Cleveland Rocks

In many areas, their safety guidelines are similar to what we in the BSA have. But there are some notable differences. One of those areas--and in talking to some GS leaders, this seems to trip them up a lot--is the minimum number of volunteers needed for activities. The ratio varies depending on program level, but it requires a minimum of two unrelated volunteers (note not "adults", but registered volunteers) up to a certain number of Scouts. For Daisies, it's up to 12 Daisies for Troop meetings, and up to 6 Daisies for outings, activities, travel and camping. For Ambassadors, the r

WOSM sells flags with the World Crest that are available for purchase: https://www.worldscoutshops.com/essentials/scouting-flags The BSA used to sell "generic" flags that you could buy to fly at home, but I haven't seen them in years. There are BSA flags available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/UDSNIS-America-Scouting-Outdoor-Decorative/dp/B07DC3H34M https://www.amazon.com/UNSTARFLAG-American-Veterans-Scouts-America/dp/B07NX67S7D https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07CW2K6QD/ref=psdc_553792_t2_B07NX67S7D https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DCRP9QM/ref=psdc_553792_t3_B07NX

That's interesting, the version of that story I had always been told was that they hiked in 1935 to the Jamboree, only to arrive in DC and find out that it had been cancelled due to a polio epidemic, and that they went back and returned two years later for the rescheduled Jamboree in 1937. That's also the version I see posted on-line in many places. It's also the version of the story the BSA has posted on their Facebook page. Still a great story.

I think part of the problem was that while there were weather delays that of course cascaded across the country as happens with a hub system, there was also the problem that many contingents were delivered to the airport many, many hours before their scheduled flight, sometimes, based on comments posted on-line, 8, 10, or more hours in advance. I saw one contingent was delivered to the airport in the early morning hours, for a flight that was not scheduled to depart until 7:00 p.m. that evening. No airport is equipped to handle that many people arriving that early. You can't check bags for a f

There are some councils that have taken an adversarial approach to the BSA in their area since the announcement of the BSA admitting girls into the Cub Scouts and Scouts BSA programs. There have been many examples of directives given by some (not all) Girl Scout councils around the country as to what their troops can/can't do with respect to BSA membership and activities. One of those that was making the rounds during cookie booth season earlier this year was that there councils who had put out notice to their troops that they should "report", supposedly to the service unit director, or s

To be clear, any "bad blood" is not with individual units, but with the GSUSA national leadership and (some) council leadership of the GSUSA. It's GSUSA councils that are telling their units to "turn in" any BSA members they see at their cookie booths. It was the GSUSA council in central Florida that told their membership to not wear their uniforms to Scout Day at Legoland earlier this year because (gasp!) Boy Scouts would also be present. It's GSUSA councils who have put out the memos to their troops not to participate in parades when BSA units will be present. And at our Memorial Day gr

No, but they could have been invited. Here's the text of eligibility requirements for the World Jamboree as it pertains to WAGGGS members like GSUSA: "Youth and adults of national Girl Guide/Girl Scout associations (i.e., those who are members of WAGGGS only) may attend the event with the agreement of the WOSM organization in their country." This means GSUSA members could have attended as part of the U.S. contingent provided they were invited by the BSA. But would you really expect the BSA to invite them, considering the current bad blood? GSUSA is suing the BSA for trademark in

WOSM contracted with American Airlines to provide air transportation, and Charlotte is a hub city for AA, so lots of destinations, including many international destinations. The next closest AA hub is Reagan National. I would guess that they chose AA because they have the closest hub airport to The Summit. United's closest hub to The Summit is Dulles, and Delta's closest is Atlanta. As mentioned above, Charleston has only 15 daily departures, to only six cities, and they're primarily on small "puddle jumper" aircraft.

Thank you for saying this. I know a lot of unit leaders were saying the same thing. The Scoutmaster of our council's contingent told me exactly the same thing. For this WSJ, the point values for the food items was essentially the same as it was at the 2017 NSJ, but the amount of points a unit had to buy food with was more than 50% higher this year than it was two years ago (3,333 points vs. 2,017 points). Troops were maxing out their points each day even if they didn't eat all that food. This was evident on the last day when the returns tent had tons of food returned. So much for a lack of foo

The Summit is designed for a National Jamboree of a maximum 36,000 participants, not counting staff, in the 5 participant base camps. There is a document on the Summit's website that breaks it down: 40 participants to a unit, 12 units to a neighborhood, 3 neighborhoods per subcamp, 5 subcamps per base camp, 5 participant base camps, equals 36,000. The BSA has yet to announce an official attendance for the 2017 NSJ (at least I haven't seen any official announcement), but our camp commissioner at that NSJ told us she was told in her commissioner meetings that there were around 26,000 partic

Check the back pages of Scouter Magazine. It's loaded with ads for companies that offer custom products such as what you're looking for.

He's actually not from New York, but from outside Cleveland, Ohio. It just got picked from the wire by the Daily News. Still a great story, though.

I and my kids will be wearing wicking activity shirts, Scout shorts, and hiking boots on the day we visit. No need to wear a field uniform--no one else will be. We'll purchase the visitor WSJ neckers upon arrival at the Trading Post. We'll also be bringing sunscreen, hats, cooling towels and refillable water bottles. I wore my field uniform when I visited the 2013 NSJ and I stuck out like a sore thumb, because no one else was wearing one--not to mention I soaked the shirt in about 10 minutes because it was so hot, and that was with a wicking shirt on underneath.

A gateway is a decorated entrance to your campsite. It's not unique to just Summer Camp, although that's where they're seen the most. At many summer camps, the gateways are a competition between troops and are judged by the camp commissioners or camp staff at some point during the week. Oftentimes, the gateways are themed to whatever the theme of the week at camp is. They can get quite elaborate. This year is one of the first years that adults are allowed at our summer camp to help construct the gateway, although our Scouts have told us they do not want our help at all (and we don't

First Class First Year (officially, "Operation First Class") is no longer a program emphasis in the BSA advancement program. While some councils (like mine) still have an award they present to Scouts who complete First Class within their first year of joining, it is no longer something emphasized in the advancement program. The origins of OFC came from studies done in the 1980s that said that Scouts who got to First Class quicker than others tended to stay in the program longer than those who didn't (these were also the same studies who said that if a Scout did not attend Summer Camp thei

Our Scout camp has done away with blue cards. Just an online report that lists everything and can be directly imported into Scoutbook or Troopmaster at the end of camp, if you don't want to print a hard copy. It's an electronic version of the blue card, but no more having to purchase them at the scout store or hand writing anything.

That is correct. June 1 (or the end of school, whichever is later, for those schools that don't end until after June 1) is the date that one program year ends and the new one begins. On that day, Lions become Tigers, Tigers become Wolves, etc. (in the Scouting sense, of course. Not in nature. That'd be weird.) That means that in your example, a Cub Scout who will be entering First Grade in the fall would be doing summertime activities to earn the Tiger summer pin. If they will be entering Second Grade in the fall they will be working on the Wolf summer pin over the summer.

https://www.scoutshop.org/catalog/product/view/id/333

This particular story is one where an incident was reported in June, 2017 and it wasn't until 18 months later that the person was removed from the program (and only after their arrest). A den leader had made a complaint in June, 2017 to a director regarding similar circumstances to what the person was ultimately arrested over. The director, at the time, only told the person that's now been charged that if it happened again, he'd be fired. From a news article published at the time of the arrest: Yet according to the report BSA told Homeland Security "Since all the photos appeared to p

There is an answer. Guide to Awards and Insignia, page 35: "Merit Badges may be worn on the front and back of the sash." https://filestore.scouting.org/filestore/pdf/33066/33066_Scouts_BSA_Insignia_WEB.pdf

That's because they are the exact same cookies. As the article mentions, Little Brownie Bakers is a subsidiary of Keebler. Keebler Grasshoppers and Coconut Dreams are the exact same cookies as Thin Mints and Samoas. Made in the same factory. When they come off the line, some go into a Keebler box, some go into a Girl Scout Cookies box.

Our Troop has a number of activity shirts: Our old Troop t-shirt was red with white lettering/logos. Still worn by many and is often passed down to new Scouts through our exchange closet. The current t-shirts we offer come in blue with white lettering or olive with gold lettering. We also offer a hoodie in red with white lettering/logos. We also offer embroidered polos in blue, red or green, with white lettering/logos. Individuals can get their name on the backs of the t-shirts and hoodies, and on the left chest of the embroidered polo.

It's not a document from the national organization. It's from the Girl Scouts of West Central Florida council. Says so on page 6, and is referenced numerous other places within the document. They may copy-and-paste text from paperwork from the national organization, but each council publishes their own version of the Volunteer Essentials document for their volunteers. The copy of Volunteer Essentials that our local council produces is 40 pages shorter than this one, and makes no mention of the BSA at all. Our local GSUSA council has placed no restrictions on girls and units doing act

Local Girl Scout councils say things a lot that aren't national policy. Our local GS council has on many occasions stated that it's GSUSA national policy that you aren't allowed to do {insert activity here}, when it's perfectly acceptable to do this, even encouraged, in other councils. Example: Our local GS council prohibits units and girls from doing those fundraisers at places like Chipotle or Applebee's, where a portion of your check goes towards the cause. They prohibit by saying that it's GSUSA national policy. Yet, a quick search of the surrounding councils will provide you with the

Keep it even simpler: ask when they were born. If a Scout was born, say, January 1, 2005, the he/she can tent with someone if they were born between January 1, 2003 and January 1, 2007. That's how our troop does it. No issues and no problems with anyone understanding the rule.