Recomendations

Locally, the largest troops are those whose programs are the most like what I grew up with. The most like what you see proposed on this page. “Modernization” does not make Scouting fun. Or teach more deeply. Quite the opposite.

Each recommendation is summarized here. Detailed arguments are linked where they exist.

ELIMINATE THE NEW SCOUT PATROL

The New Scout Patrol transfers advancement through First Class — the most outdoor, skills-intensive part of Scouting — away from the regular patrols and into an adult-managed group. This kills the Patrol Method. Without Scout skills at the center, patrols have nothing to compete over, nothing to teach, and no reason to camp as a unit.

Assign new Scouts directly into existing patrols. Let older Scouts teach younger ones. That is the Patrol Method. See Race to First Class.

RESTORE THE PATROL METHOD

Patrols should be the center of troop life. Similar in size and rank composition. Each with at least one new Scout and one First Class or above. Camping separately. Cooking independently. Competing constantly.

Nearly every troop event should include patrol competition. The Senior Scout Patrol helps run competitions and serves the troop rather than competing against younger patrols.

Advancement through First Class should take place almost entirely within the patrol. See Restoration of the Methods of Scouting.

CAMP IN THE WILDERNESS

Scouts should camp in nature with minimal infrastructure, by patrol, with separation between patrol campsites. A troop should camp nearly every month.

Ideally, each patrol cooks over a single ground fire. Where ground fires are prohibited, concession to landowner rules is necessary. Normally, all meals should be cooked over patrol wood fires. All cooking requirements for advancement should be completed over wood fires. A Scout who has never cooked over a fire he built himself has not learned one of Scouting’s most fundamental skills.

REQUIREMENTS SHOULD CHALLENGE

Swimming should be required for Eagle. It is one of the few requirements that tests courage, not just persistence.

Lifesaving should be required for Eagle. An Eagle Scout should be able to perform a water rescue.

Hiking should also be required for Eagle alongside Swimming, not instead of it.

Environmental Science should be required for Eagle. Sustainability, its alternative, can be completed without stepping outside.

All merit badges should include hands-on requirements. See Trail to Eagle.

REQUIRE SEQUENTIAL RANK COMPLETION

The lower ranks through First Class are designed as a ladder. Each is a substantial achievement requiring months to complete. Working on all ranks simultaneously eliminates the sequence, persistence, and retention that come from revisiting related skills across multiple ranks.

A Scout should complete one rank before beginning the next. See Race to First Class.

ENCOURAGE MENTORING

Mentoring is the most effective protection against grooming. A Scout who trusts an adult enough to confide in him has the only real defense against a predator. Every policy that discourages mentoring weakens that defense.

National has clarified that one-on-one conversations are permitted as long as others can see you. This clarification must reach every troop. Every new leader. Mentoring must be explicitly encouraged in Barriers to Abuse training. Multiple mentors in every Scout’s life — the more, the better. See Barriers to Scouting.

TRUST A SCOUT’S HONOR

“A Scout is Trustworthy. A Scout’s Honor is to be trusted. If he were to violate his honor, he may be directed to hand over his Scout badge.” Three sentences from the original Handbook. We have abandoned the last two.

All troops should conduct a formal Investiture ceremony for new Scouts. The pledge to keep the Oath and Law should be a moment of commitment, not routine recitation.

Rules that assume a Scout cannot be trusted must be fixed or eliminated. A Scout should be permitted to travel alone through the public areas of camp. The buddy pair requirement is unenforceable, universally ignored, and teaches dishonesty by requiring routine violation.

Separate camping areas by gender. Boys here, girls there. Mixed only in public activity spaces. This prevents romantic pairing through structure rather than through rules that invite the adventure of breaking them.

“It is risky to order a boy not to do something; it immediately opens to him the adventure of doing it.” — Baden-Powell

If a Scout describes what he did for a requirement in detail, his counselor should take him at his word. If a Scout breaks his word, he should face consequences. He is not a Scout if he is not Trustworthy. See Barriers to Scouting.

SIMPLIFY TWO DEEP LEADERSHIP

The current interpretation requires four leaders when linked boy and girl troops camp together — two per unit — even though a combined family troop in the identical scenario requires only two. The risk is the same. The rule is not.

Any Scouter approved by a sponsoring organization should be allowed to fulfill the Two Deep Leadership requirement in any unit sponsored by that organization. If the organization has declared you trustworthy in one unit, that trust extends to another.

If the leadership of linked troops and their sponsoring organization approve their troops camping in separate areas of a single site, two leaders should suffice — not four. See Barriers to Scouting.

RESTORE THE NAME “BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA”

The name change to “Scouting America” has failed by every measure. Boys don’t identify with it. Girls joined the BSA for its reputation, not a rebrand. The public still says “Boy Scouts.” The initials “SA” mean Sexual Abuse in youth services. Patches and programs still use “BSA.” Sponsoring organizations departed, citing the name change as the last straw.

It will go down as one of the worst debacles in the history of branding. The sooner we reverse it, the better. See Name Change to Scouting America.

REMOVE CLASSROOM BIAS FROM ALL PROGRAMS

Scouting teaches through experience, not instruction. This principle must be restored across all programs:

Rank requirements should emphasize outdoor, hands-on achievement.

Merit badges should require fieldwork, not worksheets.

Wood Badge should return to teaching troop leaders how to support youth leadership outdoors, not classroom management theory.

NYLT should develop leaders through real responsibility, not leadership frameworks.

See Restoration of the Methods of Scouting.

ALLOW COMPETITION

The Congressional Charter granted to the Boy Scouts of America in 1916 gave the BSA a perpetual monopoly over the use of words like “Scout,” “Scouting,” and all related terminology. The purpose was to eliminate competition. It succeeded.

The resulting lack of competition is the single most important cause of every issue raised on this website.

With competition, changes over the last fifty years would have caused entire troops to charter with alternatives. Instead, they either continued with a program that no longer reflected their values or walked away entirely. With competition, the BSA would have been forced to reject changes that alienated the families attracted to Scouting, or lose membership to competitors rather than lose them from the movement altogether.

The Congressional Charter should be revised to allow other organizations to use words like “Scout,” “Scouting,” and “Scouter,” consistent with their use in multiple organizations worldwide. The BSA’s specific symbols should remain protected.

Without competition, there is no accountability. Without accountability, there is no restoration. See EndTheBSAMonopoly.org.