It’s great to have your son or daughter join the worldwide Scouting movement. There’s an exciting program lined up in the years ahead, with plenty of outdoor adventure on offer. Activities such as hiking, camping, and pioneering will provide fun with good friends in a healthy and stimulating environment.
There is plenty of fun in store as well for your children, and we urge you to play an active role. To introduce you to this great Scouting family of ours, we would like to tell you something about our Movement.
Your son or daughter is following millions of others who have been Scouts and Explorers since Robert Baden-Powell started Scouting in 1907. Today, there are more than 25 million members of the Scouting Movement in over 200 countries and territories.
The BPSA welcomes as members all youth and adults regardless of their gender, ethnic or national origin, religious affiliation, social or financial circumstances.
MEMBERSHIP is open to boys and girls over the age of five years, and to adults, who accept the Aims and Methods and who make the Explorer or Timber Wolf Promise. Scouting groups form the basic unit at which the majority of our members operate.
Each Group can consist of up to five Sections – Otter Rafts, Timber Wolf Packs, Explorer Troops, Senior Explorer Troops, and Rover Crews. They serve the following ages:
• Otters — 5 to 7 years old • Timber Wolves — 8 to 11 years old
• Explorers — 11 to 15 years old • Senior Explorers — 15 to 17 years old
• Rovers — 17 and older (including adults — hey, you could be a Rover!)
THE AIM OF BPSA is to encourage the mental, social and physical development of boys and girls, young men and young women, by:
• Creating individual efficiency for the better service of others;
• Develop their character;
• Training them in citizenship;
• Developing their personal fitness by promoting their mental and physical qualities;
So that they may take a constructive part in the community.
WHAT WE OFFER:
Traditional Scouting refers to using the original program and principles set down in “Scouting for Boys”, by Lord Baden-Powell, founder of the Scouting movement around the world. In broad terms, it is a program of development of each youth to his or her full potential through:
• Character development.
• Outdoor adventure.
• Training in leadership.
• Service to others.
• Learning useful skills.
• Developing healthy habits
• Education for life.
• Teamwork and friendships.
• Accepting responsibility.
• Understanding and caring for the environment.
• Building self-confidence to meet challenges.
• Stimulating respect for self and others.
Lord Baden-Powell (B-P) envisioned a program for youth that concentrated on building services and programs to excite and lead youth on their life journey. His vision had youth leaders leading and encouraging other youth, building their confidence and allowing them to share in that leadership through a Patrol and Court of Honour system.
The vision did not include a lot of bureaucracy or hierarchy that put the program cost out of the reach of the average. B-P’s program started with Explorer age boys with a strong focus on the outdoors, centered on his book “Scouting for Boys”.
When the interest of younger boys became so strong it could not be ignored, B-P added a program for boys aged 8 to 10 using the stories from the “Jungle Books” written by his friend Rudyard Kipling. Baden-Powell called his manual “The Wolf Cubs Handbook”.
The principles are the same for the younger group, but the adult leaders offer more assistance and the program is based more on the child's desire for the world of make believe, while still learning those important life lessons that will be built on when the move up to a higher section.
Some requirements of the original programs have been adjusted to meet changes in technology and environmental issues, but the basic principles and ideals are maintained.
