Suggest new category = Training

[DougWright]

Hi Y’all (and especially SUAC moderators),

I don’t know where to create this thread; there isn’t a category to discuss categories.

I think we need another category for folks to post training opportunities. It is tedious to visit council websites, trying to find training that matches my schedule. During Covid, training has been mostly virtual, but there is also value for in person training for folks willing to travel. I suggest the following:

New category = Training

Sub-categories of: (last 3 don’t allow posting)

• University of Scouting
• Woodbadge
• Powder Horn
• Kodiak Challenge
• BSA Conference Centers - see National Training Conferences
• Pow Wow - post under Cub Scout Program
• College of Commissioner Science - post under BSA Commissioners and see colleges

Most councils want their own scouters to take the training they offer.
With virtual courses, councils sometimes open up to out-of-council registrations only a few days before the registration deadline. Having a worldwide audience for that short time would allow the council to fill empty slots that would otherwise go unused.

Making an individual thread for all training opportunities does not work, as the thread would close if there is a gap of 7 days between postings.

[MarkKerwood]

This is a great idea!

[edavignon]

Who would keep these lists updated? Council staffs are typically overworked and I doubt would be receptive to having to keep another location of class information up to date.

[DougWright]

It would be a location for the volunteer that is coordinating a training to post a link for folks to check out. No council staff needed. Just a post that the event is happening, the date, virtual or in person location, and a link for more info.

Here are examples:

Virtual College of Commissioner Science National Capital Area Council starting 8-28-2020

This was posted two days before registration closed.

New Member Coordinator Virtual Impact Session

This post was four days before the event.

For both of these events the target audience is commissioners, so both were posted under the commissioner category. University of Scouting, Woodbadge, Powder Horn, and Kodiak Challege can draw from all programs, so none of our available categories are a good fit for one thread about a class. To reach the intended audience, a post would need to be duplicated across at least four categories (Cub Scout - Sea Scouts).

[MichaelMoegenburg]

This is something that we already do, although in two places.

Here are two links that are available: Upcoming Commissioner Colleges | Boy Scouts of America

[

Upcoming Commissioner Colleges | Boy Scouts of America

Date Council and City Information October 31, 2020 Greater Tampa Bay Area Council Tampa FL Time: Registration op…

](https://www.scouting.org/commissioners/training/colleges/)

National Level Training Events | Boy Scouts of America

[

National Level Training Events | Boy Scouts of America

The National Commissioner Service Team conducts several live national level training events each year. These eve…

](https://www.scouting.org/commissioners/training/national/)

| Doug Wright DougWright
November 12 |

• | - |

It would be a location for the volunteer that is coordinating a training to post a link for folks to check out. No council staff needed. Just a post that the event is happening, the date, virtual or in person location, and a link for more info.

Here are examples:

Virtual College of Commissioner Science National Capital Area Council starting 8-28-2020

This was posted two days before registration closed.

New Member Coordinator Virtual Impact Session

This post was four days before the event.

For both of these events the target audience is commissioners, so both were posted under the commissioner category. University of Scouting, Woodbadge, Powder Horn, and Kodiak Challege can draw from all programs, so none of our available categories are a good fit for one thread about a class. To reach the intended audience, a post would need to be duplicated across at least four categories (Cub Scout - Sea Scouts).

[DougWright]

I agree that posting about training targeting commissioners is available outside this forum (both examples need someone to maintain the site). And the category BSA Commissioners allows for posting a thread to advertise last minute openings to folks that follow that category. (However, a thread here does not require a designated moderator to maintain / edit the thread.)

However, for trainings that target participants across the range of BSA programs, there is no site to make one posting.

Commissioners have the BSA Commissioners category and a BSA webpage for their info.

Cub Scouters have the Cub Scout Program for posting a thread for a Pow Wow event.

Where should one post a thread about a University of Scouting? Not every council has one. I have to go out of council for this as we have not had one for four years.

Where should one post about a Wood Badge course? My council has theirs at the same time every year, which conflicts with my family schedule. I need to do this out of council.

Same with Powder Horn and Kodiak Challenge. We don’t have these trainings. If folks are doing these and want to open them up to out of council folks, where do they post?

I think the typical answer has been to use Facebook, but I think these forums could work much better than Facebook to reach scouters when there is a short window of opportunity.

[CharleyHamilton]

@DougWright

I think these forums could work much better than Facebook

More importantly, in my mind, using a separate membership service like Facebook requires everyone to have an additional membership, whereas BSA membership seems to generate a membership in discussions.scouting.org, which is largely maintained by BSA, unless I’ve misunderstood the process.

I don’t know that there would be a requirement imposed on districts/councils to post in the proposed category. Rather, it provides an additional venue in which to advertise. It might even be valuable for the volunteer staff to become more aware of these forums, since there is both a lot of helpful information here, as well as great opportunities for networking/developing scouting teams to accomplish goals.

[DougWright]

Here is an example of a post that doesn’t fit any of our current topics:

#trainingopportunity

Central Region Winter Outdoor Program Conferences

Due to the ongoing challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Central Region Outdoor Program Support Committee (CROPS) has made the difficult decision to offer virtual conferences in January 2021.

On Saturday, January 16 and Saturday, January 23, the CROPS team will be presenting virtual conferences using the Zoom platform.

We are still working on the details, but here are a few of the sessions we will be offering:

• Conservation and Sustainability for Councils
• Disaster Recovery at Camp
• COPE and Climbing training requirement changes
• NCAP update (including the Short-Term Camp program)
• BSA Distinguished Conservation Service Award (replaces the discontinued William T. Hornaday Awards program)
• More topics to come!

The CROPS Team is pleased to offer these conferences to all the regions and any interested Scouter at any level. More details will follow soon, including a complete list of sessions, registration information and Zoom web address.

For more information

[CharleyHamilton]

@DougWright, while I think that having a category would be preferable (e.g. permitting people to subscribe to the category to get notifications of new training), would it be possible to see how much usage such a category might get by using a hashtag?

For example, people can search for posts based on tags like “camping” and “faq”. What if posts with training opportunities were tagged with “# training” (remove the space to generate an actual tag)?

[DougWright]

I just did a search for # training = 23 results

1. My.Scouting tools, training = 11
2. Scoutbook, Using Scoutbook, training = 4
3. Scoutbook, New Scoutbook Feature Requests, training = 1
4. Cub Scout Program, training = 2
5. Scouts BSA Program, training = 4
6. Sea Scouts Program, training = 1

None of these 23 was for a training opportunity. I think the hashtag needs to be more than just # training. Maybe # trainingopportunity ?

[CharleyHamilton]

I certainly don’t have an objection to a more specific tag. I just grabbed “training” because it seemed intuitive that people could search for training opportunities by searching for “# training”. Your point, however, if a good one. Too high a SNR results in people ignoring the communications channel.