Browse by year
57 posts, oldest first.
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!)
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…
Use these fun Pinewood Derby food ideas to turn your race into a party! Your Cub Scouts and siblings will love the festive refreshments and treats.
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…
January 2019 Time to carve: 1 hour Finishing: .5 hour Boy's Life - January 1991 Design: Terry Gilbert I had some time to kill one night while waiting for a call so grabbed my knife and a scrap piece of maple.
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.
What's going on in this picture? What are those fighter pilots saying, doing or thinking? If you can think of a funny caption for this photo, just post it in the comment form at the bottom of this page. After we approve it, your funny caption will be on this page for everyone to read.
Cub Scout volunteers often find amazing opportunities for their packs. Find out about the inspiring event that Patrick Burke's pack participated in.
Congratulations to Dan Bettison, who will serve as Scout executive of the Ohio River Valley Council in Wheeling, West Virginia, effective January 1, 2019. Dan began his Scouting career as district executive at the Dan Beard Council in Cincinnati, Ohio.
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.
As we move into 2019, there are some advancement changes in the offing. Significant is the issuance of a new Eagle Scout leadership service project workbook, now available from the national forms library or your local council. The new form must be used for all Eagle projects started after January 1, 2019, but projects started…
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.
_______________________________________ Resolution for 2019: As a boots-on-the-ground commissioner, I’m going to do my level best, when I mentor the units I serve, to present ideas that’ll improve a unit’s program delivery methods in a way that they believe it’s their idea that just slipped their mind for a moment.
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.
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.
As the launch of the Scouts BSA program approaches, councils are preparing to welcome young women to the iconic program of the Boy Scouts of America for the first time. To help ensure a successful launch, Justin K. Williams, the Director of Field Service for the Great Lakes Field Service Council in Detroit, Michigan, shared…
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…
Congratulations to Jared White, who will serve as Scout executive of the Prairielands Council in Champaign, Illinois, effective January 16, 2019. Jared began his Scouting career as a district executive for the Greater St. Louis Area Council in St. Louis, Missouri.
Sponsored post courtesy of Educational Travel Services, Inc. It’s the start of a new year and that means it’s time to start planning for all the Scouting trips in the months ahead! Whether you’re dreaming of a Philmont trek with your troop or taking the whole family out to your local campsite, you’ll need to…
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.
January 2018 Time to print: 4 hours Finishing: 2 hour Thingiverse - NASA Design:NasaModels Try it yourself Having finished the current manned spacecraft, I go forward with some upcoming capsules starting with the Orion. The Orion is NASA's next generation spacecraft for deep space missions.
Ahoy, mateys! Need some fun pirate skits for your Cub Scouts? Check out these scripts for 7 skits and audience participation stories.
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.
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
________________________________________ For the bunch of readers who reached out to Scouter Ray Acocella and gave him a line on several highly usable advancement-tracking spreadsheets, THANKS! It’s a wonderful thing when we can help each other succeed! And I’m also happy to report that, the day after he wrote to me, the 90 year-old Scouting veteran Billy…
A self portrait and 5 random facts about Kiff.
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.
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.
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 .
For over fifteen years, I served as a den leader, Cubmaster and committee chair, as well as on the training committee for our district. In that time, I worked with dozens of other Scouters and well over a hundred Scouts (not to mention more Scouting professionals than I can recall) in supporting the Scouting program…
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.
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.
Welcome to the ScoutmasterCG newsletter; selected posts and podcasts published every other Monday about a specific aspect of Scouting. We’ll get things rolling by asking an important question; why Scouting? During my first few years as a Scoutmaster I was just kind of sailing along without really thinking too much about why we were doing…
The most exciting Cub Scout event is the Pinewood Derby. But your Cub Scouts may need some help with their cars. Check out these 10 Pinewood Derby books.
________________________________________ Hi Andy, I attended an Eagle Scout court of honor today. The new Eagle gave out five (FIVE!) Eagle Scout Mentor pins and apologized that he couldn’t distribute more. Two of the recipients were his boss in his part-time job and a teacher who arranged and led three foreign trips that he went on.
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.
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.
Here's what you'll find inside the February 2019 issue of Boys' Life magazine. Remember, many articles are only available to subscribers and are not available online. Please visit boyslife.org/subscribe to subscribe to the print or digital editions of Boys' Life magazine.
Christmas as passed and new gadgets played with, Amazon Vouchers spent, and books collected therefore I am wondering what you might have on your reading pile I started back in 2015 inspired by Jamie Rubin I started to keep a book list. I am not a natural reader like some people are however the introduction...
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…
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…
When I sit down to write, it’s hard to put my thoughts and feelings into words. It is strange to me to reflect on that. Writing used to be more natural to me than speech. The process of writing used to even be the tool I would use to help form my thoughts on some…
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.
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.
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 .
For years, many young women have looked on while their fathers and brothers took part in amazing Boy Scout adventures – adventures those young women wished they, too, could experience. With the launch of the Scouts BSA program on February 1, that familiar story has a new, fun-filled twist as young women prepare to join new…
________________________________________ Hi Andy, On that question about how to “tent” an odd number of Scouts, my troop has used double-door “Timberline II’s” for that situation. The Scouts pitch two of these tents door-to-door, with a slight offset for entering and exiting.
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.
As the Scouts BSA program launches, it’s time to encourage everyone to use social media to spread the word about this incredible opportunity. You can start sharing right now with a few simple items like a Facebook frame, hashtags, and ready-to-post social content.
________________________________________ What’s the difference between this issue and 584 (without the “a”)? Check the SPECIAL NOTE includes in my answer to the last question here…the one about “camping nights.” ======================================== Hi Andy, On that question about how to “tent” an odd number of Scouts, my troop has used double-door “Timberline II’s” for that situation.
Get post by email A number of years ago, when I started this blog I got, much to my surprise, a few people who signed up for a subscription to receive my blog by email. It was really nice to know that there were at least 5 people who where, hopefully, reading my post. As...
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.
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…
Scouting family, we are once again at a historic milestone as we answer the call we heard from so many of you: to make our iconic programs available to boys and girls. Since we first announced this intention, the feeling of momentum in our movement has been widespread.
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…
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.
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.
