Becoming a Scout

Becoming a Sea Scout

In order to be invested as a Sea Scout, you have to show that you’ve learned some important things:

After you have completed the four requirements to become a Sea Scout, you will be invested into the Ship’s Company as a Scout. At that ceremony, you’ll receive the Sea Scout woggle that will identify you as a member of Scouting.

The Scout Promise

All Scouts make their Scout Promise when they’re invested, and often at the beginning of every meeting. This promise reminds us of our duty to ourselves, our duty to others, and our duty to our common values. Our Ship’s Company uses the following:

On my honour,
I promise that I will do my best,
To respect the Land and its people,
To help other people at all times,
And to carry out the spirit of the Scout Law.

Knowing the Scout Promise and Law means more than just being able to repeat the words from memory. A promise is a statement of something you intend to do. By making the Scout Promise, you tell your fellow Sea Scouts, your Boat’s Crew, and the Ship’s Company, that you intend to do certain things as a Sea Scout.

What do you think each part of the Scout Promise means? Get a piece of paper and a pen and write down your own thoughts before you read what’s written below each of the lines.

On my honour, I promise

Of the five words in the first part of the promise, did you notice that two of the words (“I” and “my”) refer directly to you? You are the one who is voluntarily making the Scout Promise. By doing so, you “own” what’s in the Promise. At your investiture ceremony, you will make the Scout Promise in front of your fellow Sea Scouts and Scouters. Each of them will expect you to live up to what you say you are promising to do.

What do it mean to make a promise “on your honour?” What does it mean to have honour? You’re probably at least a little familiar with the reputation that Scouts have around the world. Being a Scout brings that reputation to you! Staking your promise on your honour—on that reputation—means that you’re put that reputation on the line that you’ll keep it.

That I will do my best

There’s that word “my” again. How fast can you run the 100m dash? Right now, the world record is just less than 10 seconds. Can you run that fast? Probably not, and your fellow Sea Scouts and Scouters wouldn’t expect you to. But, suppose your time was 30 seconds. Would the other Sea Scouts and Scouters be satisfied with your effort? The answer is “yes”, if that effort was really the best effort you could give. Throughout your Scouting experience, the main expectation and standard of your performance will be that you are putting your best effort into everything you do. As long as you can honestly say you’re doing your best, no one can reasonably ask more of you!

To respect the Land and its people

What is “the land?” It’s both simple and complicated. In a simple way, it is our country. We could say country or nation, but there are actually multiple nations in the land most of us call Canada. There is the nation of Canada, but there are also many First Nations, Metis and Inuit nations here in the same place. Canada came into being through treaties with these nations. We don’t always agree, but it is important that we work together to look after this land called Canada. That is part of the duty we take on as Scouts—to be good citizens.

The land is also the natural environment we live in. It sustains us and we need to nurture it in return. How do you respect the land around you?

In Scouting, we hope you’ll feel a connection between yourself, the world around you, and the people in it. It’s why we practice Leave No Trace camping as much as we can, and why we serve our community, and why awards like Scouts for Sustainability exist. So how can you, personally, show that you respect the land?

And what about respecting the people? The First Nations and Inuit were certainly the first human people of this land, and the rest of Canada’s citizens either came here from other countries, or are the children of people who moved here. We respect our fellow people by acting in ways that show we are good citizens.

In Anishnaabeg teachings and many other indigenous nations on this land, “people,” are not just the human people, but the bear people, deer people, the tree people and others. What would it mean to treat all living things as people worthy of respect?

The way you live often shows others what you believe, much more than what you say. For example, acting to protect and conserve the natural world shows that you feel a connection to the land, and want to take care of it.

To help other people at all times

What does “other people” mean? To begin with, it includes adults and children. It doesn’t mean just people who live in Canada, but everyone who shares this planet: “A Scout is a friend to all and a sibling to every other Scout.”

We can help others in many ways. Scouting will give you opportunities to help others, but you don’t need to wait to be asked. Just look around your home and neighbourhood for things that need doing, and then do them.

Making the best use of your talents and abilities also shows that connection you have to yourself in relation with others. How will you respect your beliefs in Sea Scouts?

And to carry out the spirit of the Scout Law

If you say you are going “to carry out the spirit of the Scout Law,” it means you are going to use what the Scout Law says as a guide to your actions. It describes what a Scout is, rather than what a Scout does, and promising to do your best to carry out its spirit means that when you slip up, you should forgive yourself, and try to do better next time. It also means that you’d do this in your own way.

A Sea Scout works hard to be each of these things, but everyone will do this in a way that reflects who they are.

The Scout Law

A Scout is Helpful and Trustworthy,
Kind and Cheerful,
Considerate and Clean,
And Wise in the use of all resources.

What does each part of the Scout Law mean to you? Write down your own thoughts before you look at the comments that follow.

A Scout is Helpful

Every day, from the moment you wake up, until the time you go to bed, you have countless opportunities to help others. Just getting up in the morning on your own, without needing someone to nag you out of bed, is being helpful. More active ways of being helpful in the morning are to make your bed, prepare breakfast, set the table, do the dishes, and make bag lunches for those who take them to school or work. Look at how helpful you’ve been, and you’ve only been up an hour!

You can also be helpful outside the home. Perhaps your community has a “Pitch-In” clean-up campaign you can take part in. Or you might support a recycling program. Maybe you can help an elderly neighbour with the heavy parts of the yard work.

In Sea Scouts, you will also have opportunities to learn things like first aid or water rescues that will enable you to give one of the greatest acts of help: saving a life.

A Scout is Trustworthy

To be trustworthy means that you are worthy of other people’s trust. Think of the kinds of trust you can be given. If you say you are going to do something, people believe that you will do what you say. If you are trustworthy and you can’t complete the job you said you would do, people will know, without being told, that there was a good reason you didn’t finish it. To be trustworthy means that parents who ask you to babysit feel secure in knowing they can entrust their child’s safety and well-being to you. A trustworthy person is someone other people have confidence in.

A Scout is Kind

To be kind means (in part) to act toward others as you would like them to act toward you. Think of words and actions that hurt you, and try not to say or do those things to others. Similarly, think of words and actions that make you feel good, and try to say and do similar things for others.

A Scout is Cheerful

Being cheerful doesn’t mean you always have to walk around with a smile plastered on your face. Not everything you do will be fun, but how you look at what seems to be an unpleasant situation or job may affect exactly how unpleasant it really is.

Let’s just suppose you don’t like homework. Being grouchy and complaining about the homework and the teacher who gave it to you doesn’t help you get it done. Probably you won’t laugh while you’re doing your homework, but tackling it a little more cheerfully might make it seem just a bit lighter.

And not every hike, camp, canoe trip, or cruise you and your Boat’s Crew take will have clear skies and warm sunshine. Being cheerful and looking for the fun parts in a situation will make you, and others around you, feel much better.

A Scout is Considerate

When you’re being considerate, you’re looking at things through someone else’s eyes. For example, suppose you throw your clothes every-which-way around your room when you take them off to get ready for bed at night. Are you being considerate?

If you look at your action through someone else’s eyes, you’ll have the answer. You’re expecting someone else to pick up your discarded clothes and either hang them up or put them wherever dirty clothes are supposed to go. Being considerate is putting them away right away. Similarly, stuffing freshly-laundered clothes into drawers and the closet isn’t very considerate of the person who washed and folded them for you!

Perhaps every morning, you and somebody else arrive at the bathroom at just about the same time and argue about who got there first and who uses all the hot water. To remedy the situation, you could be considerate and change your showering time. Consideration is something to practise within your family and with all people you meet.

A Scout is Clean

This part refers to at least two types of “clean”: an outer clean and an inner clean. The outer cleanliness applies to the real physical things around you. To obey this Scout Law, a Scout keeps their body and things (such as clothes and personal living space) clean.

To live up to the inner cleanliness part of this law, a Scout keeps their body clean by not using tobacco, alcohol, or other drugs, and not using foul language.

A Scout is Wise in the Use of All Resources

What are your resources? Probably the first thing you thought about was the money you get as an allowance, or earn from odd jobs. But you have other resources as well. Anything we can use and anything that helps us do something is a resource.

This book is a resource because you can use it to help you reach your goals as a Sea Scout. Your family members and friends are resources to you. Your abilities and talents are also resources.

To be wise in the use of all resources means that you don’t squander them or use them in ways that are wasteful or harmful to others. For example, if you want a drink of water and let the tap run for five minutes before you fill your glass, you are not wisely using your resources. The water you let go down the drain is no longer available to others. In addition, now other resources have to be used to handle and treat the waste water you created. All of us must do our part to use the world’s resources wisely.

Scout Motto

Be Prepared.

This motto encompasses everything we try to do in Scouting. In learning Scoutcraft, you become prepared for camp. In developing your Outdoor Adventure Skills, you become prepared for many situations that may arise, whether sailing on the lake, climbing a mountain, or performing first aid.

But in Sea Scouts, we learn to be prepared for more than just the worst. The skills we practice as we undertake Scouting—planning before doing, and reviewing afterwards; thoughtfully serving our community; and fulfilling our promise—prepare us for life beyond the Sea Scout hall, and beyond our years in Sea Scouts. They allow us to always Be Prepared, no matter what might come up.

Scout Handshake

The Scout handshake is made with the left hand, instead of the customary right hand. This isn’t just a secret handshake, to let the other know that you’re in on the game (though it does that, too!). It comes from an Ashanti tradition that B.-P. learned in his Army service in West Africa. Rather than set down their weapons to shake hands with their right hand, “only the bravest of the brave shake hands with the left hand, because to do so we must drop our shields and our protection.”

This demonstrated the trust that the Ashanti warriors offered, when meeting in peace, and we continue it to show our trust in our fellow Sea Scouts.

Scout Sign and Sea Scout Salute

The Scout Sign is a simple gesture. Raise your index, middle, and ring fingers of your right hand, and touch your thumb to your little finger. Raise that hand head-high, with your forearm straight up-and-down, and your palm facing out.

To turn your Scout Sign into the Scout Salute, bend your elbow in so that your index finger touches your temple. The Sea Scout Salute makes one change, similar to the difference between a British Army and Royal Navy salute: turn your wrist so that the palm of your hand faces down.

The three fingers in the Scout Sign and Sea Scout Salute remind you of the three parts of the Scout Promise. Do you remember what they are? The meeting of your thumb and little finger represents the ties of friendship in Scouting.

This is a sign recognized throughout the world by members of the Scout movement, and can be an excellent shorthand for identifying yourself to a fellow Scout, if you can see that they’re a Scout. If they are, they will likely flash the sign back to you.

You use the Scout sign, rather than the Sea Scout Salute, on four occasions:

  1. When you are making your Scout Promise,
  2. When you are attending the investiture of another Scout,
  3. When you are anywhere the Scout Promise is being recited, and
  4. When you would use the Sea Scout Salute, but are not in your full uniform.

The Sea Scout Salute is used, for example, while raising the flag, and during the playing of the National Anthem. It’s also exchanged when handing off the flag at the end of the night. The Sea Scout Salute should only be made while in full uniform. If you are not in full uniform, make the Scout Sign instead. When finished your salute (e.g. you’ve been ordered “as you were” in the opening ceremony), return your hand to your side quickly and quietly, without slapping your leg.

Getting Invested

Once you’ve satisfied your Coxswain and your Scouters that you have satisfied all four requirements necessary to become a Sea Scout, you’ll be invested as a Sea Scout. Your parents or guardians, and other members or your family, may be invited to your investiture ceremony.

At the end of the ceremony, your Scouters will present you with your Sea Scout neckerchief slide (or, as it’s more commonly known, your “woggle”)—your identification as a member of the worldwide Scout movement, and specifically as a Sea Scout, which will also be marked by a Sea Scouts stripe for your uniform. You will also receive a number of other badges that show you belong to a particular Boat’s Crew, Scout Group, and Council. You will also get your neckerchief. If you leapt up from Cub Scouts, you’ll already have many of these, and as long as they still fit and are suitable to wear, you’re entitled to move them right away from your Cub Scout shirt to your formal Sea Scout shirt.