What is a Scouter?

[OldGreyEagle]

requiring scouts to wear the uniform is not what is meant by following the uniform method, but I am sure you knew that

[FScouter]

The Scouts in our troop are not required to wear pants either. Nor the shirt. Strangely enough, they do wear the shirt, and "the pants" too. I wonder why they wear it if it isn't required?

 

The purpose of the uniform method is not to ensure boys wear a uniform. The uniform method is not practiced by requiring, mandating, codifying, or forcing boys to wear the it.

 

So what is the purpose of the uniform method?

[evmori]

Correct - the uniform is not required. But when it is worn ,it is to be worn correctly. And wearing the official BSA uniform shirt without the official BSA pants is not wearing the uniform correctly.

 

Ed Mori

Troop 1

1 Peter 4:10

[Backpacker]

I have to agree with LOng Haul's comment about WB, after attending WB at Gilwell and here years ago and after recently

finishing being on staff for the new WB I feel that National is heading in the wrong direction. Yes leadership skills are important but more important are understanding the nuts and bolts of the program.Maybe thats one reason why some leaders stray away because they were not properly prepared in the first place. While all the participants in our recent class enjoyed it they almost all stated they wished there had been more on scouting skills instead. That has been the consensus in our council on the new WB training. As ED has stated we are in this for the youth not personal recognition or to flash a pair of wood beads. Welcome back ED.

[FScouter]

Scouting is filled with nuts and bolts trainings, but there is only one advanced leadership skills training - Wood Badge for the 21st Century. Nuts and bolts training can be done elsewhere.

 

Nuts & Bolts trainings:

8 Leader Specific trainings for every adult leader position that works with youth.

BALOO

Introduction to Outdoor Leader Skills

Crew Officers' Seminar

Powder Horn

Boy Scout Advancement training

Camping

Survival

Backpacking

Cooking

Aquatics

Rock Climbing/Rappelling

Topping Out

Pow Wow

University of Scouting

Troop Committee Challenge

COPE

Seabadge

High Adventure Basic Backpacking

High Adventure Advanced Backpacking

High Adventure Winter Awareness

High Adventure Desert Awareness

Trail Boss

Merit Badge Counselor Orientation

Health and Safety Training

Leave No Trace Camping

Safe Swim Defense

Safety Afloat

 

 

 

[evmori]

Thanks Backpacker.

 

Sure Woodbadge is the top of the line training. But just because someone has been through Woodbadge doesn't mean they are a better Scouter than one who hasn't been through Woodbadge. Sorta like earning an MBA. You can still be a moron & have your MBA, too.

 

Ed Mori

Troop 1

1 Peter 4:10

[Eamonn]

Here I go sticking my neck out -Yet again.

Years ago on Sundays the BBC (who I used to work for.) Used to have an hour of Religious programing. It became known as the "God Spot" Most of the hour was spent on a program called Hymns of Praise.

The powers that be would pick a church and just about all the churches from all the different denominations would attend an evening service of singing hymns. Really low cost programing!! As a kid I would watch just to see what silly hats the old ladies were wearing!!

Sometimes they would go to a small village church and at times they would go to a big Cathedral. In between the singing they would interview people from the area.

One day they were in Liverpool.

Liverpool is a city with two cathedrals.The program was from the Anglican Cathedral, which is the largest cathedral in Britain,The bells have the highest and heaviest peal in the world.

There are two pipe organs in Liverpool Cathedral. The Grand Organ is the largest in the UK and probably the largest operational organ in the world.The organ has 9765 pipes.

At the time of the program the Roman Catholic Cathedral (Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King) was being rebuild..

The crew went and interviewed some of the guys working on the construction.

The interview has became almost a legend.

The question was "Why are you working here?"

The first guy said that he had a wife and kids and needed the money.

The second guy said that he was single and needed the cash for his cigarettes and beer.

The third said he was building a cathedral where people would come and praise the Lord.

This has been used as a Scoutmaster minute.

But before we break out into a chorus of Kum-by-ya. Let's for a minute think that the Beer and Ciggie guy was a master craftsman, who did excellent work and that the "Cathedral Builder Guy" messed everything up.

Most of us never know why people choose to volunteer to help with Scouting.

I for one don't care!!

If someone is doing a good job, living the Scout Oath and Law, what difference does why he does it make? Last time I looked Uriah Heep hadn't added being ''umble'' to the Scout Law.

If the person who does the best job has an ego as big as the great outdoors and wants all the awards, bells, beads and knots that's up to him or her. At the end of the day it's performance that counts.

Eamonn.

 

 

[Backpacker]

F Scouter

You misunderstood my post. The list you supplied of trainings, only the last 10 even apply to boy scouts and many councils, mine included do not even offer that training, most SM's get the basic training and then move to WB, and unless they are fortunate enough and wealthy enough to go to Philmont they will never get any other nuts and bolts training after basic except for Woodbadge. And while leadership skills are important so are advanced scouting skills even more important. The Woodbadge for the 21st Century falls short of its predecessor in my and many other participants and trainers opinions, it might even make a good spinoff for a new thread to see how others feel. (This message has been edited by a staff member.)

[FScouter]

"The Wood Badge for the 21st Century falls short of its predecessor in my and many other participants and trainers opinions"

 

That may well be true. The NEW Wood Badge is centered around leadership skills. If you want training about how to tie knots or how to rescue a drowning boy, there are a myriad of other trainings available to address those needs. If those trainings don't appear on the district training calendar, contact the district training chair or the council training chair and request that the trainings you need be offered.

[LongHaul]

FScouter, Ever wonder why National didnt market their New Woodbadge as Woodbadge II and leave the original one alone? If you wanted advanced leadership and team building training youd have a place to find it. If you wanted the traditional course you could find that also. I think its because they wouldnt have found many takers. They needed the name and reputation of the course they felt was no longer relevant in order to get enough people to take their new course and make it profitable. When traditional scouting has been replaced by the Learning for Life Program, Woodbadge for the 21st. Century will be refined and ready to be sold to Corporate America just like Learning for Life is sold to School districts today. Lets get back to the original topic of what constitutes a Scouter and put this Woodbadge debate in the Woodbadge forum.

LongHaul

 

[Kudu]

What is a Scouter? I would suggest that the attributes of Scouters philosophical enough to engage in such discussions should include a desire to read one of William Hillcourt's pre-1970s BSA Scoutmaster's Handbooks (the 3rd edition is more than a thousand pages), and Tim Jeal's biography, Baden-Powell, so as to see what the nature of "Scouting" is beyond the BSA's current corporate brand.

 

If you are interested in attending a Traditional Wood Badge course (that is Wood Badge not based on the latest corporate leadership theory), look for Baden-Powell Scouting courses in 2006. They are usually titled "Wood Beads" so as to avoid copyright infringement, and are based on Baden-Powell's Wood Badge course.

 

There is talk of a 3-day practical (one bead) course (Fri-Sun) at Ben Walker's Scout Academy sometime in the spring of 2006. This would be Rover Wood Badge. You might contact the Scout Academy for information:

 

http://www.boyscoutacademy.com/

 

Rovers is advancement-based Scouting beyond age 17-18. Rover Scouts from the Baden Powell Scouts of Ireland visited the Scout Academy in 2004, see:

 

http://www.badenpowellscoutsireland.com/usa.htm

 

Kudu