We Own Adventure

Scouting News for the DC Metro Area

Leaders

Save the Date: University of Scouting Is February 23rd

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The University of Scouting, a supplemental training opportunity for all adult Scout leaders, returns to Hayfield High School on February 23. It is the one time during the year where you can find the widest variety of training opportunities in all program areas all in one place.

The University offers interesting courses in Cub Scouting, Boy Scouting (soon to be Scouts BSA), “Adventuring” (a combination of Venturing and Sea Scouts), District Operations, and an Electives College where the classes cover a broad range of areas of interest to Scouting but not specific to any one Scouting program. A key topic across all programs this year will be Family Scouting.

The University has a degree program where, over time, attendees can earn Bachelors, Masters, and PhD degrees in Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts and Adventuring.

Classes are taught by experienced Scouters and Scouting professionals. Many classes focus on subject areas not otherwise covered in the usual adult leader training curriculum.

We expect to offer over 160 different courses from which to choose. In addition to the academic program, there is more… a midway where up to fifty vendors and council committees will have exhibits describing how their products and services can enhance your scouting program and a Scout Shop trading post where you can pick up needed items. And finally, there will be a scouting museum where dedicated collectors will be displaying their extensive collections of scouting memorabilia. 

At the closing ceremony, we will be presenting the D. Andrew Grafton Exceptional Trainer Award.  This annual award, presented by the NCAC Leadership Training Committee, recognizes a single NCAC Scouter for sustained, dedicated and highly skilled service to Scouting over the years by demonstrating a high commitment to quality adult leader training. 

The University of Scouting provides all the above, along with great fellowship with dedicated Scouters, making this a day to be remembered. 

Registration is expected to open on or about January 2, 2019. Your registration fee includes morning refreshments, lunch, an event patch, course materials, and a special recognitions.   

Whether you are new to Scouting or a veteran of many years, the University is a place where you can learn from experienced Scouters from all over the council; it truly provides something for everyone.

Hayfield High School is close to the Beltway, just south of Alexandria, VA. Doors open at 7:15 AM. The opening ceremony starts at 8:15 AM with the closing ceremony ending by 4:30. In 2018 over 900 Scouters were in attendance. Help us pass 1000 for 2019!

Remind Leaders to Complete YPT 2.0 Today

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Over the decades, the Boy Scouts of America has been a leader in developing training and policies designed to keep young people safe. Groundbreaking when they were developed, they soon became the standard used by other organizations for safeguarding youth. But when it comes to the safety of children, our goal is to continually improve. Sustained vigilance on youth protection is a central part of our culture.

Over the past two years, the BSA has worked with experts in the field of child abuse, child sexual abuse and maltreatment to develop new training and resources that will further strengthen our ability to protect youth. These changes include:

  • Fully updated and revised Youth Protection Training with the latest strategies for recognizing and preventing major forms of abuse.
  • Expanded youth protection content across all our communications channels will inform and engage our volunteers and parents.
  • Expanded ScoutsFirst Helpline to aid volunteers & families in addressing potentially dangerous situations.
  • The BSA also provides unlimited counseling and support for healing to anyone who has ever been abused in Scouting.
  • Youth protection training for youth members will be available in 2019.

In addition to updated training and resources, the BSA announced new policies to ensure compliance with mandatory training requirements. These policies have been in place in the NCAC for a number of years. These policies include:

  • As of January 1, 2018, no new leader can be registered without first completing youth protection training.
  • As of January 1, 2018, no council, regional or national leader will be allowed to renew their registration if they are not current on their youth protection training.
  • As of September 1, 2017, no unit may re-charter without all leaders being current on their youth protection training. Registrars no longer have the ability to approve charters without full compliance.

By October 1, 2018, all new and currently registered leaders will be required to complete the updated training. The enhanced and updated content will allow leaders and councils to comply with all current legal requirements. While this may be inconvenient for some, it reflects the BSA’s commitment to the safety of all youth.

For camps this summer across the BSA, adults accompanying units on activities who are present at the activity for 72 hours or more, must be registered and take Youth Protection Training. The 72 hours need not be consecutive. If your unit desires to set a stricter policy (e.g. ALL adults going to camp must be registered and have current YPT), that is certainly permitted.

To learn more, discover additional resources, or take the training now, please visit

www.Scouting.org/youthprotection.

Or stop by the Marriott Scout Service Center to use one of our training stations. Be on the lookout for additional live trainings this summer and fall.

Commissioner Service and Family Scouting

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Fellow commissioners, we have a unique opportunity to serve Scouting at a historic time of change!

I personally am thrilled that through Scouting we will be serving the whole family. Through visiting two of our council’s Vietnamese long-standing Family Scouting groups, I have seen a vision of the future, and it looks fantastic! At the Vietnamese Scouting groups, I saw boys, girls, and entire families (including grandparents) at a Scouting meeting where they shared fellowship, prepared young people to live by the Scout Oath and Law, and had separate but linked programs by age and gender where appropriate. I do not view family Scouting as accepting girls into Scouting – rather, I view it as serving the whole family.

The most recent issue of The Commissioner, the national newsletter for commissioners and professionals (http://bit.ly/2tUJ1VC), contains several excellent articles on commissioner service and Family Scouting.

While commissioners will continue to serve units and Scouters as we always have, we need to be ready to support growth in our movement. Specifically, this means:

Working closely with district membership teams to form sustainable new units based on the processes described in the Unit Performance Guide (http://bit.ly/2Nt5Zvm)

Working closely with district training teams and our roundtable commissioner staff to get our Scouters the training they need to succeed

Continuing our traditional role as “agents of change” by keeping up with the latest information available at www.Scouting.org/FamilyScouting and communicating that to our districts and units

Commissioners, as friends and mentors, will play a crucial role in family Scouting’s success. As the national newsletter notes, “If the trend holds true from what we have seen in the early adopter program, many of these new families will not have a background in Scouting, making the presence of the unit commissioners who will follow these units through their first two charter renewal cycles more important than ever.”

This is a time of change. We have the opportunity to make a real difference in Scouting by serving the whole family. We need to be ready and set to go!

National Youth Leadership Training (NYLT): Ready for a Challenge?

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NYLT is an exciting, action-packed program designed for youth to learn and practice the leadership skills that will help them succeed in Scouting and in life!

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?

Scouts who have completed their unit’s introduction to leadership course, have been practicing these skills, and are ready for the next level of training should attend NYLT once they meet all Eligibility Requirements.

NYLT ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS

  • Scouts must:
  • Complete their home Unit’s Introduction to Leadership Skills course*
  • Receive approval from your Scoutmaster or Unit leader
  • Be at least 14 years of age by course start date. We reserve limited space for 13-year-old participants on each course. All 13-year-old participants must contact the Course Director lbefore registering to see if slots still exist.
  • Earn First Class rank, if registered in a Troop
  • Have current BSA Health Form (Parts A, B, and C)
  • Be comfortable camping and cooking outdoors
  • Commit to attending the entire six-day course
  • * Introduction to Leadership Skills for Troops (ILST), Crews (ILSC), and Ships (ILSS) should be offered through a Scout’s home unit. Ask your Unit Leader how you can participate in this course.

WHAT NYLT IS (AND IS NOT)

NYLT is not like summer camp and is not designed for rank advancement or earning merit badges.  NYLT is an intense and challenging hands-on leadership training program.  It is essential that NYLT participants be physically, emotionally, and mentally prepared to handle the demands of this advanced training. In order to get the most benefit from this unique experience, participants must exhibit emotional maturity, a positive attitude, proficiency in basic camping and outdoor cooking, and have an ambition to serve in leadership roles.

For more information or to register for upcoming NYLT Training, please visit:
www.ncacbsa.org/nylt.

 

The Trainer’s EDGE

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The Fundamentals of Training/Trainer’s EDGE is for anyone interested in different training methods. It will equip you with ideas, techniques, and materials for improving presentations by enabling you to select approaches that will communicate your messages most successfully, and with PIZZAZZ!!

In Fundamentals of Training participants learn the tools of good training including characteristics of good trainers, how people learn and training methods. The Trainer’s EDGE emphasizes the importance of “experiential learning,” or learning by doing, as well as numerous other contemporary training strategies. These strategies can then be applied to a wide range of training programs.

WHAT DOES EDGE MEAN?

Explain how it is done – Tell them

Demonstrate the steps – Show them

Guide learners as they practice – Watch them do it

Enable them to succeed on their own – Use memory aids, practice it, they teach it

WHO SHOULD COME?

Anyone interested in improving their presentation skills should attend! This course is required for all trainers who train on the District and Council levels (including Wood Badge and NYLT staff).

The next course will take place on Saturday, August 25, 2018 from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm at Our Lady of Mercy Parish in Potomac, MD. The  cost is $15 (Continental Breakfast and Full Lunch Included along with Training Materials).

For more information or to register, please visit www.ncacbsa.org/trainersedge or contact Danielle Ballantine at (301) 335-6012 or dmballantine@gmail.com.

A Few Thoughts on Family Scouting

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National Capital Area Council holds a quarterly full-staff meeting where we gather to share the “30,000 foot view” of what’s happening within each respective department, share valuable interdepartmental information and initiatives, and enjoy a moment of fellowship with everyone together at that day’s lunch. In short, it’s a Scout meeting, right down to the prayer and thought of the day. At our most recent meeting, Senior Accountant and lifelong Scouter Joel Kahn offered the thought of the day. We asked him if it was okay to share it with the Council at large, and Joel, affably agreed.

Good Morning:

My thoughts on Family Scouting:

Everyone is either saying “embrace the future”, or “don’t mess with a good thing and make changes to the past”

I think we are doing both!

When a river or creek gets blocked, and the water stops flowing as it should, it will become stagnant.

The same goes for any great institution. If they stop accepting the continuing changes needed to stay a relevant and vibrant organization, they will become stagnant.

Scouting has always tried to be a leader in training young men to become better persons and teach leadership skills. Family Scouting is not changing this, it is expanding to officially include all members of the family.

To me, this is not new at all:

I grew up through my early life as a Cub Scout, with my Mother being the Den Mother, and my best friend and I were the kids that misbehaved the most. Every kid in the pack and troop had 2 working parents. One parent always tried to support the activities when the other was working. The parents would bring the cub’s siblings to the meeting, and keep them amused with activities of their own. This included younger brothers and sisters and the occasional older sister who could not be left alone at home yet. The Troop used to take us camping with them occasionally during the summer, and this is where I learned to appreciate nature, a love I still have today.

When I became a Boy Scout in Troop 755 at Temple Israel Synagogue in Silver Spring, the Scoutmaster seemed to know what each boy was capable of doing and what they needed to learn. He tried to take us camping at least once a month, even through the winter, when the weather allowed it. Some of the parents who were chaperoning us would bring a male sibling who was usually a cub Scout, and if it was a mother, sometimes the female sibling would come and stay in her tent. We never thought about this as right or wrong, it just always was.

When I was made Den Chief of our pack, it was the same then as when I was a cub Scout. The younger brothers and sisters of the cubs would come to the meetings and participate where they could.

While I did not learn a lot about the Scouting system-I never knew we were part of a district or the Council. I first learned about Camp Philmont when I was in my twenties and my cousin chopped the tip of his finger off with an ax while he was there. (After I started here, learned his Father had retired from a Scouting career as the Scout Executive of the Council in Reading PA). What I did learn was right from wrong, good ethics, good manners, and respect for our elders and for nature.

So, Family Scouting is not something new at all. It is just officially being recognized and incorporated into the leadership programs we have been providing for over a century.