Welcome to scouting! The new parent.
Congratulations on becoming a new scout family.
Boy Scouting can be very complex, especially for those watching it from the sidelines. For many families, preparing and packing for campouts — and actually camping — and understanding and following the many levels of advancement requirements can be very demanding. The goal of this website and our corresponding book is to help make the process with beginning with Boy Scouts a lot easier.
After selecting and joining a troop, some important hints and key first steps for parents include:
- Remember that Boy Scouts is a boy-led program. An important goal of scouting is leadership development. The boys should learn and practice leadership. It may appear that they are failing sometimes, but this is important for growth. So if you have questions, often you don't need to go directly to the adult leaders, but have your boy ask his peer leaders.
- Your boy needs a Boy Scout uniform with proper patches and accessories. Uniforms create an atmosphere of belonging and provide a place to display his recognitions. Your son can ask his patrol leader what is needed for his weekly activities, outdoor events, and for formal troop meetings. Your troop may have a uniform closet where they reuse old uniform pieces.
- Your boy needs the official Boy Scout Handbook. It provides the checklists for his advancement requirements and also teaches various camping, outdoor, citizenship, first aid, and other scouting skills.
- Read and discuss with your child the ``How to Protect Your Children from Child Abuse: A Parent's Guide'' pamphlet. This is provided as a pullout section in the front of the new handbook. It is important to note that scouting's Youth Protection policies require that no adults ever have one-on-one meetings or camping with youth — there is always two-deep leadership or buddy systems for the boys. Even private interviews with Scoutmasters are done within sight of other boys and/or adults. Buddy systems are used when meeting with merit badge counselors too.
- You may want to help provide and organize a notebook or file folder for your boy to keep track of his advancements and work.
- Also with your boy, make or obtain a calendar or schedule for upcoming activities.
- Encourage the boy to quickly complete the Scout badge requirements. These are the official joining requirements. He can usually do this easily with his patrol and Scoutmaster.
- The Eagle rank is earned after completing the previous advancements in order and earning many merit badges and proving important leadership (for an Eagle project). Commonly this process takes around four years and at the minimum it would around 18 months. There will be hundreds of individual steps that will need to be signed off by the Scoutmaster (or someone specifically assigned by the Scoutmaster). Note that parents generally do not sign off any requirements.
- With your boy, review the requirements for the early advancements (the Tenderfoot, Second Class, and First Class ranks). As your boy completes the individual steps, encourage him to document it in his notebook and/or his Handbook — and for him to get them signed off in a timely manner.
- Merit badges are additional learning opportunities. The Eagle rank requires that some specific merit badges be earned and the boy also may select some optional badges too. These cover a wide range of topics, for various hobbies, occupations, science and education, sports and fitness, outdoor activities, and civic and community and personal relations. The boy will ask his Scoutmaster for a permission card to work on a merit badge and his Scoutmaster will suggest some approved adult counselor to work with. This counselor is some hobbyist or professional with an interest in the topic.
- With your boy, review the list of Eagle-required merit badges. Often young boys don't start working on merit badges until the second year or scouting or after they have earned their First Class.
- Periodically your boy's troop will have a formal event called a Court of Honor. This is often attended by families to see some presentations by the boys and formal recognitions for awards.
- The parent should not need to directly contact adult scout leaders and merit badge counselors on behalf of their child. The boy is learning how to interact with others — including adults — and should schedule his own appointments, etc.
- The troop or your boy's patrol (the smaller group that works and plays together) should have outdoor activities, including a campout, every month. The Handbook has some suggested packing lists and fundamental camping skills information. His peers and patrol and troop leaders will assist in teaching him these skills. The parent should not need to pack his bags, pitch his tent, nor light his campfire, for example. Let the boy learn.
It would be great if you can assist as an adult volunteer. Consider finding out about parent volunteering opportunities and also attend the adult committee meetings (which help cover the logistics and supervision of the troop). For information on getting started with volunteering, see [Getting Involved].