A guide to scouting.

Starting this month BSA councils across the nation will be rolling out the Family Scouting to Cub Scout packs. Basically girls will be allowed in the Cub Scouts. So there will be a lot of content produced by the media about it. And while most people who read those articles and watch those reports won't notice, there are many of us who immediately dismiss the work when there are inaccuracies in basic facts Here is a brief nomenclature guide.

Cub Scouts - A program for children from kindergarten to fifth grade.

Boy Scouts - A program for boys ages 11-17.

Venturing - A coed program for young adults ages 14 (13 if completed 8th grade) through 20.

BSA (Boy Scouts of America) - The national governing body that oversees the Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts and several smaller co-ed programs for older children.

Chartered Organization - A local institution that sponsors scouting in their community. They “own” the Pack or Troop.

Girl Scouts - A non related organization that serves girls from Kindergarten to the end of high school. Often abbreviated as GSUSA.

Pack - The top tier of a localized Cub Scout group.

Den - The smaller groups of age/grade separated groups of Cub Scouts in a Pack.

Troop  - The top tier of a localized Boy Scout group.

Cubmaster - An adult (over 21) who is the overall leader of a Cub Scout pack.

Den Leader - An adult (Over 21) who is in charge of a Cub Scout Den. Formerly Den Mother but now both men and women serve in this capacity.

Scoutmaster - The adult leader of a Boy Scout Troop, must be over 21.

Assistant Scoutmaster - Additional Boy Scout adult leaders, they must be at least 18 years old.

Senior Patrol Leader - The top youth (ages 17 and under) leader of a Boy Scout troop. Boy Scout troops are run by their youth leaders.

Eagle - The highest rank a Boy Scout may earn. A scout must earn 21 merit badges, and lead a service project before his 18th birthday.

Boy Scout motto - Be Prepared

Cub Scout motto - Do your best

Scout Law - A twelve point pledge that all phases of scouting use. A Scout is Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful, Friendly, Courteous, Kind, Obedient, Cheerful, Thrifty, Brave, Clean, and Reverent.

Scout Oath - All phases of scouting say the same oath or promise. On my honor, I will do my best To do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law; To help other people at all times; To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight.

As of January 1st 2018, Cub Scout packs will have three membership options.
Option 1 - Boy only Packs
Option 2 - Co-ed Packs with single gendered Dens
Option 3 - Girl only Packs.

Boy Scout Troops are not accepting girls at this time, but will be announcing their plan by 2019.

I'm thankful for ... Scouting

Our regular programming will return next Monday. This week I reflect on things I'm thankful for. 



A year ago, I left  Woodbadge course N2-388-16 abruptly on day 4. There was a family crisis going on and I needed to be home. We got back on a path to eliminate most of that crisis. And I contacted the course director of the next course and asked about getting on the staff. He really wanted to choose as many newcomers as he could but said he would get back to me. A few months later I got the email and immediately said yes. The course N2-640-17 was a masterpiece, yes we were behind schedule all the time. And yes that ticket pajama party lasted until 3am, and then the next night was until at least 2am, but it was great. The best Woodbadge experience I ever had. I'm going to write more about it at a later date but just wow.

And back at my home units, I have never been prouder of my team. They have stepped up in their roles and have added other roles to build up our overall group. When I was at a parents night and there were rows of blue shirts looking at me (or off into the distance) as I talked about registration I thought in a few years there are going to be rows and rows of brown shirts and it starts here. We have to keep doing what we are doing on the Pack side and keep working on the troop side. We won't be denied.

Bonding over muddy boots and hot coffee

“When is this coffee going to be ready?” A slim man who kind of looks like a shaggier Tom Skerritt, paces around a damp picnic table at Camp Alpine. He is wearing the same beat up Jets t-shirt and gray sweat pants he always wore on those Sunday mornings as we prepared to break camp. Soon he would take the blue enamel coffee pot off of the propane burner and pour himself what would be the first of many cups of coffee he would drink that morning.

My old scoutmaster Lee wasn't tired, he just loved the taste of a hot cup of coffee on a cool fall morning. Or a frigid cold winter morning. You get the drift. To him it was part of the camp experience. And for me it was a rite of passage. At home my mother was, and is, an enthusiastic coffee drinker. But I never wanted to drink coffee at home. But I could picture myself, standing around in muddy boots with the men enjoying a cup of coffee with the crackle of last night’s fire still audible.

We had a rule back then, and still do now, that only adults are allowed to drink coffee on Troop outings.

Soon after my eighteenth birthday, our troop was at the annual Trailblazer District Wint-o-Ree. It was cold with a little bit of snow on the ground. I was, and am, an early riser at camp. When I woke up, Lee was already awake making his morning coffee. He told me to grab a camp cup. He poured me some coffee. He had milk and sugar on hand, because he drank his coffee regular, and apparently so did I. Now, that I use higher quality coffee like Folgers® Coffeehouse Blend, as opposed to whatever we had left over from the pancake breakfast, I skip the sugar so I can enjoy the smooth yet bold taste.

Without the distraction of the boys and the day's competition. We talked about a lot of things. What he expected of me as an Assistant Scoutmaster. That morning I got so many words of wisdom that #shouldbeonacoffeemug probably enough to fill an entire kitchen cabinet with coffee mugs. And then we just shot the breeze, until he made a loud proclamation that the entire cabin could hear, about when was breakfast going to start. After that day, when a future marine would be dragged underneath a sledge that was being pulled by his fellow scouts as he yelled at them not to stop till they passed the finish line, my morning cups of coffee were just part of camping. I wasn't getting words of wisdom on how to be an adult scouter.

As the years went by and I rose in the ranks of our troop’s hierarchy, I remember many times sitting by the fire talking to a newly minted Assistant Scoutmaster and passing along my “wisdom” over a cup of coffee. For some it went in one ear out the other. Others took it to heart. It was in those moments that scout leaders become friends. No longer kid and adult, but two adults talking as equals. Just I like I was that morning with Lee.

Flash forward a few years, and I am that Scoutmaster impatiently waiting for a pot of Folgers Coffeehouse Blend to percolate in that same coffee pot, as the scouts slept, in their tents, leantos or in the cabin. Coffee at camp was never about getting a buzz or cstaying awake, it was about savoring the flavors and the moments. Those quiet moments when you can hear a woodpecker in the distance, or see a few deer walk by, you look at them, and they look at you.

These were the times that camping is perfect, and despite being a few minutes away from “civilization” you can be one with nature. You, your thoughts, and a steamy cup of coffee in your mug.

For more information and ideas on ways to enjoy Folgers Coffeehouse Blend be sure to follow Folgers on Twitter and like them on Facebook


This is a sponsored post on behalf of J. M. Smucker Company. I received compensation for this post; however, all opinions stated are my own.

the old home away from home

I first walked into the Scout Office at St. Matthias in 1981 as a 7 year old Cub Scout. This past week I may have walked out of it for the last time. It was sad. But my son was there and he got to see the basement where until this past week Troop 327 stored its gear.

The building we were told was in the process of being sold and we were being given a new storage space down the block. Accidentally we found out that it had been sold and spent a Friday meeting cleaning out the basement. With four adults, 6 Boy Scouts and a Tiger Cub, we made pretty quick work of it. And our new space is not ideal but it will work and it's still tidy (at least for right now).

For the past several years we were just using the basement of the corner building on Woodward and Catalpa, and we had most of our meetings in the school itself. We had grown too large for that room to be an effective place to have meetings. But as we cleaned I remembered a lot of good times in that building.

Lively junior leader meetings after scout Sunday, when an adult voice was never heard. Building a robot that "marched" with us in the Memorial Day parade. As a staging area for massive Scouting for Food Drives. Hanging out with the other junior leaders in the back room while Mr. Dowd took the little kids on his famous leaf identification hike around the block. 

The place that was a staging area for camping trips all over the tri-state area, for trips to Washington DC, Boston, Gettysburg and beyond. Was not ours anymore. The place where a future naval officer and future army national guard recruiter would go crashing through the plate glass window as we were packing to go to the University of Connecticut. That place is still there, but its only ours in our memories.

As we cleared, me and our current scoutmaster reminisced in vague terms about being scouts in that building. The thoughts of the time when we were senior enough to be the crew gathering the equipment out of the basement before camping. We moved some of our artifacts, the giant sign said Troop 327 and has an image of a lone scout starting a small fire at a campsite in the shadows of an idyllic mountain. And of course our Worlds Fair totem pole, which one day will become part of a collection of Boy Scout memorabilia.

That room was home every Friday night for years and years. And now it will be something else. Might it be an artisan mayonnaise place? Or another coffee shop? Who knows, but it won't be the scout office anymore, it won't be home.

A scout is kind

In September when we started a tiger den for my son and some of his classmates. It was going to be fun and scary. But never once did I wonder if any of these newly minted Tigers were not biologically a boy. And honestly, why would I. They looked and dress like boys, yes their voices are high pitched and you could mistake them for girls, but they are six. So I took it at face value that they are all boys.
In December I read about a boy named Joe, a cub scout from New Jersey who was removed from his pack because it was revealed to a District Executive that Joe was biologically not a boy. Joe and his family made no secret that he was biologically a girl, but he lives his life as a little boy. One of the other parents let the cat out of the bag. And since at the time the BSA had no formal protocol dealing with transgendered youth, he was removed. This is a little 8-year-old boy who loves Star Wars and hanging out with his friends in his Cub Scout Den. If I were the den leader or Cubmaster I would have fought the removal. It just wasn't right.

The debate over Joe's removal got all convoluted about transgendered people being sexual predators. Or on the other hand, how can the other boys expect not to do anything to a child who is biologically a girl. Here it is a child who may not be biologically male, but identifies and lives full time as a boy wants to join the scouts because he wants to do all the awesome things Cub Scouts/Boy Scouts do. He isn't some sleeper cell for a sinister LGBTQ agenda. If anything he will try to fit in as much as he can and not call any attention to himself.  As far as the other boys, guess what the BSA has rules to protect children (regardless of gender) they are called the Guide to Safe Scouting and Youth Protection. If a scout unit can't keep a child safe, that is not the problem of the child, it a lack of leadership and some badly parented children. And what right does any child have abusing or bullying any other child regardless of gender or gender identity. That has no place in Scouting.

People say why can't that kid just join the Girl Scouts. Well, HE wanted to be with boys his own age and do things boys like him do. I don't know exactly what the Girl Scouts program entails, but they don't have the emphasis on the outdoors that the Boy Scouts do. But they have been super inclusive of LGBTQ children and leaders for a few decades.  But I digress, this is not about the Girl Scouts.

Out of the blue, the BSA announced yesterday that they would accept transgender boys into the Scouts. There were not years-long debate. There were not dozens of questionnaires. It just happened. And it was the right thing. A scout is KIND. A scout is FRIENDLY. A Scout is CHEERFUL. A Scout is LOYAL (which the NJ council was not being to Joe). I have been reading a lot on scouting message boards about people saying they are leaving the BSA once and for all. Good leave, we don't need people who don't live up to the scout law in our group. Feel free to join one of the ALT-Right's youth groups, you will find that their program is not as full and developed as the BSAs, and while they may have some of the same ideologies as you, but you better hate all the right things.

I am going to let you in on a secret. There have been transgendered boys in scouting for years. They just happened to not piss off Mrs. Jenkins at the pinewood derby, having her blab a secret that wasn't hers to tell. They have earned badges and nothing bad has happened to them or by them. They were in the good sense of the phrase BOYS being BOYS. And there have been gay youth and adults in scouting long before the membership policy change a few years ago. So anyone who is looking to go back to the good old days, guess who was there in the good old days.

Going back to my den. None of the parents have mentioned to me that their son was once a daughter. And if that were the case even before this I really wouldn't have cared. So today is a good day to be a scout, and I hope that Joe rejoins his den (or another den with fewer asshole grownups) really soon.

FYI - The photo of the scouts above is a stock photo. 

Remember the Tigers.

When it comes to scouting some may say I am an expert in the field. I have led a long and distinguished volunteer career in various positions. I have been honored by my district. I earned the highest award an adult leader can earn, then came back and taught the course, and trained hundreds of youth and adult leaders. But I had never been more freaked out than when I stood before five six-year olds in one of the school’s science labs.

Last spring one of the other dads in my son’s class approached me about possibly starting a Tiger den for our sons and their classmates when they started first grade. I was very enthusiastic about the idea, I had always imagined that my son would follow my footsteps in scouting and hopefully surpassing my success, but most importantly making friendships that are everlasting. I was very clear that I would only be a den leader and was not at all interested in running a pack. Truth be told there are at least three places I could walk into today and say I want to be Cubmaster and before the words got out of my mouth someone would be sewing a patch on my sleeve.

We created a flier to gauge interest and found that we had at least six who were interested. That would make a great den. After several weeks of looking for a place, at the right time (when half of the den’s sisters would be in choir practice), we had a spot and let people know when our first meeting would be.

I had snacks. I had applications. But I had no idea what I was going to do with the kids. Through the use of a die we chose a Denner for the week, it happened to be my son. I had him line the boys up and we did the pledge of allegiance and I introduced them to the Oath, Law, Motto, cub scout sign, salute and hand shake. Little did they know when they were laughing at the word “duty” they were beginning to learn a set of values that could last with them for a lifetime.

As I stood behind my son, with his hand extended in the air saying the words I had repeated for decades. I was filled with emotion. Scouting can be something we share until he is way too old to want to hang around with his dad. So I can’t screw this up. Once I got past my notes, we played games and I talked about some of the fun things we will be doing this year. The boys were on board. The parents in attendance were onboard.

The kid’s ate a “healthy” snack of pretzels and sugary cookies, while I chatted with the parents. There is still so much to do and set up. But we are all learning together and I will follow the Cub Scout motto and I will Do My Best.