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Continuous improvement is a big part of Scouting. Whether you’re 8 or 80, you’re never really done learning to be a better Scout. Continuous improvement is a big part of the BSA’s Journey to Excellence standards, as well. Rather than rolling out the same JTE scorecards every year, the JTE team meets yearly to make…
Philmont staff members camped at the Colfax County Fairgrounds during their evacuation over the weekend. While staff members were permitted to return to base camp, the condition of the backcountry has not drastically improved. Update, 8 a.m. June 6 : The Ute Park Fire spans 36,800 acres and is 30 percent contained.
Former First Lady Laura Bush addressed the BSA’s national meeting on May 24 in Dallas, giving an impassioned speech about literacy, her family and the BSA’s role in shaping young lives. Mrs. Bush, who lives in Dallas with her husband, President George W.
Peace out, plastic utensils. See ya, styrofoam. Ciao, coffee creamers in individual packets. By instituting some simple, environmentally friendly changes, Troops 3, 5 and 9 of Wilmette, Ill., have dramatically reduced their waste at the troops’ annual pancake breakfast. How dramatic?
When a young person joins the Boy Scouts of America, one of the first things he or she learns is the Scout Oath, and every member starts the Oath the same way: “On my honor I will do my best to do my duty to God …” The wording was not created at random.
The Boy Scouts of America’s national board last week elected two new volunteers to join our National Key 3. Jim Turley , the former chairman and CEO of Ernst & Young who has served as a Scouting volunteer for nearly 25 years, has been elected national chair.
Ready to take your council’s National Youth Leadership Training to the next level? Encourage one or more of your youth NYLT staffers to attend the NYLT Leadership Academy . To understand NYLT Leadership Academy, you must first understand NYLT. NYLT is a council-offered leadership training experience for young people.
The National Scouting Museum – Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico will open to the public beginning June 8 — just in time for trekkers, families attending conferences and visitors to be among the first to venture into this 19,500-square-foot home of BSA history.
Eric Prullage (center) with his parents (left) and Shuqun Zhang and Zhang's wife. CPR is one of the few Scouting skills you hope you never have to use. But when University of Missouri student Eric Prullage’s professor collapsed, the Eagle Scout put his first-aid training to the test.
There are three Silver-level awards for Scout volunteers: the Silver Beaver for council-level service, the Silver Antelope for regional service and the Silver Buffalo for national service. The Silver Beaver is presented by councils, usually at an annual banquet. The Silver Antelope and Silver Buffalo awards are presented at the BSA’s annual meeting, which this…
When Scouts pass litter on the trail, they pick it up. After pack or troop meetings, Scouts return tables and chairs where they belong. Before Scouts leave a campsite, they comb for garbage — even picking up what previous tenants left behind.
Across the country this weekend, packs, troops, crews and ships will take part in a solemn Memorial Day tradition: placing flags at the graves of men and women who died serving our country. If your Scout unit will be a part of this patriotic ritual, read this list of tips from my colleague Michael Freeman…
If you’re the man or woman who tracks advancement for your Scout unit, here’s an opportunity to get trained, have fun and spend a week at one of the greatest places in the Scouting universe. In other words, I think you’ll find these Philmont Training Center courses will meet all of your requirements and more.
The National Order of the Arrow Committee today approved some exciting updates to Scouting’s national honor society. Beginning Feb. 1, 2019, unit elections will be permitted in Scouts BSA troops, Venturing crews and Sea Scout ships. Previously, elections only were for Boy Scout troops.
When you’re on a list that includes Neil Armstrong, Hank Aaron, Gerald Ford, Bill Gates and Walt Disney, you must have done something right. But “something right” doesn’t begin to describe the 10 volunteers who join the list of Silver Buffalo Award recipients this year.
We can’t say for sure that Eagle Scout George Oldroyd was the youngest Scoutmaster in BSA history. What we can say for certain is that he was at least tied for that honor. BSA rules say a man or woman must be 21 to serve as Scoutmaster.
These eight world-class members of the Venturing program never set out to get national recognition for their service. They just wanted to do their part to grow Venturing, the BSA’s adventure-packed program for young men and young women ages 14 (or 13 and done with the eighth grade) to 21.
For 35 years, Scouts from the Chickasaw Council have honored the veterans buried at the Memphis National Cemetery every Memorial Day by placing American flags at their grave sites. Buddy Crenshaw came up with the endeavor after a Scout, who was seeking ideas for an Eagle Scout project, approached him.
All Scouts are brave. Some are called to risk their life to save others. Retired Master Chief Petty Officer Britt K. Slabinski, an Eagle Scout, belongs in that latter group. On May 24, 2018, he will receive the Medal of Honor for his 2002 attempt to rescue a teammate during a 14-hour battle in the…
The Great Alaska Council’s 2017 set. A father-son duo from Alaska created a massive mural to display patches they collected together at the 2013 and 2017 National Jamborees. The entire mural, made up of four square sections, measures 4 feet high and 16 feet long.
Si Brown (center) shows off the red jacket and ring presented to Hot Sauce Hall of Fame inductees. Pour a glass of milk, because this news is pretty spicy. Joseph “Si” Brown, the Distinguished Eagle Scout whose company turned Louisiana Hot Sauce into a household name, has been elected to the Hot Sauce Hall of…
Ashton Kutcher, star of TV and movies and the original social media influencer who in 2009 became the first account to amass 1 million Twitter followers, was a Scout and hiked at Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico. The star of That ’70s Show took to Twitter on Thursday to offer his support for the…
Luke Schultz was born with spina bifida, a spinal defect that forced him to wear leg braces and undergo multiple surgeries. When he crossed over from Cub Scouts into Boy Scouts, he figured he’d advance as far as he could — no pressure if he didn’t earn Eagle.
Apparently not wanting to stop after entertaining his fellow Scouts with skits around the campfire, an Eagle Scout from Minnesota is taking his acting talents across the pond. Eukariah Tabaka, an Eagle Scout from Troop 238 of Marshall, Minn., has been accepted into the Acting Shakespeare training program at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts…
The Philmont Training Center isn’t the exclusive home of high-level BSA training. Excellent opportunities await at the Summit Bechtel Reserve’s John D. Tickle National Training and Leadership Center in West Virginia. The center has a long name but a simple purpose: Help adults and youth make an even bigger impact on their unit, district or…
Hayden (kneeling holding Smart Harness System) and Anthony (second from right) are the two Eagle Scouts on the award-winning Texas A&M engineering team. Two Eagle Scouts who attend Texas A&M University have won an engineering prize for their project that could end fall-related deaths at the workplace.
On Cartoon Network’s Craig of the Creek , everyday trips into the woods become chances to do something legendary with friends. Hey, just like Scouting! But the similarities don’t end there. Craig and his friends know some of life’s best adventures happen in your own backyard.
Never heard of Fortnite? Your Scouts or Venturers can get you up to speed on the biggest videogame phenomenon in years. The Battle Royale game for computers, consoles and iOS devices pits 100 players against each other to be the last player standing on an ever-shrinking map.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints this week announced that, starting on Jan. 1, 2020, it will shift the focus of its youth programs toward serving an increasingly global membership. That means the LDS church will no longer charter Scout units beginning in 2020 and beyond.
More than 800 people tested their food safety knowledge in our March-April Scouting Safety Quiz in Scouting magazine . We selected one entrant at random to win a $100 Scout Shop gift card. And that winner is Holly Sanders, committee treasurer of Troop 949 in Wentzville, Mo.
Think of chaplains and chaplain aides as facilitators of the 12th point of the Scout Law: A Scout is reverent. Think of the Advanced Unit Chaplain and Unit Chaplain Aide Training as a road map for these important roles. The weekend training course is for chaplains and chaplain aides of any faith.
The neckerchief is the most underrated part of a Scout’s uniform. Around the globe, this piece of cloth is often the primary identifier that someone is a Scout. (Exhibit A: Bear Grylls, Chief Scout of the U.K. ) Within the BSA, there are special neckerchiefs for Eagle Scouts, for each rank in Cub Scouting and for…
Even after 130 years of headline-making exploration, National Geographic has entered new territory: children’s fiction. Explorer Academy, a new book series for young readers ages 8 to 12, blends real-world science and exploration with thrilling tales of adventure. The first book in the Explorer Academy seven-part series is The Nebula Secret , to be published in…
From left: Hartley, Darcy and Mykal Phinney went on a Philmont trek together in July 2015. On May 12, 2012, Darcy Phinney’s life changed forever. Darcy and her entire family were headed home from a golf tournament when a teenager who was texting while driving hit their minivan head-on.
The wait is over, and we now know what we’ll call the program for 11- to 17-year-old youth when girls can begin joining during the scheduled launch on Feb. 1, 2019. Let’s hear it for Scouts BSA! Boys and girls who are part of Scouts BSA will be known as Scouts.
For Faith Halterman, Cub Scouting served primarily as a father-son activity for her husband John and son Nathan. But after John’s sudden death in October 2015, she began to see it in a different light. You might recall when we first wrote about the Halterman family and how Pack 624 in the San Diego Imperial…
In California, a 7-year-old girl screamed with delight when she learned she could become an official member of her brother’s Cub Scout pack. In Tennessee, a Cubmaster approached his chartered organization about becoming an early adopter pack and welcoming girls, and the church leader told him “we’re right behind you.”
Cheerful service doesn’t take a week off — not even for spring break. Arrowmen from as far away as Minnesota and Colorado traveled to the Florida Sea Base in March to complete a week of hurricane cleanup. They called this giant spring break service project SeaBreak.
Bill Steele (left) and Hemirrhagus billsteelei, the spider named in his honor. Eagle Scout Bill Steele, a world-renowned speleologist, spends a lot of his time inside caves in Mexico. Hemirrhagus billsteelei , a newly discovered species of spider, spends all of its time there.
Six conferences being offered at the Philmont Training Center this summer are about training. Getting trained on training at the Philmont Training Center? Now that’s meta. If your Scouting job involves training other leaders, you should consider attending one of these volunteer development conferences, supported by ScoutingU’s Learning Delivery Team.
An environmental clean-up project should be much more than a way to simply fulfill service hour requirements. But how do you ensure picking up trash doesn’t devolve into that? For Pack 267 and Troop 267 in Fredonia, N.Y., leaders and parents have helped turn such projects into learning opportunities and fun annual traditions.
The six young people selected to serve on the 2018-2019 National Venturing Officers’ Association will play a critical role. With the support of adult volunteers and professionals, they will shape Venturing’s future, make important decisions and serve as Venturing’s public face.
Ryan Kelly, who received a 2018 Pulitzer Prize for his chilling photo of a car plowing into a group of counterprotesters in Charlottesville, Va., is an Eagle Scout. Kelly was a staff photojournalist at The Daily Progress in Charlottesville from 2013 to 2017.
It’s time for Show and Tell , where Scouters show their favorite photos based on that week’s Scouting topic and tell the story behind them. Upload a photo as a comment below. Just click the image icon at the bottom of any comment box and choose which file you’d like to upload.
At Space Camp, young people train like astronauts. Using high-tech simulators and learning from experts, they live and work as a team to plan a mission to Mars and beyond. But this incubator of interplanetary innovation isn’t located in the obvious space places like Houston or Cape Canaveral, Fla.
When Justin Aubin learned that Yale University allowed students to include videos with their application, he was thrilled. Yale challenged applicants to demonstrate “a community to which you belong and the footprint you have left.” Justin had the perfect response.
Michael Yerger, a contestant on the 36th season of the CBS reality show Survivor , is an Eagle Scout. Yerger, who was 18 when Survivor: Ghost Island was filmed in the summer of 2017 in Fiji, is trying to be the youngest person ever to win Survivor .
NOAC 2018 — the National Order of the Arrow Conference this summer at Indiana University — is sure to be an exceptional experience for the 8,000 Arrowmen who will attend. Having been there for NOAC 2015, I can tell you it’s an event unlike anything else in Scouting.
One-third of Venturing Crew 19 in Normal, Illinois, has the same goal this summer: report to Cadet Basic Training at West Point. Danielle Cross, Shane Hickman and Isaac Hageberg each chose the U.S. Military Academy with different career paths in mind, but they’re all looking to better themselves while helping others.
They’re called early adopter Cub Scout packs. These Scout units, with council approval, have been welcoming girls since Jan. 15. Early feedback from this soft launch of Family Scouting has been excellent. One den leader told me the girls in her den “are curious and want new experiences in a fun and positive environment.
