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

Part 4:  	USING THE BASICS AND INFORMATION RESOURCES 	TO TRAIN COMMISSIONERS BY E-MAIL - PUTTING 	YOUR KNOWLEDGE TO THE TEST

Section 1:  Setting Up An E-mail Course
Sample Introduction and Instructions

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 	PART 4 - USING THE BASICS AND INFORMATION RESOURCES TO TRAIN
				COMMISSIONERS BY E-MAIL - PUTTING YOUR KNOWLEDGE 
				TO THE TEST

	 	1. 	Setting Up An E-mail Course - Sample Introduction and Instructions
Return to Commissioners' Internet Resources Workshop Introduction page.

THE COMMISSIONER’S INTERNET RESOURCES 
WORKSHOP PART 4

Section 1 -- Setting Up An E-Mail Course - Sample Introduction and Instructions

           
SAMPLE INTRODUCTION AND INSTRUCTIONS
FOR WORKSHOP PARTICIPANTS
This introduction and set of instructions is provided only as an example of what you could do in preparing a similar seminar or workshop for your Council or District. Please feel free to adapt or adopt the following text to suit your needs as you develop your own seminar. Please remember that this course was developed locally for local use only. Mike regrets that he can't make this course available via the Web or on broader basis, but encourages you to use the same or a similar course in your own area.  Comments and questions are welcome. 

This material was purposely designed to allow the following combinations for your training needs:

1.	Integrated Course - Use all four parts to develop the basics of Commissioner service and Internet resource use to solve problems.

2. 	Introduction to Commissioner Service - Use only part 1.

3.	Introduction to the Internet and E-mail - Use only part 2.

4.	Introduction to Scouting resources on the Internet - Use only part 3.

5.	Seminar on Information Technologies for Scouting - Use parts 2 and 3.

6.	Advanced seminar for Commissioners - Use part 4.

Please feel free to use these materials in any combination that helps your Scouters to deliver better service to the Scouts they serve.   Finally, the material here can be used for a group training workshop at a convenient meeting place or can be used for home study and e-mail participation.   By all means tailor this material to fit your needs and the capabilities of your target audience.

           
INTRODUCTION

To participate in this course you will need to have access to a personal computer with a modem. It would be even better, if you had an e-mail address and communications software, but that isn't strictly speaking
necessary immediately. Part of the course material is provided to help you find a way to get an e-mail address and learn to communicate with other folks on their personal computers.  

All of the course material for this workshop will be found on a set of 3.5" high density disks in the same packet as this introduction (distribute the course on disks for those that don’t have a modem yet and provide them with a hard copy of the Commissioners’ Internet Resources Workshop Introduction with the Table of Contents and a copy of this Section only). The course material can best be used on a machine that is using DOS and Microsoft WINDOWSô. The Commissioners' Workshop file was created using Microsoft Word for Windows Version 6.0.  Most current word processing programs including Word for Macintosh, Word Perfect 6.1, and Ami Pro can convert the Word 6.0 file into a readable format for you.  

You will find the following 15 files on the course disks:

CIRWINTR.DOC		Course Introduction 
CIRWP1S1.DOC		Commissioner Basics (Introduction)
CIRWP1S2.DOC		Commissioner Basics (What’s a Commissioner?)
CIRWP1S3.DOC		Commissioner Basics (Commissioner’s Role)
CIRWP1S4.DOC		Commissioner Basics (Buiding a Commissioner Service)
CIRWP1S5.DOC		Commissioner Basics (Using Resources)
CIRWP2S1.DOC		Internet and E-mail Basics  (Hooking up)
CIRWP2S2.DOC		Internet and E-mail Basics  (Using E-mail)
CIRWP2S3.DOC		Internet and E-mail Basics  (Books, etc.)
CIRWP3S1.DOC		Internet Resources (BBSs)
CIRWP3S2.DOC		Internet Resources (Discussion Groups)
CIRWP3S3.DOC		Internet Resources (FTP)
CIRWP3S4.DOC		Internet Resources (IRC)
CIRWP3S5.DOC		Internet Resources (Online Services)
CIRWP3S6.DOC		Internet Resources (World Wide Web)
CIRWP4S1.DOC		Seminar (Introduction)
CIRWP4S2.DOC		Seminar (Discussion Problems)
CIRWP4S3.DOC		Seminar (Hints and Help)
CIRWP4S4.DOC		Course Evaluation

           
INSTRUCTIONS

If you are not participating in a face-to-face seminar using these materials, you will be on your Scout’s honor to use Parts 1, 2, and 3 on your own for home study.  You will find that Parts 1, 2, and 3 will give you a good grounding in the basics of the Commissioner Service and a fair understanding of the resources available on the Internet.   Before proceeding, I would recommend that you use that information to get at least e-mail access and if possible that you spend some time exploring the resources.   After a couple of weeks, your course mentor/counselor will get together with you electronically to see how everyone is doing.  Don’t expect a telephone call, this seminar is going to be all via the Internet!

After everyone has had a chance to get familiar with the basics of the Commissioner Service and the Internet, your group will move on to a practical seminar with a number of discussion seminars.   The idea here is that you should be able to take the information from the basics to find answers and solutions.  In some cases you will be able to find the answers in this material or referenced BSA literature.  In other cases you may find helpful information by using the resources of the Internet to talk to other Scouters or to read about other units, the BSA program, leadership skills, and more.  Its all up to you to seek out the information you need and apply it here.

The discussion scenarios are the heart of the seminar. Read each of them very carefully. The language in each scenario was carefully chosen to make the problem as realistic as possible, while giving you some hints as to what is known and what you need to know before you react. Participation in this portion of the seminar is also voluntary. The idea is for you to chose what will help you the most. 

During the seminar you will be assigned a mentor/counselor (this is up to the local Council trainers putting the course on for you - we do not have the ability to do this course nationwide yet). To make the seminar work for all of you who wish to be participants your cooperation is needed in the following:  

1.	Within two weeks of receiving the course materials, send your counselor/mentor an E-mail message that includes; your name or alias, your E-mail address, and your telephone number.

2. 	Your mentor/counselor will respond to your E-mail by confirming that you have logged into the course.   The confirmation message will also include:

a.	The course number to which you've been assigned: e.g., GWDCW001, where GWD means George Washington District (substitute your own) and CW means Commissioners’ Internet Resources Workshop.

b.	A list of all other participants in the course with their E-mail addresses and telephone numbers.   This works best with groups of four to eight.  You can copy the e-mail addresses into a notepad text file and throughout the course past them into the address block of your e-mails to make sure that everything you send goes to all of the seminar participants.

3.	In all correspondence concerning this course please include the course number and discussion scenario number in your subject line. For example, if you were sending your answer, comments and questions on one of the scenarios to other participants and your mentor/counselor, you would use the following format;

	Subj: GWDCW001 - Scenario 1 - Comments and Questions

4.	When you send an E-mail posting regarding this course, please send copies to each of the participants and your mentor/counselor.   Your mentor/counselor will respond to each of the participants, unless you indicate that you have a private question or comment.

5.	This course is intended to proceed at an easy pace. We all have many Scouting responsibilities and a job and don't want this to detract from either. You should plan to take between a week and two weeks with each scenario. This will allow enough time to exchange ideas and develop answers.

6.	Your mentor/counselor will advise you when the group is going to shift from one scenario to the next one.

7.	During the course you should feel free to comment, ask questions and participate in discussions with other participants.

8.	Proper nettiquette will be adhered to in the course. Flaming (personal attacks) will not be tolerated. If you engage in flaming, you can expect to be dropped from the course.

9.	At the end of the course you will be presented with an unofficial certificate of completion (of course your local Council mentor/counselor will accept the challenge to create on on his/her computer and ship it off to you as an e-mail attachment).

10.	After you have completed the course, you are encouraged to turn in a course evaluation. The information you give will be used in improving the course  for future users.

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