News Briefs
Councils to celebrate the 100th anniversary of World Scouting
At precisely 8 a.m., Wednesday, Aug. 1, many BSA Scout councils will hold a commemorative ceremony at their camps or other locations to mark the 100th anniversary of World Scouting.
The time and date marks 100 years since Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the worldwide Scouting movement, sounded a kudu horn to announce the opening of his experimental camp on Brownsea Island off the coast of England. During the nine-day encampment, Baden-Powell successfully tested his Scouting program, or “scheme,” with 22 boys from all levels of English society formed into four Scout patrols—the world’s first official Boy Scout troop.
Many council celebrations will involve camp staff and Scouts reenacting the Brownsea Island camp, with the same games and Scout skills that the campers used in 1907.
(Editor’s note: To learn more about Brownsea Island, read “The First Scout Camp,” The Way It Was column in Scouting magazine’s September 1999 issue, at www.scoutingmagazine.org/issues/9909/d-wwas.html.)
Enter Our ‘Wonderful World of Scouting’ Photo Contest
What images do you think best reflect the essence of Scouting? Capture them with your camera and then enter your favorite photographs in Scouting magazine’s “Wonderful World of Scouting” photo contest.
The contest theme applies to all BSA programs—Cub Scouting, Boy Scouting, Varsity Scouting, and Venturing—and entries should show youth members involved in Scouting.
Winners will receive BSA Supply Group gift cards and have their photographs published in Scouting’s March-April 2008 issue and on the magazine’s Web site.
RULES FOR ENTERING
- Open to all registered adult BSA members. Entries must be received by Oct. 1, 2007.
- No more than three entries per person (digital and print combined).
Print entries:
- Only unmounted color prints, from film or high-resolution digital images (JPEG format), will be accepted, to a maximum size of 8 by 10 inches. Mounted prints or transparencies (slides), or other media, will not be accepted.
- All photographs must have the following information taped on the back: name, address, daytime and evening phone numbers, unit number and position (if applicable), council name, and e-mail address.
Online entries:
- Readers may enter digital photos online by uploading images at: www.scoutingmagazine.org/photocontest.
- Digital photographs should be taken using the camera’s highest quality setting.
- Only compressed JPEG files with a minimum size of 750KB and a maximum compressed file size of 1MB will be accepted.
- If selected for publication, an uncompressed JPEG image file size of at least 9MB will be required.
- The same identification information required for print photos must be submitted with the uploaded entry on the Web site.
For the purpose of the contest, all entries become the property of Scouting magazine. Winners must certify that photographs are their own original work. For reproduction of photographs in the magazine, all winners may be asked to provide original media, either the color negative or (if digital) a JPEG file of their entry.
No photographs will be returned. The BSA, Scouting magazine, and its agents are not responsible for loss of photographs. The decisions of the judges are final.
Mail print entries to Scouting Magazine Photo Contest, S304, 1325 W. Walnut Hill Ln., P.O. Box 152079, Irving, TX 75015-2079.
Winners will receive BSA Supply Group gift cards as follows: Grand Prize—$400; 1st Place—$300; 2nd Place—$200; 3rd Place—$100; Honorable Mention—$25.
New BSA initiative focuses on more parent involvement in Scouting
The BSA’s new National ScoutParents Initiative, made possible through the generous support of the Gerald I. Lawhorn family, is designed to provide parents with information and tools so they will better understand the importance of becoming more involved with their Scouts.
Pilot programs in the Flint River Council (Griffin, Ga.) and the Daniel Boone Council (Asheville, N.C.) are developing and testing resources that will enable councils, districts, and units to be more successful in engaging parents and adult mentors in the process of providing a quality Scouting program.
All BSA units are encouraged to adopt ScoutParents as an integral part of their program.
One step in implementing the program at the unit level is the appointment of a ScoutParents Unit Coordinator. This person will assign every parent to help with a specific task or project annually; orient parents on how the unit works and the benefits of participation to their family; and keep parents updated on the unit’s program and their child’s involvement.
More details on the ScoutParents program are available at www.scoutparents.org. The Web site contains general information on Scouting and its benefits to youth; resources for unit implementation; and a discussion forum for parents and leaders to ask questions, explore ideas, and share experiences and ideas.
Some resources that will be available for parents to download from the site include:
- “Scouting Builds More Than Just Campfires,” a brochure that briefs families, organizations, and potential volunteers on the benefits of Scouting. (A Spanish version is also being developed.)
- A “Scouting Orientation Guide for Parents” that describes the programs for different age levels and shows the seamless transition from Cub Scouting to Boy Scouting to Venturing.
- A “Welcome to Scouting” PowerPoint presentation that provides parents with an overview of Scouting and its focus on values.
NUMBERS
20—years the Simon Kenton Council (Columbus, Ohio) has hosted a winter Maple Syrup Festival at the council’s Camp Lazarus. Open to Scouts and the general public, the event offers an opportunity to observe maple sugar production and tree tapping, as well as other activities such as a pancake feast, Indian dancing, blacksmithing, tomahawk throwing, and BB-gun target shooting. Visitors can also buy maple syrup that has been produced at the camp.
90—years of history celebrated in 2007 by the Crossroads of America Council’s (Indianapolis, Ind.) Scout Band, which has operated continuously since 1917. The band has performed at every national Scout jamboree since 1950 and in the Indianapolis 500 festival parade from 1957 to 1992, at world’s fairs, and throughout the United States and Canada. This summer the band will travel to England for the world jamboree to help celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of Scouting. (Learn more about the band at www.scoutband.com.)
New Boys’ Life Web Site Is More Fun and Informative Than Ever
The redesigned Boys’ Life Web site, www.boyslife.org, is full of Scouting information and advancement help, gear buyer’s guides, how-to projects, and a variety of online games for boys of all ages.
There’s also Cub Corner, a new special section for Cub Scouts.
Some other new site features include Pedro’s daily blog, reporting the latest news of interest to boys; a daily joke section, where visitors can submit jokes and rate those submitted by others; a reader photo gallery, where visitors can share their best pictures; and a “Contact Us” link to submit ideas for making the site even better.
BSA Sea Base to offer new advanced scuba program
The Florida National High Adventure Sea Base will offer a new seven-day scuba program during its spring season, starting in 2008.
Scouts and Venturers who are Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI)-certified divers can qualify for the next level of certification, Adventure Diver, while learning fun diving skills, such as night diving, fish identification, and underwater navigation and photography.
Divers who haven’t completed their PADI certification can use a referral program to find a PADI dive center near where they live, for completing the initial classroom work and confined water dives, before traveling to the Sea Base.
This will allow them to finish certification in two days and then enjoy fun dives during the rest of the week.
For more information on these programs, contact Capt. Steve Willis at steve.willis@bsaseabase.org. Open reservations for 2008 are now available at www.bsaseabase.org.
BSA Delegation Delivers Report to the Nation
 The youth delegates who delivered the BSA's Report to the Nation to Congress in February included (first row, from left) Tayler McGillis, Bryson Hicks, Juan and Lorenzo Ramirez; (second row) Evan Chaffee, Michael Ward, Ashton Pruitt, and Maggie Belli. |
In February, an eight-member BSA youth delegation delivered the organization’s annual Report to the Nation to Congress.
A representative contingent of delegates annually presents the report to Congress as well as to the President of the United States and other government officials.
This year’s delegates were Webelos Scout Bryson Hicks, San Diego, Calif., a recipient of the BSA Honor Medal; Boy Scout Tayler McGillis, Toluca, Ill., who led a council aluminum can drive to help pay for a Habitat for Humanity house; Boy Scout twins Juan and Lorenzo Ramirez, Benbrook, Tex., recipients of the BSA Heroism Award; Eagle Scout Evan Chaffee, San Juan Capistrano, Calif., national chief of the Order of the Arrow; Eagle Scout Michael Ward, Phoenix, Ariz., whose Eagle service project consisted of collecting more than 33,000 books to restock hurricane-ravaged school and public libraries in Gulfport, Miss.; Boy Scout Ashton Pruitt, New Orleans, La., recipient of the BSA Honor Medal With Crossed Palms; and Venturer Maggie Belli, Gastonia, N.C., president of the BSA Venturing program.
The youth delegates were accompanied by official hosts Tico Perez (who is president of the BSA’s Southern Region and a National Executive Board member) and his wife, Donna, of Orlando, Fla.
In addition to meeting with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, the group visited the White House to meet President Bush and stopped at government agencies, memorials, the Smithsonian Institution, Arlington National Cemetery, and the U.S. Naval Academy in nearby Annapolis, Md.
Learn more about the delegates’ five-day visit to the nation’s capital at www.bsartn2006.org.
May - June 2007 Table of Contents
Copyright © 2007 by the Boy Scouts of America. All rights thereunder reserved; anything appearing in Scouting magazine or on its Web site may not be reprinted either wholly or in part without written permission. Because of freedom given authors, opinions may not reflect official concurrence.