Policies

Troop and Web Policies

Mission statement

It is the mission statement of Troop 61, Congregation Beth Shalom and the Boy Scouts of America, to serve others by helping to instill values in young people to prepare them to make ethical choices over their lifetime in achieving their full potential.

Expectations for conduct

BSA Troop 61 expects all scouts and adults to conduct themselves in all scout activities according to the ideals of Boy Scouting that are spelled out in the Scout Oath, the Scout Law, the Scout Motto and the Scout Slogan. We expect all scouts and adults to measure their conduct against these ideals to create and sustain a physically safe, positive, emotionally fit, learning environment.

Specific Reminders and Major considerations for Conduct:

1) Drug, Alcohol, and Tobacco use and Abuse:

Troop 61 and the BSA prohibits the use of alcoholic beverages and controlled substances at any troop activity. The Troop and BSA prohibits the use of tobacco by scouts and supports the attitude that adult leaders should discourage tobacco use by adults involved in youth activities.

2) Guns and Firearms:

Firearms (including airguns and BB guns) shall not be brought on camping, hiking, backpacking, or other Troop 61 Scouting activities. Troop 61 agrees with the BSA longstanding policy of teaching scouts the safe, responsible, intelligent handling, care and use of firearms in planned, carefully managed, and supervised programs by certified BSA or national Rife Association firearms instructors only.

3) Youth Protection and Child Abuse:

Troop 61 strongly supports the BSA Youth Protection Program developed to safeguard both our youth and adult members. The Troop encourages continual education and awareness training provided by the BSA designed to avoid, identify and deal with child abuse. All persons in Troop 61 responsible for youth safety must understand and appreciate Scouting?s position of no tolerance for child abuse or victimization in any form. Unit leaders should reports any suspected abuse to the local council Scout executive.

4) Hazing and Initiations:

Troop 61 and the BSA prohibits all forms of hazing, initiations, ridicule, or inappropriate teasing. These practices should not be allowed or tolerated by scouts or adult leadership. Violations should be reported to the scoutmaster or adult leadership immediately.

5) Adult Leadership:

All adults (18 years or older) who participate in scouting activities must be properly registered with the BSA. All adult leaders must me trained in the BSA Youth Protection Program and the troop strongly encourages all adults in leadership roles to complete Boy Scout Leader Basic Training. The troop required Two-deep Adult Leadership during all scouting activities. All those responsible for youth safety must understand and appreciate Scouting?s position of no tolerance for child abuse or victimization in any form. Unit leaders should report any suspected abuse to the local council Scout executive.

Additional information and specific guidance on safe scouting issues is available in the "Guide to Safe Scouting"(1999). This guide is available from the Troop 61 Committee Chairman, the scout office or online at www.bsa.scouting. We encourage all adults and scouts to review this guidance.

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TROOP 61 World Wide Web Policy

Troop 61 is putting together a policy for the appropriate and safe display of information relating to the Troop, its members and scouters. Please direct your comments to the Scoutmaster or the web site manager.

* The web site exists to publicize the Troop and the Scouting Movement to potential members and sponsors, to provide a convenient source of information to troop members and others, and to provide recognition of the achievements of current and past members, scouters and sponsors.

* The web site always supports the goals of Scouting. Especially, it upholds the twelve points of the Scout Law in all of the information provided.

* The web site protects the privacy of the individual scouts within the Troop. Only the first name and initial of last name may be used to identify a scout. Adult scouters may be identified with their full name, if they have given verbal permission. Due to the degree of honor conferred by the rank, the full name of Eagle Scout award recipients under the age of 18 may be used on pages dealing with such awards, if their parent's permission has been obtained. Addresses or telephone numbers are not published on the web site, except for persons who act as official contact points for the Troop, such as the Scoutmaster.

* The web pages will function properly with the commonly available web browser software or will be corrected or removed promptly. Information that is outdated or inaccurate will also be corrected or removed promptly.

* Scouts are encouraged to develop articles and submit pictures for publication on the web site. An adult web site manager will review the submissions to ensure they uphold the policies of the Troop. All submissions give credit to the scout or scouter who provided them.

* No copyrighted material may appear on the web site, unless formal written approval by the copyright owner has been obtained prior to publication, and a note or link referring to the copyright holder is provided.

* Links to other site's pages will be made only with the approval of the other page's web master. A provisional link to another page may be placed on the active site while awaiting such approval.

* No advertising for commercial concerns will appear on the web pages, including references to obtaining commercial software. If shareware or freeware is used in maintaining the web pages, which requires a link or reference to their page, such a reference may be made, if the link is kept to a tasteful size and image. Donations made by private or commercial organizations may be acknowledged (and indeed, SHOULD be recognized) in these pages, but the reference should not outweigh mention of the Scouts who benefited from such contributions.

* The web site is designed to maximize the useful content of information to our Scouts, Scouters, and visitors. Use of flashy graphics, slow-loading animations or other devices, which deliver little or no information useful to Scouting, will be minimized, so as to keep the time to display each page to the minimum.

Web Site Purpose

We've decided to publish a web page for a variety of reasons including:

* Keeping our Scouts and Scouting families informed. The Internet provides the quickest way to communicate schedule changes, and late breaking news

* Sharing our adventures with family, friends, and other interested parties.

* Letting the community know about our Troop, its activities and objectives. We believe that Scouting offers something for our community's youth and gives back to the community through service projects. Most of the community isn't aware of this and we hope to add yet another way of communicating this through the Internet. Hey, we may even get lucky and recruit some new Scouts to our Troop!

Funding

The maintenance and introduction of materials to the web site costs the Troop nothing. Its content is entirely developed through volunteer efforts. The cost of publishing is approximately $100.00 annually and it is paid for out of the Troop's budget.

Privacy

No confidential information is shared on this site. Scouts are identified by first names and the first letter of their last name. Scouts' phone numbers and addresses are never included. Email IDs are included for only selected Scouters and then only with their permission.

Content

As a Scouting-related site, we adhere to Scouting's ideals. For example, this site contains only content appropriate for the entire family. Although we can't control the content of linked sites, at the time of their selection they also followed these ideals. Links on our web site were selected because they provide Scouting-related content or they provide tools that help in the enjoyment of this and other Internet sites. One of our primary purposes for this site is to provide our Scouts with the opportunity to learn or sharpen skills and to research appropriate information for purposes of learning those skills and rank advancement. Over the next several months, we hope to have more site content provided by the Scouts.