Sea Scouts Relation to Venturing

RE: Clarification on recent changes in BSA Organization

There has been a lot of confusion and misinformation about the recent changes with our national Boy Scouts of America organization. This memo is designed to clear up many of those concerns as we move ahead to better serve the needs of our youth members, especially through Sea Scouts, BSA.

The recent reorganization of the Boy Scouts of America has the oversight for Sea Scouts, BSA under the direction of the National Events Department, reporting directly to the Outdoor Adventures Group. Keith Christopher, department manager for National Events, oversees all operations and support of Sea Scouts, BSA. The National Sea Scouts, BSA Committee is a support committee and reports directly to the vice president of the Outdoor Adventures Standing Committee.

The Sea Scouts, BSA Committee does the following to support the Sea Scout program: 1) Provides quality program support, 2) Develops support materials and awards, 3) Supports leader and youth training, 4) Promotes growth in membership and ships, 5) Maintains relationships with outside organizations, and 6) Provides coordination and support for the Koch Cup.

The Sea Scouts, BSA program works closely with the new Council Solutions Group to ensure there is cooperation between Sea Scouts, BSA and the Program Impact, Membership Impact, and Finance Impact departments of Council Solutions. This collaboration with the other BSA departments will ensure that information on Sea Scouts, BSA is published in the Venturing literature and that information on Venturing is shared in Sea Scout literature. This allows our teenage youth members to know of their options to become involved.

Sea Scout members and all Ships continue to be registered as a part of Venturing (traditional) membership and units. Sea Scout Ships, as well as youth and adult members, still follow the standards of membership. Any awards, recognitions, and advancements a Sea Scout was eligible to earn prior to the change in organization are still available to them at this time. There could be changes made in the future, but none are planned at the present time. As any potential changes are reviewed, an adequate grace period will be shared with councils and with the field to allow ample time for implementation before they become a part of the program. For the moment, we stand with the statements, "steady as she goes" and "stay the course!"

Our mission of Sea Scouts, BSA is: "To develop, enhance, and expand the Sea Scouts, BSA program in a manner that emphasizes the purposes and achieves the objectives of the Boy Scouts of America, working to help local councils improve their membership and programs."

This is the official site of the Des Plaines Valley Council, Boy Scouts of America

This page was last modified on Wednesday, December 23, 2009 @ 10:01pm