By now you have probably seen the announcement that Ship 198 from Lewes, Delaware in Del-Mar-Va Council has been named 2020 National Flagship, and that three more ships have been designated members of the National Flagship Fleet.
Several of you have asked “What does it take to get to be the National Flagship?” You can review the criteria (and see the list of past flagships) here, but at a high level, the scoring is based on:
- Youth Perspective and Preparation of all aspects of the Application: (15 points)
- Scouting’s Journey to Excellence performance evaluation: (10 points)
- Sea Scout Advancement and Recognitions: (15 points)
- On-Water Activities: (20 points)
- Sea Scout Collaborative and Mentoring Activity: (10 points)
- Community Service: (10 points)
- Recruiting Activities: (15 points)
- Sea Scout Leader Development: (5 points)
The heart of the application is a presentation or video which tells the story of the ship from the perspective of the youth in the ship. That both summarizes the accomplishments of the ship (on-the-water activities, community service, etc.) and provides the all important youth perspective.
I have been able to obtain permission from the new National Flagship and the three National Flagship fleet ships to share their presentations with you. Each of these ships chose a different style of presentation (video, slide presentation with embedded video, etc.) and has a fairly different program, but they share some important characteristics too. First and most important, the youth in their ship are heavily involved in leading all aspects of the ship’s operations. Second, they do a lot – each of them has an incredibly busy schedule of outings, service projects, and training. And third, they’re having fun! The presentations you see here aren’t the entirety of their applications, but they’ll give you a pretty good idea what life in these ships is like, and hopefully, along the way, you’ll get some ideas that you can bring home to your own ship.
Let’s start with our new National Flagship. Ship 198 is chartered by the Broadkiln Marina in Milton, Delaware and is led by Ship’s Boatswain Cheyenne S. and Skipper Ron Krajewski. Under Cheyenne’s leadership, the Quarterdeck embarked on an aggressive recruiting campaign as well as a well-rounded program involving active participation in outdoor district and council events, on-the-water activities, community service and active participation in the Del-Mar-Va Council’s Nentego Lodge Order of the Arrow. As a result of their hard work and determination, Ship 198 grew from 10 members to 28 active members. Here is their story:
Next, we turn to Ship 911, SSS Response, from Capitol Area Council in Texas. This is Response’s sixth consecutive year in the National Flagship Fleet. This is a Google slides presentation with embedded video – to view, click the photo below and select ‘Present’.
From there, we visit Ship 1701, SSS Enterprise, from Sam Houston Area Council in Texas.
And finally, Ship 450, SSS Heatwave, from Las Vegas Area Council. Click on the photo to view the mp4 video.
I hope you will join us for a National Bridge of Honor to recognize these ships, to recognize the National Sea Scout Leadership Award recipients, and to conduct the Change of Watch for the National Boatswain. That will be conducted online and will be live streamed on May 27th at 2000 Central. Please save the date and watch for an announcement with details.
T.W. Cook
National Commodore