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One of my new uniform shirts now has "BOY SCOUTS of AME C " above the right pocket, and the M is looking like it will be the next one to fall off.
I understand I can get my shirt replaced -- but won't that be just moving the same problem farther ahead in the future? It also does not address the cost of having the patches which are on my shirt moved.
How about if the Supply Division would provide the same small swatch of cloth (with "BOY SCOUTS of AMERICA" embroidered on it) which is sewn onto the previous uniform shirts? It is still being produced, as that swatch is on the new poly/wool shirts just becoming available.
Surely it would be a lower cost to provide those swatches, than to replace an entire shirt. It would also prevent the time and perhaps cost of having the rest of the patches Scouts and Scouters have on their shirts to be removed and resewn.
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I am looking to see if anyone has ever used Varsity Scouting as an older boy adjunct program to their Soccer and Scouting Cub Scout program.
We run an internal league here at our Council (Meck. County Council in Charlotte, NC) with about 300 participants. We charge 30 dollars for a 12 week league, and to date are seeing the program produce about a 55% advancement rate, extraordinary when compare to the YMCA league we played in last year (less than 5% advancement).
Our problem is that National produces some excellent Program Helps materials for Cubs, but little to nothing for Soccer and Scouting for older youth. It's pretty much just a Cub program. But our families, primarily Latino, are looking for activities and organizations in which EVERYONE can participate. So we try to be flexible. We even have a LFL group for the younger sisters!
Anyway, it seems that Varsity Scouting/Sports is a near PERFECT fit to our program, which we renamed SCOUTING THROUGH SOCCER, to re-emphasis the Scouting aspects. We wouldn't even have to do much program creation or adaptation, as Varsity is so flexible to begin with.
My question is, can anyone see a down side to this? Other than the obvious ones of money and unit leaders. Speaking just from a program stand point, do you think it would work? Any suggestions? Has anyone done this before. IE Started a Varsity Team primarily for Latino youth playing soccer? How did it go?
Thanks,
Karl Strohminger, Ph.D.
SDE - Special Initiatives
Charlotte, NC
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I recently attended a camping trip with my daughters Venture Crew. Several of my daughters’ friends (female) are in the Crew and attended the trip. They were talking amongst themselves within ear shot as to why they had joined the Venture Crew. All said they were not getting the “outdoor program” they wanted in another youth serving organization not to be named here. None of them had ever heard of Venturing and if not asked by a friend to join and attending a fun first meeting, never would have joined. They all agreed they would have joined sooner if they had known about the program.
I would guess that this is a problem in most areas. I always call Venturing our “best kept secret”! Here lies the problem. Venturing is not as near a household name as Cub Scouting and Boy Scouting are. How can we truly grow this program when half the potential members are unaware it exists?
Have we ever advertised the Venturing Program to girls in major magazines/media that are geared/marketed to them? Do we plan to? I asked the girls on the trip if they had ever seen or heard an advertisement for Venturing and they said no. I understand that advertising in major media markets or magazines is not an inexpensive undertaking and local councils must continue efforts to promote all of our programs locally. However if we are ever going to break into the 14+ age group in a major way I believe we are going to need a coordinated national marketing plan to do so.
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Please fix the typo on the left menu column.
"Internet Recharting" should be "Internet Rechartering"
https://myscouting.scouting.org/Pages/Home.aspx
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When all youth and adult applications are entered into Scoutnet, email addresses are also entered (if they are on the application). Would it be possible to include each person's email address on their Personal Profile?
I realize that you can run reports that include email addresses, but it would be very convenient if the Scoutnet user could click on any given person’s profile and could find their email address there as well.
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Is there a way that National could go to the companies that make CRM Software (Salesforce, ACT, etc...) and see if an arrangement can be made that can give local council level professionals access to these programs at some form of reduced cost. I would think that a resource like this would be invaluable in improving customer service to all of the professionals customers.
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I understand that we have trained and untrained reports that show only position specific training for whichever position the leader is primaried in . It would be nice to be able to run a training report much like the Unit Advancement Detail Report. Something that would show each leader and then list all of the training they have taken, including the supplimentals. Person profiles are nice, but not when you have 20 plus adults in a given unit.
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Similar to the recent health care debate that just virally travelled throughout facebook, on February 8, 2010 we create a viral campaign asking our scouting alumni to post on their facebook status "Once a Scout, Always a Scout" and the entire Scout Oath".
This would be an easy and quick way to celebrate scouting's 100th anniversary and market to 300 million people on facebook...
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I would like to see our engineering division design 3 types of quality signage that charter partners can purchase or councils can purchase for them, that they can post on or near their charter partner sign that has the BSA corporate logo and "Scouting meets here". The signs will need to be three different sizes, post in three ways, made from long lasting material and be professional so that both the charter partner and the Boy Scouts of America can be proud of the look.
This will help solve the issue that many people have with us regarding visual exposure. If our tens of thousands of charter partners will help us kickoff the next 100 years of scouting with signage, we will become very visible overnight. Since people think we do not exist much and we know that it takes 7-10 hits for a parent to think about joining our program, this will allow key exposure as people drive through neighborhoods etc
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I know that many of our Cub age prospects enjoy computer based learning games. What if we created a CD game with animation that allowed a young man to virtually participate in a few activities. Making a paper airplane, building a bird house, sending a morse code message. We could weave in intermittent activities where the animated cubs would line up and say the Pledge of Allegiance or the Cub Scout Oath. The end would encourage them to visit a local pack. The sleeves could be individualized to the council with a place for packs, using a template, print their information on it as well.
Similar things could be made for the other programs, but I don't think they'd be as effective.
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If when we look up a person in the PSA Find in ScoutNet, we could click a button to create a v.card, a file which is read by outlook and other softwares which would automatically populate the name, address, phone numbers etc. and can be saved. For those of us who use the Blackberry Enterprise or other linked smartphones, it would then automatically be entered into our telephone for future use.
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September 11th is just around the corner. To honor America on this day I'm asking all of the scouts and leaders around my district and council to wear their scout uniform to work and school. Having the Amercian Flag on our shoulder shows our strong committment to our nation.
I'm hoping this idea would catch on across the country as we could have thousands of scouts making a strong statement.
As a side it will also help with recruitments if scouts wore the uniform to classes for the day.
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How about a knot to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Scouting. It should be available to all registured Scout & Scouters. The idea is the same as the US military uses for those involved in during a period of time.
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Is there any discussion of lowering the age of Venturers? I would like to suggest that the age for Venturing Youth be lowered to include 7th and 8th graders. This would allow young men and women who are interested in high adventure and leadership skills to participate before entering high school. Youth are becoming more involved in volunteerism and this is perfect opportunity for them to gain the skills that we have to offer. I have many young women who are interested and there is no program similar to serve them.
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Just came out of a "Cub Scouts 2010" session. The term "20/10" means "clear vision"--just ask your optometrist. So let's call this campaign...
Cub Scouts 2010--a Clear Vision for Growth
Any 2010 campaigns can use the "clear vision" tag
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The name "Venturing" is confusing. There are already Venture Patrols for older Scouts, so they don't understand the difference. The term has no intrinsic meaning to non-Scouts.
Market it as "Teen Adventure"--everyone understands both words and it sounds exciting. Also, compress the age range to 15-19. 14-year olds and 20-year olds have nothing in common.
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On the Eagle Application why does Requirement #6 have two parts? Many scouts miss the second part which is their statement of ambitions and life purpose, and listing of postions held, etc. Can this requirement be made into #7 so we don't have to call the scout and say we need this in order to put you to board? I'm sure I'm not the only one that has this problem.
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Packs, Districts, and/or Councils can rent the proper equipment so that families can gather at a central location and then breakout individually. A more fun way to get the whole family involved before a Scout becomes more capable with a compass! Den Chiefs and Assistant Scout Masters can be assigned a location with program/troop material as they wait for families to arrive. Once completed, the family returns to the centralized location with the borrowed equipment and possibly compete to answer questions about the units visited.
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We promote Cub Scouting as age 7 or in the first grade, yet Venturing is listed as 14 AND completed the 8th grade. I think it should be promoted as 15 to 21 or in the 8th grade. It is a little thing but I have at least one application a year that is sent back because they are 14 but still in 7th grade. (I'll admit, it happens with kindergarten kids too, but that is beside the point)
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I would like to propose that we take the current Internet Advancement program, rebrand it, and make it required for units. This is how it would work:
The program would be announced/ launched at a Scouting event with large attendance, have a transiton year, and then become mandatory.
The rebranding could look like the this: The STAR system, the Standardized Transfer of Advancement Records.
Benefits to Council
1. More Accurate advancement records
2. More accurate unit rosters
3. Easier and faster Unit rechartering
4. Lower cost for entering data.
Benefits to Units
1. More Accurate advancement records
2. More accurate unit rosters
3. Easier and faster Unit rechartering
Again, this idea is a branding and relaunching of Internet advancement. In certain business terms, it is a Commercial Initiative designed to increase usage of the tool. There will work needed to be done to redo some of the training and potentially the screens, but the internal workings of the system would not need to change at all; Just the marketing of it.
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Make Scoutnet (and all other BSA Software) more accessible with Mac Computers. The amount of college students (and eventual graduates!) using Mac computers is growing rapidly!
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Within BSA, each level of membership has a different colored backing for the year pin, including Exploring. Venturing does not have a colored year pin backing.
Since Venturing is a separate registration, it needs its own color for backing a year pin. Borrowing from Varsity or Exploring isn't right, and it would be worse if a girl started wearing the Boy Scout backing--the uniform police would go nuts!
We need our own color! Grey?
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Many of the files we are sent either from the higher-ups at National Supply, National Council, and the local councils we work with are using .docx, .pptx, .one, etc. It would be nice to be able to read these files with out having to bring my personal laptop into work with me so that I can read vital information.
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We need at least 2 more lines under the required training. i.e. hazardous weather, youth protection, safe swim.
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Council finding it increasingly difficult to get adult volunteers to give SS info for the background check on a paper application. Why not approach it like other youth entities do it: contract with a third party. Then, the adult goes online to the third party website and fill out the personally identifiable information with them.
This advantage of this process is that it takes us (BSA) out of the middle on collecting, entering and submitting this information, thus allowing the volunteers to feel more secure about providing this information. In addition, it is less data that our registrars have to enter in, thus making us more efficient. Does the BSA even need the info? And does the organization really need to store it? We decrease our liability by not having it, parents feel safer, and it all will happen faster.
Minnesota Youth Soccer is currently using: http://www.mnyouthsoccer.org/programs/backgroundcheck.cfm.
Someone applies with their local soccer club to coach a team by simply checking the box on a child’s online application. The person is then contacted by the club (via e-mail) to complete a background check and it directs the person to the third-party website. On that website, the parent enters in all of their information (same basic information that we need) directly to the CBC provider. The background check is conducted and any results are then sent to the club. The club determine if a person can be a coach and then let’s that person know if they are approved.
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