Scouting Sites Only!
All others will be ignored.

Scouting The Web Award | History | Nomination Form


Age Requirement Due to Federal Laws of the USA, Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), no application will be accepted from anyone under the age of 14 without permission and participation of the applicants Parent or Legal Guardian. While Scouting The Web Award (or 369) does not require or verify the age of site owners, anyone under the age of 14 is ineligible to submit a site for The Scouting The Web Award. (A Site will be removed if it is determined the owner is under 14.)
  • Mission Statement
  • S.T.W.A. Beliefs
  • Who may receive the Award
  • Language
  • Odds of earning the award
To see more on these
subjects check out
Our History.

Why Do Most Sites Not Receive the STWA? Less than 2% of the sites receive our award. Most don't meet the goals of the STWA. We will not lower our standards. We feel it is better to not give out an award than to give one to a lesser site.

The goal of the STWA is to help youth join Scouting. Therefore, we are looking for sites that make youth want to join Scouting. Sites that are "parent pages" don't meet our goals. Even if they are GREAT!

Many sites are link pages. They simply link to other sites and/or copy information in from other sites. When we consider pages we ignor link content.

Photos When taking photos, think like a youth not a parent. If the majority of your photos are group shots to make you "the parent" happy, they don't count. If you were a child (the age of your scouts) would you be excited by looking at the photos? Do the photos make you want to join that unit and/or find a scouting program in their area? We are looking for photos of youth in Action, smiling, laughing, playing, in uniform, with other scouts!

In short, does the site make the youth say: "WOW that looks line fun! How do I join Scouting?"


Why does it take so long to get my site on the nomination list? Remember, we are a 100% volunteer staff. With holidays, vacations, etc. it can be hard to get someone to post the nominations. Therefore, we get the awards up with in 30 to 90 days.
Basic Award Requirements See indavidual Award Requirements, below.

In short ask yourself:

  • Would a youth want to join my unit because of this site?
  • Would a youth want to join any Scouting unit, other than yours, because of this site?
  • How would a parent benafit from this site?
  • How would someone, not from your unit, benafit from this site?
  • How would someone, not from your country, benafit from this site?
  • Other than your members, why would someone come back to your site on a regular basis?

Basic Requirements:

  • Only Scouting Sites will be considered.
  • A site must stand up to the Values of Scouting.
  • A site may not be commercial in nature.
  • To apply for the Scouting The Web Award, your web site must have a unique design, well laid out, and pages that are useful to Scouts and Scouters while enticing youth to join Scouting.
  • Your site should be completed (No Under Construction sign).
  • Your pages may not have broken links and/or image that do not show up.
  • Graphics are mostly designed by members of your unit.
  • Easy to navigate, fast loading and not too many animated gifs.
  • Since Scouts use many types of computers and web browsers, system specific files can disqualify a site.
  • The site should not have too many advertising banners (two or three is OK).
  • Your site must be Written in English or English translation.
  • After receiving the Award, you ask that you link back to our page.
  • Submission can be made by anyone for your site.
  • Incorrect URL or Detail of submission will disqualify your site. If the Judges can't get to your page, they can't judge your page.
  • The site may not take control of the viewer's browser.
  • The site may not download anything to the viewer's system.
  • The site may not change anything on the viewer's system.
  • Must have a valid contact e-mail address.
  • The site MUST be "G" rated!
  • The site MUST have a "Scouting" motif!
  • The site MUST promote the "Scouting" movement!
  • The site MUST make a youth want to join "Scouting!"

See the requirements for a different level awards.
  • STWA-Bronze
  • STWA-Silver
  • STWA-Gold
  • STWA-Gold+
  • It is strongly suggested that you read the STWA History!
    You may view past Recipients! of the STWA! recipients

    These links will open a new window

    Removal of the Award The Scouting The Web Award Comittee may remove an award from a site that breaks any of the Scouting The Web Award rules.


    Some Background:
    Our Judges use many differet type of systems:
    • Solaris
    • Linux
    • Mac
    • Windows
    • etc...
    On many different connections:
    • Slow Modems
    • ISDN
    • ADSL
    • Cable Modems
    • T1
    • OC3
    Age Groups
    • Scouts
    • Scouters
    • Parents
    Therefore, for example, if you create your web page so that only a Windows system running IE can view it, our Windows Judges may give you a Gold and our Mac Judges give you a none and that would cancel each other out. In other words that would disqualify your site for the award.

    Our judges are looking for quality sites that set great examples for other Scouting Units around the world. For sites that would make a youth want to join either the hosts unit, or more importantly look for a unit in their neighborhood. Sites should offer information that is benafitial to other Scouts and Scouters around the world.


    Judging: Judging takes place as the sites are nominated. Judges' comments are due on the last Tuesday of the month. Only winners will be notified.


    Instructions:

    1. Enter in the information below about the Web site you would like to nominate for the Scouting The Web Award.
    2. If the S.T.W.A. decides to review your site your site's URL will be added to our Current list of nominated sites. Most sites are added within 5 business days.
    3. Once a month the Current list of nominated sites is errased for the next month's candidates.


    * Information will be displayed on our Public accessable pages.
    * Information will be removed from public accessable pages if site does not earn the award.

    We are sorry, but VenturingBSA had to stop accepting Scouting The Web Award Nominations because of people that kept spamming the judges with porn site information.

    Our Host
    Venturing Crew 369
    Columbus, Ohio USA


    Last Updated March, 2002.

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