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Monday, December 11, 2017

Girls Finally Can Join Cub Scouts in 2018

After almost 100 years of being one of very few nations in the world where Cub Scouts does NOT allow Girls into their ranks, the United States Boy Scouts of America movement will FINALLY allow Girls to finally be recognized for their service and participation.  For the entirety of the Cub Scouts of America, sisters have tagged along to den meetings, making projects alongside their brothers, along for Family Camp Outs but Girls were forbidden to earn rank, wear the uniform, to attend the resident camps...to be a FULL member of the Cub Scouts.  

Where Cub Scouts has long been open to both Boys and Girls in Japan, South America, Europe, Australia, Africa, and parts of the Middle East even, the Boy Scouts of America's Executive Board decided to finally listen to their volunteers after a survey looking at what families want from their Scouting opportunities going into the 21st Century and open membership up to all with the understanding that units will operate separate dens for boys and girls, who knows have friendly competitions to see who can learn the Scout skills first and demonstrate their understanding by having a Scout Skills Competition.  See Who will Build the better Pinewood Derby Car?  Are you Ready?  Can you #ScoutLikeAGirl  -- Starting now, if you contact Pack 3417, Chartered to the Park Hills First United Methodist Church, we will take your application and membership fee and hold you a place to be part of the inaugural group of girls to join our Cub Scouts on August 28th, 2018.  Pack 3417 is the Cub Scout Pack working with Boy Scout Troop 417 at the same Church since 1945 and has been active in the area since 1926.  

For more information follow us on Facebook @CubScoutPack417 or message that page and we will return you message as soon as possible.  

Friday, December 8, 2017

White Elephants Spotted at S-Bar-F Scout Ranch

NEWSFLASH:  (Knob Lick, MO) White Elephants Spotted at S-Bar-F Scout Ranch

White Elephants are coming to the Scout Ranch this weekend for our special December District Round Table event inside the Camp Famous Eagle Dining Hall starting at 2pm on this Saturday, December 9th.  


There will be information on the upcoming Klondike Derby along with a reminder on Recharter & getting your unit signed up for a Friends of Scouting '18 presentation with Marcus Ward.  There will be cookies & punch and other snacks along with a White Elephant Gift Exchange among the adults in attendance.

Think Christmas attire, ugly sweaters, elf ears, Christmas light necklaces and such, so much fun! And Of course, Christmas carols!!!  

There are some items to pass out from Jared & also a brief District Dinner update with a reminder of nomination due dates for our annual awards. Fun and fellowship along with tours after snacks and gift exchange of The Ranch for all interested.  Friends of Scouting volunteer speaker training after Round Table as well.  The fun begins around 2pm at the Dining Hall down at Famous Eagle.  White Elephant Gift Exchange has a $5 limit.  Crafts will be available for any children that come along.  All are invited to bring a snack to share but not a deal breaker if you don't, just join us for fellowship as we celebrate our year and celebrate the holidays.  

Saturday, October 14, 2017

BSA Expands Programs to Welcome Girls from Cub Scouts to Highest Rank of Eagle Scout

The BSA Expands Programs to Welcome Girls from Cub Scouts to Highest Rank of Eagle Scout


Research reinforces interest expressed by families and girls nationwide as organization looks to offer programs that meet the needs of today's families
Irving, Texas – October 11, 2017 – Today, the Boy Scouts of America Board of Directors unanimously approved to welcome girls into its iconic Cub Scout program and to deliver a Scouting program for older girls that will enable them to advance and earn the highest rank of Eagle Scout. The historic decision comes after years of receiving requests from families and girls, the organization evaluated the results of numerous research efforts, gaining input from current members and leaders, as well as parents and girls who've never been involved in Scouting – to understand how to offer families an important additional choice in meeting the character development needs of all their children.
"This decision is true to the BSA's mission and core values outlined in the Scout Oath and Law. The values of Scouting – trustworthy, loyal, helpful, kind, brave and reverent, for example – are important for both young men and women," said Michael Surbaugh, the BSA's Chief Scout Executive. "We believe it is critical to evolve how our programs meet the needs of families interested in positive and lifelong experiences for their children. We strive to bring what our organization does best – developing character and leadership for young people – to as many families and youth as possible as we help shape the next generation of leaders."
Families today are busier and more diverse than ever. Most are dual-earners and there are more single-parent households than ever before [1], making convenient programs that serve the whole family more appealing. Additionally, many groups currently underserved by Scouting, including the Hispanic and Asian communities, prefer to participate in activities as a family. Recent surveys [2] of parents not involved with Scouting showed high interest in getting their daughters signed up for programs like Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts, with 90 percent expressing interest in a program like Cub Scouts and 87 percent expressing interest in a program like Boy Scouts.  Education experts also evaluated the curriculum and content and confirmed relevancy of the program for young women.
"The BSA's record of producing leaders with high character and integrity is amazing" said Randall Stephenson, BSA's national board chairman. "I've seen nothing that develops leadership skills and discipline like this organization.  It is time to make these outstanding leadership development programs available to girls."
Starting in the 2018 program year, families can choose to sign up their sons and daughters for Cub Scouts. Existing packs may choose to establish a new girl pack, establish a pack that consists of girl dens and boy dens or remain an all-boy pack.  Cub Scout dens will be single-gender — all boys or all girls. Using the same curriculum as the Boy Scouts program, the organization will also deliver a program for older girls, which will be announced in 2018 and projected to be available in 2019, that will enable them to earn the Eagle Scout rank. This unique approach allows the organization to maintain the integrity of the single gender model while also meeting the needs of today's families.
This decision expands the programs that the Boy Scouts of America offers for both boys and girls. Although known for its iconic programs for boys, the BSA has offered co-ed programs since 1971 through Exploring and the Venturing program, which celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2018. The STEM Scout pilot program is also available for both boys and girls.
For more information about the expanded opportunities for family Scouting, please visit the family Scouting page.
About the Boy Scouts of America
The Boy Scouts of America provides the nation's foremost youth program of character development and values-based leadership training, which helps young people be "Prepared. For Life.®" The Scouting organization is composed of nearly 2.3 million youth members between the ages of 7 and 21 and approximately 960,000 volunteers in local councils throughout the United States and its territories. For more information on the Boy Scouts of America, please visit www.scouting.org.
 
[1] PEW Research Center survey conducted Sept. 15 – Oct. 13, 2015 among 1,807 U.S. parents with children younger than 18.
[2] BSA surveys included two external surveys and four internal surveys conducted from April to September 2017. Surveys were conducted online.

Monday, July 3, 2017

Silence and Solitude


 The campsite was quiet save for the sounds of the wind flapping the leaves of the pines and oaks and the occasional air plane overhead.  The campers were all away, their tents standing guard over their cots and gear awaiting the return of their occupants from the lakefront or the nature lodge of wherever they were.  The weather was beautiful, clear skies with mild temperatures and low humidity, uncharacteristically cool for late June in Missouri.  The Scoutmaster sat at the picnic table shaded by the dining fly, a canvas strung over a long two-by-four ridge pole and kept aloft by six additional side poles and staked to the ground to provide cover from both sun and rain.  
He sat smoking his cheap cigarettes using an old tuna can for an ashtray enjoying the brief silence for he knew that shortly his divine nirvana would be disrupted by the arrival of his Scouts returning from their afternoon classes; forestry, swimming, wilderness survival, and pioneering were among a few of the merit badge classes the dozen Scouts in his troop that came to camp were taking this summer session.  He was a balding man who kept his remaining hair shaved but made up for it with a full greying beard flecked with some remnants of the original black shade it had in his more youthful days.  Slightly overweight and bespectacled, he had seen his share of camping, from his own youthful trips and military exercises to his days of young adult solo camping trips and his many Scout camping trips, over a dozen Cub Scout camping weekends with his son and an additional two or three a year since due to his continued involvement in the younger Scout program along with over fifty camping trips, each lasting from three days to over a week, once they joined the Boy Scout troop.  
The thing he always enjoyed most were those brief, all too brief, moments of silence and solitude.  A few rifle shots cracked through his ponderings, as he thought back on their adventures.  The shooting sports range was nearby, a short hike down one of the trails leading out of the southern side of their campsite.  The noise was not loud or constant enough to be a huge distraction however it was abrupt enough to rouse him from his musings, bringing him violently back to the present.
He sighed, straightened his back and gazed forward at his tent while he took a drink from his plastic water bottle.  The liquid inside was still fairly cool despite the ninety degree temperatures.  It had been inside his ice chest since they had arrived on Sunday, one of the perks of being prepared.  Two of his tent flaps were open on the green canvas tent, one in front and another in the back to allow the gentle breeze to provide some circulation inside.  The tents were like ovens during the heat of the day but as the flaps blew in and out with the wind, the Old Scoutmaster wondered if it was cool enough to attempt a nap without sweating to death.
He lit another cigarette as he looked side to side, surveying the camp.  The hammocks some Scouts brought and strung up were gently swaying with the winds and the U.S. and Troop flags in the middle of camp mimicked the hammocks while the camp chairs in their many colors sat still and empty awaiting their tired Scouts to return.  He straightened his back again as he ground out his latest smoke and convinced himself he had the time to risk taking a short nap.  In his almost ten years as Scoutmaster of this troop he had only managed maybe a 5 or 10 minute nap a few times before the bliss would be disturbed.  A Scout would wander back into the camp for some reason invariably; a forgotten water bottle, needing to change out of or into their swim trunks before heading back to the lakefront or from the lakefront, a misplaced beach towel, or even the occasional, "I forgot I was to go to blank class" (a classic line) would usually be the excuse for their return but the damage would be done, the silence and solitude would be broken and the nap became a faded memory, a moment in time passed.  But this year, this very summer,  he told himself, it would be different.  He stood up and walked the short distance to his tent.  The cot creaked as he lowered his weight on it to sit down and take off his boots and remove the socks he wore, another luxury he rarely allowed himself during the daylight hours of camp.  
He removed them and swiveled his body to lie down flat on the old olive drab green cot, relaxing his head back and staring up at the blowing leaves and the clear light blue skies before closing his eyes.  True to form, his eyes remained shut mere minutes before the sounds of shuffling boots through the dusty campsite and the chatter-box first year Scout campers cut through the quiet and the Old Scoutmaster's eyes flew open.  There were only two Scouts, but it was just the beginning for soon they would all once more be in camp, excited by their experiences and full of conversations, queries, and observations:  "Scoutmaster, you should have seen the turtle we caught, we took it to the Nature lodge but they said they ain't allowed to keep them anymore so they let him go but we got the points for the Camp Wide Nature Scavenger Hunt", "Scoutmaster, what are we having for dinner?", "Scoutmaster, can Jimmy and I go to the trading post?", "Scoutmaster, Billy pushed me,", "Scoutmaster, Timmy didn't go to Reptile Studies", "Scoutmaster, can Mitchell and me go to the trading post?" were all the types of things the Scouts would exclaim rapid fire, one talking over the other, as they came back to camp.  The silence and the solitude the old Scoutmaster enjoyed so much was gone, but a smile crept over his face as he held up the Scout sign and the Scouts quieted immediately.  He explained, a reminder really, that he could not hear anyone when they all spoke at once, and one by  one, he went through each, answering as best he could their questions.  
"That's cool,", "I have no clue, I didn't look at the menu but you can check with your SPL because he should know", "No, the trading post is closed until 6", "Billy, stop pushing Alex", "Timmy you need to go to each class to each the merit badge", "No, the trading post is still closed until 6", The Scoutmaster would answer before signaling to his Senior Patrol Leader to get the Scouts assembled together and give them their instructions.  It would be changing into the proper Scout uniforms, tidy up their tents and be ready to hike to the dining hall for dinner.  The Scoutmaster sighed, watching with pride as their SPL went through the paces, giving the instructions to the troop and he remembered that young Scout when he was a brand new Tiger Cub nine years earlier, but next summer he would graduate from high school and be off to university.  He had watched it over and over, an almost annual cycle when the veteran Scouts that had years of experience and wisdom to teach the younger Scouts would leave to go on the adventurous trails of their adult lives; college, careers, marriage and children of their own,  The Scoutmaster would return though, each summer, for another new batch of newbies.  It might take him another year or two, but soon he thought, as he pulled on his own khaki uniform shirt, complete with colored patches and other Scouting bling and prepared himself to hike with his boys to dinner, soon he would have a troop of veteran campers with a year or two under their belts and maybe, just maybe he will be able to get that silence and solitude he seeks and get that nap in.  Maybe.