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Dear Shipmates: Happy New Year!
We have had a great 2017. Both the Nation and Western Region have positive Sea Scout growth thanks to recruiting and starting new Sea Scout Ships. Please keep up the great consistent weekly activities for our Sea Scouts.
A friend who is a middle school principal in Washington gave me advice on how to promote Sea Scouts to high school students. He recommended that Ships check the school board section of the district website for policies and procedures on how youth non-profits can submit announcements for the school newsletters. For example, here are the policies for the Seattle School District that includes school newsletters and the procedures for non-profits. There is usually a fee and require district approval, so any announcement should be for a specific activity, such as a day of sailing, wooden boat building, kayaking, or similar activities that are adventure or STEM related.
This will vary by school district. If the policy cannot be found on the school or district website, have a parent contact the principal, and ask for their policy and procedures for submitting an announcement.
Sea Scout Ships are strongly encourage to incorporate submitting announcement to high schools as part of their 2018 membership plans. Start with a Google search for schools in your service area or visit https://high-schools.com for a directory of public and private schools nationwide. Considering that in Seattle there are over 21,000 high school students, or in San Diego over 74,000, this is an effort every Sea Scout Ship should try next year.
2017 has been very good to Sea Scouts, BSA. I wish all of our Sea Scout Ships a joyous New Years as we ring in 16 bells for 2018.
Joshua Gilliland
Western Region Sea Scout Commodore
National Sea Scout Support Committee |
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| | All Sea Scouts in California, which includes WR Areas 3, 4, and 6, should be aware that on January 1, 2018, California’s new mandatory boating safety education law goes into effect and will be phased in by age. The first age group to go into effect is 20 years old and younger. Effectively all Sea Scouts who operate any type of motorized vessel on California waterways (including powered sailboats/paddlecraft), will be required to pass an approved boating safety examination and carry a lifetime California Boater Card. For more information, please visit http://californiaboatercard.com. |
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| | Please join me in welcoming aboard Ship 1992 from San Pedro, chartered by the Los Angeles Maritime Institute. The new Ship held an open house on December 3, followed by a day of sailing on December 9. A special thank you to the Sea Scouts from the Mariners, Del Mar, and Islander who helped launch the new Ship.
Here are Sea Scout Membership numbers for the Nation and across the Western Region:
National 3,387 (+5.3%)
WR Region 1,100 (+4.7%)
WR Area 1 330 (+3.8%)
WR Area 2 57 (+9.6%)
WR Area 3 235 (-7.5%)
WR Area 4 401 (+16.9%)
WR Area 6 77 (-8.3%) |
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| Plotting A Course for Membership Growth in 2018 | |
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All Sea Scout Ships are encouraged to plan one recruiting event a quarter in 2018. This can be a pre-existing activity. This membership drive should include communicating these dates to your District Roundtable and Council for inclusion the Activities Guide and Council Calendar at the beginning of 2018.
Ideas for this member initiative can include anything from Nautical Merit Badge Midways for Merit Badges such as Kayaking, Canoeing, or Rowing; to Boy Scout Cruises where Troops are invited for a day of boating; to just a day of sailing. For example, if your Ship participates in “Opening Day” of boating season in your community, that can be one of your recruiting events.
I had the fortune to attend the Skipper and Mates Roundtable meeting for the Chief Seattle Council in November. New Council Commodore John Dellinger reviewed with volunteers that there are 60 Sea Scouts in the Council between the seven Sea Scout Ships. A Google search of the Seattle School District revealed there are 15 public high schools and nearly 12,000 potential Sea Scouts just in that school district. The Skippers and Mates set a goal of recruiting 25 new Sea Scouts in 2018 between the seven Ships, which could include starting new Sea Scout Ships.
All Council Commodores should work with their Ships in a similar manner. Identify the high schools in the geographic areas of your Ships and determine ways to promote Sea Scouts in those communities. This could include having parents announce opportunities on Nextdoor, flyers in public library teen centers, or places where students hang out, such as fast food restaurants or coffee shops near their high schools. Many of these places have community boards for flyers.
We have an extremely large number of potential Sea Scouts in our communities. Let’s make 2018 our year of community engagement for recruiting. |
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| JTE Guidebook for Sea Scout Ships | |
| | Journey to Excellence Guidebook for Sea Scout Ships is available for download on SeaScout.org.
The JTE Guidebook for Sea Scout Ships was prepared to assist to Sea Scout Ships to plan excellent annual Sea Scout programs. More material is available on the National Council JTE Resources webpage.
This guidebook was created with busy ship leadership in mind. It is intended to help the Ship key 3, the Committee Chair, the Skipper and the Chartered Organization Representative in using the Journey to Excellence (JTE) concept as a unit planning tool and year-round checklist of meaningful activities for Sea Scouts. The information in the guidebook should enable the Ship committee to conduct a ship planning session that prepares the ship for a very successful year of fun.
Thank you to Paul Helman, Past Council President-2011-12 from the Golden Empire Council in Sacramento, CA, and Member of the National Strategic Performance Committee for preparing this guidebook. |
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| National Flagship Application | |
| | The 2018-2019 National Flagship Application is available on SeaScout.org for download. All Sea Scout Ships in the Western Region are encouraged to apply. |
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| Sail Aboard the USCG Eagle | |
| | The Eagle Cruise Application is now available. Please see SeaScout.org for more information on this exciting opportunity for Sea Scouts. |
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| | The Long Beach Seabadge Course is March 3-5, 2018. Registration is live at http://www.longbeachbsa.org/training/seabadge
The Las Vegas Area Council Seabadge Course will be held at the Kimball Scout Reservation, in Mt. Potosi, Las Vegas, Nevada, on August 24-26, 2018. Registration is open at https://tinyurl.com/SeabadgeLasVegas |
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| | The National Sea Scout Committee wants every Sea Scout to have a Long Cruise. If you can host Sea Scouts this summer, please email National Sea Scout Committee Member Erik Kiesel at erickiesel.md.phd@gmail.com with the following information: Dates of your Long Cruise; Destinations; How many Sea Scouts and adults you can take; and Advancement opportunities while underway. |
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| Scuttlebutt: USS Indianapolis | |
| | The Stuff You Missed in History Class podcast has an excellent episode on the loss of the USS Indianapolis. Highly recommend this moving story from World War II and how the vessel was found this year. |
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