Updated Youth Protection Training Now Available

Posted on March 8, 2018 by Heather Mulvihill
UPDATED YOUTH PROTECTION TRAINING NOW AVAILABLE
Update Your Training by October 1, 2018
Over the decades, the Boy Scouts of America has been a leader in developing training and policies designed to keep young people safe. Over time, these policies have become standard with organizations across the nation. Now, the Boy Scouts of America is releasing fully updated training to further strengthen our ability to protect youth.

These changes include:

  • Updated Youth Protection Training, including insights from experts and survivors and the latest strategies for recognizing and preventing major forms of abuse. This is the designated Youth Protection Training for all adults. All volunteers must take the new training by October 1, 2018, no matter when they took the previous training.
  • An expanded ScoutsFirst Helpline to aid volunteers and families in addressing potentially dangerous situations.
  • Unlimited counseling and support for healing to anyone who has ever been abused in Scouting.
  • Youth Protection Training for youth members available in 2019.

In addition to updated training, we recently announced new policies to ensure compliance with mandatory training requirements, including:

  • As of January 1, 2018, no new leader can be registered without first completing youth protection training.
  • As of January 1, 2018, no council, regional, or national leader will be allowed to renew their registration if they are not current on their Youth Protection Training.
  • As of September 1, 2017, no unit may re-charter without all leaders being current on their Youth Protection Training. Registrars no longer have the ability to approve charters without full compliance.
  • Effective June 1, 2018, adults accompanying a Scouting unit who are present at the activity for 72 total hours or more must be registered as a leader, including completion of a criminal background check and Youth Protection Training. The 72 hours need not be consecutive.

With these changes, and many more outlined in the documents listed below, as well as the overview video, we will continue to build a safe environment for our youth.

As an advocate and champion for youth protection in Scouting movement, I encourage you to  watch the video, become familiar with the resource documents,  take the training and spread the word.

We realize the Oct 1 training deadline will be a challenge for some – but the safety of our children is too important to delay.

Thank you for your work in sharing the message of safety in Scouting. You make difference every day, in ways you may never know. Truly, Youth Protection Begins with You.

Sincerely,

Michael Johnson
Director, Youth Protection

Additional Resources:
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Longwood Merit Badge Day

Posted on March 7, 2018 by Heather Mulvihill

Longwood University and its Alpha Alpha Omicron Chapter of Alpha ​Phi Omega invites you to campus for Merit Badge Day 2018 on April 7. Please share this email/information with all interested Scouts/Scouters/Parents.

We’ll be offering 12 different badges this year: Automotive Maintenance, Citizenship in the Community, Communication, Emergency Preparedness, Environmental Science, First Aid, Geology, Golf, Public Speaking, Robotics, Soil & Water Conservation & Swimming

Attached is a flyer that lists the event schedule & all details about badge requirements/prerequisites.

The pre-registration site is  ready to go and LINKED HERE.
The event’s Facebook page is  LINKED HERE.

Please be sure to read all event details provided on the registration site &/or listed on the event’s Facebook page.

For questions, please feel free to contact myself and fellow event co-coordinator Stephanie Miller at this email address: apombd@gmail.com.

We look forward to seeing you on campus & thank you once again for your support!

Yours in Scouting,
Jeff Halliday
Venture Crew 6522
Alpha Phi Omega Chapter Co-Adviser
Merit Badge Day Co-Coordinator

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Camp Cards 2018

Posted on March 6, 2018 by Heather Mulvihill

Looking for a quick, risk-free fundraiser that is not labor intensive and easy to do?  Camp Cards will be here soon!  Each Camp Card is sold for $5.00 with 50% of the proceeds kept with the unit and 50% returned to Council.  Units can participate RISK FREE and unsold cards can be returned to Council without penalty.  Units DO NOT need to prepay for their initial round of Camp Cards, so this is a great way to raise funds for your summer camping programs!  A limited number of cards will be available for units to sell.  Sign up your Unit and reserve Camp Cards at www.hovc.org/campcards TODAY!

FLYER HERE

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BALOO Training

Posted on March 5, 2018 by Heather Mulvihill

Date:  Saturday, April 14, 2018 8:30 AM to Sunday, April 15, 2018, 12:00 Noon
Registration deadline:  April 2, 2018

Location: Powhatan State Park 
4616 Powhatan State Park Rd., Powhatan, VA 23139
Cost: $35 (meals included)
Contact: Tracey Portillo, tfportillo@gmail.com, 804.337.3083

Basic Adult Leader Outdoor Orientation is an overnight training event that introduces parents and leaders to the skills needed to plan and conduct pack outdoor activities, particularly Pack camping. THIS IS A NEW CURRICULUM— that covers all the required material for WEBELOS Leaders to take their den camping.

Prerequisites: Prior to taking the practical component, you must have completed the online component before attending the training weekend practical. Both components, the online and the practical, must be completed in order to fulfill the “BALOO Trained”status. In the event the online component is not completed prior to the practical, the trained status is withheld until both components are successfully completed. The online portion is available through the BSA LearnCenter. Log onto  my.scouting.org and select the BSA LearnCenter image on the right side of the home page.

Register here

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Spring and Early Summer Activities

Posted on March 2, 2018 by Heather Mulvihill

National Youth Leadership Training (Flyer for Details)

NYLT is a six-day course. Content is delivered in a troop and patrol outdoor setting with an emphasis on immediate application of learning in a fun environment. Interconnecting concepts and work processes are introduced early, built upon, and aided by the use of memory aids, which allows participants to understand and employ the leadership skills much faster.

Scout Night at the Diamond   (Flyer for details)                            

It’s one of the best nights in minor league baseball – Scout Night at the ballpark. Boy Scout Night with the Flying Squirrels is on Friday, May 11, 2018 at The Diamond. Take in a Squirrels game with your troop, join the pre-game scout parade, get a Flying Squirrels Scout Night 2018 patch and best of all, camp out on the field after the game!  Just $9 per person!       Flying Squirrels website

Venturing Officers Association   (Flyer for Details) 

Venturing Officers’ Associations (VOA) provide opportunities for adventure, leadership, personal growth, and service  (A-L-P-S). By doing so, they serve to model best practices in programming for local crews and to provide a program resource for Venturers and Advisors throughout the VOA’s area of operation. Please see the attached flyer above for details on HOVC’s VOA.

Posted in General News | Comments Off on Spring and Early Summer Activities

2018 District Pinewood Derby Results!

Posted on February 28, 2018 by Heather Mulvihill


Attention race fans!!! The District PWD was held 24 February, at Bethel Baptist Church. The Official racing results are hot off the press and are as follows:

Lion 1st place- C. Morris P876
Lion 2nd place- M. Nelson P1838
Lion 3rd place-  B. Gleason P1838
Tiger 1st place- C. Lively P876
Tiger 2nd place-  O. Loemis P1825
Tiger  3rd place- G. Ross P1811
Wolf  1st place- C. Young P1811
Wolf 2nd place- R. Stone P876
Wolf 3rd place- R. Haskin P1811
Bear  1st place- J. Ruppel-Lee P6296
Bear 2nd place- A. Kaleta P1838
Bear  3rd place- N. Rusher P893
WEBS  1st place – Z. Wood P1825
WEBS 2nd place-  C. Collins P861
WEBS 3rd place- D. Haskin P1811
AOL  1st place- C. Crayton P1879
AOL 2nd place- J. Leach P1838
AOL 3rd place- T. Williams P1838

Congratulations to all the winners and many thanks to all to parents, Boy Scouts, and District leaders who came out to help make this event a success. A special thank you to Bethel Baptist Church for once again allowing us to use their facilities and to volunteers from Virginia Commonwealth Bank.

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New Scoutbook/Advancement Page

Posted on January 29, 2018 by Heather Mulvihill

Leaders, Advancement chairs and Committee chairs, please check out or new district  subpage for information on and helps for using Scoutbook and linking it to National’s Advancement program Click: HERE

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Changes to Council Advancement Records

Posted on December 5, 2017 by Heather Mulvihill
Dear Huguenot Trail District Boy Scout Troops, Cub Scout Packs and Venture Crews,
 
The December Courier contained an important message from the Executive Board of the Heart of Virginia Council.  It was the article titled “Program Resolution November 2017.” PLEASE READ FULL ARTICLE HERE:   http://hovc.org/articles/2017/12/12099/.
 
“Effective January 1, 2018, every Heart of Virginia Council unit shall be required to only record advancement online through Internet Advancement. This requirement will bring the Heart of Virginia Council in-line with other councils in our area that have already eliminated paper advancement forms to bring Scout records up-to-date. When purchasing all rank badges, except for the rank of Eagle Scout, the Scout Shop will only accept printouts from Internet Advancement. The full resolution can be seen  here.”
 
This means, Cub Scout and Boy Scout rank badges, merit badges and Venturing awards cannot be purchased without presenting a printed Internet Advancement report at the time of purchase.  Per Phil Victor, Scoutbook reports indicating that the advancements have been synced to Scoutnet will be accepted.   (SEE ARTICLE BELOW THIS ONE ON HOW TO SYNC)

If the unit is doing this correctly, it will indicate so in the bottom left corner of the report.
As of January 1, 2018, the following will no longer be accepted by the Scout Shop:
1. Handwritten Advancement report.
2. A 3rd party Scouting reporting software report. Such as Troopmaster, Packmaster, Scout Trac, etc.
3. A software generated purchase order.
4. A list of rank badges and merit badges in a word document, handwritten on a piece of paper, etc.

If you are new to Internet Advancement, attempt to log-on and receive a message indicating your unit already has a password, this means that some time in the past the unit was using Internet Advancement to record advancements and merit badges.  You will need to contact the Council Registrar so she can reset the password and a new account, with a new processor password, can be created.
 
Please share this information with the individual who records advancements for your unit and the individual who purchases the advancements in the shop.  
Yours in Scouting,
Scott Bailey
———————
Scott Bailey
District Advancement Chairman
Huguenot Trail District
Heart of Virginia Council, BSA
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How to Synch your Scoutbook with ScoutNet

Posted on December 3, 2017 by Heather Mulvihill

For those using Scoutbook, did you know that you can SYNCH your unit’s advancement records with those BSA officially tracks in ScoutNet? If your unit previously had synched your Scoutbook account, by now you should have received a notification that the SYNCH feature has been restored. The “best” advantage from my perspective of synching your Scoutbook account is that you no longer have to use the legacy Internet Advancement application. But there are other advantages too… like being able to ‘synch’ the training of your leaders.

Enabling the SYNCH feature of your unit’s Scoutbook account requires you to take the action it will not happen by itself. ANY pack, troop or crew can do it. (Hang on shipmate…. Ships will be coming in early 2018.) Here are some ‘tricks’ that I learned synching a unit’s Scoutbook account that I pass along because they might help you – please share this liberally with the units you serve:
• You access the Unit Synch feature by scrolling down to the bottom of your unit’s Scoutbook homepage and clicking on the EDIT ‘UNIT’ button.
• Before you synch:
1. Make sure you have your unit’s ScoutNet password. You should be able to get this from your DE.
2. If you have more than one BSA membership ID, make sure that your My.Scouting active profile is the same as the one for the unit you are synching. (Mostly applies to those Scouters with registrations also at the area/regional/national level.)
3. If you have some youth in Scoutbook that have not yet gotten fully registered, go in and “Unapprove” them. You do this by going into the individual Scout’s record, clicking on their current MEMBERSHIP, ‘un-check’ the POSITION APPROVED box, and then click the UPDATE button. (This happened to me because I had turned in a Scout’s application the night before I tried to synch. You will need to do this for ALL youth you might be tracking in Scoutbook who have not yet officially registered.)
4. Check that all your registered youth and leaders have their BSA number entered into their PROFILE. You can download a full unit roster with member numbers using the My.Scouting Member Manager.
5. When you are ready to SYNCH your unit’s advancement, go the EDIT ‘UNIT’ button and proceed through each of the steps. The first time you synch your unit it may take a few minutes… especially if you have a large number of youth. Once synched, the Scoutbook and ScoutNet will keep each youth’s information in synch.
6. If you subsequently add new youth, after you have added their membership number you can indvidually add each Scout to your unit’s SYNCH function simply by opening the individual scout’s record and click on the “Click here to active” hyperlink found in the yellow bar right above the Scout’s Advancement summary box.
7. Updating your Leaders Scoutbook training requires you to go to the unit’s TRAINED LEADERS REPORT, scroll to the bottom and click the ScoutNET Unit Training Sych icon.
8. Whenever you add new Leaders (after you have added their membership number to their profile), or want to update the Training information repeat this process.
• Because there are multiple databases involved, give the process 24-28 hours to have the youth advancements sych fully within all of BSA’s systems.

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Family Scouting

Posted on December 1, 2017 by Heather Mulvihill

Serving the Whole Family

BSA’s mission is to prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices over their lifetimes by instilling in them the values of the Scout Oath and Scout Law. Our priority is to bring the benefits of Scouting to more youth while remaining true to our mission. We are excited to announce beginning in 2018, our  Cub Scouts program will be open to boys and girls. By welcoming both girls and boys into the program, even more youth will have access to the character development and values-based leadership that Scouting promises and be better prepared for future success.

Link Here to National’s Family Scouting Page for more Information

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