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Photo by Roger Morgan/BSA Scouts BSA launched Feb. 1, 2019, and reports of new Scouts and new troops are pouring in from across the country. In places like Pennsylvania, Texas, Oregon and beyond, parents looking for a character-building, leadership-strengthening, outdoors-focused program for their sons and daughters are saying … “Scout Me In!”
Joe and Susan heard the troop committee would be mulling over whether or not to have a fall fundraiser this year at the committee meeting tomorrow night. They have some ideas on what should be done. When they asked fellow parents if they also were planning on attending, they were informed parents couldn’t attend troop…
Be Prepared for a better commute. With CubCast and ScoutCast, the BSA’s pair of monthly podcasts, you’ll become a more-informed Scouting volunteer as you drive to work, empty the dishwasher or walk your dog. Each month’s topic is so expertly timed to give you helpful information, you’ll think the team behind CubCast and ScoutCast can…
Lena and Jack Towne Technically, Scouts BSA launch day isn’t an official U.S. holiday. But don’t tell that to Lena Towne. The eighth-grader from Georgia, like countless girls in communities across the country, is celebrating today like it’s her birthday.
The Peck family of Idaho (from left): Andrew, Rachel, Phil and Bobbie Jo. Earlier today, I shared the news that the Boy Scouts of America will offer a limited-time extension to its Eagle Scout age requirements, giving new Scouts BSA members the chance to earn Scouting’s highest honor.
Update : After careful consideration and listening to feedback from volunteers, the BSA has set the maximum length of an Eagle Scout extension length to 24 months , as was first announced in October. The post below has been updated to reflect the official policy.
Fun and adventure don’t have to end when the camping trip is over. Scouts can experience spellbinding, heart-racing excitement just by opening the latest book in the Magic Tree House series from Random House. The best-selling series by Mary Pope Osborne follows Jack and Annie Smith, a brother and sister from the fictional small town…
Consider this getting the best of both worlds. When the Scouts BSA program launches on Friday, Feb. 1, girls already in Venturing or Sea Scouting can join a Scouts BSA troop without paying a second membership fee. That means they’ll experience the excitement of Scouts BSA without having to give up the high-adventure fun and…
From left: Lyron Co Ting Keh, Samuel Ferguson and Braden Milford. Sometimes a Scout’s mountaintop moment doesn’t happen on an actual mountain. Sometimes it happens in a science lab. Three Scouts, hailing from California, New Jersey and Oklahoma, have been named finalists in the nation’s oldest and most prestigious STEM competition for high school seniors.
The conundrum: A parent wants to go to camp with his or her Scout, but money has been tight for the family lately. So, the parent asks if he or she can individually raise money and put it in a Scout account.
You don’t have to travel across the ocean to have a transformative Scouting experience. But if you’re ever lucky enough to visit Kandersteg International Scout Centre in Switzerland, the results will be nothing short of legendary. Over winter break, Dakota Scott spent a week at Kandersteg .
Today’s parents can do it all online. With a few taps on their tablet, they can buy school supplies, sign up for soccer or hire a babysitter. And, more and more these days, they’re finding out about Scouting online, too.
When Eagle Scout Zach Dougherty met John McCain in 2007, he was a Cub Scout. What happened years later will leave you speechless. Zach knew the flag ceremony he was taking part in was important. But he had no idea the impression McCain left on him would come full circle.
BSA pioneer William "Green Bar Bill" Hillcourt (left) with Scouting founder Robert Baden-Powell in 1935. Be a part of BSA history while preserving and promoting BSA history. Youth and adult Scouting historians (or aspiring historians) are invited to attend the first-ever National Scouting Historian Summit this June at the Philmont Training Center in northern New…
The Scouting community rallied to Houston’s side in 2017 after Hurricane Harvey. A year later, when an Eagle Scout from Houston heard about the wildfire in Northern California, he was determined to return the favor. Rafe Kotalik, senior patrol leader of Troop 1772 from the Sam Houston Area Council, launched a massive gear drive for…
This goes way beyond blue vs. khaki. The difference between Cub Scouts and Scouts BSA encompasses critical categories like unit structure, leadership, parental involvement, advancement and camping. Both programs are built on Scouting’s time-tested values. That’s evidenced by the fact that members of both programs recite the Scout Oath and Scout Law.
A new year means a new year of Scouting Safety Quizzes. About 400 people tested their knowledge in our November-December quiz: “ Oh, Christmas Tree! ” It dealt with the fire dangers of Christmas trees. We picked one entrant at random to win a $100 Scout Shop gift card.
Don Murphy Decades before precision starting gates, glow-in-the-dark cars and electronic finish lines that measure time to the thousandth of a second, there was a two-lane wooden track in California. A lot has changed since Cubmaster Don Murphy dreamed up the idea for the Pinewood Derby in 1953.
Rank advancement in Cub Scouting is not like rank advancement in Scouts BSA. And that’s by design. In Cub Scouting, advancement is grade- or age-based. It’s a rank-per-year system designed to offer age-appropriate fun and challenges as Cub Scouts progress through the program.
We’re now just weeks — not months — away from the launch of Scouts BSA. In anticipation of the program’s Feb. 1 debut, Scouts BSA uniform items and the Scouts BSA Handbook for Girls have begun arriving at Scout shops and will soon be in stock at scoutshop.org .
One carabiner can help you carry a water bottle, organize your keys or climb a mountain. But 1,856 carabiners? That’ll help you get a Guinness World Record. Charles Boone, an Eagle Scout from Dormont, Pa., was honored by Guinness World Records for creating the longest chain of carabiners ever.
There’s room for everyone in Scouting, especially Scouts who are blind or visually impaired. That’s why the Boy Scouts of America has released Braille versions of all four Cub Scout handbooks: Tiger, Wolf, Bear and Webelos. Now every Cub Scout can follow each chapter of his or her Cub Scouting journey.
Troop 121 in Granite Bay, Calif., celebrated its 50th anniversary last fall with a special program, featuring a video presentation, group photo and ice cream and cake afterwards. More than 300 Scouts reached the Eagle Scout rank in those five decades, and more than 255 of them were mentored by Scoutmaster John Hooten, Jr.
Birders call a group of eagles a convocation, a congregation or an aerie. But in the case of Daniel, Tim, Ben, Adam, Sam and Joshua Moeller, a more fitting word is “family.” Last month, the two youngest members of the Cincinnati-based Moellers earned the Eagle Scout rank.
Repping the BSA is now just a tap or click away. The Boy Scouts of America has opened a new Amazon store that makes buying officially licensed products easier than ever. The collection includes more than two dozen unique items, including officially licensed T-shirts, pocketknives and those PopSocket things everyone has on the back of…
The Eagle Scout medal symbolizes a difficult, rewarding journey that, for some young people, spans more than a decade. While it’s impossible to replace the actual medal pinned on a proud Eagle Scout at a court of honor, the BSA does have a process for obtaining a replacement.
Eric Dorre’s family has a bit of a problem, but it’s a good problem to have. They’re moving to Mercer Island, Wash., and they want to find the right troop for their son Magnus. “We are spoiled for choice, with three troops within a few minutes of our new home,” Eric Dorre writes.
Rogers Claussen, a battalion chief with the Rochester Hills Fire Department, recently joined the National Eagle Scout Association and got the Firefighters Affinity Group decal for his helmet. That decal served as a proud statement of his earning the Eagle Scout Award in 1987.
What’s even more fun than being part of a Cub Scout den? Having at least five kids your age in your den! Whether it’s a den for boys or a den for girls, everyone has a better experience if there are more Cub Scouts to share the fun.
The current members of Sea Scout Ship 24, part of the BSA's Sam Houston Area Council. There were plenty of Sea Scout ships around before Ship 24 of Houston set sail in 1923. But when those other ships let their charters lapse during World War II, Ship 24 stayed afloat.
Inspired by a story the Scouts read in Boys’ Life magazine, a troop from Florida is heading to Montana this month for a once-in-a-lifetime ski trip. Over four days, they’ll tour Yellowstone National Park on a snowcat, work on the Snow Sports merit badge, learn about avalanche rescue from members of the ski patrol and…
Matt Parsons, an Eagle Scout and Sea Scout from Delaware, has been elected by his peers to serve as National Chief of the Order of the Arrow. Parsons, along with National Vice Chief Eric Harrison of Illinois and four region chiefs, will serve and represent nearly 200,000 members of the OA , the Boy Scouts of…
Fellow Scouters, 2019 is off to a great start. Scoutbook , the Boy Scouts of America’s online tool for managing and tracking Scouting advancement, is now completely, totally, 100 percent free. The change became official today — Jan. 1, 2019. Longtime users know how Scoutbook makes it easy (and fun!)
It just takes a moment to make your pack, troop or crew a little bit safer. With its Safety Moments , covering a range of topics from acute mountain sickness to zip lines, the Boy Scouts of America’s Health and Safety team hopes to make Scouting an even safer place, one page at a time.
A Scout’s promise “to help other people at all times” doesn’t take spring break off. That’s why hundreds of Scouts, Venturers and adult volunteers will gather at Philmont Scout Ranch in March and early April for Philbreak 2019, a chance to help the legendary Scouting destination recover from the Ute Park Fire.
When Chip and Wendy Waggoner took parenting advice from their son’s doctor, they changed the course of his life forever. The advice? Treat your son like a normal kid. Benjamin has spina bifida. And now, he’s achieved Scouting’s highest rank.
As 2018 ends, the flood of year-in-review stories begins. It seems like everyone with a blog is sharing the 10 best movies or 10 best books or 10 best baby strollers of 2018. Will the madness ever end? Maybe. Anyway, today I’m sharing the 10 most-read Bryan on Scouting blog posts of 2018.
Justin Regan (left) completed his Eagle project at Paramount Ranch in 2009. Mike Malone served at his National Park Service liaison. For the past decade, Paramount Ranch has been the perfect place for Boy Scouts who love movies and TV shows to perform their Eagle Scout service projects.
With respect to Ryan Seacrest, the biggest countdown on the horizon happens exactly one month after New Year’s. On Feb. 1, 2019, the Boy Scouts of America launches Scouts BSA. It’s the same great program we currently call Boy Scouts, but it’ll be open to any young person — boy or girl — ages 11 to 17.
What do guitar-strumming bears and top hat-wearing clydesdales have to do with cold-weather camping? You’d have to watch December 2018’s episode of Tales From the Campfire to find out. And honestly, upon first watch, you may still not have an answer to that question.
Make your next Pinewood Derby race really shine by adding glow-in-the-dark accessories and iridescent paint to your Cub Scouts’ racers. Want to turn up the excitement even more? Turn off the lights and shine a black light or two onto your track.
It’ll take a dedicated team of talented, motivated volunteers to welcome 45,000 Scouts and Scouters from 133 countries to the 2019 World Scout Jamboree. That’s where you come in. The 2019 World Scout Jamboree still needs a few Scouters with special skills to help make this once-in-a-generation event truly world class.
News broke this week speculating on the financial situation of the Boy Scouts of America, including a suggestion that the organization may be considering the option of bankruptcy. While that headline sounds startling, here’s the reality: Scouts, parents and adult volunteers can (and should) keep on enjoying the same great Scouting program uninterrupted.
Charles Nance (back row, second from left) and Pack 54 take a hike during their evacuation. Imagine going on a Cub Scout camping trip without knowing how long you’ll be gone or whether you’ll have a home to return to when it’s over.
The last time I posted about out-of-the-ordinary camping locations, the list included an 18th-century fort in New York, a “haunted” jail in Canada and a minor league baseball field in Delaware. Now it’s time for a new list. The list of 10 actual places Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts have camped includes a gorilla exhibit…
Celia Beekman knows it’s quite an accomplishment becoming an Eagle Scout. She has seen her brother and nephews reach the pinnacle of Boy Scouting’s ranks. So, after hearing a congratulatory message for a few new Eagle Scouts announced over the PA at Ridge High School, she decided to further honor the students by setting up…
Ask your Cub Scouts whether they enjoyed an especially chaotic pack or den meeting, and they’ll likely say yes. But ask the parents or volunteers, and you can expect the opposite answer. So how can Cubmasters, assistant Cubmasters and den leaders manage that chaos while still allowing their Cub Scouts to have fun?
Photo by Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty Images On Monday night, a Webelos Scout stands tall, his right hand raised to his brow, saluting the casket carrying President George H.W. Bush. Just before 2 a.m. Tuesday, six Boy Scouts and five adult leaders pause in reverential silence to honor our nation’s 41st president, who…
When the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve, it won’t just mean the end of 2018. It’ll also mean the end of any partial progress made toward position-specific training for Cub Scout leaders and Boy Scout leaders. (These courses, and many more, are found at the BSA Learn Center on My.Scouting.org .)
Excitement continues to build for the launch of Scouts BSA , the new name for the program that will welcome boys and girls in separate troops beginning in February 2019. I’ve heard from adult volunteers who are so eager to get started that they’re already doing some advance work.
