Welcome to the District!
Welcome to the Gila River District – we are excited you are here and motivated to help ensure we have a quality program for our youth!
I put this guide together to hopefully assist in the first steps to becoming a trained District Volunteer because:
“Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell ’em, ‘Certainly I can!‘ Then get busy and find out how to do it.”
– Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of these United States
The main thing I hope you remember is this is a people-driven organization – which means the main things that the district needs are people will to volunteer their time and energy – all the scouting stuff can be trained.
So – Do not worry about not knowing everything about scouting – the only thing you need to do is learn about the small part you will be doing. You can put aside your fear of the unknown – remember what is was like when you started volunteering in your unit? – you can learn as you go.
This is intro broken up into 3 sections and will hopefully help you on-board in the role you were approved for. The good news is most of these (outside of Youth Protection Training) are roughly 10-15 minutes in length. Welcome to the show!
Part 1: First things first
E-learning: Courses are available in the BSA e-Learning at: https://my.scouting.org/
A login is required, but anyone may create a user account and view the courses. Registered members of the BSA may provide their member numbers (as part of the user profile) to receive credit.
Here is the path: Login -> Home [Youth Protection Training Icon upper right corner} -> top of the page Training Center -> Boy Scouting -> (Top of the page) Training Center
Joining Course: This course is required for all new registered Volunteers and must be retaken every two years to maintain registration. Make sure to print the completed Certificate when done – we need a copy along with your completed volunteer form for the District Committee. Adult Volunteer form: https://filestore.scouting.org/filestore/pdf/524-501.pdf
Youth Protection Training (YPT)
The District Operations Manual – once YPTis done, this is the basic working doc: https://filestore.scouting.org/filestore/mission/pdf/34739.pdf – Page 5 of this operations handbook is a great starting place and you can read your role’s section.
Part 2: Scouting Overview and Context
E-learning: Courses are available in the BSA e-Learning at: https://my.scouting.org/
Orientation Courses: Orientation courses are designed to help Scouters learn more about their Scouting role and about how the BSA is organized – life outside of the Unit. The following are the best orientation courses:
- SCO_1000 Scouting Aims and Methods
- SCO_1002 BSA Organizational Structure Development
- SCO_268 Scouting Units
- SCO_740 District Structure
SCO_1012 District Committee Structure
Part 3: Position Specific Training
E-learning: Courses are available in the BSA e-Learning at: https://my.scouting.org/
Position-Specific (Role-Based) Courses: These are designed to help Scouters learn how to effectively carry out their Scouting roles. In most cases, completing the course will make a Scouter “trained” for the role(s) covered in the course. The course you take below is the one relevant for your role – generally, you are taking one of them.
- D61_District Committee Training Workshop – District Committee Member
- D61_District Committee Training Workshop – District Committee Vice-Chair
- SCO_ 269 The COR Position
- SCO_737 Roundtable Commissioner
The final Training: A Full Saturday and offered by council in May each year – College of District and Council Studies
Part 4: Extra Credit
E-learning: Courses are available in the BSA e-Learning at: https://my.scouting.org/
The following are great supplemental trainings if you are interested and would like a broad view:
- SCO_267 What is a Charter
- SCO_233 The Role of a Unit Commissioner
- SCO_1004 What is Cub Scouting
- SCO_1003 What is Boy Scouting
- SCO_1007 What is Venturing
- SCO_103 Crew Structure
- SCO_1006 What is Learning for Life
- SCO_738 The 6Ws of Roundtables
- SCO_757 The Roundtable Team
- SCO_442 The Role of the Unit Key 3 for Scouts BSA
- SCO_430 Advancement for Scouts BSA
- SCO_463 Pack Structure
- SCO_453 Pack Advancement
- SCO_462 Involving Adults in Cub Scouting