Spring 2011 The Training Times Spring 2011 Issue 3, Vol. 1

Register Now To Secure Your Place At Philmont Training Center Registration for the Philmont Training Center is live. Register here: http://reservations.scouting.org/profile/form/index.cfm?PKFormID=0x21718243b.

There is still room in many of the conferences that will be held this summer at the National Volunteer Training Center of the BSA—the Philmont Training Center! Don’t miss out on an opportunity to share a great training adventure with Scouters from all over the BSA, and with your entire family! You can get more information about PTC at www.philmonttrainingcenter.org

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We are also working on the 2012 schedule of conferences, and we plan to announce them soon so you can make plans for next summer. By the way, did you know there are conferences at PTC in the fall? While the summer is great at Philmont, there are things that make the fall a wonderful time to visit Scouting paradise. As one Scouter said: “The leaves are turning, the elk are bugling, and the evenings are cool.” Take a look at the PTC website for a list of fall conferences. Making Your Training Records Stick In April, the Volunteer Training Team conducted a series of webinars to help local councils with training records in ScoutNET and MyBSA. Over 500 folks participated! Our goal was to help local councils navigate some of the challenges we face entering training data and getting the reports we need. We learned, as many of the top training councils have learned, that it IS possible! Most of the challenges are related to proper dates and codes. If you missed the webinar, the slides and supporting documents can be found in the “Quicklinks” section of this page. “Name That Code” Can you match the training with the proper code? Cubmaster Specifics This Is Scouting Youth Protection Introduction to Outdoor Leader Skills Troop Committee Challenge

Y01 S10 S11 WA01 C40

Answers are at the end of this issue. CubCast and Scoutcast Have you listened to the CubCast or Scoutcast lately? Each month they share ideas and news about Cub Scouting and Boy Scouting. They are available as a downloadable podcast, and you can subscribe via an RSS feed so you never miss one. Check it out and spread the word. www.scouting.org/scoutcast Outdoor Skills Training A new Introduction to Outdoor Leadership Skills was announced a couple of months ago. It was designed to be a course that covered outdoor program from Cub Scouting to Venturing. We want to let you know we have backed off on the combined course, at least for now. We are now working with Outdoor Adventures to use their subject matter experts to study the issues and design a course (or courses) that best meets the needs of the leaders of the various programs. We are reluctant to announce a time frame for anything new until we get a little further along. So for now, stick with existing training and watch for updates here. Our Name Since the reorganization of the BSA a couple of years ago, the team and committee responsible for unit leader and advanced leadership training have been called “Volunteer Development.” While that is what we do, and it makes sense, it is confusing to many in and out of Scouting. To many, “development” is fund-raising, and to others, “volunteer development” is recruiting. So we are in the middle of a transition to change our name to “Volunteer Training.” We hope that will help folks find us, and understand us, better. Training Recertification Keeping Scouts safe and keeping Scouting leaders up to date with current information and methods means some of the BSA's training courses need to be retaken every couple of years. We all know about Youth Protection training and National Camping School, but there are some others—including some that have recently been added to the list. Below is a list of these courses and how often they should be retaken to be valid: Youth Protection—every two years National Camping School—good for five camping seasons Safe Swim Defense—every two years Paddle Craft Safety—every three years Aquatics Supervision/Swimming and Water Rescue—every three years BSA Lifeguard—every three years Visitation training—every two years Lead Climbing Instructor—every five years Climbing Instructor—every two years

COPE/Climbing Inspector—every two years Safety Afloat—every two years Chain Saw Safety—every two years Trainer’s EDGE—every three years Hazardous Weather—every two years Physical Wellness—every two years Climb On Safely—every two years Trek Safely—every two years As other courses are introduced, or as our committees determine that courses have an “expiration date,” we will post them here—so keep watching! By the way, the Volunteer Training Committee encourages you to take the most current training courses for your Scouting position even if there is no expiration, or even if you are considered “trained” as a result of taking an older course. It is always better for our Scouts when their leaders stay up to date! Required Training Emphasis You may be aware that there has been a test emphasis in many councils to make training required for all direct-contact unit leaders. Nineteen councils have been in a formal test, and around 80 overall have some version of the requirement. While there has been great success in most councils, because of some of the challenges with training reporting and data entry in ScoutNET, we have extended the test while those issues are being addressed. That does NOT mean that if your council has a trained leader requirement the requirement changes! It only means the national requirement is still under review to make sure it will work. Councils can continue to require training. This also does not apply to Youth Protection training. That is still required. Facebook Volunteer Training is now on Facebook! Look for BSA Volunteer Training Team, or take the direct link to www.facebook.com/BSAtrainingteam . Regional NAYLE and PLC We wanted to share the exciting news about the first-ever regional pilots of the National Advanced Youth Leadership Experience. NAYLE, as it is typically called, is the next step in youth leader development and begins where NYLT (National Youth Leader Training) leaves off. Up to now, NAYLE has been offered only at Philmont. The National Volunteer Training Committee, under the leadership of Committee Chair Dan Zaccara, recognized a need to offer opportunities outside of Philmont to affect the greatest number of youth, and so the 2011 Regional NAYLE Pilot was created. Four councils are participating in the pilot project. The course director for each pilot course has been selected and approved by the National Volunteer Development Committee, and leadership from the committee will provide support and oversight to each pilot location. We will evaluate the pilot programs to make recommendations for either continuing with the pilot project or beginning

the process to make the NAYLE content available for use in running a local council course with area approval. In addition to the four NAYLE pilots, the committee approved a special single-location pilot for our Philmont Leadership Challenge. PLC is the adult counterpart to NAYLE and has been offered at Philmont for four seasons. The Marin Council in San Rafael, Calif. (a regional NAYLE pilot host), will host the regional PLC pilot, which will take place alongside the council’s NAYLE course. Announcement fliers are attached for both the NAYLE and PLC programs. Course directors are finalizing staff selections and have already started promoting their pilot courses. Course registration is being handled by each host council, and all indications are the courses will fill up quickly. New Team Member We are pleased to share with you that a new team member will be joining the Volunteer Training Team on June 1! Peter Self comes to the team from the Mount Baker Council in Everett, Wash., where he is a district director. He brings a wealth of experience as staff adviser to all of our advanced leadership courses, as well as being part of the Mount Baker team that created one of the best trained direct-contact leader records in the BSA. Welcome, Peter! “Name That Code” Answers Cubmaster Specifics—C40 This Is Scouting—WA01 Youth Protection—Y01 Introduction to Outdoor Leader Skills—S11 Troop Committee Challenge—S10 One Last Thought A great district training chair once said: “My job is to make sure every leader in my district is trained, not to run a few training courses!” As trainers, we owe it to our Scouts to make sure they have a trained leader.

The Training Times is a publication distributed in conjunction with the Volunteer Development Sub-committee of the Program Impact Support Committee of the Executive Board of the Boy Scouts of America. Publisher—Mark Griffin, Volunteer Development Team Leader Editor-in-Chief—Sara Parker-Lacobee Contributing Editors—Chuck Ezell, Christopher Smith, Ron Timmons, Mark Griffin Volunteer Development Subcommittee Contributors—Dan Zaccara, Committee Chair; Mary Stevens, Bob Sirhal, Susie Mahoney