Cburkhardt Posted May 25, 2022 Share Posted May 25, 2022 What Keeps Sea Scouts and Law Enforcement Exploring Running So Well? COVID, the bankruptcy, and other operational and program deformations have severely impacted Venturing, but Sea Scouts and Law Enforcement Exploring seem to just continue on with sufficient numbers of young adult and adult members. There is not much in the way of needed BSA professional time or financial investment. What are the factors about these teen-focused programs that have quietly kept them operating for decades? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InquisitiveScouter Posted May 25, 2022 Share Posted May 25, 2022 5 hours ago, Cburkhardt said: What Keeps Sea Scouts and Law Enforcement Exploring Running So Well? COVID, the bankruptcy, and other operational and program deformations have severely impacted Venturing, but Sea Scouts and Law Enforcement Exploring seem to just continue on with sufficient numbers of young adult and adult members. There is not much in the way of needed BSA professional time or financial investment. What are the factors about these teen-focused programs that have quietly kept them operating for decades? Adult volunteers who know what they are doing, and have a passion for the specific program. Think about who would be the majority of adult volunteers for these programs... What type of person or background comes to mind?? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cburkhardt Posted May 25, 2022 Author Share Posted May 25, 2022 I agree that the corps of adults in these specialized programs really believe in the programs and bring their professional expertise to them. They are typically active or retired military or law enforcement people who are encouraged by their professions to be involved. This has not really changed -- the Skippers of the Sea Scout Ship of my youth were WWII combat vets from the Navy and Coast Guard who belonged to our local Coast Guard Auxiliary and veterans organizations. Now that Sea Scouts is the official youth program of the Coast Guard Auxiliary (which so far operates 27 Ships) I can see that potentially taking off in a big way. Law enforcement and the military are in tight cooperation with these specialized programs for very good reasons. They provide very stable COs. The current day "stand alone" version of Venturing does not have these factors going for it. If our counsel asked me to go form ten 'stand alone" Venturing crews, it would be a really tough job. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InquisitiveScouter Posted May 26, 2022 Share Posted May 26, 2022 13 hours ago, Cburkhardt said: I agree that the corps of adults in these specialized programs really believe in the programs and bring their professional expertise to them. They are typically active or retired military or law enforcement people who are encouraged by their professions to be involved. This has not really changed -- the Skippers of the Sea Scout Ship of my youth were WWII combat vets from the Navy and Coast Guard who belonged to our local Coast Guard Auxiliary and veterans organizations. Now that Sea Scouts is the official youth program of the Coast Guard Auxiliary (which so far operates 27 Ships) I can see that potentially taking off in a big way. Law enforcement and the military are in tight cooperation with these specialized programs for very good reasons. They provide very stable COs. The current day "stand alone" version of Venturing does not have these factors going for it. If our counsel asked me to go form ten 'stand alone" Venturing crews, it would be a really tough job. This is where the BSA is missing out. There is a corps of military veterans out there who would love to serve as Scout leaders. BSA should be actively recruiting them. Totally understand that Scouting is not military training! That message must always come through loud and clear. But, every skill I ever learned in Scouting made me a better leader, officer, pilot, or whatever job I happened to be doing at the time. IMHO, these should also be the primary leaders in the corporate structure of BSA. Remember where BP got his ideas for the program. And I heard a great quote the other day from another Scouter... "If it wasn't for the Siege of Mafeking, I'd have a lot of extra time on my hands." 😜 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Mafeking 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RememberSchiff Posted May 26, 2022 Share Posted May 26, 2022 1 hour ago, InquisitiveScouter said: Remember where BP got his ideas for the program. And I heard a great quote the other day from another Scouter... "If it wasn't for the Siege of Mafeking, I'd have a lot of extra time on my hands." 😜 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Mafeking Well an hour a week anyway. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrjohns2 Posted May 26, 2022 Share Posted May 26, 2022 On 5/25/2022 at 8:29 AM, Cburkhardt said: Sea Scouts and Law Enforcement Exploring seem to just continue on with sufficient numbers of young adult and adult members I haven't seen the numbers in a year or 2, but this isn't what I recall. Have you seen recent number, or better yet, monthly numbers for the last 5 years? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mashmaster Posted June 8, 2022 Share Posted June 8, 2022 I am a Skipper, and we didn't stop doing. We adapted to follow Covid guidlines. We certainly did less that previous years but we continued to meet and do. We are smaller so when we meet in a park for our meetings vs. a troop we have 10 kids in camping chairs. They don't have as much of a need to play physical games. Happy to discuss more about what we did if it is helpful. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qwazse Posted June 8, 2022 Share Posted June 8, 2022 On 5/25/2022 at 9:29 AM, Cburkhardt said: ... There is not much in the way of needed BSA professional time or financial investment. … This 🙄. Sailors and LEOs who want to reach out to teens aren’t looking for a lot of meddling from BSA pros. 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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