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Didn't see any threads on Scouting in here, and a forum search didn't yield anything. And the more I thought about it, that makes sense, right? Scouts BSA and Girl Scouts of the United States of America are youth organizations, and the average Goon ain't a youngin' no more. But, some of us have kids or are having kids, which is how I wound up back in Scouting.  "Wikipedia posted:Scouting, also known as the Scout Movement, is a worldwide youth movement employing the Scout method, a program of informal education with an emphasis on practical outdoor activities, including camping, woodcraft, aquatics, hiking, backpacking, and sports. Another widely recognized movement characteristic is the Scout uniform, by intent hiding all differences of social standing in a country and encouraging equality, with neckerchief and campaign hat or comparable headwear. Distinctive uniform insignia include the fleur-de-lis and the trefoil, as well as merit badges and other patches. I was involved in Cub Scouts from Tigers (1st grade) all the way through to Webelos, then crossed over to the Boy Scouts (now Scouts BSA) where I was active all the way up to earning my Eagle rank. Like a lot of other scouts I knew who earned their Eagle I became inactive almost immediately after earning my Eagle, 'cause when you're 16 any- and everything is cooler than than doing dorky paramilitary cosplay. However, I'm a dad now, and got my son into Scouts this year and volunteered to be his den leader and it's been a lot of fun. We've been on a couple campouts already this year, and I'm attending a BALOO (Basic Adult Leader Outdoor Orientation) session next month to get more formal training on how to be a good Cub Scout leader. It's cool to teach kids about the outdoors and how to do poo poo like first aid and whatnot. It's also awesome that Scouts BSA (formerly the Boy Scouts of America) is almost-fully co-ed now; girls can join Scouts BSA, though girls and boys are supposed to be segregated into separate dens in Cub Scouts and troops in (big) Scouts. The pack (and affiliated troop) I'm involved in ignores that, though--for a national organization that's had its fair share of controversies around identity issues among other things I'm glad we've found a place that's inclusive and welcoming to everyone. Post about Scouting in here: your past or present experiences with it, questions, whatever. I am not familiar with Girl Scouts at all but Girl Scout posting should happen in here, too. Their cookies kick rear end.
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Apr 25, 2023 16:27
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I’d especially love to read and learn about Scouting from non-American goons. What is Scouting like in the UK, Japan, Djibouti…?
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Apr 25, 2023 16:35
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Killingyouguy! posted:I was in the Girl Guides of Canada from Sparks through to Rangers (so like 5 to 18) and was a Guider for about a year! Girl Guides is the original British name of the female branch of the Scouting movement which I think some Americans might not realize? The World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts brings all the different nations together. Yep, had no idea about the "Guide" nomenclature, that's interesting! And I'm the exact same re: learning life skills I didn't get anywhere else. More than anything, just learning a lot of self-reliance and initiative and building self-confidence. Teenagers already notoriously feel invincible, but after roughing it for a whole weekend in 40F degree temps and rain you feel really loving invincible the following Monday. Killingyouguy! posted:So how does this work? In Scouts Canada, Cubs is the 8-10 age bracket, after Beavers but before Scouts. Is Cubs an entirely different organization from Boy Scouts in the states? In the U.S., cub scouts is ages 5-10/11; it's really based on school grade-levels, so kindergarten-5th grade. Cub scouts is run by Scouts BSA, so it's not a totally different organization, just a different albeit related program to (older youth) Scouting. There's also Venturing, which is for 14-year-olds to 21 (I think?)-year-olds, which focuses more on high adventure stuff than traditional Scouting involves. Like cub scouts it's run by Scouts BSA, but is a separate program. Cub scouting is deliberately designed to help shepherd youth into Scouting; there's even a "den chief" position where an older scout comes and helps out with a cub scout den, so the cubs get to see a big kid do big kid Scouting stuff. Judgy Fucker fucked around with this message at 20:49 on May 18, 2023 |
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May 18, 2023 20:42
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Killingyouguy! posted:Progression is based solely on age, but you don't get a badge proving you completed the precious age bracket and you get a different progression ceremony if you don't finish the program of your age bracket. Basically you're considered as starting over lol In cub scouting it's a lot of what's called "social promotion," like what you described as far as being based solely on age. It's not too common for cub scouts to not meet the requirements for a certain rank, but in the event they don't they'd probably be awarded the rank anyway, hence the "social" promotion. In cub scouts the "ranks" are:
In Scouting (grades 6-12), you absolutely have to earn your ranks. Rank isn't based on age at all, only requirements that have to be met. Didn't meet the requirements? No ranking up for you! In Scouting, the ranks are:
Killingyouguy! posted:* this was very recently changed from Brownies bc it turned out Black girls did not want to be called that! Yeah I was familiar with the "brownie" terminology, that was probably a good change to make lol Killingyouguy! posted:Also I want to recommend How The Girl Guides Won the War about international Girl Guide and Girl Scout involvement in The Second World War. Not only were girls on the home front raising funds and raising gardens to supplement rationing, but guides were also dispatched to feed people in bombed out cities by building camp stoves out of salvaged bricks, run intel and do first aid on front lines, and landed planes after getting their semaphore badges That is cool as gently caress. If I ever hear someone ragging on Girl Scouts/Guides I'll be sure to "well, actually" them.
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May 18, 2023 21:15
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Killingyouguy! posted:That's brutal but also I'm kind of jealous bc I was always very program oriented lol. So at 9th grade you choose to keep leveling up in Scouts or start over in Venturing? Can you do both? Yeah basically. You can only be in a troop (Scouts BSA) or crew (venturing), not both. You can hop over once you hit 14, and continue your rank advancement. It's not uncommon for Scouts to earn their Eagle in a troop, then join a crew to just do fun high adventure stuff and not worry about ticking checkboxes anymore. Killingyouguy! posted:Scouts Canada has been coed for as long as I can remember and there was one girl in my Rangers unit who was also very high ranked in Scouts and she was the busiest person I've ever met lol It's been a few years since the Boy Scouts of America started allowing girls to join (and thus changing to Scouts BSA), but girls and boys are still supposed to be pretty segregated. However, my unit--and, talking to the upper leadership, a good number of units nationally--are openly flaunting those rules as participation in Scouting overall is way, way down, and the only units that are growing are the ones that are the most inclusive. So district and national leadership know a bunch of units are ignoring the segregation rules but aren't doing anything about it since they know those units are the ones that are doing the most to keep Scouts BSA from going extinct.
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May 19, 2023 23:33
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schwein11 posted:OP - I just did BALOO a couple weekends ago. Don't be like me and forget to bring a pad to go under your sleeping bag, was kicking myself (all night) over that one. Oh I never forget, it just never matters. I'm cursed to always find a spot that has a root or rock I missed and spend all night trying to contort myself into a "comfortable" position and by the time I do it's sunrise.  Our charter org is a church, but it's a mainline Methodist one and my pack is definitely not particularly religious. We have Jews, Muslims, Hindus, and secular folk in addition to the expected Christians. I was careful trying to find a pack for my son, didn't want him joining some right-wing white male grievance factory.
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Jun 5, 2023 19:00
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Achmed Jones posted:bobcat isn't itself an age group. bobcat is the badge that kids get during their tiger year (first grade) before they get the actual tiger badge. bobcat for the first half of the school year, tiger for the second. more or less. second grade (7-8) is the wolf year; kids will generally get that badge towards the end of the year. They have changed how the Cub Scout ranks work sometime in the last 30 years, so titties’ experience may have been prior to the change. Though I do remember Bobcat also not being an age cohort when I was a kid, it was the “introductory” rank prior to Wolf in 2nd grade. But it also sounds like their den leader sucked, so maybe they just never actually worked on earning the badges and just did the arts and crafts stuff? That is one of the pitfalls of American Scouting—the franchising of the program can be good in some ways (telling council leadership to gently caress off regarding gender segregation) but can also be bad (lame den leaders, bad units, etc.)
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Jun 8, 2023 01:11
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Wee posted:Boy Scouts Australia mid 80's to early 90's This sounds fun as gently caress, though I have this image of the Australian wilderness being filled to the brim with bugs and other wildlife that will kill you cold by simply looking at you. Being an outdoorsy program I'm sure you got at least some kind of education on the fauna? Any other details to share about Australian Scouting 30-40 years ago? When I was a Scout the eldest patrol was permitted to walk off a bit from the troop's main campsite and camp on their own, too, but not a kilometer away, maybe more like 50-100 meters.
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Jun 9, 2023 14:50
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Psycho Society posted:hello fellow scouters Hello! It's been cool to see others post about their Scouting experiences, for better or worse, from around the world. I'm glad TGO got moved to the top of the forum index, it certainly looks like it's helped traffic. Not much to report on Scouting on my end--in the U.S., Cub Scouts goes semi-inactive over the summer months when students are out of school because that's when a lot of Americans plan their vacations so there's no telling who is in town at any given time. Things will pick back up late July or early August. Our Pack does do some organized activities so that the kids don't forget they're in Scouts, but my son and I couldn't make the multi-day camping trip a lot of the pack is on right now.
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Jun 15, 2023 13:43
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withoutclass posted:However I've been hesitant about Boy Scouts due to the controversies, religion, etc. Has the switch to Scouts BSA improved things? The short answer is yeah, for the most part, sorta. Longer answer is Scouts BSA works under a kind of franchise model, where individual units can be quite different from one another in terms of culture and how they operate. My suggestion is to use this site to find units near you, email them expressing interest in joining, attend a meeting or activity or two and get a feel for the unit. You're not under any obligation to join or really even entertain entreaties from the units if you decided it wasn't a good fit, it's pretty common not only for visitors to attend meetings etc. but to also nope out if it doesn't feel right for them. My anecdotal experience so far is Scouting has become much, much more tolerant, inclusive, and welcoming since I was a kid. Not just my unit, but even interacting with district and council leadership. I'm typing from Oklahoma too, which I think says further things about the generally good direction Scouting is going.
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Jun 15, 2023 18:16
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Killingyouguy! posted:PYF campfire song Cool song  My favorite campfire song was an instrumental rendition of "House of the Rising Sun" by the Animals one of my assistant scoutmasters would play on guitar. Usually toward the end of a campfire. Always seemed to really capture the mood of a dying campfire, the end of the fellowship and revelry. As far as more traditional campfire songs, I always enjoyed Scouts Vespers: a little stuffy, but I always felt it and the very end of the bonfire. Similar vibe to "On My Honor," just a lot more somber. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cpo9tDCspFU
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Jun 16, 2023 02:20
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Imperialist Dog posted:I'm an unexpected Akela for an English-speaking Cub Scout Pack in Hong Kong. This is incredibly fascinating. Had no idea Scouting was such an institution in Hong Kong. I'm no expert on Hong Kong or Chinese politics, but I am under the impression Beijing is exerting more influence on local HK politics recently. If so, has that had any effect on Scouting there as far as you can tell?
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Jul 11, 2023 14:39
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Imperialist Dog posted:There are big changes coming in the next academic year, I hear. There will be an overhaul of the progressive badge system - they used to be concurrent, with the Membership Badge being awarded at the same time as the Red scout family badge, the Cub Scout Award being awarded concurrently with the Yellow cub scout family badge, and so on. They may get rid of the membership badge too, because the highest level of loyalty should be to the PRC, and not an international organization. We'll see if that rumour comes true ... Is this the membership badge in HK? Interesting that Scouts earn it (and that the PRC may be taking it away), it comes already sewn on by default on all Scout uniforms in the U.S.--it and the American flag are the only two patches that come so. It's just a marker for being a part of the International Scouting Movement, and to be honest I bet most American Scouts couldn't tell you what it means. However, I see the logic in it being an introductory-level achievement since you're joining not just Scouting in HK but Scouting in the worldwide sense, too. And thanks for linking the handbook, that was really interesting to browse. And the drill practice stuff--that happens in American Scouting, though different units emphasize it more or less than others. Flag ceremonies are mandated to open and close meetings, but it's not usually a particularly regimented affair. And for the most part even units that do emphasize it aren't particularly good at it. The goosestepping is some  though
Judgy Fucker fucked around with this message at 12:28 on Jul 12, 2023 |
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Jul 12, 2023 12:24
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Bummer on the hike, and typhoon in general. Thursdays are our den meeting nights but I have to cancel ‘cause my son is sick (nothing major, he’ll be fine). We were gonna do some fall planting: onions, lettuce, carrots, and some flower bulbs. Next week it is! And now I’m thinking about cookies.
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Oct 5, 2023 15:00
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Jato posted:Cool thread idea. I was a Cub Scout and enjoyed it quite a bit but my mom pulled me out of it before I moved on to the Boy Scouts because she had a lot of issues with how our den was run. It was very heavily Christian which didn't jive with my non-religious parents at all. I'm curious what that's like these days? I assume it varies a lot depending where you are and who is involved in it. I'm a couple years out from having kids but I think some sort of Outdoor focused program like the scouts is something I'd definitely like my kids to get the opportunity to do and would probably participate in heavily as a parent. It definitely depends. I’m in Oklahoma, infamously conservative and religious, and found a pretty secular unit that has multiple open atheists in it. We also have at least one Jewish, Muslim, and Hindu family each. Once it’s time to get kids into Scouting, feel free to visit different units in your area to get a feel for the culture and see which, if any, are a good fit for you, as there’s no geographic restrictions on which units you can join.
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Jan 30, 2024 14:42
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Our cubmaster and committee chair are moving on to the local troop since their cub is now a Scout. The incoming cubmaster just asked me to be their assistant cubmaster, and I felt obliged to accept. Being a den leader was already more than I had anticipated, but I also know Scouting at the pack level is a fully volunteer thing, and it doesn't work unless folks step up. Just hope I haven't bitten off more than I can chew! I did go to a University of Scouting event a couple weeks ago, and that helped reinvigorate my excitement for leadership. Doing Wood badge in April, hopefully that'll keep the fire lit.
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Feb 20, 2024 18:18
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Just completed my second weekend of Wood Badge, drat what an experience. Have definitely made some new friends, really pumped for my tickets, and am excited for the new Cub Scouting program being released in June. I must recommend Wood Badge to any American Scouts BSA leaders reading this. It was transformative enough it has me contemplating singing lessons.
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Apr 30, 2024 15:59
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shootforit posted:'Back to Gilwell happy land!' Congrats on getting beaded! I know I need to get to work as 18 months will come faster than it sounds. My items are:
Our unit is pretty religiously diverse, and instead of trying to embrace the faiths our unit decided to drop the whole "reverent" thing. As a functional atheist I've though a lot about what it means for an atheist to be reverent, and I believe there's a good opportunity to include secular values like fellowship and conservation that can tie into "reverence" so I'm going to try.
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May 1, 2024 14:33
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