In the spring, the 17th Black Bear Pathfinders got the chance to have a community garden plot to farm. They jumped at the chance! Getting outside together sounded fun. The Pathfinder patrols decided what to plant. They were enthusiastic about planting onions! Onions are a good spring or fall crop. The Leaders were skeptical but the onions grew well and...
PLEASE NOTE: Since the publication of this post, the Pathfinder Handbook has been published. You can learn more about it here in the announcement on the OSG website. In advance of the release of the completely new Pathfinder Handbook, the Pathfinder Handbook Committee, has created a set of new badges for our scouts to start earring right now! These badges...
Forms and Leader Guides / GSM Tips
by Laura Sowdon · Published August 19, 2021 · Last modified April 1, 2022
Starting a new scouting year is exciting and challenging. One thing that seems to be extra challenging is gathering contact information for any new families that show up at your kick-off meeting or first few meetings. There are also some standard legal agreements/waivers that are good to have parents sign off on and review. Our parent organization offers a standard...
Forms and Leader Guides / GSM Tips / Otters / Pathfinders / Rovering / Timberwolves
by Laura Sowdon · Published July 10, 2021 · Last modified April 1, 2022
Part of our mission in OSG is to create “Scouting for All.” In this quest, we not only scout with people of all races, religions, backgrounds, genders, and orientations, but also with scouts who are neurodiverse and experience a variety of physical and learning challenges. While some of those differences make no difference to the scout leader or the program,...
Forms and Leader Guides / GSM Tips
by Laura Sowdon · Published July 2, 2021 · Last modified April 1, 2022
I adore having an hour-by-hour schedule for troop camping trips. Why? Because it takes much of the stress out of the experience for me. Having every adult in camp know what time we will be starting to cook dinner, eat, clean up, hike, do flags or play games means they know when they can rest, and when they need to...
One of our goals in Outdoor Service Guides is to be radically inclusive. Why “radically inclusive”? Because there have been many people denied access to scouting, we seek to fix that. We want to be the place where everyone can scout together. While becoming truly radically inclusive and having scouts of all background is a process, from our founding, we...
In 2020, the Baden Powell Service Association announced that we would be making a change to our name. After months of work, debate, and voting, we have arrived at our new name: Outdoor Service Guides, or OSG for short. You can read the official announcement from the Chief Commissioner here. This change allows us to set a new direction for...
Rover Richard Sowdon recently completed his Project Badge with a project on laminated spars. He created spars for his pathfinders to use in pioneering projects that are stronger, safer, and more sustainable than harvesting young trees to use as spars. Richard wrote up the directions for how to make these spars, as part of his badge work. If you’d like...
Sometimes, an opportunity presents itself and we get a chance to do something that we didn’t plan on. As a scout leader, this is a great chance to let everyone, including us, try something new. But how do we take something that isn’t in the plan, and make it a scout project? Is it the same as any project you...
Forms and Leader Guides / GSM Tips / Pathfinders / Timberwolves
by Laura Sowdon · Published April 7, 2021 · Last modified August 26, 2021
As a fully inclusive program of all genders, scout leaders need to be knowledgeable about menstruation and provide appropriate support for scouts who experience menstruation. The typical age for a first period is 12, with most people starting to have cycles between age 10 and 15. However, there are those who get them earlier and later, so age alone does...
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