In May of 2021, it was announced that 19 Cub Scout Elective Adventures would be retiring at the end of this program year (May 2022). See details here.

Elective adventures are reviewed for content and popularity. These 19 have been the least popular based on sales and advancement data. They will be archived in Scoutbook and Internet Advancement, removing the ability to mark them as completed after the retirement date of May 31, 2022. These 19 adventures are not being replaced with a new set of elective adventures.

Inventory at the Scout Shops for loops and pins is limited and will only be available while supplies last. Cub Scouts can still wear the adventure loops and pins after that date. Once it’s earned, it’s not taken away from the Cub Scout.

STEM Nova Award Impact – STEM Nova Awards that include Adventures also include an Option A and Option B to earn the award. Cub Scouts may choose to earn one of the remaining Adventures or Option A or Option B.

World Conservation Award Impact – The Wolf and Webelos rank are impacted. The Bear rank has no changes.

For Wolf Scouts who want to earn the World Conservation Award, the requirement to earn the Grow Something Elective Adventure will be replaced with the following activities:

1. Select a seed, and plant it in a small container. Care for it for 30 days. Take a picture or make a drawing of your plant once each week to share with your den or family.
2. Find out the growing zone for your area and share the types of plants that will grow best in your zone.
3. Visit or research a botanical or community garden in your area and learn about two of the plants that grow there. Share what you have learned with your den or family.
4. Complete one of the following:
   • Make a terrarium.
   • Using a seed tray, grow a garden inside your home. Keep a journal of its progress for 30 days. Share results with your den or family.
   • Grow a sweet potato plant in water. Keep a journal of its growth for two weeks. Share the information with your den or family.

For Webelos (including Arrow of Light) Scouts, the requirement to complete 1, 3a, and 3b of the Adventures in Science adventure will be replaced with:

1. Draw a picture of a “fair test” that shows what you need to do to test a fertilizer’s effects on plant growth.
2. Carry out the experiment previously designed as a fair test of fertilizer’s effect on plant growth.
3. Carry out the experiment again but change the independent variable. Report what you learned about how changing the variable affected plant growth.

Here is the complete list of adventures that will be retired on May 31, 2022:

Tiger

• Earning Your Stripes
• Family Stories
• Tiger Tales
• Tiger Theater

Wolf

• Collections and Hobbies
• Grow Something
• Hometown Heroes
• Motor Away

Bear

• Beat of the Drum
• Make It Move
• Robotics
• World of Sound

Webelos/Arrow of Light

• Adventures in Science
• Build My Hero
• Fix It
• Looking Back Looking Forward
• Maestro
• Movie Making
• Project Family

Scouters, Scouts, Friends, and Family Remain Impressed with Mayflower Council Standout…

Sometimes you just have to stop and listen. Such was the state of affairs at the annual Friends of Scouting (FOS) opening event held in January.

Newton’s Grace W., one of the first-ever young women to earn Scouting BSA’s highest honor – Eagle Scout – spoke to a packed room of loyal Scouting supporters. 

Conversations paused, and tasty appetizers remained plated; young and old alike listened to White as she reminded everyone about the many merits of Scouting.

In short, Grace loves it all.

“With my troop behind me and with the motivation of the adult leaders,” began Grace, “I was able to achieve my dream of reaching Eagle.”

“But if I were to sit down and pick out one aspect of Scouting that has shaped me the most, I could not tell you,” she continued. “There have been so many parts of Scouts that have shaped me as a person.” 

However, the final journey to Eagle remains omnipresent in Grace’s mind.

“The whole Eagle process, in general, was really impactful,” said Grace, who now attends college in Boston. “As you all know, every Eagle Scout that you meet they have gone through a lot to get to where they are.”

For Grace, the work toward Scouting’s ultimate goal had a hard stop, particularly as she began her work only a year and a half before her 18th birthday. But while the Scout handbook and merit badge work were daunting, it’s the Eagle service project that dominates Grace’s story.

Meanwhile, with her project set smack dab in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, White looked to make an immediate impact with her project – an outdoor classroom.

“I thought that I could benefit my community by building a safe outdoor space for students to learn,” she explained. “During the project, I learned a lot about leadership, and with my time constraints, I had to work extra hard to make sure that everything in my project was absolutely perfect.”

However, even a special Eagle service project has its defects.

“And if I’m being honest, [the project] wasn’t perfect,” admitted Grace. “But I think that’s the thing about doing these projects, especially as a young person, is that it’s not going to be perfect, but you get to learn something from it.”

And, amid her efforts, Grace learned the power of community.

“For me, I learned how nice people can be,” she emphasized. “I got a lot of help with my project; from people in my troop, my friends, and my family – everyone was so supportive, and it felt great to have that kind of people around.”

Of course, at the FOS dinner, Grace was  surrounded by “that kind of people.”Moreover, you can join that fantastic crowd by lending your pledge to help Scouts like Grace reach the pinnacle of Scouting and, in turn, serve others in the process. Click here to begin.

One of the best ways to promote our programs and encourage new membership is to continuously promote our units and activities to the public. By doing so, we can create several positive outcomes if we show our units, activities, and programs off “at their best.”  

Those benefits include: 

• Increased awareness, participation, and community support for our programs (such as “Scouting for Food,” etc.)
• Increased opportunities for fundraising (Friends of Scouting or “FOS,” Eagle service projects, etc.)
• Increased possibilities to recruit new members and volunteers

On a unit level, here are some ideas and ways that you and your leadership can easily promote your programs and units within the community:

• Know your local Patch.com representative. Look on Facebook for your town’s Patch page (there should be an email address to reach out to). If not, sending a message may get better results.
• Know how to reach your local news outlet. Community Newspaper Company, owned by Gatehouse Media, has weekly publications and the “Wicked Local” websites available for free in many communities within the council footprint. These publications & sites cover the local/community news. Scroll to the bottom and select CONTACT US to locate the reporter/editor for your community and send any upcoming events or ideas about your unit to them. 
• Does your unit have an organization Facebook page? Starting one is easy. Use it to share National Council and Mayflower Council posts and promote your upcoming community events. Don’t have one? Stay tuned for information on how to create and maintain one!
• Join and share your local unit event posts on your community’s local Facebook page! Also, make sure you monitor and follow up on any comments added to your shared post. Note: There will ALWAYS be someone who may try to speak negatively about your event/post, etc. As the OP (original poster), you may be able to hide their comments. Regardless, take the high road and kill them with KINDNESS when responding. Possibly send a message to the admin for the page and let them know what is going on if a note is particularly nasty.
• Local community access channels exist in almost every community, too. Some shine a spotlight on community organizations and events. Contact your local community access studio for more information. BTW: Some of these studios can also be helpful with the Movie Making Merit Badge for your Scouts.
• If you partner with another community organization throughout the year, make sure to share your “good news” or upcoming events with them through social media or directly through their leadership; this might also be a good time to mention the usefulness of Twitter and Instagram.
• Be sure to send your good news to your local town officials (mayor, town council/select board, etc.)

Of course, all of the above ideas take a certain level of commitment from your unit committee or leadership to make it work. So, consider asking for a volunteer or parent to help – it’s important. After all, spreading our good news will show your unit’s commitment to your community. 

Eagle Scout service project brings “tactile reading” to children Watertown’s Perkins School…

They say, what goes around comes around.

And for Life Scout Jack B. of Troop 12, Plymouth Congregational Church, Framingham, coming back around led him to Watertown. 

As a toddler, Jack participated in an infant-toddler program at Perkins School for the Blind.

Perkins, founded in 1829, was the first school for the blind in the US. Today the school “is the worldwide leader in education services for children and young adults who have multiple disabilities and visual impairments.”

But, according to Dara, Jack’s mom, “Perkins was kind of like a lifeline.”

According to The Boston Globe’s Grace Gilson, who profiled Jack on February 18, the Scout was “​​trying to think of things that were important for me, and my mom remembered the story box, and I did some research, and we realized how important they were for literacy development.”

What’s a “story box,” you ask? Well, it was one way that young Jack engaged with reading.

Gilson explained:

[A] “story box,” [is] an interactive literary tool for children with visual impairments that includes physical objects as part of the storytelling experience.

And for Jack, diagnosed with a visual impairment as an infant, initiatives like the story box were critical. Thankfully, the Scout’s vision improved in time; however, the family never let Perkins drop from sight.

So as part of Jack’s Eagle service project, he and his troop fundraised for and produced 40 story boxes. Each box includes objects important to stories like “Goodnight Moon,” “Brown Bear, Brown Bear,” and “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.” A QR code points to audio of one of Troop 12’s Scouts reading the story aloud.

As a result, Perkins has new resources, and Jack owns a sense of accomplishment.

“I was really happy to finally give back to the full circle idea,” Jack told The Boston Globe.

If you want to read the full article, click here. To learn more about Troop 12, click here.

As part of the Mayflower Council’s Spring Membership Campaign, we would like to encourage your participation in Operation Re-Engagement between now and March 31st, 2021. This effort, which is council wide, is designed to invite former Cub Scouts who may have dropped from your roster back into your pack. Your participation will be beneficial to the health of your pack, district, and the Mayflower Council.

Here’s How To Make This Work…

• Download a report of Scouts who have dropped from your unit over the past two years. Step by step instructions on how to download this report on My.Scouting.org is available here.
  • NOTE:  Be sure to select the FILTER Button and enter dates from 1/1/2021 through 1/1/2022.
• Reach out via a callout campaign (If necessary, designate several volunteers to help you) to the parents of these “lost Scouts” to invite them to your next pack meeting. Use this meeting as an opportunity to welcome them back into Scouting by encouraging them to re-register with your pack (Some key points to promote with the parents include the Pinewood Derby in May, upcoming pack meetings, Chuck Wagon Derby in June, summer day camp and other activities you have planned for your pack.)
• If they indicate interest in re-joining, whether as part of the callout campaign or at the pack meeting, refer them to your page on BeAScout.org

A Few Tips for Success…

1. Review the list with your volunteers to see who may have a friendly/personal connection with certain parents. Sometimes a call from someone they know can be very influential.
2. If your attempt at a callout does not work, try an email.
3. If the parent indicates interest in attending the next pack meeting, schedule a time to remind them, whether it’s another callout, or an email reminder a week prior to the meeting.
4. If possible, work with them 1-on-1 with the online application. Try not to let them to “do it when they get home.” Remember, after that meeting, life happens. Help them transition back to Scouting by helping them in that moment, instead of possibly losing them to the things that happen after they leave your meeting.
5. Consider using your April meeting as a membership building meeting, whereby these “lost Scouts” can come back to re-discover the Scouting experience.

We appreciate your effort in Operation Re-Engagement. If I can be of assistance, please email Rob or call him directly at 508-217-4623.

As part of The Mayflower Council’s Spring Membership Campaign, we are primarily focusing on Scouts BSA troops and Venturing crews and 4 opportunities to increase participation in these aspects of the Scouting Experience.   

WHAT’S INVOLVED 

The Spring Membership Campaign involves several different elements: 

• Operation Re-Engagement
• Webelos To Scouting AND Scouting to Venturing Transitions
• Peer To Peer Recruiting
• April Membership Event

SETTING YOU UP FOR SUCCESS 

We have complied LINKS for the following documents to help you succeed, including: 

• A Checklist for Success & Overview on each phase/element of the membership campaign
• Suggested social media posts that you can use to promote your troop and/or your upcoming membership event:
• Instructions on how to download a list of Scouts who have dropped from your roster
  • (NOTE: When downloading this report, be sure to use the FILTER and select the dates of 1/1/2021 to 1/1/2022)

PLEASE NOTE: Once you have set a date for your April membership event, please let the council know by filling out the form located here.

THE INCENTIVES

• Top five units who recruit between now and May 31st will receive a weekend cabin at one of our camps.
• Any Scout who recruits a friend using our peer-to-peer campaign will be entered into a drawing to win one of three restaurant gift certificates

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES 

Additionally, the following resources are available upon request: 

• Photos/videos from BSA  
• Buddy cards 
• Posters/fliers to promote your membership event 
• Sign in sheets for your membership event 

Simply email Rob to reserve yours.  

NOTE FOR VENTURING CREWS:  Use this as an opportunity to invite prospective members to an upcoming meeting or event.  Additionally, we will be working on getting you information on Scouts who have “aged out” of Scouts BSA.

NEED HELP OR TO DISCUSS IDEAS ? 

If you would like to set up a time, please click here to schedule a time with Rob to discuss.

OR  

You can also register here for Virtual Office Hours on Tuesday, March 22nd and Monday, March 28th from 7 to 9 PM each night. 

We appreciate your effort with our Spring recruiting effort.

One of the best ways to promote our programs and encourage new membership is to continuously promote our units and activities to the public. By doing so, we can create several positive outcomes if we show our units, activities, and programs off “at their best.”  

Those benefits include: 

• Increased awareness, participation, and community support for our programs (such as “Scouting for Food,” etc.)
• Increased opportunities for Fundraising (Friends of Scouting or “FOS,” Eagle service projects, etc.)
• Increased possibilities to recruit new members and volunteers

On a unit level, here are some ideas and ways that you and your leadership can easily promote your programs and units within the community:

• Know your local Patch.com representative. Look on Facebook for your town’s Patch Page (there should be an email address to reach out to). If not, sending a message may get better results.
• Know how to reach your local news outlet. Community Newspaper Company, owned by Gatehouse Media, has weekly publications and the “Wicked Local” websites available for free in many communities within the Council footprint. These publications & sites cover the local/community news. Scroll to the bottom and select CONTACT US to locate the reporter/editor for your community and send any upcoming events or ideas about your unit to them. 
• Does your unit have an organization Facebook page? Starting one is easy. Use it to share National and Mayflower Council posts and promote your upcoming community events. Don’t have one? Stay tuned for information on how to create and maintain one!
• Join and share your local unit event posts on your community’s local Facebook page! Also, make sure you monitor and follow up on any comments added to your shared post. Note: There will ALWAYS be someone who may try to speak negatively about your event/post, etc. As the OP (original poster), you may be able to hide their comments. Regardless, take the high road and kill them with KINDNESS when responding. Possibly send a message to the admin for the page and let them know what is going on if a note is particularly nasty.
• Local community access channels exist in almost every community, too. Some shine a spotlight on community organizations and events. Contact your local community access studio for more information. BTW: Some of these studios can also be helpful with the Movie Making Merit Badge for your Scouts.
• If you partner with another community organization throughout the year, make sure to share your “good news” or upcoming events with them through social media or directly through their leadership; this might also be a good time to mention the usefulness of Twitter and Instagram.
• Be sure to send your good news to your local town officials (mayor, town council/select board, etc.)

Of course, all of the above ideas take a certain level of commitment from your unit committee or leadership to make it work. So, consider asking for a volunteer or parent to help – it’s important. After all, spreading our good news will show your unit’s commitment to your community. 

The first installment of BP’s important series hit newsstands 114 years ago…

Scouts in the United States celebrate the 1910 incorporation of the BSA on February 8. 

However, the genesis of the World Scouting Movement finds historians noting several essentialdates. One of the most important is *January 24, 2008.

On that date, Lord Baden Powell first published “Scouting for Boys.”

History.com explained:

The name Baden-Powell was already well known to many English boys, and thousands of them eagerly bought up the handbook. By the end of April, the serialization of Scouting for Boys was completed, and scores of impromptu Boy Scout troops had sprung up across Britain.

The language, as read in 2022, might seem ancient. 

But remember, this simple series of booklets, priced so boys could afford to buy and read them, created the World Scouting Movement. And, in BP’s words, we can see clear connections to our own Scouts BSA.

In 1908, Baden Powell wrote:

To become a Boy Scout you join a patrol belonging to your Cadet Corps, or Boys’ Brigade or club.

If you are not a member of one of these, or if it does not as yet possess a patrol of scouts, you can raise a patrol yourself by getting five other boys to join. They should, if possible, be all about the same age. One boy is then chosen as Patrol Leader to command the patrol, and he selects another boy to be the Corporal or second in command. Several patrols together can form a “Troop” under an officer called a “Scoutmaster.”

You all take the scout’s oath, that is you promise, on your honour, three things, namely:

1. To be loyal to God and the King.
2. To help other people at all times.
3. To obey the scout law.

One wonders what BP would think about the Internet. After all, you can read all six collected booklets via Project Gutenberg. From those initial serialized Scout manuals, Scouting spread across the UK and, well, everywhere.

History.com added:

With the success of Scouting for Boys, Baden-Powell set up a central Boy Scouts office, which registered new Scouts and designed a uniform. By the end of 1908, there were 60,000 Boy Scouts, and troops began springing up in British Commonwealth countries across the globe.

The rest, of course, is history.

*Ed. Note: I have also seen the date January 15. But, we’ll stick with History.com’s assessment.

Sometimes, volunteers feel overwhelmed, but some simple steps can help…

You’ve seen it. I’ve seen it. We all would like to have it. 

In many ways, the “Trained” patch symbolizes adult advancement and achievement. Mostly, it simply means you have “a clue.” 

However, it might be the first step to feeling like your work outside of Scout or Cub meetings is paying off.

But even before getting into the training that delivers the patch, volunteers need to take the first step. 

Or maybe, once they put on “the shirt,” it is the “next” step.

Back in 2013, Scouting Magazine’s Mark Ray spoke to two Cub Scout leaders and asked how they encouraged training among the volunteers in their units:

To fill their packs’ training gaps, [Andy] Albin and [Todd] Birkhoff took on the role of pack trainer… In the years since, they’ve more than achieved their goal of getting pack leaders through the basic training sequence of Youth Protection Training and position-specific training.

Their tips, in short:

• Set a good example.

• Establish expectations.

• Eliminate obstacles.

• Keep good records.

And why is training so important?

“As long as you have a trained leader, the [Scouts]  are going to have a better experience,” Birkhoff told Scouting Magazine.

The full article is much more comprehensive, and might just be the introduction to your own unit’s training manual.

Sure, you might know how a Pinewood Derby car gets made, but how about the actual kit?

“Who knows how a Pinewood Derby kit gets made?”

Shhh. Put your hands down. Signs up!

Okay now. Yes, you know how to build a kit, but do you know how that kit gets made?

Well, true to form, Scout Life magazine (yes, it’s the same publication you read as Boys’ Life) has the answer.

From Forest to Finish Line

SL’s Bryan Wendell wrote:

Even before you open the box, your Pinewood Derby car has traveled thousands of miles. The journey begins in a forest in Idaho. The wood blocks travel to Indiana, where they are packaged and shipped. Finally, they arrive at your local Scout shop. The rest is up to you and your parents or guardians. Cutting, sanding, painting and racing is the best part.

I must recommend the whole article, because the photos are pretty cool.

But they included a video, which is pretty cool, too – all 73 second of it:

Making a Pinewood Derby Kit in Just 73 Seconds

However, for those of you who are still reading along and could use some real tips on assembling the kit, we can help there, too.

In this vintage video, “A former NASA engineer explains 7 steps that are scientifically proven to help you build a fast Pinewood Derby car for your next race.”

Scout Life magazine presented the below video in 2014.

The Science of Making the Fastest Pinewood Derby

Meanwhile, if you weren’t quick enough, check out the 7 steps, below: