BSA Outdoor Ethics Annual Survey - 2023

Greetings, Council Outdoor Ethics Advocates

Thank you for all you are doing to support your council's program goals. I continue to receive great reports on the many Outdoor Ethics & Conservation training events and programs that are being held in our councils across the country and I applaud all of your hard work to make these events happen.

The BSA's Outdoor Ethics & Conservation Subcommittee enjoys learning about all of the successful programs that are being conducted in our councils. This information helps our subcommittee set the priorities to continually improve the resources for Scouting volunteers delivering outdoor ethics to the Scouting program. This year we are inviting all Council Outdoor Ethics Advocates to fill out this BSA Outdoor Ethics Annual Survey - 2023 and share with us as much information as they can on the wide variety of opportunities that occurred in their respective councils. Telling us about the activities in your council regardless of whether you personally worked on them, coordinated a team in your role as a Council Outdoor Ethics Advocate, or were simply made aware of the activities, helps us and our outdoor ethics partners understand the efficacy of our training programs. For some there may little to no activity to report, and that's okay, we still hope you will submit a survey response.

In 2023 the BSA trained 35 new Leave No Trace Level 2 Instructors who are all eager to help your local training efforts and we have 7 Leave No Trace Level 2 Instructor Courses scheduled for 2024. The Outdoor Ethics & Conservation roundtable team continues to present monthly virtual roundtables full of ideas on program delivery. The Outdoor Ethics & Conservation Subcommittee also has a team of volunteers serving our Council Service Territories; your Outdoor Ethics & Conservation Coordinator is there to directly serve your council's needs. You can find your Outdoor Ethics & Conservation Coordinator by going to the Outdoor Ethics page on Scouting.org and clicking on:

Find your council's key Outdoor Ethics Contacts

Thank you again for your support of Outdoor Ethics in Scouting.

Scott Anderson - Chair
Marshall Berger, Ted Weiland, Paula Boothe - Program Operations Division Managers

National Outdoor Ethics and Conservation Subcommittee
BSA Outdoor Programs & Properties

Instructions

Please submit the survey whether you have a lot or very little to report.
If you have some, but not all of the data requested, go ahead and submit the form with the data you have. You will be able to return to your form later and update your entries as you get additional data.
If you don't have an answer it is okay to leave it blank. Please enter 0 in boxes where appropriate, and leave the field blank if you don't have at least a good estimate.
A partial response is more useful than no response at all.

Thank you for taking the time to provide this important information on your outdoor ethics training and activites!

Terminology Change

In 2023, Leave No Trace updated their training model, including the following course name changes:

Trainers are now called Level 1 Instructors
Master Educators are now called Level 2 Instructors
(more info)
Our BSA Leave No Trace 101 course has been renamed BSA Leave No Trace Basics to avoid confusion with Leave No Trace's new online Leave No Trace 101 Course

Council or Adventure Base:

Council Outdoor Ethics Advocate (COEA)

COEA Name:	(enter none if none)
COEA Email:
If the person filling out this Report is NOT the council outdoor ethics advocate, please provide your information here:
Name:
Email:

No Outdoor Ethics Advocate!?

If your council doesn't have an active Outdoor Ethics Advocate, please coordinate with the people involved in OE in your council and have one person fill out the survey.

Only one survey per council.

If you don't know whether your council has a COEA, please check here.

COEA changed and list is wrong? Let us know.

Council Information

Does your Council have the following?
(check all that apply)

An Active Council Outdoor Ethics Advocate

A Conservation Committee Chair

If Yes, please enter the Chair's contact information:

Name:
Email:

Number of Leave No Trace Instructors in your Council?

Active Level 2 Instructors

Active Level 1 Instructors

Active individuals have done at least one of the following in the past year:
- Are newly trained Level 1 or 2 Instructors, or new in the Advocate position.
- Organized or taught an outdoor ethics training course (eg see OE Training Courses list below).
- Taught outdoor ethics at unit, district/zone or council training events.
- Led outdoor ethics activities at unit, district/zone or council events.
- Promoted outdoor ethics at district/zone or council events.

Contact Verification Status

Gold Star All of your Council's OE Contacts have been marked as "Verified" (or Removed).
Thank You for supporting our annual initiative to Verify everyone in our database of OE Contacts!

(To access your OE Contacts list, Get Your Key and bring up your OEA Tools webpage.)

Contact Verification Status

Some of your Council's OE Contacts have not been marked as "Verified" or Removed.

Please support our annual initiative to Verify everyone in our database of OE Contacts:

Get Your Key and bring up your OEA Tools webpage.
View your OE Contacts list and instructions.
Contact each person to determine if they are still active.
Mark them as Verified or other status.
Report any COEA changes or email/phone/address updates.

Contact Verification Status

Your Council does not have any Outdoor Ethics Contacts listed.

Contact Verification Status

Question Mark All of your Council's OE Contacts have been marked as "Verified" (or Removed),
but some of them have not been re-verified in the past year.

Please re-visit your OE Contacts list and re-verify those listed as out-of-date.
To access your list, Get Your Key and bring up your OEA Tools webpage.

Thank You for supporting our annual initiative to Verify everyone in our database of OE Contacts.

2023 Training Courses

How many of these courses were conducted in 2023 by your trained Level 1 and 2 Instructors?
How many participants completed the courses?

OE Training Courses	# of Courses Conducted	# of Participants
OE Training Courses	# of Courses Conducted	Adults	Youth
BSA Leave No Trace Level 1 Instructor (In-Person 16+ hours course, following BSA Leave No Trace Level 1 Instructor Course Manual (formerly called Trainer course))
BSA Leave No Trace Basics (3-4 hours, following Course Guide (formerly called BSA Leave No Trace 101))
Leave No Trace Workshop (Defined in Leave No Trace's Workshop Guidelines (formerly called Awareness Workshop))
Virtual BSA Leave No Trace Level 1 Instructor (Center-approved Virtual 16+ hours course, following BSA Leave No Trace Level 1 Instructor Course Manual (formerly called Trainer course))
Leave No Trace Skills Course (New Leave No Trace Skills Course)
BSA Outdoor Ethics Orientation (60-90 minutes per Course Manual)

Comments

Please provide any feedback that you would like to share with the Subcommittee.
Do you participate in the monthly virtual Outdoor Ethics Roundtables, and do you find them helpful?
How can we better support you?

Enter Code

Note - when you SUBMIT this survey, you will receive an email with a link which will allow you to return to this form and update any of the entries later.

Please feel free to contact Mark Hammer, BSA Outdoor Ethics & Conservation Subcommittee, if you have any questions about this survey.