An essential part of having a great scout program, is having adults who help make it happen. In today’s busy world, it isn’t always easy to convince parents to help, and it can be hard to figure out how to distribute the work of running a BPSA group. At your interest meeting, look for the parents who’s eyes light up...
Every year, we have an interest meeting for our group. This is when we invite new families to come learn what our BPSA group is all about, and we start back up for our returning scouts. This first meeting of the year, is when we explain, once again, what BPSA is all about. We talk about what we want out...
After 7 years of having pathfinders in our group, I’ve realized that there are some issues that old school scout leaders may have with doing a “scouts led” program. I want to tell you that it’s okay for your group to be actually scouts led. Here’s a list of things I want to put your mind at ease about. 1....
This is a great time to have your pathfinders work on the Naturalist badge. You can see all the requirements below. Your pathfinders can tell you the answer to number 1, over the phone or zoom. You can challenge them to work on #2 by watching plants and animals in their own yard or ones in their neighborhood. Your scouts may...
Recently, my mother texted me this picture with the questions: “Is this Bear Poop? I found it in the yard.” So, we created a scout zoom meeting around this question, and asked the scouts to figure it out. We showed our scouts this picture and how we proceed depended on age level. Our timberwolves were taken to look at the...
Now is the perfect time to actually use semaphore with your group. Scouts can social distance and send messages to each other! Semaphore a method of sending messages with 2 flags, where the flag positions indicate a number or letter. While phones may have made the need for using flags for long range communication obsolete most of the time, this is...
From Nicole with the 141st Irregulars in Florida: I’m an Otter leader and one way I’m trying to keep our raft engaged is having them put together an ‘otter buddy’ to scout with while in-person meetings aren’t happening. (This involved me prepping materials and video chatting with the Otter and their parent.) I then mail them their otter buddy and...
How to plan a Year of Scouting in 2 hours or less. This list assumes a single monthly weekend event, and focuses on planning those. If you are welcome to go camping every month this might not apply to you. This is one way to plan a variety of meetings very quickly. I always sit with our entire leadership...
Aside from Scouting for Boys and Rovering to Success, what other books can a person read to learn more about scouting? Here is a book list compiled by Rovers all across the country of books they have read to help them in their journey as scouters and leaders. Many of these are chosen for being more inclusive or having a...
Dear Scouts, It’s such a privilege to write that – Dear Scouts – because scouts, and especially the Rover Scouts of the BPSA, are some of the finest people I know. I haven’t met each and every one of you yet, but I know how much I would enjoy hiking and swapping songs with you. Even though we haven’t met,...
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