart (as of October 2008). Please

note that this is a large file and may take a few extra moments for your web

browser to display it.

You will note that Sea Scouts has its own spot under the Outdoor Adventures Committee. We are administratively on par with the Order of the Arrow, the Florida Sea Base, and the National Jamborees (among others). The consensus of the Sea Scout Support Committee (what the National Sea Scouting

Committee is now called) is that this is a good thing, and should give us if anything more control to get the job done.

So the short answer is, no, we haven't gone away and we have not been overlooked. It's going to take a little time to see what this all means in terms of delivering the goods, but the initial changes in the BSA organization are very encouraging.

 

Does this mean that Sea Scouts are no longer part of Venturing?

Or was no one really sure where to place Sea Scouting on a new Organizational Chart?

Does anyone know what it means? Or what it means for Sea Scouting in the days /years to come?

Help!!

Eamonn.

 

 

 

[click23]

Eamonn,

 

I met Keith Christopher, the new Sea Scout national director, at PTC this summer. He seemed like a great guy and was very informative. Once I got back home I sent him an email asking him a question and he responded promptly, I would recommend sending him an email asking him what is going on.

[Kahuna]

Eamonn, it means good news, I think! You can never really tell about how things work out in the end. If you check the new organization chart, you see we are like the OA, Philmont, and Sea Base, kind of a separate entity. We do have a new director of Sea Scouting and a new National Commodore. Charlie Wurster, the new Commodore is a guy I've worked with before when he was in Honolulu. He's an old time Scouter and has a great background for this, plus some national (and certainly Coast Guard) clout.

 

As to how this is going to play out vis a vis Venturing, I don't think anybody knows. I'm not sure if we are part of it or not. If not, it will mean a lot changes - such as Sea Scouts earning Venturing awards and vice-versa.

 

I'm a Vice Commodore in my council and neither I or nor the Commodore have any idea about this. Looks like we will continue like before until told to do something else.

 

I don't think it will make much difference either way. Sea Scouts was unique before and while it was part of Exploring. It has been different since it was part of Venturing. So, we'll still be different.

 

I don't know about you, but I have not been to Powderhorn and don't normally attend Venturing functions for youth. I have been trained in the basics of Venturing, but that's about all I know about it. The Venture people know less about us. We'll see how it plays out.

[John-in-KC]

E,

 

Though I'm not concerned with Sea Scouting, I am concerned with Relationships and Religious Relationships. Thank you for posting this, it was helpful to more than just the SS community.

[emb021]

This org chart is the organization of the national level committees, composed of volunteers.

 

AFAIK, the programs remain the same (Cub Scout Program, including Tiger cubs, cub scouts, and Webelos; Boy Scout Program, including Boy Scouts and Varsity Scouts, and Venturing, including Venturing and Sea Scouts). The 3 Program Divisions were eliminated, but these programs wil still operate the way they are.

 

The various national committees were also reorged. It appears that Sea Scouting is not a direct subcommittee of the National Venturing Committee. The National Venturing Committee still exists, but I understand its a sub-committee (or maybe even a sub-sub committee) of one of the committees on this chart.

 

As far as we at the local level, NOTHING CHANGES. Hopefully this re-org will improve the support our programs get from National. We'll see.

 

[Eagle92]

Keith Christopher is the new pro in charge of Sea Scouts ?!?!? I had the great honor and pleasure of being in the New Orleans Area Council when he was Director of Support Services and he knows his stuff. Very approachable and knowledgable. national couldn't have picked a better pro for the job!

[RangerT]

Eamonn

 

I heard the same thing from our SE today. Apparently Sea Scouting will become a stand alone program apart from Venturing, which he said most sea scouters had been wanting for a long time. The result will be Nationally that the Venturing manual will be revised deleting the bronze award in sea scouting and the Quartermaster award references. As far as on the council level all that will change will be sea scouting will have their own leader meetings and no longer be a part of Venturing forums or roundtables.

 

Which makes me wonder what happens in a council where there is only one sea scout ship, where will they go for trainings, etc., probably there are plans for regional meetings which already exsist in some areas. All in all it is a very interesting development.

[emb021]

that's also in conflict with other statements that there will be no changed to Sea Scouts and Sea Scouts are still part of Venturing.

 

Just because the volunteer committees have changed doesn't mean the programs change.

 

I have a hard time accepting this as so until I see something more concrete.

[Ohio_Scouter]

Sorry, I thought this was another Obama thread. Never mind.

[Bob White]

It does appear that Sea Scouting has been once again separated from The Venturing Program. How this will effect either program is stiil toe early to tell. At this point in tiome the only difference is at the upper administration level. But as the newly seated National Commodore gets settled in and as the new president and professionals get their roles established I would expect a certain amount of changes to take place is for no other purpose than job jusification.

 

It is not unusual for new folks to make changes just to show that they are doing something during offices hours. There is no way to tell if this is a good thing or a bad thing until the changes are actually made. Until then nothing at the unit level has been altered and its business as usual aboard ship.

[Gold Winger]

I'm always leery of wholesale organizational changes. Even in an imperfect system, people figure out how to get the job done and now, suddenly, everything is mixed up and everyone needs to figure stuff out again.

 

Hopefully stuff at the local levels won't change much but don't be surprised if we start getting confusing and conflicting policy changes.

[Eagle92]

In reference to Keith Christopher, if I remember correctly he does have some Sea Explorer/Scout experience. I beleive his daughter was registered with Ship 1 at one time. Also he worked with a ship that had the national bosun in it.

[Buffalo Skipper]

Sea Scouters,

I have discussed this (briefly) with my SE and the Regional Commodore. Both suggested (I do not want to put words in their mouths...) that this was an administrative issue with the national council and will not effect a change in council (or regional) operations. I know that is a brief statement, but it implies that at the regional, council, district or unit level, things should pretty much stay the same, at least for the time being.

 

[click23]

There is a new memo, 2/4/09 out on this reorganization

 

http://www.seascout.org/for_leaders/organizational_structure/2009-02-04_Reorganization_memo.pdf

 

[emb021]

I read the memo.

 

What was needed was a simple statement to the effect that "Sea Scouts are still part of the Venturing program".

 

Instead we had to wade thru 4 paragraphs of other stuff before they say something sort of along those lines.

 

What idiots write this stuff and thinks it helps things?

 

Ok, for those who might want to understand more, you could mention what happened to the National Sea Scout committee and its purpose, keeping in mind that many scouters don't even know it exists. But it could have been done AFTER the above statement, and in a clearer fashion.