THE COMMISSIONERS’ INTERNET RESOURCES WORKSHOP
   
Version 2.0 - February 1996
Prepared by:  Michael F. Bowman

Part 1:  	LET’S STRENGTHEN OUR ABILITY TO SERVE UNITS AS COMMISSIONERS -- DELIVERING THE PROMISE

Section 1:  Statement of Purpose

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 	PART 1 - LET’S STRENGTHEN OUR ABILITY TO SERVE UNITS AS
				COMMISSIONERS -- DELIVERING THE PROMISE
		1. 	Statement of Purpose
		
Return to Commissioners' Internet Resources Workshop Introduction page.

THE COMMISSIONER’S INTERNET RESOURCES 
WORKSHOP PART 1

Section 1 -- Statement of Purpose

           
Welcome
Welcome to the Commissioners’ Internet Resources Workshop.  I’m glad you stopped by to see what we have.  Stick around a bit and you’ll find a lot of good information that you, as a Scouter, can use to help deliver the Promise of Scouting to the Scouts in the Council, District, and units where you serve.

Because you are reading these pages, I have to assume that you are a Scouter who excited about using the vast resources of the Internet to help deliver that promise and a person who is eager to learn more.  I hope that we can help you in your quest.

This course was designed to supplement existing training programs offered in your local Council and should not be used as a substitute for the excellent training that is available near where you live.  Some of the material I have included is there simply to help you refresh your memory, assuming that you have already been trained.

If you haven’t already taken advantage of the training your Council has to offer, please consider attending:

Basic Cub Scout Leader Training  - This can help you understand your leaders much better.  You will know what they have learned from training and where you can help.

Scoutmastership Fundamentals Training - This can help you understand your leaders much better.  You will know what they have learned from training and where you can help.

Basic Commissioner Training - This is essential.  Make sure you take this course as soon as possible.  If you have completed the course, but it was several years ago, please consider taking it again as a refresher to build on your existing knowledge.

University of Scouting, College of Commissioner Science - The College of Commissioner Science is simply an advanced training program where your local Council offers a rich variety of course designed to help you further develop leadership, communicatons, management, and Commissioner skills in order to improve your ability to serve youth.   This program is designed to be a three part sequence.  In the first year attendees complete a basic program with some elective seminars to expand on basic training and capitalize on experience.  The second year program goes beyond this with additional course work  leading to a Masters.   Finally in the third year program, you will learn how to take all of your training and experience and apply it to a long-term project resulting in a written dissertation on a subject of interest to you.  The final product often will end up being a document that other Scouters can use to improve their ability to deliver the program to Scouts at the unit level.  I highly recommend these courses.

           
Statement of Purpose

Well, if I’m telling you to go take training in your home Council, then what is the purpose of this course?

The purpose of this course is to act as a bridge between traditional Scouting training and outside training on how to take advantage of information technologies.  It is my belief that with the proliferation of personal computers in individual homes and the ready availability of access to a host of communication technologies via the Internet, that we harness this opportunity to improve how we as Scouters share information that can be used to provide the best possible program to our ultimate customer -- the Scouts.  

As Commissioners our primary job is to serve Scouting units.  And one of the key functions we fulfill is acting as a conduit of communication between the Council and District and the individual unit with information passing both ways.  

Now we have at our fingertips in the comfort of our homes and offices a tool that will allow us to gain access to more information than we could possibly accumulate in a lifetime on our own.  We can use this information to:

1. 	Learn more about Scouting - some World Wide Web sites are becoming virtual online encyclopedias of Scouting information.

2.	See what program opportunities that other Councils, Districts, and units are offering their Scouts.

3.	Improve communication locally and nationally on a host of topics.

4.	Capitalize on the knowledge that other folks have to solve problems or develop ideas.

You should consider this workshop to be supplemental training to augment other training already available to you.  Its purpose is to capitalize on the availability of information on the Internet to enable you to learn more about Scouting, see what others are doing, improve communicatoins, solve problems, develop ideas, and better serve the Scouts in your area.	

Take your time with this workshop.  Read a little at a time.  Go at your own pace until you have completed all of the material here.  When you are done, please use your World Wide  Web browser to go to the last section and answer the evaluation questions by e-mail.  If you share with us your thoughts on this workshop, we can continue to make improvements that will help other Scouters like yourself.  

Thanks for stopping by and for all the work you do support Scouting.

The Commissioners' Information Resources Workshop by Michael F. Bowman, is presented by R. Gary Hendra -- The MacScouter -- WDL, Pack 92, Milpitas, California