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When I initially saw this Scouting article earlier in the year, I thought to myself, "Wow, this is ME in 30 years!" https://scoutingmagazine.org/2017/02/one-veteran-scouters-tips-getting-scouts-hooked-nature/ During IOLS courses, I ask Scouters to take a walk for about 15 minutes and find something in nature that interests them. Then, I ask them to "tell us the story" of that thing. The results are always spectacular! One time, a Scouter wrote a poem about a shelf fungus she found on a tree. Another Scouter found deer sign and told a beautiful story about the changing of the seasons

Earlier this week there was a picture posted on the town middle school FB page showing a class of 8th grade boys and girls cooking outside. I emailed the teacher and this is what I found out. I KNOW there is the interest with the kids now for sure I just want to get to them to talk about Scouts. I asked if he thought there might be interest with those girls in starting a Troop since we have nothing anywhere close. They are for sure not doing Girl Scout stuff. Anyway they teach is a coach and asked that I let him finish football for this year and he wants to meet to talk abou

If the Scout Shop offers a "compression sock" version, I think Santa will deliver me a couple of pair.

Also in the south, however our council camp is about 90 miles north of us. In the winter, that equates to about a 10 degree drop in temperatures at night. Many of our Florida born and bred Scouts do not handle anything below 75 very well, and do not own 'winter' clothing. At our chapter Ordeal weekend last January, we had several show up in shorts on Friday night, on a weekend when it dipped to 27 degrees that first night. We camp, hike, and backpack year round here. Much more comfortable being on the trail for three days in November or January's temps than July's upper 90's. By

As Jameson76 said, it’s all about the program, that’s what they come for, and your existing scouts are the best way to do that. Word of mouth is powerful tool! What you can do to support them in that is give them some tools. If the troop doesn’t have it already give it an internet presence. That doesn’t have to be an all singing all dancing website, it can be as simple as Flickr photo stream or a Facebook page. Make sure that on it are two things 1. Photos of the scouts doing fun stuff. Canoeing, hiking etc. Don’t worry about uniforms or courts of honour, that doesn’t sell. Show off

We camped last weekend,Nov 9-11, in WI on our troop's camp property .It was 10 degrees with 2-3 inches of snow on Friday night. We got another inch or so on Saturday night. The scouts really liked hanging out in the falling snow around a roaring fire. All the scouts were outside in tents. The Webelos slept in a storage building with a wood stove. Our December campout is always a joint campout with 3-4 other troops at another troop's cabin. All our scouts will camp out side and there should be sledding and the creek will be frozen and maybe the river. January is uncertain. Our camp h

Here is a memorial tribute I wrote about a Scouter who influenced me greatly. She died unexpectedly about three weeks ago at the young age of 54: https://scoutlaw.wordpress.com/2018/10/27/she-gave-her-time-so-that-i-might-learn/

I voted for you. 😀

First - lots of adult drama seems to be in play, but let's power through that Scouts are the best recruits for Scouts. The best way to get boys who are not involved is PROGRAM. Not advancement, not meetings, not citizenship, etc etc, it's PROGRAM. Get your 3 active scouts to clearly set a calendar of OUTDOOR PROGRAMMING. That is the selling point for other boys to engage, what will THEY be doing, what is in it for them. Go Do Stuff. Get the dates set and get a plan to go do things. Not sure where you are but that is what will get the boys to show up. Canoeing, kayaking. hiking