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National Outdoor Award - Camping


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I had a Scout earn the National Outdoor award - Camping last night.  My advancement chair had problems getting it at the Scout shop as no one knew anything about it.

 

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I've only seen 1 other Scout in this area with the award.  Do your Scouts earn this?  Are they aware of it?

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I saw this mentioned in Boys' Life a few months ago but there was never any push made in our district/council to promote it and it sounds like that might be the case for your area, too.  If camping/outdoors is lacking in a unit I can see this being a motivator.  However, if the outdoor program is alive and well I don't know if it is needed, in addition to the outdoors-related merit badges we already have.  

 

That said, congratulations to your Scout for taking the time to earn it! :D  

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I had a Scout earn the National Outdoor award - Camping last night.  My advancement chair had problems getting it at the Scout shop as no one knew anything about it.

 

Link to award

 

I've only seen 1 other Scout in this area with the award.  Do your Scouts earn this?  Are they aware of it?

 

Our Historian posts and keeps track of such award requirements for the troop. Gets posted on the bulletin board. Boys are on their own to track and apply for them. We've had a few. A few years ago we had an adult submit the paperwork for their son. Our troop scribe asked the parent top have the scout submit the paperwork. Two years went by, they never did and the kid aged-out. Obviously meant more to mom than the scout.

 

Good job!

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  • 2 months later...

It looks pretty cool but where on the uniform or sash would one put it? Most "extra" badges like this are worn on the back of the sash but this seems to be a major award.

 

I think instead of it being a sew on patch it would be better to be some sort of pin or medal like the religion medal is.

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It looks pretty cool but where on the uniform or sash would one put it? Most "extra" badges like this are worn on the back of the sash but this seems to be a major award.

 

I think instead of it being a sew on patch it would be better to be some sort of pin or medal like the religion medal is.

I suspect in the temporary patch area on the right side of the uniform or on the back of the sash. Edited by Bad Wolf
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I suspect in the temporary patch area on the right side of the uniform or on the back of the sash.

Yep.  It goes in the temporary patch position.  The Scout that earned it decided to sew it on.

 

The patch itself is smaller than I expected.

 

There is a medal that one can earn - the National Medal for Outdoor Achievement.  link

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I had a Scout earn the National Outdoor award - Camping last night.  My advancement chair had problems getting it at the Scout shop as no one knew anything about it.

 

Link to award

 

I've only seen 1 other Scout in this area with the award.  Do your Scouts earn this?  Are they aware of it?

We have a few scouts that have gotten the camping award.  Will have a few more in the next year or two, along with some getting the aquatics.  Every new Eagle should have the Camping award, IMHO.  If they don't, they are Paper Eagles. 

Edited by perdidochas
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Don't know why the Sea Scouts and Venturers would be interested in it since the Ranger Award was the reason this award was created. Boy Scout and Varsity Scout leaders in some areas were upset about only Sea Scouts and Venturers being able to earn Ranger, so national created this one.

 

In my son's troop, it's not promoted. Then again, we are not advancement oriented, but program oriented. We have only gotten "First Class" oriented because of Philmont.

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I had a Scout earn the National Outdoor award - Camping last night.  

 

 

I've only seen 1 other Scout in this area with the award.  Do your Scouts earn this?  Are they aware of it?

 

I didn't know about that.  Thanks for posting.  I looked at this with my son and we realized he qualified for Camping and by the end of the summer would be 8 nights away from a gold device.  He is will be one merit badge short of hiking and 100 miles (a 50 miler and then another 50 miles) short of riding.  I think that the National Medal for Outdoor Acheivement would be a great capstone to my son's scouting experience (and a great goal to keep him involved after earning Eagle). The hardest one would be aquatics because he is not a strong enough swimmer to do a mile swim (I couldn't either) -- but maybe that is the challenge that he needs to improve.

 

My problem is with the "under the auspices and standards of the Boy Scouts of America."  That cuts around 10 days of camping and around 50 miles of backpacking / hiking since joining scouts two and a half years ago.  I can work with our Troop to make more opportunities available for the boys to meet the requirements but the under the auspices langage really will hurt the scout in a unit that doesn't have those opportunities but actually engages in the outdoor activities on their own or with their family.

 

It is interesting that the Camping device requires 25 more days but doesn't restate the "under the auspices" requirement.  The hiking device requirements refer back to "as outined in requirements 2 and 3" which doesn't make sense because those are the merit badge requirements.  Others are similarly vague.  It looks like you can sail for 25 hours in requirement 4 for aquatics outside the auspices of the BSA (he wants to go small boat sailing to practice what he learned in the merit badge program this summer).  Any thoughts on that or am I being too creative in trying to find a way  to do these things outside of our program.

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My problem is with the "under the auspices and standards of the Boy Scouts of America."  That cuts around 10 days of camping and around 50 miles of backpacking / hiking since joining scouts two and a half years ago.  I can work with our Troop to make more opportunities available for the boys to meet the requirements but the under the auspices langage really will hurt the scout in a unit that doesn't have those opportunities but actually engages in the outdoor activities on their own or with their family.

 

We had a similar issue. Every year the PLC asks guys to sign up if they want to pursue this badge and the segments beneath them. If they do any training hikes, camping, etc., as a group (no matter how small) we will "sanction" it as a unit and therefore (from our perspective) it falls under the requirements for the badge.

 

Family-based stuff is a bit harder because you'd have to follow other BSA rules (tour plan, two-deep, WRFA training, other training, etc.) to technically qualify the outings. The patrol-based stuff can easily qualify so we encourage that a bit more.

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Found this:  http://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2014/03/13/interpreting-under-the-auspices-in-national-outdoor-awards-requirements/

 

Bryan says that you get credit for what you do for merit badges -- which in some instances can be done on an individual basis.  So the 16 mile backpacking trip my son and I did for his backpacking merit badge counts as well as the 12 mile hike that we did which qualifies for his hiking merit badge.

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Found this:  http://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2014/03/13/interpreting-under-the-auspices-in-national-outdoor-awards-requirements/

 

Bryan says that you get credit for what you do for merit badges -- which in some instances can be done on an individual basis.  So the 16 mile backpacking trip my son and I did for his backpacking merit badge counts as well as the 12 mile hike that we did which qualifies for his hiking merit badge.

Assuming the trek plans are done before the trek and all the elements are accounted for, and the trek log updated after the trek, sure.

 

But the events would need to be done specifically for the various badges or awards and NOT family things.

 

"It is not meant to include activities that the Scout undertakes that are unrelated to Scouting — e.g., family or church group camping, running as part of the school cross-country team, etc."

 

Edited by Bad Wolf
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Assuming the trek plans are done before the trek and all the elements are accounted for, and the trek log updated after the trek, sure.

 

For any of those treks, my son did all the planning and all the navigation -- they count for the badges and therefore they count for the award.

 

But the events would need to be done specifically for the various badges or awards and NOT family things.

 

Agreed.  But, if a scout does a 3 day 15 mile backpacking trip with his family and that counts as a requirement for the Backpacking Merit Badge (which it does, because there is no "under the auspices" requirement for the Backpacking Merit Badge), then it counts for the award.  Same for bicycling -- the rides for the Cycling Merit Badge don't have to be done as part of the troop.  Being done for a merit badge and being done as a family thing are not mutally exclusive - in most cases. Going camping is a different story, because the Camping Merit Badge requires 20 nights of camping at "designated Scouting activities or events."

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