BSA One-Stop Forms Shop

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If you wear a Scouter’s hat, you probably use Scouting forms.  My Council has a section on their website, but it’s certainly not complete and what’s there isn’t always kept quite up-to-date.  Other forms are scattered if you can find them at all.  We are a volunteer organization and it’s hard to keep up.

I recently stumbled across a single page on the BSA website that has most all of the official forms we need in one place: http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/Media/forms.aspx

They’ve got Application forms, den meeting forms, advancement report forms, individual Scout record forms, First Class Tracking Sheet forms, training knot nomination forms, and much more.  They also have links to Eagle project and rank forms on the NESA website, too.

It’s great to see BSA using their website much more this Centennial year.

Enjoy!

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SM Minute—A Scout is Brave

A Scout is Brave: A Scout faces danger even if he is afraid.

I couldn’t say this any better than the folks at BoyScoutTrail.com:

Usually we think of bravery as overcoming fear to take some action that saves a life… Most of the time we’re talking about overcoming fear of physical harm to ourselves.

But there’s another kind of bravery. It’s bravery to overcome the fear of ridicule from our friends. It’s the courage that’s required to do what you know is right, even if your friends make fun of you. It may even be tougher than being brave in a crisis because you usually have more time to think about it.

I know it’s sometimes hard to act right when everybody is urging you to do something you know is wrong. It takes a courageous Scout – or man – to withstand the pressure from friends.

It’s not easy – but it’s the mark of a good Scout. Let’s try to do our best to be brave in every situation – the emergency and the pressure from friends.

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SM Minute—The Outdoor Code

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The Outdoor Code

Scoutmaster’s Minute: Conservation is a hot topic these days, but it’s nothing new to Boy Scouts. Way back in 1911, when the first Scout handbook was published, the Scouts were advised: “It should be the invariable practice of anglers to return to the water all uninjured fish that are not needed for food or study. . . .
No thoughtful boy who has the interests of the country at heart, and no lover of nature, will go fishing merely for the purpose of catching the longest possible string of fish. . . .”
Please join me in repledging ourselves to conservation by repeating the Outdoor Code.
As an American, I will do my best to—
Be clean in my outdoor manners.
Be careful with fire.
Be considerate in the outdoors.
Be conservation-minded.

Roundtable Planning Guide 2010

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Our PLC chose to use most of the BSA Monthly Program Themes for the next school year.  The last few years we’ve kept about half, dropping some and stretching others over two months.  So September is all about fishing.

I like to track the Program Themes for a couple reasons.  My District Roundtable doesn’t usually focus on them, but there are some great program ideas in the Troop Program Features. Program Themes come around just once every 3 years so there’s plenty of variety.  Program Themes also reinforce our relationship with Boys Life.

As my SPL usually has no more time than I do for program planning (and much less patience), them fish are certainly keepers.

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