Powder Horn (1999- )
Overview
With the new Venturing program's Ranger Award, a new week-long (or two long weekend or now also three regular weekend) training course
was created. Donna and Larry Cunnigham are credited
with creating the course along with Bill Evans (as well as the Ranger Award),
for which they received National Venturing Leadership Awards. An experiemental course was run in 1998. The first
official course was run at Philmont in September of
1999. In 2000 several regional/area-level courses were run, aimed at
creating course directors and staff. This continued into 2001 and now we
have council level courses aimed at the unit-level Venturing leader and scouter. Unlike Wood Badge, one can be on staff even
if they have not gone thru the course, however to earn the Powder Horn Award,
such staff MUST complete all the activities the participants do. Since
more people have had the change to go thru Powder Horn, I think we will see
most staffers have already been participants. Such policy is possible
because the bulk of the teaching in the course is done by consultants who are
knowledge experts. And such consultants need not be the course staff
members, and ideally most shouldn't be. Like Wood Badge, course directors
must be approved by the Regions, as well as permision
to put on a course.
There is also a PH Course Directors Conference, to prepare future PH Course
Directors. The first was given in
More information, including a list of upcoming courses, can be found at the Powder Horn web site here. There is also a Powder Horn Fact Sheet here at the National website. Check out the Powder Horn website for information on upcoming Course Director Conference hosted in different areas.
"Powder Horn II" is being developed. It will be named "Flintlock". It will apparently consist of a series of self-contained advanced topics workshops on several of the areas touched on by PH, these would run from several hours to several days depending on the topic. In addition, there is talk that these workshops will be open to both youth and adult. Uncertain when we will see them. Apparently, the attention of those at National have been more focused on finishing Kodiak/Kodiak X. As this is done, they will probably now refocus on Flintlock. There will be an additional recognition item for complete these courses. As more information is made available for this, I will be creating a separate page on this program.
Program
Powder Horn aims to expose Venturing leaders (and Boy Scout leaders) to the
outdoor skills necessary for earning the Ranger Award. It is NOT meant to
make the participants experts in these skills, but to make them familiar with
them and be able to find experts to help teach the Venturers
these skills. It is a "High Adventurerer
Resource Management Course". Powder Horn will:
- Help Venturing Leaders and Scouters to safely conduct outdoor activities of a fun and challenging nature.
- Provides an introduction to the resources necessary to successfully lead their Venturers and older Boy Scouts through a program of high adventure.
- Familiarizes the Advisor with the Ranger program so that he or she can help the Venturer to meet the requirements of the Ranger Award.
This course is based on the Venturing Ranger requirements giving participants an exposure to outdoor/high adventure activities.
All Powder Horn courses will include the following Ranger Core Requirements and
Electives:
(No one has to do any activity they feel uncomfortable with)
Backpacking
Land Navigation
Communication
Leave no Trace-Camping
Conservation Project Development Life Saver
Cooking
Mountaineering
Emergency
Preparedness
Outdoor Living History
Expedition
Planning
Overnight
First
Aid
Physical Fitness
Plants, Wildlife &
Ecology
Shooting Sports
Wilderness
Survival
Working with Teens
Program runs as either a week-long course, two long weekends (3 days), or three weekends (2 days). Not all electives will be covered at each course. Courses are required to provide all 8 core requirements, and at least 10 of the 14 electives.
Insignia
Power Horn participants receive a silver powder horn to hang from the left
pocket flap. Yes, that is correct, the left
pocket. This is stated in the Course Director's manual, and now also in
the Insignia Guide (earlier
editions ignored it). It is meant as a permanent part of the scouter's uniform. Original plans were to make it
pewter. Apparently the first set were silver, the next run are
aluminum. There is also a smaller version as a sort of 'label pin'
version (#4254), which is only available thru council offices. There are
no plans for any kind of staff recognition items (at least from National).
Literature
No literature apart from course syllabus exists to my knowledge. It does
not have a National Supply publication number, and like other literature items,
it is a restricted item and only available from Regions to councils running the
course. The Powder Horn Staff Guide is in its third revision, which was
put out in September 2006. First edition came out in 1999, and had
printings in 2001 (October) and 2002 (September); the second revision came out
in September of 2004. A further revision
may appear after the Spring 2007 “Powder Horn
Summit”.
updated: 02/15/2007mrb