The Bloggers
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File this one under "sad but true": Getting to and from Scouting events is by far more dangerous than participating in the program. That's why the Boy Scouts of America's Guide to Safe Scouting offers specific guidelines to help adults transport Scouts safely .
Aren't Scout moms the greatest? Every den meeting led, patch sewed, ride provided, skinned knee doctored, smelly shirt washed, campout attended and advice dished out reinforces the point that Scouting wouldn't exist without them. And few of the boys who make it to the Eagle Scout rank do so without a mom or motherly figure…
Popcorn's all the rage these days, but Scout fundraisers haven't always been so mainstream. T hroughout history Scouts have sold a variety of less-conventional products to raise money for their pack and troop. I'm talking candles and fire extinguishers, road atlases and safety flares, candy and oranges - if you could slap a price tag on…
They live in different time zones, and their paths may never cross. But this mom in Miami, dad in Dallas and Scouter in Seattle share one thing in common. All have seen their lives and the lives of their families improved by Scouting.
MPAA ratings - G, PG, PG-13, R - take the guesswork out of deciding which movies are appropriate for your son or daughter. Fortunately, deciding which Scouting activities are age-appropriate is just as easy, thanks to this Age-Appropriate Guidelines for Scouting Activities PDF .
Even the most finely tuned pinewood derby event needs an occasional tune-up. So before your pack waves the green flag this year, ask yourself three questions to make sure your derby doesn't have any red flags. With each question, I'd love to read your thoughts in the comments section below.
For Scouts, earning the Eagle Scout Award feels like the satisfying end to a long journey. What they soon discover, though, is that the journey has just begun. Just ask Ryan Eberle, an Eagle Scout from Oaklade, Pa., who earned the honor two years ago this month.
New Cub Scout handbooks are just part of the story. Keeping up with one BSA program change after another (after another ) can feel a little like drinking from a fire hose. It doesn't have to. Just consider scouting.org/programupdates your one-stop shop for promotional fliers, training information and the latest news about changes coming in 2014…
Here's a great chance for y'all, yinz, you guys and you-uns to get top-level training alongside people who speak your language. I'm talking about this summer's Region Weeks at the Philmont Training Center . Yes, you'll gather with folks who can agree on whether that sweetened carbonated beverage you're drinking is a soda, a pop, a…
The saying "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" could be used to describe some tweaks coming to the Boy Scouts program in 2016. The merit badge program has been getting stronger with the release of each new merit badge , and the trail to Eagle Scout continues to produce terrific young men.
Improved activities, easier-to-understand advancement and some sweet-looking handbooks - yes, Cub Scouting is about to get even better than before. After finding that current achievements are overly passive in nature, activities lack connection to the missions of Scouting and the advancement model is too complicated, the Boy Scouts of America's volunteer task force created a new…
Before you watch Times Square's big countdown tonight, take a look at three big changes coming to the Boy Scouts of America at the stroke of midnight. Effective Jan. 1, 2014, you've got a new list of Eagle-required merit badges, a new membership policy for youth, and new membership fees for Scouts and Scouters.
In the season of Wise Men, you won't find many wiser than Chris Hunt, advancement team leader for the Boy Scouts of America. Whatever advancement-related question I throw at him, he answers right away. He's one of the big reasons my Ask the Expert series has been going strong for years.
His sister and his friends call him crazy, but you and I call Rudy Hummel a typical Boy Scout. Rudy, a 17-year-old Life Scout from the northern Minnesota city of Hermantown, is nearly 200 nights in to his quest to sleep outside for 365 nights in a row.
Where did 2013 go? For Scouts and Scouters, it went to new merit badges, Eagle Scout journeys, the 2013 National Scout Jamboree, a nationally televised TV show about Boy Scouts, a family discussion on our membership policy, endless Cub Scout fun and so much more.
All this and more, televised for your viewing pleasure. Call it real reality TV. Take all the excitement and education found in Boys' Life magazine and transport it to your television. That's the clever concept behind Scouting Around , the new show from the century-old mainstay in the life of boys and the Boy Scouts of…
The sound of the kitchen timer can only mean one thing: The new Cooking merit badge requirements are done. For the new Cooking merit badge, which becomes Eagle-required on Jan. 1, 2014, Scouts will prepare meals using the MyPlate food guide, understand and explain food allergies, and learn about cooking food indoors.
The Order of the Arrow is not a secret society, but in some troops it might as well be. These troops go through the first steps of getting Scouts elected into Scouting's national honor society and through their Ordeal. But after that, these new Arrowmen become ghosts, never seen at a lodge meeting, dance event…
If you don't know George Rodrigue by name, you certainly know his work. You've probably seen his iconic, whimsical Blue Dog paintings, and if you have, they've probably brightened your day. But today I want to remember George, who died Saturday at age 69, for something many who knew his work didn't know about the…
Tomorrow's release of Saving Mr. Banks , which spotlights Walt Disney's efforts to acquire the rights to Mary Poppins , got me thinking about a Walt Disney film released two years later. Follow Me, Boys! is Disney's tribute to the Boy Scouts of America, and nearly five decades after its release, it's the only major motion picture…
When Cubmaster Lee inherited the position earlier this year, he was pumped to make an even bigger difference in the lives of youth. That is, until he saw the shape of his pack's advancement and award collection. "I inherited multiple plastic bags full of belt loops and pins in no particular order," he writes.
Finally, a reason for rubbernecking you can feel good about. Drivers in Kansas City this year have seen a series of Boy Scout billboards that rise far above those for gas stations, hotels or concerts. The billboards target new Scouts and their parents by sharing facts about Eagle Scouts, such as they're "76 percent more…
Eagle Scout Austin Collie started his career with the Indianapolis Colts and now plays for the New England Patriots. Everyone's talking about yesterday's snow-covered NFL games today, but here's a story to make Scouts and Scouters smile - regardless of how their favorite team fared.
Courage. Sacrifice. Selflessness. Patriotism. Do those words describe an act of service performed by a Scout, Venturer or Scouter you know? Chances are, they do. And you'll need to act quickly to recognize this person by nominating him or her to the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation's Citizen Honors awards.
After loading them up with snacks and sugary drinks at the beginning of the meeting, it's no wonder your Cub Scouts are bouncing off the walls right when you want them to settle down for a serious activity. Boy Scouts, too, have endless energy, and getting them to focus on planning patrol menus for this…
These days you can't trust the driver in the next lane, the teenager swiping your credit card at the drive-thru or the stranger reading your Facebook and Twitter posts. So I'm grateful there's at least one group of people you still can trust: Scouts.
Ahh, Cyber Monday. All the savings of Black Friday with none of the pushing and shoving. ScoutStuff.org is joining the Cyber Monday party by offering 25 percent off a bunch of its items and free shipping on orders of $75 or above.
Instead of fancy sneakers, Paul wants hiking boots. Rather than an expensive vacation, Angela would like a trip to Wood Badge. And save your money on Pete, because his main wish for the holidays is simply to be a better Scoutmaster.
The pack meeting lasts 90 minutes, so that's plenty of time to do some Christmas shopping, grab a bite and pick up my prescription for crazy pills." It's crazy but true: A few parents out there see Cub Scouting (and Boy Scouting) as a low-cost babysitting option for their son.
Today's about remembering the life of John F. Kennedy, but it's impossible to do so without mentioning Lee Harvey Oswald. Kennedy was the first president to have been a Boy Scout, and earlier today I offered an in-depth look at Kennedy's involvement with Scouting and strong positive opinion of the organization.
When he was 12 years old, John F. Kennedy asked for a raise. The year was 1929, and Kennedy was a new member of Troop 2 in Bronxville, N.Y. Now that he had reached Scout age, Kennedy reasoned, it was time for his allowance to match his new Boy Scout-level maturity.
Students pore over countless study guides for their midterms, but where's the study guide for Scouting's biggest evaluation? Right here. The Eagle Scout Board of Review study guide, created by two Pennsylvania adult leaders, will better prepare your prospective Eagle Scouts for this potentially stressful final step in the journey to Eagle.
Your best recruiting and retention tool is an adult volunteer already in your unit. He or she just doesn't know it yet. Don't delay in filling the newly created Unit Membership Chairman position. This Scouter is a member of your unit's committee whose sole focus is membership growth and retention.
My biggest gripe about the holidays isn't the endless electronics ads, the pumpkin-spice overload or the inflated airfares. It's the timing. The Scouting year hits its stride right as the holidays arrive. Most packs, troops and crews have built up tons of positive momentum right when Thanksgiving and Hanukkah - followed closely by Christmas and Kwanzaa…
You've got advancement-related questions. He's got answers. At 11 a.m. Central Time on Friday, Nov. 22 , Chris Hunt, the BSA's Advancement Team leader, will join us for an hourlong live chat, which you can access at the link below. (That's noon Eastern, 10 a.m.
It's been more than a year since I blogged about the switch to the Scout Oath and Scout Law in all programs, a change that primarily affects Venturing and Cub Scouting. The resolution, passed by the National Executive Board last year, means that soon every Scout of any age will use the Scout Oath and…
For many Scout leaders, it's not the Scouts that'll turn hair gray - it's their parents. The team behind ScoutCast recently asked 56 experienced Scoutmasters from across the country this question: "What do you know now that you wish you knew as a new Scoutmaster?"
Don Bennett directed Eagle Scout boards of review like a film director creating his latest masterpiece. He challenged the Eagle candidates with expertly crafted questions all with the goal of making the young man see just how his time in Scouting has formed who he is.
At Boy Scout camps in the year 2000, milk doesn't spoil, knots are rarely used and backpacks have been replaced by rockets that deliver camping gear in "near-zero time." That's according to the 1960 predictions of Nostradamus, at least. In the February 1960 issue of Scouting magazine, there's a fun, tongue-in-cheek article that channels the…
The battle for fundraising dollars is on. At offices everywhere, parents peddle pizza dough, flower bulbs, Christmas wreaths and more to their coworkers in the name of financing their kids' extracurricular activities. It seems every orchestra, soccer team and stamp-collecting club in a 50-mile radius wants your money.
An Eagle Scout who was shot in the leg during Friday's deadly attack at Los Angeles International Airport credits first-aid training he learned as a Scout with saving his life. Brian Ludmer, a 29-year-old California teacher and former member of Lake Forest, Ill., Troop 48, used a makeshift tourniquet to stop the bleeding in his…
Shane Victorino already had Eagle Scout, 2008 World Series champion and three-time Gold Glove winner on his list of accomplishments. Tonight, the Boston Red Sox outfielder added 2013 World Series champion to his résumé, and he did so with a timely swing of the bat in the bottom of the third.
Robert M. Gates, a Distinguished Eagle Scout and our nation's 22nd secretary of defense, has been elected to the national executive board of the Boy Scouts of America. Gates will serve as a member of the executive committee and as the national president-elect.
Won't be at the 21,000-seat Conference Center in Salt Lake City for tonight's big "A Century of Honor" show? All hope is not lost. You have plenty of ways to watch the multimedia celebration of the 100-year partnership between the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Boy Scouts of America.
Wear your hat outside; don't wear your hat inside. Seems simple, but it's not that easy. Take, for example, this exception from the BSA's Guide to Awards and Insignia [PDF] : Official headgear may be worn while the unit or individual is participating in an indoor formal ceremony or service duty, except in religious institutions where…
It's a secret recipe no longer. I've got new details to share on Cooking merit badge, set to be updated and join the list of Eagle-required merit badges on New Year's Day 2014. While the requirements are still being finalized, the questions and answers provided here should tide you over until the full course arrives.
One look at the photo is all it took for our September-October "Where Am I?" winner to recognize the mystery location: the Wind River Range in Wyoming. 142 readers submitted their guesses and random number 35 was chosen as our contest winner: Scouter Kathy Borrell of Cochranville, Penn., who says she's backpacked the rugged terrain…
If you're not meant to hike, sweat and get dirty in your field uniform, then what's with all the pockets for storing stuff? Why do the shirts come in an option made from breathable fabric? And have Scouts who hike in "Class A's" been doing it wrong for decades?
For those of us who have been in Scouting for the majority of our lives, the answer seems obvious. But recently I got an email from a Cub Scout parent who shall remain nameless, asking, "What is a Scouter? I see this word all the time but am unclear about what exactly you're referring to."
Before Saturday's race, Justin received an award from the BSA to thank him for such a great season. Justin Wilson, driver of the No. 19 Boy Scouts of America IndyCar, fractured his pelvis and suffered a small pulmonary contusion in a crash during Saturday's race in California.
