1939

Walt Disneys Sea Scouts

The 2nd Page is now for something Special that supports the Journey To Excellence at the Unit, District, or Council kevel, 1st one 

currently is, Sea Scout's 100th Anniversary, which has a rich History, where Baden Powell believed older Boys would enjoy the challenges of High Adventures on the Seas, which continues to be true, for older Girls too.
               

  Sr. ACC For Retention

             / Leaders Recognition

 From Tiger Cub to Eagle Scout 

         
                    From Cub Scouts To Eagle Scout

   Click on the underlined words to get above pictures in PDF



Click on underlined words, if not live, go to this Web Site’s Contact Page                           

 Journey To Excellence

  3Rs of Scouting  A  Formula for Success

  Recruiting     Recruit (Scouts & Leaders)                   

                        + Trained Leader

                        = Great Program

 Recognition     + Recognition

 Retention        = Retention(Scouts & Leaders)

    2012 On Line Training For Volunteer Scouters

3Rs Of Scouting A Formula For Success

The Above Training For All Volunteer Leaders, including YP, Fast Start, This is Scouting, Cub Specifics, Baloo, etc.

Click on underlined words, if not live, go to above Web Site’s Contact Page.

 Unit Leader Award of Merit 

          This Award now includes Cub Masters.

The Pack is on their own now, and their Spring Recruiting Campaign produced 22 new Tiger Cubs, and they have 8 new Leaders, took their YP and This is Scouting Training on line, an they asked for their Specifics Training at their October Leaders meeting. In MAC (Mid America Council) if a Unit has at least 8 Leaders needing Training, then it is brought to them. 

BSA's CSE, and President were interviewed while visiting Families of 4 Scouts who were killed, and many Scouts, who were injured in Hospitals, from the Tornado at Little Sioux Camp in Iowa. They had dropped every thing they were doing to make the trip to MAC's Camp, and visit our Scouts, and Families. Rob Mazzuca, and John Gottschalk received 100s of e-mails, from all over the World, asking how they could help. I myself received many e-mails from Scouters all around the Country, offering prayers,and other assistance too. John Gottschalk told us at our CCS in march, that 50 % of Families in USA, don;t know what the BSA offers, but that has changed since Little Sioux's tragedy.                          

I tried to teach my 4 children that, there are 2 ways to be a success; 1 is, help those around you, to be a success, then their success is automatic: the other is, do those things that others won't do. I have tried to live this, my whole live, and now, with this web site, I can help others, do the same. 

When I was selected as the 1st ACC for Retention, in 1993, I was asked to find out why Scouts leave Scouting. As a Commissioner since 1978, I realized the reason was because they didn't like the program offered, or there was no organized program. So, we 1st needed our DCs to find those Leaders that offered good programs, by finding Units that, had advancements on a regular basis. They then needed to find a way to recognize those Leaders, in a special way, because it had been proven over the years that, Recognitions, encourages Retention. We also learned that, those Leaders took advantage of all the training available to them, from basics, Roundtables, continuing education (University of scouting), and higher education, such as Wood Badge. Then, when their sons were finished with Scouting, after earning the Eagle Award, or turned 18, those Leaders could share their programs, on a larger basis, by becoming a UC.

This web site is designed for Commissioners, specifically interested in Retention in Scouting. However, I will share the successful use of the 3 Rs of Scouting, Recruitment, Retention, and Recognition. The title for this web page came from my thesis, for Omaha’s MAC’s (Mid America Council’s) CCS’s (College Of Commissioner Sciences’s) Doctorate. The thesis was from a 2 year daily log, written for the new Cub Pack #650, I started on October 2^nd, 2002, at my Parish, in Elkhorn Nebraska, while I was the 1^st CM, to be used at the planning meeting, every August. Even though it was about a new Scout Unit, it will work for, an established Unit, as well as one that might be in trouble, before the last result, cancelling a Charter.

This web page can also be used, for Commissioners to add a personal opinion, critiques, observations. The title of, my thesis, and this web site, “The Commissioner & The Unit”, was written in book form, so I will attempt to, turn it into a hand book, to be available to all Commissioners, or any other Scouter. Until then, I will attempt to share it chapter, by chapter, beginning with, the 1^st chapter, the Charter Organization.

Like you, in the 45 years that, I have been with the BSA, I have taken advantage of, every Training, available to me. As the PT (Pack Trainer), for the above Pack, I have encouraged the same for our Leaders, which we currently have 57 Scouts, and 27 Leaders. I have also been a Commissioner since 1978, and the ACC for Retention, since 1993. I have also been responsible for  4 recommendations that, were approved Nationally,  a Tiger Cub Graduation pin, for a Parent, the 4^th  requirement for the Wood Carving Merit Badge, and 2 uniform Devices for, the 1910 Society, and Founders Circle Endowments, to go on the James E West Fellow Square Knot. I have sent in a 5^th recommendation, when I received my Doctorate, for the CCS, which I received a Certificate, patch, and a Black Neckerchief, with a White Woggle, but not a Square Knot, for the highest Training Award, for Commissioners. I sent the proposal, to Keith Christopher, Director of District/Council Programs, who showed it to our National Commissioner, Don Belcher,  I Met at our last College, in March. Both liked it enough to, sent it to the National Volunteer Committee. This proves that the BSA Professionals at every level, listens to our Volunteers. I will make this new Proposal available per request, and I will try to include it, on this Web Site.

Special Note: 

Yours In Scouting

Joseph E Wherry I PhD

The Early History of Sea Scouting

1912 - 2012

The whole Story is on the Page next to the Home Page.

A Long History of Scouting:

The Scoutmaster 1956 

Click on Brown Underlined Words, for picture on pdf. 

My favorite Normon Rockwell's Picture is, The Scout Master 1956, done the same year I became a Cub Scout 

Below is my Cub Pack in 1956. I am the 2nd to the right, back row.

It Begins In Cub Scouts

Click above for on Brown Underlined Words, for picture in pdf.

Below is Troop 49 at Boys Town 1977.

Troop 49 1977 In Boys Town

Click above on Brown Underlined Words, for picture on pdf.

I stayed in Scouting through my 1^st year, in a Boy Scout Troop, before being put into Boys Town, where I joined Boy Scouts, and in 1965, I earned my Religious Award, continuing in Scouts, until I graduated in 1966. After 2 years, as a “River Rat”, in Vietnam, for the US Navy. After receiving a Honorable/Medical Discharge, at age 22, I became an SA (Assistant Scout Master), SM (Scout Master), and District “New Unit Organizer”, in the same Unit, and District, I was in, as a Foster Child, my late wife, and I, became Family Teachers, at Boys Town in 1976 -1977. While there, I reopened the Troop I was in, as a Scout, becoming it’s SM.

Below is my sons, myself, and Archbishop Sheehan, who presented us, our Scout's, and Leader's Religious Awards, between 1965, and 1993. 

Two Generations Receive Scouts And Leaders Religious Awards 

Click aboveon Brown Underlined Words, for picture in pdf.

After holding every position, on the DC’s (District Commissioner’s) Staff, and the District Committee, when my youngest son was old enough, to be a Tiger Cub, I created a Cub Pack, then a Troop, when his Webelos Den was ready to Cross Over. Then, when my 3 sons left Scouting, after my oldest became a Life Scout, I was chosen as the 1^st ACC for

A True Story of

“The 3Rs of Scouting”

“From Cub Scouts to Eagle Scout”

                                                                                                    By Joseph E. Wherry I, PhD

It began at Cub Pack #650 of St Patrick’s Parish in Elkhorn, Nebraska. The pack was chartered on October 2, 2002. Greg and Jodi Ernst brought their son, Zach, who was a Tiger Cub, from another unit. Greg and Jodi were not yet involved leaders. As the Pack’s Cubmaster, I asked Greg to be our Activity’s Chair, and he agreed. Soon afterward, his Army Reserve Unit was called up and he was on his way to Iraq. So, I asked his wife, Jodie, what I should do. She said to put his application through and that she would cover for him - and she did a fabulous job through the summer of 2003!

Greg came back in August 2003 and became my 2^nd Assistant Cubmaster in charge of operations. His main job was to run the monthly Pack meetings. I was grooming him to be my replacement, and his wife asked to be the Advancement Chair. She also became our Religious Award’s Chair after being trained by the Council’s Catholic Committee. Pack 650 averaged 16 Scouts per year who earned their Religious Awards.

There was a 2^nd family that was critical to our initial success – the Winglers: Jay, Carol and their son, Austen, a 1^st year Webelos Scout. The Winglers also transferred from another Unit and had no leadership experience. Jay became my 1^st Webelos Den Leader in the spring of 2003, and Carol became our Pack Trainer. Besides the usual training courses, they also went to the University of Scouting, and Jay and Greg went through Wood Badge. Jay ended up joining the Wood Badge Staff, as well as becoming a Roundtable Commissioner and teaching Webelos transition.  

Another family joined our Pack when Winglers did - Tim and Maria Karstroms and their three boys, Gabe a Bear Cub, Andrew a Tiger Cub, and Martin, who was still too young to register.

On October 3, 2010 Zach Ernst invited me to Troop #91’s Court of Honor for 12 new Eagle Scouts! Two of the Eagles being recognized were Zach Ernst and Gabe Karstrom – original members of Pack 650.

This is the true story on: *“The 3Rs of Scouting” used effectively in a *Formula. Besides Zach Ernst being recruited, his parents Greg and Jodi Ernst, are recruited as leaders, and are trained (Recruiting, the 1^st R). Then, Greg and Jodi go to Roundtables each month, and the University of Scouting each year, reaching tenure for each position they hold and earning Square Knots for each position - ‘District’s 5 Unit Leader Awards, Wood Badge Beads, the Scout and Leader Religious Awards, and the Arrow of Light. (Recognition, 2^nd R).  Then, on October 3, 2010 (exactly eight years later), Zach becomes an Eagle Scout (Retention, the 3^rd R), and Gabe Karstrom, after 7 years, becomes an Eagle Scout. I only showed two, from my Pack, out of the 12 new Eagle Scouts that night, which makes me believe Scouting is looking good for another 100 Years.

 "It's A Great Day For The "JourneyTo Excellence"

The goal of this  web site is to share  thoughts, opinions, tools, etc. which comes  from personal successes, over 45 years, for all who access this site. It is not just my ego trip. I wish to show how, a Special Needs Scouter,as I am, has helped others with Retent ion, which is a goal for everyone, so the best way to do this is, to use a specific Unit that has reached that goal, each year, since being  Chartered, in 2002. Anothergood example of this is on the Endowment page, where I began in 1982, where my late wife, and I set goals, which I have stayed on track with, since her passing in 1991.On the last Unit I created, and already mentioned, it was because I continued to go through all training available to me, and for all Leaders, in that Unit, to do the same, that gives us it's success. Those are the kind of things, we ask from those of you, who visit this site, to share your successes, that we will publish, on the appropriate Page, it relates to, for us, and others to learn from. What ever you want to share.

Thanks

Joe 1st

NEW: When adding new items, it will show at top of this Web Site

Allot has happened since starting this site: First, the Square Knot Proposal, was approved in May 2008. Requirements, to be approved, for it to go forward. Next, the Recruiting Tools on the Recruiting Page is now on my Council's (Mid America Council) at Omaha Web Site, which I have theirs on the MAC Page, and for all other Councils, is on my recruiting Page, which Central Region, has passed on to their Councils USScout/netcommish.com has created a link for this Site that, goes directly to my Thesis, and includes my E-Mail Address, and Web Site. New is the National Commissioners Service Organization has been created, and I have already gotten on their e-mail address, which Tim Acrea has already visited this Site, and he introduced my 3 Rs of Scouting to another Staff member in charge of Recruiting and Retention.