Weather Training Expired

@brantgurga I have confirmed with BSA safety that the grandfathering of Hazardous weather was only for the first 2 years. Everyone that needs it, needs to keep it current now by doing it every 2 years.

That sounds like what I’d be asking about if it’s implemented. Unfortunately I can’t find what you are talking about. The only place I see three colors is on the YPT graph where it distinguishes expired YPT from never taken. That YPT graph is green, red, or dark red to me, but I could understand the dark red being interpreted as blue. That graph is only looking at YPT though. All the reports are black text that I see.

I think I found what you are talking about. Online Training column of the Training report. Black Completed vs Green Completed vs Blue Completed. So while they aren’t reflecting this into Trained status which I’d argue they should be doing now based on your note that you’ve confirmed it was meant to be a grandfathering, it’s at least easy to find it and follow up with people without manually looking up training on individuals.

Looks like two situations. If they never took it, the Mandatory Training column is Blue. If they took it and it is expired, the Online Training column is blue.

I don’t think Richard would mind me quoting his email to me since it is pretty simple.

Dated May 3, 2020

“The training requires that you retake the course every two years to be current. No different than YP.

Want to call yourself positioned trained requires that you retake the training every two years.

Richard

Richard R. Bourlon, P.E., CSP | Team Leader, Environmental, Health and Safety
BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA”

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The Blue seems to mean incomplete by current requirements, not expirations. I have a Scoutmaster as an example who last took Weather Hazards over 2 years ago but after the 2018 change, but it shows Green in the Manadatory Training column for him. There are Committee Members that are blue because they took one of the current set of online training courses but were already trained. So maybe not as helpful as it first appeared. Your response from Richard is interesting though. He’s not Scouting U it doesn’t appear, but maybe Scouting U should be talking to him to get on the same page and then technology matching what that page is.

Yes, he is not scouting U, but head of BSA safety.

All I know about colors is we had an ASM who had been fully trained, but hadn’t had the weather training in more than two years. She took it and it turned from blue to green. So, like you said, for others, it might. It be as helpful.

BSA Health and Safety Alert:

https://www.scouting.org/health-and-safety/alerts/hazardous-weather-training/

Hazardous Weather Training

Effective April 30, 2018 new direct contact leaders must complete Hazardous Weather Training to be considered position trained. And here is one story about why this is so important.

Imagine as a leader with a group of excited Scouts you arrive at a council camp for a camporee on a rainy Friday afternoon. Saturday morning is filled with the sounds of Scouts participating in the scheduled activities, only to have the weather turn blustery with sustained winds of about 30 mph and gusts up to 48 mph. The trees of the heavily forested area start swaying madly back and forth.

As a leader, what would you do? Would you continue with the camporee or evacuate the camp?

This was exactly the situation experienced earlier this year at Pacific Harbors Council’s Klondike Derby held at Camp Thunderbird. According to the National Weather Service, sustained winds of about 30 mph with gusts up to 48 mph were recorded near the camp between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m. Saturday. It soon became apparent to leaders that conditions had become unsafe and, around midmorning, with input from the council representative and Camp Thunderbird’s ranger, leaders decided to evacuate the camp.

“We made sure that we followed the Boy Scout Guide to Safe Scouting and our hazardous weather training to ensure that all scouts and adults made it home safe,” said Barb Dyer, Klondike committee chairwoman. “It was the right decision to cancel Klondike. While it’s disappointing that the boys couldn’t have the fun-filled weekend that was planned, I’m eternally grateful that safety is first with the BSA.”

A good decision it was, as several large trees and branches dropped on or near Scout campsites during the storm. No injuries were reported, but it could have turned out differently. Rebecca Ledford, an adult leader with Troop 4100, shared a photo of her son’s tent, which had been impaled by a heavy fallen branch — right where his pillow was.

On Sunday morning the “all clear” was given for scouts and leaders to return to retrieve their belongings and break down their campsites.

This course is available around-the-clock in the BSA Learn Center by logging in to your account on My.Scouting.org.

Have Questions, here are a couple of FAQ’s.

Hazardous Weather FAQ’s
April 10, 2018
Q. Is this a membership requirement like Youth Protection training?
A. No. This is a direct contact leader positioned trained requirement effective April 30,
2018.
Q. Is this a new requirement?
A. No. Since 2008, at least one person on any tour or activity has been required to
have hazardous weather training. It is also a requirement for all camp staff as part of
the NCAP standards SQ-402.
Q. Why is Weather Hazard Training important?
A. Our program takes place in an outdoor classroom. This training discusses how to
manage risks from the weather to our Scouting family. There are several incident
reviews which are appropriate to share with leaders who may question why an
appreciation of the risks in our outdoor classroom are important. The most impactful:
Lightning, Heat and Hydration, Hypothermia.
Q. How can we remind our staff and volunteers about this requirement?
A. Various tools like safety moments, campout checklists, and the Sweet 16 of BSA
Safety reinforce this.
Q. If I am trained in my current position, will I be required to take Hazardous Weather
now to retain the trained designation?
A. No, if you are currently trained in your position you will not be required to take the
additional course now. We recommend if you have not taken the updated course
(SCO_800) that you do so to have the most current content.
Q. What happens to my previous credit for Hazardous Weather (WS81)?
A. Course code WS81 is being retired. To stay current, the new course (SCO_800) will
need to be taken after WS81 is two years old.
Q. At what point in my training do I need to take Hazardous Weather (SCO_800)?
A. The course is available for you to take at any time but is a required course to achieve
position trained status as a trained leader. It is recommended that you take the course
before an outdoor activity

This was not made clear when Hazardous Weather Training became required for anyone who was not trained. If the BSA intends all direct contact leaders to take HWT every 2 years, they should release a new document that explicitly states it.

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That is why I asked, it wasn’t clear. It also wasn’t clear why my ASM had blue text. It is just like all of the other “extra safety” classes - safe swim defense, climb on safely, safe swim defense.

It would be good for them to add it to the FAQ.

image

Still shows them as being trained. What is being asked for is a notification that they are no longer trained like with YPT. This is an issue that should have been thought about when they implemented it as a requirement and not years later. They should also reconsider their policy of it being an online only training. I have never understood the “importance” argument when they allow YPT to be in person or online.

Simple solution to all of it is to combine YPT and Weather hazards. They are the same expiration and are both equally important.

It does still show them as trained. Like I said above this is what some control systems call a “soft fail” vs “fault”. So, you get blue with a noted missing class.

It would be nice to have it clearly state you must re-up.

For us, I just asked my ASM to re-take it. She said sure and did so. It turned green. My OCD became calm and the world was safer since she was reminded about what to do in different weather scenarios.

For me as a district training chair I am looking at 23 units and trying to make sure everybody has their training current. It would be great if every unit would look at it and make sure their leaders are up to date, but that simply isn’t going to happen. For me YPT is easy. It gives me a pie graph that tells me what percentage isn’t trained and I click on it and start sending out emails. For weather hazard unless I run a report of every leader and isolate just the SCO800 training that isn’t completed I won’t know who has the training or not.

If it is a mandatory training, how then can they be trained?

@edavignon

“Anyone that was already position trained was not required to take Hazardous Weather Training to remain position trained. I have never seen any mention of these leaders needing to take Hazardous Weather Training two years after the announcement to remain trained.”

I believe if you check the trained leader report those who require SCO_800 or what ever it is called who show it as missing if >2 years and they will show in blue vs. green. That is how I found something was up and emailed Richard via the “ask a safety question” web form.

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I dont know of this resource. Can you provide some more information?

I believe he is referring to this page:

Got Questions? | Boy Scouts of America (scouting.org)

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That is complicated. Just make them do weather when they do YPT before they are done.

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I was checking out the new “Training Manager Quick Search” feature in my.scouting. I don’t know what permissions you need to have to use it, but it allows you to search members in your council, I think. Since I have a common name, it didn’t pull all of us in the country up, only two of us. Anyway, it clearly shows my weather training and when it expires. I pulled up a friends who took it way back when and shows that he was not grandfathered in.


Yes that will show individual members and their training. There are no current reports just for weather hazard training, which I think is what we need.

The training manager quick search is going to be different depending on the organizational level you are searching. For instance if I go into my troop training manager it only searches my troop, but if I go into the district one it searches the whole district.

This is a new feature that doesn’t require district access. So, it searched and pulled up people outside of my unit. I think this was just added in the last few weeks.