Boy Scout Handbook

[FScouter 24]

The new coil bound handbook is available now at the Scout Shop. The new binding will allow the book to lay flat at any open page. In the old book, with the paperback binding, pages would fall out and get lost when the binding breaks. The new coil binding should end that problem. The big downside is the cost - $20.

 

Does anyone know if there are any updates or changes to the content, or is the binding the only change from the paperback version?

[LovetoCamp 9]

It costs less than a Pizza!

[Twocubdad 665]

You eat expensive pizzas!

 

I guess our Pack is going to have to come up with a different crossover gift for our Webelos. We sure can't afford $400 for handbooks.

[Fat Old Guy 11]

Spiral bound books are neat but they have their problems

The springs get smushed

The ends of the springs get caught on stuff

Pages still tear out when all the hole wear through

They don't stack easily

 

I wish that they had gone back to the last edition of the handbook which had some useful information in it.

 

I just looked at Scoutstuff.org. They describe the current handbook thus "11th edition. Still the basic book for every Scout, but with more information than ever before."

 

More information? LOL!

 

 

[Fat Old Guy 11]

I called Supply Division. The paperback version of the Handbook is not being discontinued so new Scouts won't be soaked for $20.

 

As for content, it is simply a new printing of the current edition which means that there may be editorial changes such as the requirements for 1st Class.

 

 

[JimmyD 10]

Would it be worth to get an expensive book like that when in a couple of years most likly they will be coming out with a new edition?

[NJCubScouter 1389]

I went to scoutstuff.org and could not find this... at least not on the same page with the other handbooks. Unless that is what is listed as the "Boy Scout Handbook Hardbound" for $20.95. It doesn't say anything about a spiral binding though.

 

I will probably end up regretting asking this, but: FatOldGuy, what is wrong with the current handbook? Keep in mind, this is the first one I have worked with since the two that were in use when I was a Scout (the second of which was the 1972 handbook that we have been discussing on another topic... the one that supposedly took the outing out of Scouting, though I never quite noticed, since about half my troop went to Philmont in 1974 and after that my father had us on the Appalachian Trail at every opportunity.)

 

Oh, and the thing with calling the older handbooks "evil" is getting really, really old. Bob says he never said that anyway, and as much as I disagree with him sometimes, it doesn't sound like something he'd say. In any event, it's time for a new "act."

[KoreaScouter 13]

I'm not FOG, but I've got a 9th and 10th Edition Handbook on my bookshelf. They're better all around, in my opinion. Better illustrated (Rockwell pics throughout), for example:

 

- star charts

- wildlife

- excellent illustrated uniform layout pics

- types of backpacks

- fuzz sticks

- how to hold a hand axe

- knot pages

- Morse Code (used as a patrol comp event at a District Camporee a while back, and I had to get out my 20 year old Handbook to get the Morse Code)

- types of fire lays

 

I could go on all night, and all are in full color. I've taken my old handbooks on campouts, and Scouts will actually pick up and read an old handbook with interest. I still use the illustrations to reinforce Scout Skills.

 

The cooking sections have real menus. Much more and better SCOUTING info in the old books. There's more junk in the new book that is exact duplicates of what they already have in school textbooks, but where are you going to get the Philmont Grace, Norman Rockwell, stars, snakes, plants, knots, all the state flags, a reproduction of Francis Scott Key's "Star Spangled Banner", the sign language manual alphabet, family tips for saving energy depicted as a cutaway house filling two pages, insects, and all in full color, and all in one book?

 

If you have the 11th Edition, you have to either have old Handbooks, or go buy an out-of-date Fieldbook for $20 (I did) for Scout Skills and fieldcraft.

 

Thumb index on back cover (9th Edition), with quick reference table of contents, too. No memorizing colors (lessee, is red second class or first class?).

 

The 10th edition was starting to slide in content compared to the 9th, but either one is better than the 11th. If anyone out there is working on the layout for the 12th, or knows someone who is (Bob White, are you listening?), please read the 9th Edition first, or better yet, give ten Scouts at random, a copy of the 9th and the 11th, have them skim through it, and ask them which one they'd rather have. Don't be surprised when they all want the old one.

 

If you can, get an old Handbook. Suggestion: visit your local library. They may have an old Handbook in the reference section or in the Youth section. Offer to replace it with a current hardbound one if they'll give you the old one.

 

KS

 

 

 

[Fat Old Guy 11]

" went to scoutstuff.org and could not find this... at least not on the same page with the other handbooks"

 

It's not on the web site yet but they are in Scout Shops and you can order them from Supply.

 

"I will probably end up regretting asking this, but: FatOldGuy, what is wrong with the current handbook?"

 

Read KoreaScouter's comments.

 

"Oh, and the thing with calling the older handbooks "evil" is getting really, really old."

 

So? How often do you voice a complaint when Bob makes his snide comments to anyone who disagrees with him?

 

BTW, I just checked with my library's on-line catalog and all of its copies are the 11th edition :-(

 

(This message has been edited by Fat Old Guy)

[NJCubScouter 1389]

So, FatOldGuys asks me:

 

How often do you voice a complaint when Bob makes his snide comments to anyone who disagrees with him?

 

Maybe you think this is a rhetorical question. I'm not sure what you think the correct answer would be in my case. I think it would be "Occasionally." Usually I just respond to his snide (or just outright insulting) comments directed to me personally, but I do it once, not over and over again...

 

and I don't make references to whatever the disagreement is on 10 different threads, including ones that he hasn't even posted in. There are some people who just read selected "boards" in this forum and I suspect you have them scratching their heads when they read about "evil" old handbooks and have not read whatever posts started you off on that.

 

It does sound to me like the BSA ought to combine the best features of the 9th, 10th and 11th editions when they do the next one. It's just common sense, not anything that anyone has to become "snide" over.

[mk9750 11]

Sorry I don't have the details as to which editions I am speaking of, but here's what I can add:

 

My oldest son (now 18) had the handbook that was in use immediately prior to the major requirements change (requiring Personal Fitness for Eagle, etc.). My youngest son (14) has the handbook that was issued right after that change.

 

My older son looked through the entire new book when he heard our SM complain that it wasn't as good as the previous. My son said he was shocked by the amount of Scout Skill info they had taken out, although most of it was available in the Fieldbook. Once he said that, my younger son stopped using his handbook for anything but having requirements signed off. Anything he studied, he studied in the old handbook.

 

If my two boys are any evidence, the newest editions don't measure up to the older ones.

 

Mark

[NJCubScouter 1389]

In my troop, the SM convinces all parents of new Scouts (including me) to buy the nylon book cover because otherwise the book will end up looking like confetti after a year. Since the book costs $7.95 and the cover costs $8.95 (I had to shake my head when I saw that the cover costs more than the book itself) that's basically $17, almost the cost of the hardcover or spiral versions. (Though the softcover is still more convenient in my opinion. With the spiral, I bet they figured that a lot of units might get one for the SM/ASMs to pass around among themselves.)

[NJCubScouter 1389]

I went looking on the Internet to see if I could find a comparison of the different editions. This seems like a good site:

 

http://www.troop97.net/bshb1.htm

 

Maybe someone here has posted it before.

[Fat Old Guy 11]

"and I don't make references to whatever the disagreement is on 10 different threads,"

 

So? That's you. You seem to be one of those who is open-minded and liberal, so stop telling me what to do.

 

 

[saltheart 10]

Of course, all this concern and discussion about hardcover vs. softcover vs. spiral bound will be a moot point down the road a piece when every BSA publication will be available in electronic format. I can picture it now, years from now (and probably not many) Scout and Scoutmasters will refer to their PDA's (or future equivalent) for reference to the handbooks. While there may presently be a hold to the traditional paper versions, I do believe that they'll all give way to electronics in due time. Then what will we discuss? The font?