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Cub Scouting is the greatest program out there for kids, so why would the Boy Scouts of America feel the need to change it? To make it better, of course. The new Cub Scout Adventure Program , debuting in May 2015, is better for everyone involved.
You've heard that all Scouting programs will adopt the Scout Oath and Scout Law over the next two years. But does that include Varsity Scouts? Yes indeed. That means the Varsity Scout Pledge is going away, beginning tomorrow - June 1, 2014.
A Cub Scout lesson on the potential danger of strangers may have saved two boys from abduction. Two 8-year-olds from Ogden, Utah, were waiting for a ride home from a Cub Scout meeting when a stranger approached in his truck.
At just 32 years old, Andrew Miller has already built a Scouting résumé that rivals some of the movement's most tenured Scouters. He helped develop a Merit Badge University at Harvard, wrote the syllabus for a first-year camper program, served at the region level on the NESA scholarship committee and at the national level on…
The result wasn't pretty, but the photos sure are. Justin Wilson and the No. 19 Boy Scouts of America IndyCar finished 22nd in Sunday's Indianapolis 500. That's a disappointing result for the Dale Coyne Racing team, especially after last year's fifth-place finish .
Watching the Indianapolis 500 later today? Be sure to look out for the No. 19 Boy Scouts of America car, driven by Justin Wilson and owned by friend of Scouting and Silver Buffalo recipient Dale Coyne. The race starts at noon Eastern on ABC.
Robert M. Gates, the former defense secretary, will prioritize transparency, marketing, retention and recruitment, and continued program innovation during his two-year term as the 35th president of the Boy Scouts of America. In his first speech to Scouters and Scouts since the 2010 jamboree, the Distinguished Eagle Scout and past president of the National Eagle…
Now that the requirements for the new Venturing awards have been released, attention turns to what the awards themselves will look like. Will they be medals? Badges? A combination of the two? Turns out you and other Venturers or Venturing advisors can have a say in the final decision.
In February I posted a list of the 2014 recipients of the Silver Buffalo Award, and today I'd like to share what those individuals did to earn Scouting's highest honor for adults. Why today? Because tonight the noteworthy nine will get their medals in a special recognition ceremony at the BSA's National Annual Meeting in…
More than 12,000 Scouts turned up at Kansas Speedway last weekend for the inaugural Scouting 500 . The final results: Everyone in attendance had a high-octane weekend they'll never forget. As this positive story in the Kansas City Star explained, Scouts could have "ridden a zip line, raced go-karts, flown remote-control helicopters, climbed rock walls and…
Thirty-two incredible Scouters will receive the Silver Antelope today, but forgive me for focusing on one in particular for a few minutes. My dad, Don Wendell, is one of eight Scouters getting this prestigious regional award from the Southern Region today at the BSA's National Annual Meeting in Nashville, Tenn.
The Boy Scouts of America today elected Robert M. Gates, Eagle Scout, former defense secretary and former CIA director as its national president. He officially begins his two-year term as the BSA's 35th president today. The BSA's volunteer and professional delegates attending this week's National Annual Meeting in Nashville, Tenn., voted to confirm Gates as…
Next year, your Cub Scout pack will grow in size by one cool kid. Ethan, the newest member of the Cub Scout team, will be a part of each adventure in your boys' new Cub Scout handbooks. He'll always be a year older and one rank ahead of your Cub Scout readers, meaning he'll speak…
As hundreds of professional and volunteer Scouters convene this week at the Boy Scouts of America's National Annual Meeting in Nashville, Tenn., it's a great time to examine annual meetings highlighted in Scouting magazine during the years. However, the first meeting featured in Scouting wasn't the first National Annual Meeting.
The folks behind next year's fun-focused changes to Cub Scouting aren't high-paid consultants. They aren't people who have never run a den meeting in their lives. They're not even BSA professionals. In truth, they're volunteers - dedicated Cub Scouters just like you.
Amid all the excitement around the new adventure loops and adventure pins announced today , you might have missed a smaller but still significant change to Cub Scouting for next year. When the new Cub Scout program becomes official on May 2015, Tiger Cubs becomes simply Tiger and gets a new tiger image to go along…
Heads up, Venturers and Venturing advisors. It's the moment you've been waiting for. The requirements for the Venturing, Discovery, Pathfinder and Summit Awards were released today at the 2014 National Annual Meeting in Nashville, Tenn. Venturers may begin earning them June 1, 2014.
Let me get this out of the way first: Belt loops and pins aren't going anywhere when Cub Scouting gets an exciting refresh in May 2015. In fact, belt loops - now called adventure loops - and pins (adventure pins) will get even better than before with the new updates.
Avid readers of this blog have been hearing about changes to Cooking merit badge since October 2012 . But new Scouters or new blog readers might not know about the exciting, important changes to this now-Eagle-required merit badge. The basic facts are these: Cooking merit badge became required to earn the Eagle Scout Award on Jan.
Trevor, a Life Scout, recently got his Eagle Scout Project Proposal OK'd by his unit leader, unit committee, the project beneficiary and his council or district. With that complete, next up in the process is filling out a Final Plan, which the Eagle Scout Service Project Workbook says is a tool for the Scout's use…
If you've never heard of Imagine Dragons, ask a couple of your Scouts to get you up to speed. Or check out the list of winners from last night's Billboard Music Awards in Las Vegas. The rock band, fronted by Eagle Scout lead singer Dan Reynolds, won five awards last night, including Top Rock Artist…
Talk about great odds. Eagle Scout Connor O'Leary and his dad, Dave, had a one in three shot at winning $1 million in last night's season finale of The Amazing Race . Appropriate to any discussion about odds, the 35,000-mile race around the world ended in Las Vegas.
Swimming merit badge, that Eagle-required summer camp staple, has been upgraded and revised just in time for the 2014 summer camp season. The new requirements focus more on teaching Scouts correct stroke mechanics while continuing to emphasize basic water skills.
Later today, 10,000 Boy Scouts will converge in New Jersey for what organizers are calling the year's largest Scouting event (though the Scouting 500 event this weekend in Kansas City may beg to differ). This weekend's New Jersey State Police and New Jersey National Guard Camporee will gather 300 troops from all over New Jersey…
It almost seems unfair. A few older teens and 20-somethings will work at Northern Tier, Philmont, Sea Base or the Summit this summer, and they'll get paid for it. Most of the summer staff is locked in for 2014, but the BSA's four national high-adventure bases still have a few spots they're looking to fill.
At next week's National Annual Meeting in Nashville, Tenn., the BSA will announce revisions to the current Cub Scouting program. ( You can read more about these changes in this post , and Bryan will have more live updates next week from Nashville.)
What would you if you found a bag with $4,500 inside? Caribbean vacation, maybe? Shopping spree at Best Buy? For 15-year-old Boy Scout James Villeneuve from Latham, N.Y., there was never any question about the answer. As reported by WNYT-TV , James spotted a money bag while strolling with his family through a park in Albany…
This morning President Obama will officially dedicate the National September 11 Memorial & Museum . It opens to the public May 21. Two years ago this month, I blogged about a special-edition council shoulder patch that the Greater New York Councils created to remember the attacks of Sept.
Parents decide which movies are OK for their children and which contain too much violence, bad language or sexual content. But what happens when that guardianship temporarily transfers to you, the Scout leader? How do you decide whether it's OK to watch that PG movie on a Cub Scout overnight or a PG-13 movie with…
Admit it: You like to be the first to know what's new in the Boy Scouts of America. I'm with you. So I was excited this week to learn about Scouting Newsroom , the new, official site for BSA news, updates and information.
He's already earned Scouting's highest honor, so racing donkeys in Italy, dancing in Malaysia and becoming a barber in Seville, Spain - all with a million bucks on the line - seems like a cake walk for Connor O'Leary. Connor is the younger half of the "David & Connor" father-son team competing for $1 million on the Emmy-winning…
Talk about setting the bar high. Mary Agnes Lewis, 86, was honored by the Baltimore Area Council earlier this month as its first Eagle Scout Mom of the Year. Her accomplishment? Helping all seven of her sons achieve the Eagle Scout Award.
Scouts learn first-aid skills in Scouting without ever knowing when they'll need to use them. Or on whom. Last month a group of New Jersey Boy Scouts helped rescue the NBC journalist Ann Curry after she had broken her ankle while hiking.
This summer, while everyone else is stuck at home or the office, treat yourself and your family to a weekend at the Summit Bechtel Reserve. Zip down the zip lines, glide around the skateboard park, test your accuracy shooting a bow and arrow at moving targets and so much more.
This is a rule so obvious it shouldn't need to be said: Shooting at one another is an unauthorized activity in Scouting. But what about paintball? Participants in that popular activity shoot at each other, but they do so using nonlethal capsules of colored dye.
Calling all Good Turns: Has your pack, troop or crew recently completed a service project in your community (or beyond)? We want to hear about it! Your unit's project might be featured in an upcoming Scouting magazine feature story. (In this instance, we're not looking for Eagle Scout Service Projects; instead, we want to know…
Not content at the 21 merit badges required for Eagle, some Scouts go beyond and earn additional merit badges, making them eligible to receive Eagle Scout palms. An Eagle Scout who earns five merit badges beyond the minimum amount (and meets other requirements ) will receive a Bronze Palm.
Here's a way to be a winner at the 2014 New York City Marathon no matter what place you finish. Ten altruistic individuals will get a guaranteed spot in the marathon and benefit New York City Scouting far beyond the 26.2-mile race through the city's five boroughs.
Glove compartment, daypack, purse or troop trailer: It's easy to find a place to store the new, more-compact Guide to Safe Scouting . The Guide , which includes policies and guidelines established to help keep you and your Scouts safe, is now available in a form that's smaller and more durable.
Imagine Scouting in a world without local, state and national parks. It's not a pretty sight: Tents pitched in mall parking lots, s'mores cooked over an open tire fire, fishing in repurposed swimming pools. Thank goodness for agencies like the National Park Trust, which helps preserve America's local, state and national parks for future generations.
Now you don't have to be an Eagle Scout to read about the cool things Eagle Scouts are doing. For the first time ever, Eagles ‘ Call , the quarterly magazine from the National Eagle Scout Association, is available to anyone, not just those who have earned Scouting's highest honor.
In Scouting 's April 1921 edition , a U.S. District Court judge states, "No city can afford to be without its Boy Scouts." Judge Foster argues, "I have never come in touch with a man who had Scout training without finding him efficient and proud that he had been a Scout.
Eagle Scout's the highest rank in Scouting, but it's not the end of the road. An Eagle Scout who earns five merit badges beyond the minimum amount (and meets other requirements ) will receive a Bronze Palm. He'll get a Gold Palm for 10 extra merit badges and a Silver Palm for 15.
The big new thing from the U.K. Scout Association is just an inch a half tall. And it has interchangeable heads. A creative new recruiting and awareness campaign from our friends across the pond (and fellow members of the World Organization of the Scout Movement) features Legos in an effort to spark interest in Scouting.
The destination in our March-April 2014 "Where Am I? — Path Less Traveled" contest is one of my favorites. Ever been to Moab? I traveled on a personal trip to this dusty Utah city last spring and quickly fell in love with the terrain.
The Mustache patrol of Troop 242 has it figured out. They've found a patrol name that's Scout-created, clever and a little bit wacky. With a name that great, it doesn't matter that nobody in the Mustache patrol has his own mustache.
No, a swarm of killer bees aren't to blame for the Beekeeping merit badge's 1995 demise. The real culprit carries a similarly painful sting, though: a lack of interest and too few merit badge counselors. As this Utah National Parks Council blog post points out, only 60 badges were earned during the last year Beekeeping…
This blog and the pages of Eagles' Call magazine are filled with stories of Eagle Scouts who have gone on to do great things. And that's just the ones we know about. Another 500,000 Eagle Scouts have dropped off of Scouting's radar since earning Scouting's highest rank at some point in the award's 102-year history.
Peyton Manning was never a Boy Scout himself, but the five-time MVP-winning quarterback can't help but be connected to Scouting. He's reminded of the Boy Scouts of America's strength within the Denver area and across the country every time he opens the mailbox.
Empty your backpack and leave everything behind. All you need on your next Scouting outing is your smartphone. OK, so maybe that's an exaggeration. What is true, though, is that for the two-thirds of Americans who own smartphones, it's now possible to fit reference books, a GPS device, a weather radio, a compass, a map…
