Youth safety is the No. 1 concern of the BSA.

To increase awareness of this societal problem and to create even greater barriers to abuse than already exist today in Scouting, the Boy Scouts of America is implementing several important changes to further enhance its Youth Protection policies.

Effective June 1, 2010:

* — Youth Protection training is required for all registered volunteers.
* — New leaders are required to take Youth Protection training before they submit an application for registration. The certificate of completion for this training must be submitted at the time application is made and before volunteer service with youth begins.
* — Youth Protection training must be taken every two years. If a volunteer’s Youth Protection training record is not current at the time of recharter, the volunteer will not be reregistered.

To ensure these policies are fully implemented, please take the following steps: BSA Card

* — If you have not taken Youth Protection training within the past two years, please log on to MyScouting and take the training. Be sure to have your member ID number. The number can be found on your Boy Scouts of America membership card.
* — If you do not know your member ID number, contact your unit leader or committee chairman. Your council can also assist.
* — A person does not have to be a registered volunteer or have an ID number to take Youth Protection training. To take the training, log in to MyScouting and create an account. From the MyScouting portal, click on E-Learning and take the Youth Protection training. Upon completion, print a certificate and submit it with an application or submit to the unit leader for processing at the local council.
* — If you have taken Youth Protection training online but did not input your member ID number, please log on to MyScouting and input your member ID in the My Profile section so the training will be linked to your records.
* — If you have taken Youth Protection training within the past two years but did not take the course online, log on to MyScouting to ensure your records are up-to-date, or contact your council for verification that your Youth Protection training records are accurate.
* — Finally, please share these important changes with other Scouters.

To find out more about the Youth Protection policies of the Boy Scouts of America and how to help Scouting keep your family safe, see the Parent’s Guide in any of the Cub Scouting or Boy Scouting handbooks, or go to http://www.scouting.org/Training/YouthProtection.aspx.

Thank you for your commitment to our nation’s young people and to Scouting.

Sincerely,

James Terry
Assistant Chief Scout Executive

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Vol. 2, No. 5

This is the National Council’s outstanding newsletter promoting our rich culture of Scouting traditions. Let the troop know what you think about it.

Taking Aim at Summer

Scouts everywhere are setting off on great adventures. Two activities that have been around as long as Scouting are tracking and archery. Each demands practice, focus, and steady nerves. For a fun afternoon or for serious sports to enjoy for a lifetime, archery and tracking offer all the challenge you can want, and more!

BENDING THE BOW

Earnest Thompson Seton and Daniel Carter Beard, two founders of Scouting in America, admired the abilities of many American Indians to handle bows and arrows. They encouraged Scouts to take up archery, too, and become accurate marksmen.

Early BSA literature also showed ways to make bows that were strong, and arrows that would fly straight and true.

Many Scout camps today have ranges where you can learn archery basics. Instructors will issue bows and arrows, explain safety procedures that must always be followed, then help you develop solid technical skills.

While lots of archers continue to find satisfaction in building their own equipment, the Compound Bow Set and Archery Merit Badge pamphlet will give you the gear and guidance to get started on your own. Both are available online from Scoutstuff.org.

From there it’s up to you to have as much success-and as much fun-as possible!

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Tracking Success

The cover of a 1908 installment of Robert Baden-Powell’s Scouting for Boys features his sketch of a Scout studying tracks. Baden-Powell believed tracking was one of the most important skills that Scouts could master. It required them to be observant, notice clues on the ground, and figure out what was going on. Footprints and signs left by other Scouts provided great practice as boys made their way through the backcountry.

One of four historic merit badges that Scouts can earn during the Centennial year of the Boy Scouts of America is Tracking. The requirements are almost the same now as they were in Scouting’s earliest days.

Handbooks through the decades have given Scouts plenty of advice on becoming good trackers. Look closely at the ground to find footprints. Keep an eye on the big picture, too, as you make your best guesses as to what those footprints mean.

The signs left by wildlife can tell you much about the creatures that live in an area and what they have been doing. Broken twigs, abandoned nests, droppings, and claw marks on trees all reveal something about animals’ activities.

When your tracking skills lead you within sight of wildlife, stay hidden so that you can observe what the animals are doing. Move only when they are looking away from you. Staying downwind of wildlife with keen senses of smell can help you conceal your location, too.

Always follow the Leave No Trace principle of doing nothing that might disturb animals or their surroundings. Watch at a distance that is safe for them and for you. Take photographs, make sketches, or just keep a picture in your mind of what you have learned while in the presence of wildlife. Then slip away as quietly as you arrived.

Tracking Quiz

The Tracking merit badge asks Scouts to know and recognize ten different prints common in their area. Can you match these sets of tracks with the owners of the feet that made them? You’ll find the answers below.

Answers to Tracking Quiz:

1-c. 2-f. 3-a. 4-b. 5-d. 6-e.

For requirements and an on-line edition of the Tracking Merit Badge Pamphlet, go to Scouting.org

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Mug It Up!

Everyone going camping needs a mug or cup. Yours should be sturdy enough to survive the backcountry and big enough to hold drinks and soups. If it is insulated it can keep beverages cool in the summer and warm in the winter.

From there, the sky’s the limit as you choose the cup or mug that fits your hand – and your personality.

Feeling old-school? Scoutstuff.org brings back the metal camper’s cup carried by hikers in California’s high country more than a century ago. Hanging a Sierra-style cup on your belt can still be a symbol of a true backpacker.

Clip the carabiner handle of a modern outdoor mug to a strap on your pack for secure storage and easy release. Rugged construction includes plenty of insulation and sometimes the security of a tightly-fitted lid.

Mugs with Scouting emblems can be terrific collectors’ items, too. Display a few on your shelf to show your pride in the Boy Scouts of America.

While mugs are terrific for collecting memories, the real purpose is holding beverages. There’s nothing better than an evening in Scout camp visiting with friends and sipping a delicious beverage from your own special mug.

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1. Be Prepared – For Adventure, For Life
2. Be Prepared – For Adventure, For Life

Vol. 2, No. 4

This is the National Council’s outstanding newsletter promoting our rich culture of Scouting traditions. Let the troop know what you think about it.

LET’S GROW!

Ready for spring? Warmer weather brings fresh adventures for Scouts everywhere.

It’s also a fine time to plant a few seeds in a pot or cultivate a couple of rows in a garden. Scouts have been doing that for a very long time.

A collector’s edition embroidered patch celebrating the BSA’s 100th Anniversary commemorates gardening as one of Scouting’s national Good Turns. The patch shows Lady Liberty sowing seeds and asking, “Will you have a part in Victory?”

The idea arose during World War I when the Boy Scouts of America was still very new. “Every Scout to Feed a Soldier” became the slogan that encouraged boys to plant gardens and help provide America and its people in uniform with plenty of food. Those early Scouts showed that young people could make a real difference.

Scouts stepped up again throughout World War II by planting “victory gardens” all over America. The vegetables they produced help feed their families and the nation.

Today, Scouts continue to discover the satisfaction of growing gardens. Many start by tending potted plants on windowsills. Some cities have transformed vacant lots into “pea patch gardens,” where people without space of their own can grow vegetables and flowers. In rural areas and communities with more open land, gardens can be shared fun for Scouts and their families.

Through your efforts, you can make the world a little greener, and perhaps even provide some fresh vegetables for the table. That’s a victory garden any way you measure it!

To learn more, check out the Gardening Merit Badge. Passing the requirements can give you a good understanding of gardening basics.

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JEOPARDY QUIZ REVISITED

The television show “Jeopardy” recently celebrated Scouting’s Centennial Year with a special category, The Boy Scouts of America. Contestants were asked to identify a teepee firelay, a tomahawk, a way of using shadows to find north, and the first American president to have been a Scout (John F. Kennedy).

Here’s your chance to match wits with the latest Be Prepared Scouting quiz. (The correct responses are at the end of this section.)

And as they say on “Jeopardy”, make your answers in the form of a question.

Ready?

Begin!

1. The words “Silver on the sage, starlit skies above…” are sung by Scouts visiting this BSA High Adventure Base in New Mexico.
2. Cub Scouts can build gravity-powered model cars to race in this event.
3. In 1907, Robert Baden-Powell hosted the first Boy Scout campout on this English island.
4. The BSA’s 100th anniversary themeCelebrating the Adventure – Continuing the Journey will be heard often during this summer’s National Jamboree ^® held in this state.
5. Members of this popular Scouting program can earn the Gold Award, Silver Award, and Ranger Award.
6. Scouts selected to join this national honor society of the BSA ^® call one another brothers.
7. God and Country, On My Honor, God and Church, and Ad Altare Dei are awards closely related to this point of the Scout Law.
8. A moleskin donut is one of the recommended ways to treat this common hiking injury.
9. The letters CPR stand for this first aid treatment provided to someone whose heart and breathing have stopped.
10. The letters UU represent the hoof prints of this “mail burro” and mascot ofBoys’ Life Magazine .

1. What is Philmont?
2. What is a Pinewood Derby?
3. What is Brownsea Island?
4. What is Virginia?
5. What is Venturing?
6. What is the Order of the Arrow?
7. What is Reverent?
8. What is a blister?
9. What is Cardio-Pulmonary-Resuscitation?
10. Who is Pedro?

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LEATHERWORK

An early Boy Scout Handbook included these instructions for making moccasins:

-Boy Scout Handbook – 3rd edition, 1927

It’s a pattern still found in the Moccasin Kit sold on

Scoutstuff
. The moccasin is also the image on the Leatherwork Merit Badge.

Making useful items from leather is a skill that fascinated Ernest Thompson Seton, Daniel Carter Beard, and other founders of the Boy Scouts of America. Learn about leather work and the projects you can complete, and you might discover a terrific new hobby.

Punch It Out!

A punch kit is all you need to imprint messages and designs onto leather items. Figure out what you want, then use a small hammer to tap letters, numbers, and designs into your projects.

Check www.Scoutstuff.org for leather tooling letters, numbers, and designs.

There are plenty of leatherwork projects to choose from, too, including keychains, rounders, and neckerchief slides:

The neckerchief slide with the longest history in Scouting – the woggle – is also made of leather, but it is tied rather than stamped.

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WOGGLE

When Robert Baden-Powell wore a neckerchief, the founder of the worldwide Scouting movement often held it in place with a neckerchief slide called a woggle
.

Technically, a woggle is a cord tied as a Turk’s Head Knot:

You can see the shape and weave of the woggle replicated in today’s metal neckerchief slides for Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts:

The woggle also plays important roles during Wood Badge courses, Scouting’s advanced training in leadership skills for all adults in BSA programs.

Every Wood Badge participant learns to tie a woggle with a piece of cord. At the completion of the course, a graduate receives a Wood Badge neckerchief and a permanent leather woggle.

Wearing the woggle is one way adult leaders can acknowledge that they are living by the values of Scouting. The same is true whenever Scouts perform Good Turns, from planting gardens to being leaders. Guided by the Scout Oath and Law, members of the BSA continue to make positive differences every day for their families, communities, and country.

Wood Badge Emblem

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Vol. 2, No. 3

This is the National Council’s outstanding newsletter promoting our rich culture of Scouting traditions. Let the troop know what you think about it.

Badges, Bicycles, and Bugles

Celebrations of the BSA’s Centennial are sweeping across America. Many councils are hosting gala events, and preparations continue for this summer’s “100 Years of Scouting” National Jamboree^®.

With Centennial badges, all Scouts can show pride in the BSA’s big birthday. The patches are sure to become collectors’ items in years to come.

BADGES OF THE CENTURY

Scouts and Scouters everywhere are wearing the Embroidered Centennial Ring Emblem around the World Scout Crest Emblem on their uniform shirts. If you are one of the 43,000 attending the 2010 Jamboree^®, you can proudly show off the 2010 Jamboree^®
World Crest Ring emblem.

Centennial Ring Emblem, World Scout Crest Emblem, and 2010 Jamboree^® World Crest Ring

Official 2010 Jamboree^® Partcipant Emblem

Centennial Badges of Rank

Complete the advancement requirements before December 31, and you can earn a Cub Scout or Boy Scout rank badge with 2010 embroidered into the design. Check with your Scout leader to learn how to get these once-in-a-century awards.

For Cub Scouts:

For Boy Scouts:

The Eagle Pin that Never Was

Scouting came to America in 1910, but it would be several years before a Boy Scout advanced through all the ranks and reached the rank of Eagle. The first Handbook showed that Scouting’s founders thought the Eagle pin should have the profile of an eagle in flight.

That original Eagle design never became more than a drawing on a Handbook page. By 1912 when the first medal was presented to Scout Arthur Eldred, it had taken the shape of the familiar Eagle emblem Scouts still know.

Arthur Eldred, the first of more than two million Eagle Scouts. Note the merit badges on his sleeve.

PEDAL POWER!

Cycling was a merit badge Arthur Eldred earned on his path to Eagle. A hundred years later, bicycling is still a favorite way for many Scouts to get around.

1911 Cycling Merit Badge Cycling Merit Badge Today

Advertisements in the back pages of BSA Handbooks often featured bicycles and gear to go with them.

As bicycles improved through the decades, Scouts used them for bigger and better adventures. These 1950s Scouts had the latest in uniforms and pedaling machines.

Scouts today set off on roads and designated bike trails for the fun and challenge of two-wheeled travel. Riders going into the backcountry follow the rules of Leave No Trace by using only those trails that are approved for bicycles, minimizing their impact, and remembering that hikers, horseback riders, and others may be enjoying the pathways, too.

Spring Maintenance

Late winter is a good time to check over your bike to be sure it is ready for the rides of spring and summer. Inspect brakes and gear cables and see that seat and handlebars are adjusted to fit you.

Cleaning and lubricating bicycle chains and gears helps make riding a joy. Practice repairing bicycle tires so you’ll know how to do it if you have a flat far from home. The
Cycling Merit Badge Pamphlet and BSA Fieldbook can show you how.

BUGLES

An advertisement in the 1924 Boy Scout Handbook brought the bicycle together with another traditional Scouting favorite – the bugle.

The image embroidered on the Bugling merit badge has stayed the same for a hundred years.

Bugling can also boast that its requirements have seen fewer changes over the century than any other merit badge. A Scout is still asked to perform bugle calls that send information throughout camp. Reveille, for example, rouses Scouts from their sleeping bags. Mess alerts everyone that it’s time to eat.

Among the simplest musical instruments, a bugle is a coiled brass tube with a bell at one end and a mouthpiece on the other. Bugle calls can also be performed with a trumpet or coronet – essentially, bugles with valves that add a full range of notes for making music.

The famous notes of Taps are played at the end of the day, as the American flag is being lowered, and during funerals.

In the Centennial Handbook

Badges, bicycles, and bugles have been featured in many editions of the Boy Scout Handbook. Check the back pages of the Handbook’s new Centennial Edition, and you’ll see just one advertisement – for the BSA’s Supply Group. At
www.scoutstuff.org you’ll find everything you need to outfit yourself for Scouting’s Centennial activities, and for many years to come.

Boy Scouts of America^®, the Universal Emblem, Be Prepared^®, and Be Prepared. For Adventure. For Life^TM are either registered trademarks or trademarks of the Boy Scouts of America in the United States and/or other countries. All rights reserved.

All other trademarks are properties of their perspective owners. All rights reserved.

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