Here is the response from WAGGGs to the accusation of the brochure being given out.

Dear Joshua,

Thank you for your enquiry. The articles you refer to are factually incorrect.

On 3 March, one of our Member Organizations, the Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA), held a Girls Only Workshop in conjunction with UNICEF’s Working Group on Girls, Girls Learn International and The Grail. This session was facilitated by adults and involved Girl Scouts from the states. It was designed to formulate a Girls’ Statement to present to the United Nations, drawing their attention to the plight of girls around the world. There was no material distributed at this session and no other organizations apart from those hosting it attended the event or were involved in its planning or facilitation.

The World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts very public mission is to enable girls and young women to develop their fullest potential as responsible citizens of the world. We see the fruits of our, and our Member Organizations’, labour everyday. For example, at the CSW there were six young women representing WAGGGS. They ran a panel discussion on the importance of non-formal education, they spoke as keynote speakers at UNIFEM’s say no to violence against women’s event, they encouraged their country delegations to invest in girls programmes at the national level and they in general personified the ethos of Girl Guiding and Girl Scouting to serve their communities, in this case as the voice of the many girls and young women around the world who maybe don’t have as many opportunities as they do.

If you would like further clarification, Girl Scouts USA have also posted a statement on their website, which you can find here

Update: The CEO Blog for the Girl Scouts of Western Pennsylvania had a recent post which obliquely refers to this matter and reads in part…

•Our members know first-hand what materials we distribute to girls and what we stand for in terms of our actions, words and deeds.
•Every Girl Scout knows the Girl Scout Promise; and takes service to God and her country to heart.
•Our volunteers, our families, our donors, and community partners understand that the council spends 100% of our resources on empowering girls through our mission. We do not financially support other organizations.

Boy Scouts is supposed to be about the youth we serve yet there is no youth representation on the National Board. Consider adding select number of Eagles, Venturing president or others to National Board on a one year membership.

Scouting professional Renee has this to say about that.

Renee Fairrer 22 days ago
The Order of the Arrow Chief and the National Venturing President both serve on the National Executive Board. These are young men and/or women (Venturing) who represent the voice of youth in Scouting at the highest level. This practice has been in place for many years.

My biggest question was, “how is the 2009 version different from the 2008 version”? I couldn’t find an old one nor a list of changes so I’m not sure, but it looks mainly like a whole section on the right/top of the application which asks for dates and participation in other Boy Scouts programs like Cub Scouts and Varsity teams.

Every so often I look around at all the great resources on the internet for finding Boy Scout information and I think that keeping up this blog is just superfluous. However, in the process of writing things up for these posts I often will do more digging than I would have if I just read through my list of preferred sites.

For instance, when checking out the advancement requirements for Eagle over at the US Scouting Service Project website I came across this statement that I had never heard before. Shouldn’t someone have told me this directly since I’m the committee chair for the troop and also since I’ve taken both Scoutmaster and committee training?

NOTE: The Application Form and the Service Project Workbook do NOT have to be completed and/or signed prior to the candidate’s 18th birthday, only the REQUIREMENTS need to be done. The top of the application form contains the following statement:

“This application is to be completed after you have completed all requirements for the Eagle Scout rank….When you have completed this application, sign it and submit it to your unit leader”

By the Scout’s signature, it says:

“On my honor as a Scout/Venturer, all statements on this application are true and correct. All requirements were completed prior to my 18th birthday.”

In “The 12 Steps from Life to Eagle” on the last page of the workbook, it says:

“3. It is imperative that all requirements for the Eagle Scout rank be completed prior to the candidate’s 18th birthday. When all requirements except the board of review for the rank of Eagle, including the leadership service project, have been completed, the enclosed Eagle Scout Rank Application must be completed and sent to the council service center promptly.”

Everything says REQUIREMENTS must be completed before the deadline, and the application be completed and submitted AFTER the requirements are complete.

The unit leader DOES have to sign and date the application, and the project workbook, but that date does NOT have to be before the deadline, so long as all the dates listing when the requirements were completed is listed. The date that the Unit Leader’s Conference was held is a separate entry from the leader’s signature date. The signature dates in the workbook are separate from the entry for the date the project was completed.

Do you know how many frantic late-night arrangements have been made trying to secure signatures in order to get the completed Eagle application turned in to the council? Of course, we don’t want the young men to procrastinate, but I think relationships between adults and boys as well as council personnel could be eased if everyone was on the same page regarding this requirement. Thank goodness I was searching around for a list of changes to the 2009 Eagle application so I saw this information. Now, I just have to make sure that our district which is trying to encourage the boys to do their best doesn’t reject applications based on faulty data.

As millions of our countrymen lose their jobs to unfair labor practices overseas, it seems less than appropriate that our uniforms are made in China. If cost is an issue, maybe we could provide an American made product alongside the foreign product, and give everyone the option to “buy America”. It could even be used a a marketing tool.

So, my question is, did anybody consult you on the strategic plan for the BSA that we’re going to hear about next month?

One of the ideas over at the BSA innovation engine

I’ve been working on a special summer session of our normal merit badge classes here at the museum. I ran into some issues this past week with scouts wanting to take the Personal Management class that is this Saturday. Unfortunately they had to pull out here at the last second because their Scoutmasters refused to give them a blue card. The rational of the Scoutmasters happen to be that the boys were “too young” to take the merit badge.

The BSA policy is that all boys who are registered members of the Boy Scouts of America and are in the Boy Scout program can take any merit badge they want whenever they want. These Scoutmasters are indirect contradiction to BSA policy and unfortunatley the parents are unwilling to go against the wishes of their son’s Scoutmaster.

I think we need to make merit badges a key point in the training of Adult Leaders. Otherwise, we need to find a way to make sure Scoutmasters cannot deny the Scout the opportunity to take a merit badge.

I believe a Scoutmaster should have the right to voice his disapproval, but he should not be allowed to refuse a blue card to a Scout wishing to take any merit badge.

The idea currently has a positive review. I knew that Boy Scouts had to get the Scoutmaster’s approval to start a merit badge (check that… Walter says otherwise in the comments. Check out his explanation), but I always thought of that as kind of a head’s up so the Scoutmaster knew what was going on. So, I pulled out one of my son’s merit badge blue cards and it clearly says that the Scoutmaster is approving that the Scout has his permission to begin working on the merit badge.

If this idea is to go forward then the old blue cards need to be nixed in order to avoid confusion. It is foreign to me that a Scoutmaster would deny a boy the chance to begin working on a merit badge. What’s the point in denying the application? To cut the boy’s confidence in himself by saying that he can’t handle it? To gently guide him toward a different path? Why would the Scoutmaster have that power? The Scoutmaster is an example and assistant to the boy-led troop.

Well, I guess I’m confused as to how the Scoutmaster was ever viewed as being someone who could have the authority to deny a boy the chance to work on a merit badge. There must be some reason why the program was constructed this way, but I’m at a loss to figure out what it was unless it has something to do with a rule that was changed in the past. There was some talk about certain merit badges not being done until a certain rank was achieved, but that doesn’t appear to be the case any more.

Here are the requirement changes, remember they take effect on January 1, 2010:

Tenderfoot
- A Scout must teach another person how to tie a square knot using the EDGE model (explain, demonstrate, guide, and enable).
- He must also be able to discuss four specific examples of how he lived the points of the Scout Law in his daily life.

Second Class
A Scout must discuss the principles of Leave No Trace and explain the factors to consider when choosing a patrol site and where to pitch a tent.
He must explain what respect is due the flag of the United States.
He must again discuss four examples of how he lived four different points of the Scout Law in his daily life.
He must earn an amount of money agreed upon by the Scout and his parents and save at least 50 percent of it.

First Class
An additional requirement to the 10 separate troop/patrol activities states he must demonstrate the principles of Leave No Trace on these outings.
He must discuss four more examples of how he lived the remaining four points of the Scout Law in his daily life.

Life
A Scout must use the EDGE model to teach a younger Scout a specified skill.

Star, Life, and Eagle
Troop Webmaster and Leave No Trace trainer are two new leadership positions.

Sounds like it’s time to start a troop web page if don’t have one so your young men have an additional opportunity for leadership. I’m still trying to get a Bugler in our troop. Apparently, it’s hard.

Frequently I am asked “Does the BSA ever “revoke membership for life” for anyone, especially when we’ve got Eagle Scouts sitting in our jails and some people being given slaps on their wrists and said “don’t do this again…”

Here’s proof of what boredom, along with lack of a program, can do to a Troop, a community, and to Scouting in general. And its like we’ve got kids beating down our doors to *get into Scouts*!!

(CAUTION: POSTING, TAKEN FROM MEDIA SITE, IS GRAPHIC IN NATURE!)

Camper kidnapped, forced to drink urine Four Boy Scouts arrested for
kidnapping, assault
http://www.myfoxorlando.com/dpp/news/local/061509camper_kidnapped

HAWTHORNE, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35) – Four Boy Scouts will never again be allowed
to call themselves scouts after being revoked for life following an assault at Camp Shands. The four, including an Eagle Scout, are accused of holding a 12-year-old down, duct-taping his mouth, and forcing him to drink human
urine.

These actions do not represent the principles of scouting, they will not be tolerated, and accordingly their membership in scouting has been revoked, said Jack Sears of the Boy Scouts.

On Friday June 12, the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office said the 12-year-old was asked by 21-year-old Joseph Reid to walk back to his campsite. On the way, the boy told deputies that four other Scouts jumped him, forced him to the ground and taped his mouth.

The 12-year-old said the scouts then took him off into the woods and told them they were going to “teach him a lesson” for making derogatory remarks toward another scout. The boy told police that the four told him he could either get beaten up, or drink human urine. He said before he could answer, Reid ripped the duct tape off his mouth and forced him to drink a bottle of urine.

“The scout leaders involved were near the incident and were not aware of what was going on. That’s why the boy ran to go find them,” said Sears.

The 12-year-old notified scout leaders who immediately called the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office. The boys were all taken into custody and deputies said they found duct tape and two bottles of urine at the site where the boy said he was assaulted. Deputies also confiscated a cell phone on which they said is a recording of the entire attack.

…

The teenagers have been turned over to the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice.

——————————-

Settummanque!

I’ll only add two things: we all know that the buddy system seems ridiculous in camp because it’s a closed environment, but we still need to enforce it and this just proves one example of why that’s a good idea. So, use the buddy system and prevent random conflict between Scouts. Secondly, I was surprised at seeing the names of of children charged, but not convicted, posted in a news story, so I cut the names out. The media is usually so scrupulous about this sort of thing and it just gets under my skin that they felt it didn’t need to be done this time. You have the link if you’re local and worried about them interacting with your kids.

According postings on the Cub Scout Talk Yahoo Group, BSA National has announced that the annual adult and youth registration fee (currently $10) is going up to $15 effective January 1, 2010.

Link [Requires login]