Scouting--September 1998


News briefs News briefs

The new Venturing program

The BSA has launched a new program for young men and women ages 14 through 20 called Venturing.

Organized into units called crews, Venturers will focus on one of five specialty areas: outdoor, sports, arts/hobbies, youth ministry, or Sea Scouting. (Sea Scouting units will be called ships, and the members, Sea Scouts.) Each specialty will include program activities based on these six experience areas: citizenship, leadership, fitness, social, outdoor, and service.

Venturing Venturers who accomplish specific advancement achievements can earn a variety of awards, including the Bronze Award, Gold Award, Silver Award, Ranger Award, and the Sea Scouting Quartermaster Award. In addition, the Venturing Leadership Award and Venturing Advisor Award of Merit provide recognition to youth and adults.

The Venturer uniform features a BSA Supply Division spruce green shirt. Charcoal gray casual pants and/or backpacking-style shorts are recommended, but crews may determine how to complete the uniform based on their activities.

The Venturing name was chosen because it is used by national Scout associations in many other countries for their programs for older teen-agers. Each BSA Venturing crew is an independent chartered unit with its own leadership and membership, and may be coed. (A Venturing crew should not be confused with a Venture patrol, which is a group of older boys within a Boy Scout troop.)

Members of Scouting's workplace-based Career Exploring program are now part of the BSA's Learning for Life subsidiary. Adding workplace-based Career Exploring programs enables Learning for Life to provide a complete career education package to meet the needs of schools and their students.

For more information on Venturing, contact your local council service center or the BSA Venturing Division, S211, 1325 W. Walnut Hill Ln., P.O. Box 152079, Irving TX 75015-2079.


New training emphasizes safety at unit level

Sandwich Principle

A new council health and safety course, for unit leaders and district and council staff, focuses on safety at the unit level. Emphasizing the fact that most serious injuries and fatal accidents in Scouting happen at that level, the 90-minute course is designed to

Safety begins with leadership The course features a new 10-minute video, "Scouting Safety...Begins With Leadership" (No. AV-09V025). The tape presents unit situations involving automobile travel, boating, and hiking, pointing out how strict adherence to BSA safety guidelines and practices can prevent tragedies in each case.

The training also includes a review of the "Guide to Safe Scouting" (BSA Supply No. 34416A), the contents of which include key BSA safety policies (each of which is also available as a separate document): "Sweet 16 of BSA Safety"(Bin No. 19-130), "Safe Swim Defense" (Supply No. 34370A), "Safety Afloat" (No. 34368A), "BSA Bike Safety" (Bin No. 19-101), and "Climb On Safely" (Supply No. 3206).

Other course content includes a review of standards found in "Tours and Expeditions" (No. 33737B) and the careful driving and vehicle maintenance practices needed to avoid entering motoring's "Risk Zone" (see Scouting magazine, May-June 1998, pages 10-11).

Participants completing the course receive/sign a Health and Safety Commitment Card. All leaders will be urged to repeat the training once a year.


American and Japanese Scouting begin international friendship program

BSA Chief Scout Executive Jere B. Ratcliffe and Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto kicked off a new Boy Scouts of Nippon and Boy Scouts of America Friendship Program at an event in Tokyo in March. The program consists of a series of five two-week visits to Japan by 30 different American Scouts and leaders.

The first group traveled to Japan in March and included Eagle Scouts from each BSA region. In addition to educational tours throughout the country, they joined Ratcliffe for the program's opening at "Fuji Scout Day." (Fuji Scouts in Japan are the equivalent of BSA Eagle Scouts.)

In August, Scouts and leaders from BSA councils with active Urban Emphasis programs visited, touring the country and participating in activities at Japan's national jamboree.

Other groups visiting Japan include special-needs Scouts in August 1999, Venturers in August 2000, and a yet-to-be-determined group in 2001.

The Atlanta Area Council is coordinating the Friendship Program. Participating councils are selected, based on prior involvement with international events, by the International Division and each group's corresponding BSA national division.

The program was created in response to a joint message by President Bill Clinton and Japanese Prime Min-ister Hashimoto at their 1996 meeting in Tokyo, calling for efforts to promote international understanding.


Maryland Scouter honored for dedicated service to youth with disabilities

Douglas S. Schwab, Cumberland, Md., is the 1998 recipient of the Woods Services Award. Presented by the BSA and the Woods Services and Residential Treatment Center, the award recognizes exceptional service and leadership in the field of Scouts with disabilities.

Schwab founded and has served as Scoutmaster of Cumberland's Troop 89 since 1977, counseling Scouts in the Disabilities Awareness merit badge and taking his troop to camp every summer. He was presented with the award at the BSA's national annual meeting in May in San Antonio, Tex.

Nominations for the 1999 Woods Services Award are due at the BSA national office by Dec. 31, 1998. The winner will be announced by May 1, 1999. For information or nomination forms, write to BSA Council Services Division, S212, 1325 W. Walnut Hill Ln., P.O. Box 152079, Irving, TX 75015-2079.


Scout honored for outstanding volunteerism

Richie Hiatt of Troop 222, Los Alamitos, Calif., is a national recipient of the 1998 Prudential Spirit of Community Award. The award recognizes 10 youth volunteers throughout the country for outstanding acts of community service.

Richie Hiatt
Richie Hiatt: helping
others at all times

Richie, 14, was recognized for his Eagle Scout service project that mobilized several Boy Scout and Girl Scout troops, his school, and other organizations to help plan a walkathon that collected nearly $15,000 for the Children's Cancer Center at the Long Beach Memorial Medical Center.

Selected from more than 11,000 nominees nationwide, Richie received a check for $5,000 and an engraved gold medallion, plus a crystal trophy for his school. And as one of 104 state winners, he also earned a trip to Washington, D.C., for the awards ceremony. Nine other state winners are also Scouts.

Prudential, in partnership with the National Association of Secondary School Principals, created the Spirit of Community Awards three years ago to encourage youth volunteerism.


Share your high adventure plans with Boys' Life magazine

Boys' Life magazine is looking for "Super Scout Outings" to feature in future issues. As far in advance as possible, send the itinerary of your unit's trip, along with the trip leader's name, address, and daytime phone number, to Boys' Life Super Scout Outings, S216, 1325 W. Walnut Hill Ln., P.O. Box 152079, Irving, TX 75015-2079.


Miscellany

There's still time to enter Scouting magazine's `Seeing America' essay contest

Tell us about an interesting location your Scout group visited this summer_or at any other time--and you could win as much as $300 worth of merchandise from the BSA Supply Division catalogue in Scouting magazine's "Seeing America" contest.

In 500 words or fewer (two typewritten pages, double-spaced), describe your visit to a memorable location with your Cub Scout or Webelos Scout den or pack, Boy Scout troop, or Venturing crew. It might have been as basic as a local doughnut shop, a roadside attraction discovered on a trip, a little-known historical site, or an offbeat museum.

Include things such as how the visit came about, staff response, how and why the Scouts benefited, attractions everyone enjoyed, and humorous or unusual incidents. (Items like photographs or pamphlets can be included but will not be a determining factor in judging.)

Rules for entering:

  • All persons submitting entries must be registered members of the Boy Scouts of America.
  • Entries must be typewritten, double-spaced. They will be judged on quality of writing and uniqueness and/or value of the experience being described.
  • Include your name, home address, daytime phone number, current position in Scouting, and the complete name and address of the facility visited, if available.
  • All entries become the property of Scouting magazine. No entries or accompanying materials will be returned. Winning entries will be published in our March-April 1999 issue.
  • Prizes are BSA Supply Division gift certificates: First, $300; Second, $200; Third, $100; Honorable Mention, $25.
  • Entries must be postmarked by Oct. 31, 1998. Send them to Seeing America Contest, Scouting Magazine, S204, P.O. Box 152079, Irving TX 75015-2079.

Scouting units worldwide use the Internet to talk about the environment

The BSA Camping and Conservation Service, Boy Scout Division, is requesting e-mail addresses of Boy Scout troops and Varsity Scout teams that would like to run an e-mail link with troops in other countries concerning environmental awareness and community service through conservation.

If your troop or team wishes to participate, send your e-mail address to BSA Camping and Conservation Service, S209, 1325 W. Walnut Hill Ln., P.O. Box 152079, Irving, TX 75015-2079.

Two books tell "The Way It Was"

Where the Fuzzy Marmots Grow Regular readers of Scouting magazine's "The Way It Was" column should also enjoy the following recent collections of Scouting memories: Where the Fuzzy Marmots Grow, by James D. Braman (Good Scout Publishers, Mill Creek, Wash.; the book is also available from the current BSA Supply Division catalogue, No. 3520).

As its subtitle, "The Rollicking Adventures of Historic Troop 511," suggests, this account of Scouting in Bremerton, Wash., during the late 1930s and the early 1940s is filled with entertaining accounts of high jinks, mishaps, and fun times.

52 Years of Adventure But the author does not neglect to also pay tribute to the character-building impact that Scouting had on the members of Troop 511. He describes, for example, the scene when 27 former Scouts came together for a reunion in 1995.

"Each person had memories of the 511 experience etched in his mind," Braman writes. "They all credited this experience with playing a major role in building discipline, in goal-setting, in setting a framework of good citizenship."

52 Years of Adventure (written and published by J. Hurley Hagood, 5100 Wyaconda, Hannibal, MO 63401).

Hagood's incredible memory recalls many details of his five decades in Scouting, which began during a Tom Sawyer-like childhood in Hannibal, Mo., when he joined his first Scout troop in 1925. Later in his life, he became a professional Scouter with the Boy Scouts of America, serving as a council and regional Scout executive.

New pack award for trained leadership

The new Training 2000 Award recognizes Cub Scout packs for their efforts to deliver a quality program by making sure all Cub Scouts and Webelos Scouts have trained den leaders.

Packs will receive a special "Training 2000" streamer for the pack flag if every den leader has completed basic training as of Dec. 31. (In situations involving a change of den leaders, the leader who spent the majority of the year in the position may be counted.)

Special certificates will be awarded to the district Cub Scout training chairman, district training chairman, and career staff of each district in which at least 50 percent of Cub Scout and Webelos den leaders have completed basic training for their position as of Dec. 31. Councils also will be recognized.

The award will continue in 1999 and 2000. Application forms will be made available for packs to complete in January 1999.

Helpful resources on the Web

  • The kidsDoctor Web site (http://www.kidsdoctor.com) has information on everything from baby's hiccups to poison ivy, with tips on how to identify, prevent, and treat most common ailments. You can search for an illness or browse through the page's content list.
  • The Web site of the Steel Recycling Institute and The Steel Alliance (http://www.recycle-steel.org) will search for the closest location in your area for recycling steel cans, appliances, automobiles, construction materials, and other types of steel scrap. The information is also available toll-free via telephone at (800) 937-1226.

American Legion Names Its Eagle Scout of the Year

Mark Sukraw

Mark Sukraw, 17, of Troop 13, Bennington, Neb., is the 1998 American Legion Eagle Scout of the Year. The high school senior was recognized for citizenship in church, school, and Scouting. His award includes an $8,000 college scholarship.

The American Legion also awarded $2,000 scholarships to Eagle Scouts David Ellison, Springfield, Va.; Curtis R. Mullins Jr., Grundy, Va.; and Jason E. Donald, Merritt Island, Fla.

The American Legion has supported Scouting since its first national convention in 1919. More than 2,400 Scouting units are chartered to Legion posts across the country.

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Copyright © 1998 by the Boy Scouts of America. All rights thereunder reserved; anything appearing in Scouting magazine or on its Web site may not be reprinted either wholly or in part without written permission. Because of freedom given authors, opinions may not reflect official concurrence.

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