I noticed that the Sea Scout awards were noticeably absent. So I sent up a message and found out that the National Sea Scout Committee will be working on them shortly.

The official announcement is in the latest issue of the Training Times

http://scouting.org/training/trainingupdates.aspx

Training Awards for Adult Leaders in Units Update

In 2011 the National Council's awards committee conducted a review of the hundreds of awards presented to Scouts and adults in the BSA. Many recommendations were made to update procedures and the awards themselves. Among the recommendations was the update of the unit leader training awards requirements and a review of the Cub Scout Leader Recognition Awards.

These recommendations have been reviewed by the national volunteer training committee and a task force of unit-level leaders. Some awards have been eliminated and all of the requirements for the remaining awards have been updated.

The forms and requirements have been simplified, but the committees do not believe that means easier. They are along the same lines and Adegree of difficulty as the previous requirements, but will be less complicated and consistent across the awards and the phases of the Scouting program.

The Cubmaster Award has been discontinued. Cubmasters may now earn the Scouter's Key Award and may wear the Scouter's Key knot with a Cub Scouting device.

The Cub Scouter and Pack Trainer Awards have been discontinued. Cub Scout pack leaders may earn the Scouter's Training Award and may wear the Scouter's Training Award knot with a Cub Scouting device.

The Tiger Cub and Webelos Den Leader's Awards have been discontinued. All den leaders may earn a new Den Leader's Training Award medal that is being created, and may wear the Den Leader's Training Award knot (identical to the previous Cub Scout Den Leader Award knot) with the appropriate device. A Tiger Cub den leader device is also being developed.

Scouters who have earned the discontinued awards will still be able to wear these awards and knots.

Scouters who have begun to work on the Cub Scout Leader Recognition Awards will still be able to earn them as long as they are completed by the following dates:

Tiger Cub Den Leader Award - December 31, 2012
Webelos Den Leader Award - December 31, 2012
Cubmaster Award - December 31, 2013
Pack Trainer Award - December 31, 2013
Cub Scouter Award - December 31, 2013
Cub Scouters who have not started to work on an award may only earn the new awards and must use the new requirements.

Boy Scouting, Varsity Scouting, and Venturing awards, knots, and devices have not been changed. Only the requirements have been updated. Leaders who have started to earn these awards may use either set of requirements, but Scouters who have not started to work on an award may only use the new requirements.

The training awards and keys are designed to recognize unit Scouters for tenure, basic and continuing training, and successful performance in their leadership role.

Progress record forms with the new requirements for these awards can be found at www.Scouting.org/training.

So when's the deadline for CS DL since I do not see it listed.

Thankfully Cub Scouter is until December 2013, so I'm good Now whether I'll get the actual know or not is a different story

Just curious - anyone know if there a change to the Unit Leader Award of Merit?

Pardon if I missed it somewhere else.

Thanks!

Unit leader award of merit was updated a while ago to include Cubmaster.

Right - so I gather it is still in place for Cubmasters even with the new change.

It should be. Although I wish they would go back to the white colored "Why Knot?" knot.

The white colored knot was for 18 months of service and meeting some criteria.

The green colored knot was for two years and meeting training requirements etc.

The scouter's key was then a green + white combo knot using the colors from the old scoutmaster badge.

The knot progression made sense for a unit leader.

The current black/blue with shiny gold knot is ugly. I have no idea why they changed it.

Thanks. I don't think I've actually seen anyone with the award of merit yet - but I could imagine what you mean.

It does sort of have this unusual progression now.
Unit Leader Award of Merit - 18 months
Scouter's Training Award for Cub Scouts - 2 years
Cubmaster Key - 3 years

I'm thinking one could receive these for concurrent service.

The Cubmaster's Key is for concurrent service - one year past the scouter's award. From the BSA training site: (This can include the tenure used to earn the Scouters Training Award.)

The den leader award is not concurrent. It must be a year served as a den leader and not for any other award.

Nope, no concurrent tenure except the the unit leader Keys. Even if you are serving in two different units in two different roles.

Aww... I really wanted to earn the tiger cub den leader award and wear that black and orange knot. I blew it last year, but I had hoped to try again someday. I'll be working on the den leader award this year. The actual criteria don't look so different.

My Tiger Cub Den Leader knot is one that I wear most proudly and show off to Tiger Cub Den Leaders in hopes they will choose to earn it. One of the prettiest and most recognizable of the knots too, at least in my opinion.


Scoutmaster Key but no Cubmaster knot, eh? That's shortsighted.

I don't really like the move to all the devices. I might own them, but they'd sit in a drawer. With devices you have to get right up to someone to know what program they earned the key in.

I really don't like the Scoutmaster Award of Merit being dropped, and homoginized with the Cub Scout and Venturing Programs. Truly a mistake of epic proportions. We can hope the NESA will re-institute their Scoutmaster Award.
And blah on those Mickey mouse devices.
One Scoutmaster opine.