I learned so much from the Scouts. How to camp out and survive bad weather. Start a fire in the rain. How to tie various knots. How to track animals, canoe, and use a compass.

We didn't have any predators among the men who volunteered their time to help out with the troop--just good role models. My Dad was one of them.

We didn't have any girls in Boy Scouts then.

What happened to the Boy Scouts of America? Do they still exist? Do they still teach outdoor skills like I was taught?

Jim

I have a friend that is the care taker of a Boy Scout camp at Silcoos lake on the central Oregon coast, so yes they are still around.

Western Wildlife Services

I worked as a park ranger for 7 years and I would see a couple Boyscout/ Adventure scout groups every year. Boyscouts are still just boys I think but Adventure scouts also had girls in the troop. As far as what the kids learned I think it depends on the troop. Some were more outdoorsy where others were more computer/ modern technology oriented. The troops from urban/ cities seemed to be more geared toward the modern technology instead of wilderness skills. That being said they were all great kids and lots of fun except for one troop which I was glad to see leave. I was was in Cub scouts up to Boy scouts and I really enjoyed it.

Yep, Scouts was a big part of my life as well. It only takes a small fraction of a % of slime to completely ruin a great organization that has done so much good for over a century. They're still around, but it's not the Scouts we grew up with. Too much "woke" like many other once great organizations.

I loved scouts but they caved to the lgbtq bs and my boys and I will never be involved with them becuse of it.

it is just Scouts now

I went tiger to eagle , funny I was just talking about this

had a Den with my son and the boys in his grade. did a few years as a committee member for the local troop

but I went 4-H I have 3 kids and only one son I was splitting my time and I was just out of time

also I was getting vested in 4-H shooting sports and BSA severely cut back their shooting about that time and put a bunch of new limitations on it.

so my time went 4-H where I taught a bunch of boys and girls how to shoot.

scouts is still around , their miss management of issues basically mirrored that of the catholic church which I also used to be involved with. make bad decisions , then punish the membership to pay for those bad decisions

the organization isn't as strong as it was , even a decade ago when I got out getting volunteers was like pulling teeth.

I actually don't have an issue with having the girls in scouts , they were always there any way. if you have a son and a daughter either mom and dad are always divided or sister becomes a tag along at troop activities. the activities the boy scouts were doing were so much better than the activities the girl scouts were doing.

Just another example of how the left destroys everything pure and good. Not only do they ruin it, they openly target it.

Congrats on the Eagle GCP!

They took the word "Boy" out of it was the start.

You is what happened to them. Your liberal ideas infected the morals of this nation.

But you can't see it because it's always about you.

It faded about out of existence for the most part, because people didn't want to send their kids to an organization that might teach them to be gay, or molest them.

They still exist, yes, but now only single mother's send their boys there in hopes of providing a "father figure" in their children's life. That won't last long.

Angela, you hit the nail right on the head.

I am a Eagle Scout I really enjoyed it then I don’t think it’s all it used to be like everything else

Scandal and losing the moral core destroyed BSA.

"Controversies
On February 1, 2019, the Boy Scouts of America renamed its flagship program, Boy Scouts, to Scouts BSA to reflect its policy change allowing girls to join separate, gender-specific troops. Shortly thereafter, the largest charter organization supporting BSA, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, decided to part ways substantially contributing to a net loss of nearly a million scouts/leaders. On February 18, 2020, the National BSA filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and is currently restructuring its financial situation. On November 16, 2020, the National BSA disclosed in their bankruptcy filings that over 92,000 former Scouts had reported sexual abuse by homosexual members of the organization. In December 2021, the insurer for the Boy Scouts of America agreed to pay $800M into the fund for survivors.[146] In 2022, the Boy Scouts of America agreed to pay an additional $2.4 Billion into the fund as part of a bankruptcy settlement with payments beginning in September 2023."

Keith

My son went from Tiger to Eagle.

When he crossed the bridge from Webelo to Scout the troop leader stated that my sons group would be his last troop he would see through.

He got sick my sons second year.

I and another kids mom stepped up to take over the troop.

She was much more organized than I and I had the skill set necessary to teach them all the things needed for advancement.

We did at least one "campout" a month. Some were in tents. Some were in cabins. In the summer months some were even bare minimum campouts. Meaning the boys couldn't bring a tent. Had to build their own structure. Etc etc.

We also incorporated a once a year family campout. We would pick out a state park and go there for a long weekend.

Every 3 years the trip was to Gettysburg. This was for both the special badges they could get there for doing 2 different hikes.

They opened the Bechtel reserve in WVA my sons next-to-last-year. I had a group of fathers that went with me and the boys to that.

The place is pretty impressive. If you ever have a chance to go, do so.

It's very state of the art. WiFi throughout the grounds. Watering stations everywhere. They get to do stuff that some boys will probably never get to do. Ziplining, BMX riding, etc. They have a giant treehouse type structure that is really cool.

We still taught the core values of the scouts, but also incorporated many of the modern "technologies" into it.

I also wanted my son to learn to do things without me. I had a good group of fathers that would take my son along on a fatherless (me) campouts. I didn't want him to get the idea that even though I was the scout leader, he was going to skate through.

I have since retired my uniform, and have taken on a less inclusive role. I'm good at fund raising, so the bulk of my time now is helping to boys figuring out ways to fund their Eagle projects, and camping trips. Generally speaking most boys who put in the effort don't have to spend much money on their projects, or pay much for camping trips. I had a boy not too long ago fund raise over $10,000 for his project. He spent a fraction of that and asked that it be put into camping trips and trips to the Bechtel reserve for future boys in the troop. His only stipulation was that it not be used to fund any Eagle projects, as he wanted the boys to learn how to organize and complete a project on their own. Each boy has their own account as does the troop as a whole. 1/3 of the money raised by the boy goes into the troop accoiunt for camping 2/3 goes towards their Eagle project.

Some people here will keep voting for it too.

Thats the boy scouts I was involved in James. Has not been like that in a long time. 3 day survival hike without food, 50 mile canoe trip were two of my favorites. That survival hike the summer I was 11 got me interested in trapping. On one of the preparation trips we were taught how to snare rabbits. I was hooked.

I dont remember ever sleeping in a cabin. We did camp a lot. Cant imagine very many parents today allowing a kid to camp in bad cold in a tent today. Not hot tents either. I believe we were a lot tougher than most of the kids today. We did have an advantage over a lot of kids. CO was still a great place to live. At least 50% fewer people and endless (to a kid) miles of BLM and National Forrest.

Firearm safety and marksmanship, archery, first aid, orienteering, axe, knife, edible plants, fire, citizenship, morals. Nope its gone forever.

Our troop followed the rule of no 1 on 1 when it came to boys and adults. It was always 2 adults and 1 child when an adult would have to do anything with a child. So we never had any problems others had with the leaders.

The BSA has had to evolve as time moves on. Especially with the new technology that is coming out every day.

For instance my boys learned compass reading and navigation. Along with map reading. Compass to map/map to compass skills. They also learned GPS skills.

So there are troops out there that stick as close as they can to the core values of the BSA.

I don't think we have any troops that are girl inclusive, or any girls only troops in our council. I haven't seen any at our summer camp at the local BSA camp. We do have a lot of females that teach badges at summer camp. One of our best rifle range instructors is female. She's very strict ( sometimes too strict) when it comes to the range.

Danny, our winter cabin camping trip was mainly a fun trip. Sled riding, snow boarding, and stuff like that. They also were learning skills without even really knowing it at the time it was happening. We would do a fire building competition. They would be given a flint and striker, 1 match, and a small piece of paper, it was about the size of a gum wrapper. Every kid got to keep the flit/striker. The fastest kid got to pick out the next days dinner.

This also gave them time to work on some of the more "boring" badges.

My goal was to have every scout Entering Life rank to have every required badge done and to really work on earning palms, and working on planning their Eagle projects.

I only had 1 scout make it to Life and not attain Eagle, and 2 Eagles not earn any palms.
The Lifer had everything he needed, but just didn't want to do a project. He stood there and watched his 3 best friends all get pinned. The Eagles who didn't get palms were brothers. Their mom told them to get most of the badge done and I would just sign off on it. They both learned real quick that wasn't happening.

Good to hear there are still a few good programs.