The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) and the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award program announced today a new collaboration to promote the Young Americans’ Challenge to youth members of the BSA. The award program aims to involve youth in challenging educational and nonacademic programs in community service, adventurous journeys, and physical recreation activities to achieve a balanced development of life skills.

BSA Chief Scout Executive Bob Mazzuca and His Royal Highness Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex, officially launched the program nationwide during a special reception at the National Scouting Museum. During the event, the two discussed the complementary efforts of both organizations to strengthen communities, families, and young people.
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Although the award will be available to all Scouts, the BSA will specifically promote it to members of its Venturing program. Venturing is a youth development program for young men and women between the ages of 14 and 21.

The Girl Scouts of the USA has 3 major awards for different age-ranges: Bronze, Silver, and Gold. Most people involved with Girl Scouts understand that the Gold is the top award that can be earned and involves long-term planning and management of a project as well as earning of certain number of skill badges (interest projects). Sounds a lot like a certain Boy Scout rank, doesn’t it? Yes, there is a leadership component to the Gold award, too. The upshot is that a lady in Girl Scouts can earn a Bronze, Silver, and Gold. Because the award is related to the age group she is in she can earn the Gold without having earned the others and vice-versa.

The Venturing program also has a metal-based recognition program. It is not age-related like Girl Scouts. It is a progression. First you earn the Bronze award. Next, to be difficult, you earn the Gold award. The top award is the Silver. That makes sense if you’re used to how all the top recognition awards are silver-based (silver beaver, silver buffalo, etc.). Beginning at age 14 (or after graduating 8th grade) a lady can work on these awards and can theoretically earn all of them (and the cool thing about not over-burdening the kids is that some aspects can be used for both award recognitions).

Now the Duke of Edinburgh awardwill be available which also has Bronze, Silver, and Gold level. These may or may not be progressive. You have to be at least 14 to try for the Bronze. You have to be at least 15 to try for the silver. You have to be at least 16 to try for the Gold. If you earn the Bronze and then go for Silver you don’t have to do the requirements as long for Silver level. If you skip Bronze and go directly to Silver your time period is doubled. If you skip Silver your time period for Gold goes from 12 months to 18 months. So the DofE award is like Girl Scouts in that you don’t have to earn the previous one to get the next level, but is different in that you aren’t barred from doing a Bronze if you’re older. It’s also different in that you get an advantage for the next level if you completed the one before it.

So, if a young lady starts on her awards as a Junior, continues as a Cadette, bridges to Seniors where she works on the award there and also joins the Venturing program where she can work on those awards and decides to try for the Duke of Edinburgh awards, too, she can earn all 9 of them. Boys can only earn 6. I hope that make her feel better about not being able to get the Eagle rank.

What I didn’t realize at the time was the Cub Scout Roundtable Commissioner had gotten hold of my incredibly grandiose Space Derby Manual that I felt compelled to write after that event, um, eleven years ago.Whew! It’s been a while. Holy cow! I even put an index at the back of the 63 page document. It was fun to see this document again because between server crashes, expired web sites, and hard drive deaths any copy of this manual I once had was nothing but electronic dust. She had it printed for display for the Roundtable and kindly sent me a copy yesterday.

Want to know how to put on a Space Derby in the late 1990’s? Rocket making advice? Timeline? Brackets for double-elimination racing? I really threw the kitchen sink into this thing. Hee, hee. If you have a really big cup of coffee and a whole lot of time to waste go ahead and click to pull down either the Microsoft Word version or the PDF version.

I’m just glad I only had to write it and not read the whole thing again.

This idea is to allow young ladies to become Eagle Scouts in the Venturing Program. Starting at age 14, they would have to do all of the requirements that the boys have to do and be done before the age of 18. In theory, Eagle can be attained in 2.5 years, so 4 years is plenty of time to fulfill the requirements. If adopted, this idea would allow for more membership and more supply sales and fill a void that is not presently offered by any other girl’s group. It would require no program modifications, only a new Venturing Book for girls with the requirements in it taken from the Boy Scout Handbook. Venturing is already co-ed so it is not really a departure from what is happening today.

Here are some of the key points about the upcoming Cub Scouts 2010 program (which begins September 2010) based on the information in the FAQ and the Top Hands presentation:

o Traditional monthly themes are no more.
o Monthly themes will be based on the 12 Cub Scouting Core Values.
o As with Fast Tracks, most Cub Scout achievements will be done in den meetings rather than at home. Some achievements still must be done at home.
o As with Fast Tracks, den leaders will be provided a recommended advancement schedule to follow.
o Cub Scout Program Helps is replaced by forthcoming Den and Pack Meeting Resource Guide.
o New Fast Start training.
o New position-specific training for den leaders will be offered online.
o Roundtable will continue to be important for communications and training.

I really like the position-specific training online. We just had our pack committee meeting last night. I know, I know. You’re not supposed to have the den leaders at those meetings so maybe we should call it a monthly leaers’ meeting because that’s the way we coordinate who is doing what at the pack meeting and also the best way to talk informally about everything. Anyway, I’m bringing up a new Webelos den leader, a dad who has been involved in Cub Scouts, but hasn’t been a leader. I’m pushing him to go to training and he’s all for it, but I wish I could have sent him to myscouting.org for position-specific training so he’d be up to speed sooner than waiting for a nearby district to offer training.

Other than that this change seems to be a way for the national council to exert more control over the den meetings. I’m not sure why they feel this is important since the Cub Scouts tend to be the strongest part of the organization. Perhaps the 53% Webelos to Boy Scouts loss rate that was quoted to me recently is the reason, but in almost all other ways the Cub Scout program has been stronger than most other parts and is less in need of changing than anything else. We’ll see as time rolls on what the other changes are that might improve this great tradition.

Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, a proud Girl Scout alumna and lifetime member, credited Girl Scouts as providing her first lessons on preparedness and leadership. She encouraged girls to join and stay in Girl Scouting to learn the skills necessary for courageous leadership.

It’s not every day when Scouting can score somebody of this magnitude to speak on its behalf. Way to go GSUSA! If you want to find out about this program, click on over to the Girl Scout Council of the Nation’s Capital websitefor details and the downloadable booklet for completing the program.

In an effort to offer programs that are interesting to and at the right time for girls around the country/world, we are seeking the advice of Girl Scout Cadette/Senior/Ambassadors. Please answer our questions and watch for our upcoming announcements about amazing 2010 destination and getaway events!

http://www.gssem.org/surveysDetail.asp?ID=8

The council has this to say on their website.

Girl Scouts of Tanasi Council and country music icon Dolly Parton have worked together to create a new “Coat of Many Colors” patch program based on Parton’s best-selling autobiographical song about childhood poverty.

“Have you ever felt bad about being different? I’ll bet you have,” Parton tells girls in video message on tanasi.org. “But you shouldn’t—being different is what makes you special.”

Girl Scouts recognize that 20 percent of U.S. children live below the federal poverty line.
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Girl Scouts of Tanasi Council made Dolly Parton a lifetime member of Girl Scouts in June 2007 in an event that received worldwide media attention. Parton also hosted a special celebration for Tanasi Council Girl Scout Gold Awardees—those who have earned Girl Scouting’s highest honor.

Great! Keep those celebrities rolling into the Girl Scout councils. They’re doing a great service for America’s girls and boosting the GSUSA’s public image at the same time.

Hat tip: @BSAFox

Activities in the following list may not be attempted by a Girl Scout group without written authorization by their Girl Scout council. Girl Scout councils may not authorize any of these activities for girls under 12 years old and without ensuring that they are properly planned, supervised, and insured. (this is followed by) Activities that involve the use of firearms 

This means that Girl Scouts are allowed to shoot guns. The restriction is on the age range and council authorization. Since I’d never heard of any summer camp program that had .22’s or even BB’s I figured we never had a chance. That’s not the same as it being against the regulations, though. 

That’s why there is this cool story from Illinois’ New Lenox Patriot  (Thanks Laura Michaels) 

On the list of things they wanted to do before graduating from Girl Scouting in May was “learn to shoot a gun,” and that’s exactly what the members of New Lenox Girl Scout Troop 91 did when they visited the Oak Park Sportsmen’s Club in Plainfield. 

Troop leaders Jeanne Meeks and Laurie Blackwood contacted Jan Rafac, the secretary of the Allied Illinois Markswomen and a certified NRA instructor. Because Troop 91 was the first Girl Scout group to ever contact AIM, Rafac gathered five certified instructors to create an introductory program.

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AIM President Laura Andersen, who is also a certified NRA instructor and Boy Scout certified firearms instructor, said women are often better shots than men because of their better fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination.  

Though the Boy Scouts have a marksmanship program, Girl Scouts have no such program. The goal of the AIM organization is to educate women and girls to safely use firearms for sport and recreation, and Rafac said the group has tried to make contact with Girl Scout groups over the years so she was excited the girls of Troop 91 wanted to learn. 

Yeah! Let’s hear it for the Allied Illinois Markswomen and their willingness to work with the GSUSA to bring this exciting event to Troop 91!