Please help save the San Francisco Sea Scout Base

[scotte]

The Sea Scouts have had a base at Aquatic Park in San Francisco for over 60 years, but now the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park is basically making it impossible for the Scouts to run their program.

Some of the ways that the National Park Service is limiting access to the Sea Scouts:

• Limiting keys for building access. This severely restricts our all volunteer program.
• Limiting hours of access to the Sea Scout Base. This will eliminate our traditional overnight activities.
• Mandating removal of all maintenance tools and materials from the Base; eliminating our ability to conduct repairs, maintenance and preservation.
• Eliminating 60% of our boat moorings.
• Mandating the relocation of 60% of our program vessels.
• Eliminating on-going historic boat restoration projects.
• Locking Sea Scouts out of interior building space and locker space for NPS personnel use.
• Removing all signage from the Sea Scout Base, so the building cannot be identified as the Sea Scout Base.

The National Park Service is not willing to meet with the Sea Scouts to discuss this, instead providing this mandate without following the process as required in the National Park Service General Management Plan/Environmental Impact Report.

The Sea Scouts are a fantastic organization for young men and women, teaching basic boat handling, navigation, safety, teamwork, and maintenance - not to mention many community service projects. This particular base is home port to Northern California's only all female sailing unit.

Please help save the San Francisco Sea Scout base by contacting:

Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House
450 Golden Gate Ave. 14th Floor
San Francisco, Ca 94102

Diane Feinstein, Senator
1 Post St. Suite 2450
San Francisco, Ca 94104

Michaela Alioto-Pier, Supervisor
1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Pl. Rm 244
San Francisco, CA 94102

Jonathan B. Jarvis
Pacific West Regional Director, NPS
1111 Jackson St.
Oakland, CA 94607

Ken Salazar, Secretary of the Interior
1849 C St. NW
Washington DC 20240

WASO, Dan Wenk, Acting Director of the National Park Service
1201 I St. NW
Washington, DC 20005

http://www.savethesfseascoutbase.com

[Chief Engineer]

What do you expect from San Francisco?

Since the Scouts are an exclusive organization that does not condone...you know what.....and excludes certain individuals......the powers to be want them out.

Eagle Scout 1966

The words, during the Court of Honor for myself and 6 others who all started in Cub Scouts and joined Boy Scouts together and made Eagle at the same time, still stick with me. "You are marked men." Still gives me a chill of pride.

[bstreep]

Chief, my thoughts EXACTLY when I read it - before I read your comment. Because of "that person that shall not be named", the BSA has been and will continue to be under fire.

Eagle Scout, 1973.

[Captain Bill]

As a former scout and scout leader I sympathize with the issue, but does anyone really expect that Diane Feinstein and Nancy Pelosi are really going to help. A huge number of their constituants are the aforementioned scout hating unmentionables. I would suspect that they would be supporting efforts to remove the scouts completely. I personally stopped giving money to chraitable organizations that have blacklisted the BSA because of their standards.

[Bash]

More than a decade ago a number of Sea Scout ships lost their berths in the San Francisco bay area because of the discriminatory policies of the parent organization. A large number of these ships relocated to Redwood City, where port commissioners list heavily to starboard. Sail into the Port of Redwood City sometime, and ask yourself why this dinky backwater, where the biggest import is cement and the biggest export is automotive scrap, hosts half a dozen scout ships.

The answer, quite simply, is discrimination.

The BSA has fallen behind the times since the days of my court of honor, and has thus diminished the honor of the highest rank bestowed by the organization.

[svHyLyte]

Regretably, because the Scouts still have standards that generally disallow homsexuals to have access to children, you are not likely to get much support for your cause in San Francisco or any from the parties on your contact list and particularly not from Nancy Pelosi or Diane Feinstein who are heavily reliant on the Gay sector for campaign contributions. These are people for whom the Scout Oath:

On my honor I will do my best To do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law; To help other people at all times; To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.

is all but meaningless drivel if not offensive.

Never-the-less, we have penned a letters on your behalf despite the long shot.

s/v HyLyte

[S/V Elusive]

MESSAGE: All Ahead STOP!

Keep the politics off this board PLEASE. If you wish to support the original message, please feel free to do so. We really do NOT require a lot of ME TOOisms or the opposite.

This is THE WARNING.

[johnmcntsh]

Please, Please, Please, leave politics the hell off this board. There are a huge number of forums to address your issues, this is not one of them.

So lets talk about the Sea Scouts for a moment. Great organization. I had several friend who were involved in the bay area as teenagers. It had a strong impact on them as people, and as sailors. Their love of the sea was inspired by this organization. My step son became involved with the local Sea Scouts when he was in his late teens. Sadly, that group was plagued by the lack of leadership committment that is so often an issue with such organizations. Ultimately, that goup lost their charter. Even then, the time he spent with that group added to his character, and his interest in sailing.
Overall, the Sea Scouts is a great organization. It is one of the few youth organizations that inspres and trains kids to love and respect the sea. Regardless of the internal problems, the organization should be supported.
The internal BS can be addressed by getting involved. By being that committed leader that your local group needs to succede.
I will be sending letters to Pelosi and others.

[Chief Engineer]

Scouting (both Boys and Girl Scouts) have been either kicked out of a number of places. Church, Schools, Fraternal Organizations have dropped them or canceled their charters.

I personally don't give a fiddler's farrago about any ones politics, ethnicity etc.

My way of thinking is, "the right to swing your arm ends at my nose"

This is my nose.

[scotte]

Thanks to those who IM'd me with CONSTRUCTIVE and USEFUL comments and suggestions.

I have no idea about all the various other comments about the BSA, though not atypical of the sort of post noise I've seen here at CF. As a Sea Scout dad with no experience with the BSA outside of this, most of the negative comments above seem completely off base as it relates to my son's experiences in the Sea Scouts, as well as my involvement. In the time my son has been involved, I've seen him become a great sailor, navigator, and deck hand. He's vastly improved his mechanical aptitude, leadership skills, and respect for other people - not to mention an increased love for the sea and wanting to help care for it. Every cruiser on this board would be lucky to have him as crew - largely thanks to his experiences on his Sea Scout ship.

The Sea Scout motto is:

To guard against water accidents;
To know the location and proper use of the lifesaving devices on every boat I board;
To be prepared to render aid to those in need;
To seek to preserve the motto of the sea, Women and children first.

We teach "Women and children first" as meaning anyone who needs additional or special help - and with that, who can have a problem with the Sea Scout Motto?

The average Sea Scout knows more about safety and boat handling than most adults out there, and everyone reading this would be impressed to have one as a crew member.

Is it a losing battle against all the crazies in SF? You don't scuttle the boat and give up when the storm approaches - you brace for it and see your way through it to the other side.

Moderators, if you think this thread is somehow politically motivated, then by all means feel free to delete every post in it from beginning to end...

[Chief Engineer]

Support Scouting.....and any other positive youth activity in your neighborhood.....

Self sufficient kids make self sufficient adults.

[TaoJones]

Originally Posted by scotte

Thanks to those who IM'd me with CONSTRUCTIVE and USEFUL comments and suggestions.

I have no idea about all the various other comments about the BSA, though not atypical of the sort of post noise I've seen here at CF. As a Sea Scout dad with no experience with the BSA outside of this, most of the negative comments above seem completely off base as it relates to my son's experiences in the Sea Scouts, as well as my involvement. In the time my son has been involved, I've seen him become a great sailor, navigator, and deck hand. He's vastly improved his mechanical aptitude, leadership skills, and respect for other people - not to mention an increased love for the sea and wanting to help care for it. Every cruiser on this board would be lucky to have him as crew - largely thanks to his experiences on his Sea Scout ship.

The Sea Scout motto is:
We teach "Women and children first" as meaning anyone who needs additional or special help - and with that, who can have a problem with the Sea Scout Motto?

The average Sea Scout knows more about safety and boat handling than most adults out there, and everyone reading this would be impressed to have one as a crew member.

Is it a losing battle against all the crazies in SF? You don't scuttle the boat and give up when the storm approaches - you brace for it and see your way through it to the other side.

Moderators, if you think this thread is somehow politically motivated, then by all means feel free to delete every post in it from beginning to end...

I applaud you in your efforts to help preserve a wonderful outlet and learning experience for young people in the Bay Area, Scotte. I hope they know how fortunate they are to have someone like you who's going to bat for them.

Some people who post on this forum see every thread topic through their "political glasses" first, and evidently can't resist injecting their political opinions into their posted observations (despite their agreement to read the rules and abide by them.) It's unfortunate, but it will probably not change.

For what it's worth, I've traveled throughout this country and lived in many areas for at least a few months over my sixty years, and IMO the San Francisco Bay Area is one of the most interesting, enlightened, cosmopolitan cities in this country. It is unique in so many ways. To me, it is more "European" than any other major city in the US as reflected in the intellectual achievement, open-minded tolerance and, yes, the "craziness" of its incredibly diverse collection of inhabitants.

I love it!

Your son is fortunate, indeed, to have you as his mentor, Scotte. And it would seem that you have raised a fine young man with a love of the sea and sailing. I'm sure the Sea Scouts were a positive influence on him, as well, but that influence can only be a pale shadow of your own.

The injection of all this political nonsense into one man's selfless attempt to aid a worthy organization designed to provide a wonderful opportunity to young people reminds me of Little League baseball, PeeWee Football, AYSO soccer, etc. - it is invariably the "grown-ups" who so often ruin it for the children.

Continue to fight the good fight, Scotte - it's worth it!

TaoJones

[Chief Engineer]

It IS the adults that ruin it for the children in many cases.

Kid's just want to play ball, go hiking, build campfires tell stories and scare the bee-jeezus out of each other.

When adults let their polical correctness affect the kids.....that when kids get the short end.