Potential event with the scouts

[Brown]

I just received a notice that the Hou Koda Fall district for the scouts is in need of rifle instructors and RSO's for their fall camporee.

I am gathering info now on what they need and what are the required qualifications for us to meet but try and keep this date in the back of your mind. Oct 18th. Yes I know this is the Atterbury weekend and we may be down on instructors already. The event is east of Terra Haute so we may be able to pull some people from IL to help us.

Alright will update here as I get more info . this is only serving as a potential heads up.

[TJ Kackowski]

Brett Thompson is the person to contact for more information.  The body of the e-mail I received about this event is listed below. 

In a nutshell, the BSA only recognizes NRA certified RSO's and Instructors.  There are few exceptions, but they do exist.  If you want to read more about the BSA shooting sports, follow this link ... http://www.scouting.org/Home/OutdoorProgram/ShootingSports.aspx

The Hou Koda Fall Camporee is scheduled to be at Camp Krietenstein ... 6445 East County Road 575 North, Center Point, IN 47840.  You can find more information about this camp and driving directions by following this link ... http://www.crossroadsbsa.org/Related/Facilities/Camp%20Krietenstein.aspx

BODY OF E-MAIL:

Our Camporee this year is a shooting sports Camporee and should be a "blast"! On Saturday October 18th we need volunteers to help with the shooting stations. If you are an Instructor for Rifle, Pistol, or an Range Safety Officer we need you. If you can help for part of the day please let me know. Thanks in advance for all you do for Scouts.

Brett Thompson
Director of Indiana Operations
3061 Salt Lake Road
Indianapolis, IN 46214
www.cellularoptimization.com
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317-417-4287 Cell
317-550-2234 Office
317-522-1655 Fax

[Brown]

Been exchanging emails with Brett yesterday. plan to talk with him by phone today. If they stick with the NRA certification they may be up a creek. guess it depends on how desperate they are for bodies.

[eaglescouter]

Been exchanging emails with Brett yesterday. plan to talk with him by phone today. If they stick with the NRA certification they may be up a creek. guess it depends on how desperate they are for bodies.

They do not have a choice.

BSA National Policy requires an NRA RSO and an NRA Rifle Instructor (who cannot be the same person) on every rifle line. 

[Big John]

I've done my share of Boy Scouting (eagle, camp staff
for years, etc) and one particular summer I was an unofficial range master to help
out my cabin mate who was range master and director of all shooting sports
at LaNoChe Scout Reservation (I mainly did aquatics myself).

The NRA was never involved in any of that.

However, I just perused the BSA website and found this:

General

Q: Why do we have different standards of leadership required for year-round shooting and resident camp shooting?
A: This is a result of the BSA managing known risks for the safety of our volunteers and Scouts. The resident camp is a more controlled and structured environment with an additional week of training for the shooting sports staff under the leadership of a National Camping School certified director. Shooting on the weekends is managed using the leadership of NRA certified instructors and range safety officers (where each of these individuals has a specific duty to either instruct or run the range). Given the short-term nature of the event, additional training is not possible, so two-deep leadership is required to conduct the program. 

So it seems for ad-hoc things they delegate the quality control to NRA certification as the standard, but not
the summer camps, and I do recall staff week prior to summer camp season, so that is true on the camp staff training.

Sounds like they need to get on the horn and get a national policy waiver. I'd be happy to show up, that camp was
my old man's camp back in the 50s.

I hope they're running something better than the single shot bolt 22 shorts I recall. 

[Brown]

Waiting on a return call from Brett to see where they stand on the NRA Certification requirement. Maybe they already have a certified instructor and they just need warm bodies to fill the need.

Just in case anyone is wondering from the start this will not be a Appleseed event. this will just be a bunch of people that happen to communicate through this website getting together and doing good things. No Appleseed affiliation . nothing of that sort has been mentioned to the scouts. Still sorting things out and  determining their needs.

[jmdavis]

I have done 3 Appleseeds with Scouts (2 with Explorers from NC, and one with a group from Alexandria, VA) and also told the history for 2 groups from Raleigh and Durham along with other instructors at an IBC back in 2009. Each of these was done as an AS rather than a BSA event.

With their specific needs, NRA instructor status and its COF may make sense. The merit badge program is specifically based on the First Steps Lesson Plan.

[Charles McKinley]

The adventures were either there as a group of individuals or they violated the no silhouette mandate that BSA has.

[eaglescouter]

The adventures were either there as a group of individuals or they violated the no silhouette mandate that BSA has.

Venturers

[jmdavis]

Explorers. They were there with their sponsor and leader who began scouting in 1940. Sadly he passed away last year. It was an Appleseed event, not a BSA event. The COF was total Appleseed, there were some photos from it that were used in an AS brochure I believe.

The other Scouts were there as a unit and had a couple of kids shoot for their rifle badge. From my observation of the 50 foot shooting in that event, it appears that the current badge has been watered down. Since no one complained about shooting "bell shaped" targets, the arguement is that they were not recognizable silhouettes. A C target is recognizable as a standing man. And while I have heard some Appleseeders claim that the D-target is the head and shoulders of a standing man, they are wrong. The D is a man in the prone position. Or as I refer to them a "bell shaped target."

[Charles McKinley]

The local person in charge of shooting sports knows that they are a man in prone and has said "No."  He is also the person I have taken my NRA instructor training from.

[jmdavis]

Well there you have it. I can only tell you what I have done with the scouts in the past. Personally, I think that you are better off shooting round targets anyway. But we used what we had and no one had any issues with the shapes.

If you have NRA Rifle then you would be fully capable of running a modified First Steps course using the BSA COF. We do this at my club 3 or 4 times a year.