Talk:Sea Scouting (Boy Scouts of America)

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Scouting Wiki Project Sea Scouting (Boy Scouts of America) is part of the Scouting WikiProject, an effort to build a comprehensive and detailed guide to Scouting and Guiding on the Wikipedia. This includes but is not limited to boy and girl organizations, WAGGGS and WOSM organizations as well as those not so affiliated, country and region-specific topics, and anything else related to Scouting. If you would like to participate, you can edit the article attached to this page, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.
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Notice Styles: This is an article about the Boy Scouts of America. In addition to standard style guides, the Language of Scouting is also used.

Contents

[edit] Changes

I made some corrections/updates on the uniforming section. Someone made some changes that I don't quite agree with. Will largely correct, they had some misinterpretations. --emb021

Sigh! Again, I had to made corrections/additions on the uniforming section! --emb021

I had to make a slight correction on the awards. Sea Scouts do NOT automatically get the higher Venturing Awards. Ordinary DOES get you Sea Scout Bronze, but Sea Scouts must STILL go on and earn Gold & Silver. Getting Able & QM will NOT automatically get you Gold or Silver. I see that someone had jammed in a new section on Ranks which pretty much replicated what was under advancement, so merged them. --emb021 Nov 9, 2006

[edit] Terminology Fixes

I had to make some fixes. Some anonymous person messed things up. Fleet is the term for the National level of Sea Scouts, NOT Region. Region is Flotilla, Area is Task Force. Don't believe me? Take a look at the old Flagship patches that say Flotilla with 3 stars and Fleet with 4. --Emb021 19:02, 23 May 2007 (UTC)

Was that you editing as 136.182.158.137? Those terms are also defined in the organization section. --Gadget850 ( Ed) 19:30, 23 May 2007 (UTC)
This would be a lot easier if we had images. --Gadget850 ( Ed) 20:17, 23 May 2007 (UTC)
Done. I did not find task force/flotilla insignia on the Sea Scout site[1] but I can easily edit the Fleet insignia to show three stars. I do need to tweak the images a bit to get the relative emblem sizes proper. I suspect the originals were scanned at different sizes.
The Language of Scouting does not show any of the Sea Scout terms, but following precedence, ship, squadron, task force and flotilla would be lower case unless referring to a specific unit; while Fleet is capitalized as it always refer to the National Council.
Question: Is the director position a professional like Scout executive? And commodore is equivalent to president?
According to Central Flotilla, there is a chief boatswain at each level.[2] I'm presuming this is a youth position? The isingia at the Se Scout site shows boatswain with one star- I would presume they would progress through four stars for Fleet chief boatswain.

--Gadget850 ( Ed) 01:55, 24 May 2007 (UTC)

The Language of Scouting has never shown the traditional Sea Scout terminology. The director is a professional. The commodore is committee chair (never president). Chief Boatswain ('chief' not always used) is the youth position. There can be squadron boatswain, flotilla boatswain and fleet boatswain. Too often the traditional terms aren't used and it council, region, national. Yes, these boatswain would use 2, 3, and four stars. I know, I've met several. --Emb021 19:41, 5 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Confusion

The first sentence of the article says:

Sea Scouts is a program within the Boy Scouts of America's Venturing Program. It is a nautical program for young men and women ages 14-20. [emphasis mine]

Since when does the BSA admit girls? Or is this a special coed program within the BSA? --Micahbrwn 07:46, 27 December 2005 (UTC)

Uh, where have you been??? The BSA has been admitted girls to the Explorer/Sea Explorer programs since 1971! When the Venturing program replaced the Explorer program in 1998, Venturing, along with Sea Scouts remainded co-ed. Emb021 17:03, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Merger

Someone had suggested that the Sea Scout (Boy Scouts of America) page be merged with the Sea Scout page.

  • Stupid. The Sea Scout page is for the more general world-wide Sea Scout program, which is different for each country. The Sea Scout (Boy Scouts of America) page is for the unique Sea Scout program that exists in the US. They should not be merged. NO MERGER is my vote. Emb021 17:05, 5 January 2006 (UTC)
  • Against This article is specific to BSA, while Sea Scout is WOSM general. --Gadget850 14:50, 13 January 2006 (UTC)
  • Against merger for the reasons given, but both articles need looking at to ensure that the one does only cover the BSA and the other does give full WOSM cover. I think this debate is over. Nobody on either talk page has agreed they should be merged. I think the merger templates should be removed. --Bduke 22:54, 22 January 2006 (UTC)

Given the time frame and comments, I'm am considering this a "don't merge" consensus, and am removing the tags. --Gadget850 ( Ed) 19:17, 23 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Re Org

As with the Venturing page, have re-org this page to bring it in-line with a proposed outline for all BSA division pages. I haven't made much new material, just moved stuff around. We need new stuff in the area of activities, training, etc. I'll put some basic stuff here hopefully, but others should pitch in. --Emb021 20:25, 3 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Cabin boy

I have a 1942 merit badge pamplet that illustrates a number of emblems on the back cover, including "cabin boy". Any clues what this was? --Gadget850 ( Ed) 23:01, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

Yes. From what I gather, this was some kind of special patch that those scouts under 14 could be made kind of 'junior Sea Scouts'. --emb021 Nov 9, 2006

[edit] Marlinspike?

What's a Marlinspike? : "A Scout who earns the first rank, Apprentice, shows basic knowledge of the water. S/he must have basic marlinspike seamenship skills and water knowledge." --AW 00:17, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

a marlinspike is a traditional tool used by sailors (the ones on big sailing ships). Usually a metal spike that is used to pry the strands of a rope apart to do rope work. 'marlinspike seamanship skills' is usually the term for these traditional old sailing ship skills- ropes, sails, etc. --Emb021 19:43, 5 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Local links

This article is on the national program. Local stuff belongs in the "by state" articles. I think we have a policy on this. --Gadget850 ( Ed) 13:15, 10 February 2007 (UTC)

I see the links crept back in. See the link in Law Enforcement Exploring for the proper way to deal with this using the Open Directory Project. --Gadget850 ( Ed) 03:33, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

I deleted the whole local links section and added a DMOZ link. Please add any units to the Open Directory- simply click on the link to follow. --Gadget850 ( Ed) 15:01, 29 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Rename suggestion

What is the reason for the suggested rename? Chris 03:56, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

Per the Language of Scouting:

Sea Scouting
Sea Scouts specialize in traditional nautical activities, i.e., sailing, boating, and maritime careers.

--Gadget850 ( Ed) 13:01, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

Oppose - this is an article on the Sea Scout section. Still, maybe a redirect would be in order from Sea Scouting (Boy Scouts of America)? Horus Kol Talk 14:04, 2 April 2007 (UTC) no longer oppose the proposal following discussions over naming conventions at Talk:Cub Scouting (Boy Scouts of America) -- Horus Kol Talk 13:53, 12 April 2007 (UTC)
confused this is the BSA article. --Gadget850 ( Ed) 14:28, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

Support Sea Scouts are boys & girls. Sea Scouting is what they do. This article is more about what they do (their program) than the scouts themselves. -NThurston 14:04, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Award questions

Trying to figure out this crazy Sea Scouting stuff:

No- Skipper's Key recipients receive the destinctive medal that was first designed in the late 30s and was reinstituted about 2000. --User:bjoh 1745, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

  • Quartermaster has a patch per BSA Supply? I have not seen this documented anywhere else.

--Gadget850 ( Ed) 20:02, 5 June 2007 (UTC)

The Skipper's Key was brought back in the last 2-3 years. Before they had to use the Scouter's Key for decades. QM has long had a patch, but for whatever reason, its only listed in the Insignia Guide. Most traditionalist seem to want to ignore it. Am not even sure its listed in the Sea Scout Manual. Go figure. --Emb021 15:29, 6 June 2007 (UTC)

OK- I had found the QM patch in the guide (left it here at work), but not the key. Guess I need to do some updates. --Gadget850 ( Ed) 16:01, 6 June 2007 (UTC)

Is there a Skipper's Award of Merit,? --Gadget850 ( Ed) 16:42, 6 June 2007 (UTC)
No. Skipper's would be eligable for the Advisor's Award of Merit, but that would be a little strange as the AAoM expects the advisor to promote the earning of Venturing Silver. I guess no one in the Sea Scouting world had thought of creating a set of requirements for a sort-of 'Skipper's Award of Merit'. --Emb021 27 August 2007 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 136.182.158.137 (talk) 14:41, August 27, 2007 (UTC)
Yes- that is a bit odd. The Boy Scouting Division has the Scoutmaster's Award of Merit and the Coach's Award of Merit, but Venturing only has the Advisor's Award of Merit and none for Skippers. --Gadget850 ( Ed) 14:50, 27 August 2007 (UTC)
BTW- I added Image:Skipper's Key.png. It is not a great scan- would you have a better image? --Gadget850 ( Ed) 15:15, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Merge Skipper (Boy Scouts of America)

Merge Skipper (Boy Scouts of America); all material in the article duplicates what is already here. Other than maintenance, it has really had no edits since January 2006, and it is linked from one article. --— Gadget850 (Ed) talk - 02:49, 6 February 2008 (UTC)

Support or oppose: