Issue 598 – May 7, 2019

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Hi Andy,

Our troop has logo T-shirts that both our Scouts and our adult volunteers wear. And, for a parallel troop for girls that we’re starting up, we’re now ordering T-shirts for the girls, in a female cut. Okay so far, but then, in preparation for a fund-raising car wash, the mothers on our troop committee asked for tank tops for our female adults. We’re in Florida, so it does get pretty hot here, possibly warranting these, but I’ve never seen any Scout or Scouter wearing a tank top for Scouting events, except maybe going to and from the waterfront.

So is it okay for adults to wear a tank top with the troop logo? (I’ve seen woman tie up or roll up T-shirt sleeves, but I’ve never seen a tank top with a Scout logo.

I’m on the fence about how I feel about this. I do know I am against it for members of our girl-only troop, but what about for female adult volunteers (for either troop, I suppose)? (Chuck Spence, SM, Gulf Coast Council, FL)

Good question and your reluctance is absolutely warranted.

Most Scouting units have two “uniforms.” Pages 20-21 of the SCOUT HANDBOOK show and describe these. First, we have a “field uniform” (often, although mistakenly, called the “Class A” uniform) that includes the official BSA uniform shirt for males (there’s one for females now, too). The second is called the “activity uniform” (aka “Class B”), which replaces the official uniform shirt with a T-shirt (all else—BSA belt, pants or shorts, and socks—remains the same as the field uniform).

If you check all other photos and illustrations of Scouting youth and adults in the handbooks for boys and for girls, as well as all training materials for adult volunteers, you’ll find no tank tops. This makes it plain that tank tops are not part of any Scouting “wardrobe.”

As for the car wash fund-raiser, I’d make sure that all Scouts and all adults—registered or not—are wearing identical troop T-shirts.

And one further thought… It’s the Scouts who should be running the car wash, including washing the cars! The adults present decidedly don’t work alongside the Scouts—they’re in the background only, to provide safety oversight, and that’s it. (Baden-Powell: “Never do for a Scout what he can do for himself.”)

Finally: One of the coolest T-shirts I ever saw was designed by a Scout crew for their Philmont trek. They had two T-shirts: One for “out-bound” and one for “home-bound,” with this slogan, “We’re headed home, clearer and copious-er!”
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Hi Andy,

The BSA has recently made their “Scoutbook” website (www.scoutbook.com) free to all units and individuals. But some parents, and Scout leaders too, think this is a replacement for the SCOUT HANDBOOK, and are holding back on getting actual handbooks for the sons and their daughters.

Our viewpoint as direct leaders is that Scouts should make use of the hundreds of pages in their handbooks that are informational and instructive, but often they just focus only on the dozen pages in the back that record their advancement sign-offs. This isn’t want we want them to be using their handbooks for!

As an Assistant Scoutmaster and also Advancement Chair for our district, I’m trying to find some best practices to guide troops on the use of Scoutbook without having it become more than it’s intended for. (I’m aware of at least one troop in our district that’s dropped the use of handbooks altogether and are teaching from other materials, while keeping records using Scoutbook. I’ve discouraged this, but their Scoutmaster continues to think it’s a great idea and supports his troop’s move away from the handbook.

I’m concerned that other troops will start adopting Scoutbook to the exclusion of handbooks, for several factors: It’s officially BSA-branded, it’s free, it’s current with digital technology, it’s an easy record-keeping tool, and it syncs individual and unit advancement records to council records.

In my home troop, handling this is easy. We simply tell all Scouts and their parents to go get a handbook, period. But as District Advancement Chair, I’m struggling to help guide units on best practices for combining the use of handbooks and Scoutbook for record-keeping. So I’m hoping that you and your many readers might have some great best practice ideas to make positive integrated use of both tools.

My email address is kleinds@gmail.com. Thanks! (Dave Klein, ASM, DAC)

“Scoutbook” is an excellent record-keeping method for rank advancement, but in no way is it a replacement for the Scout Handbook! Even the www.scoutbook.com website says this, right on the home page!

A Scout’s handbook is his manual for learning, and for ultimately teaching what he’s learned to other Scouts. Except for the less than 20 pages devoted to paper-based record-keeping (same as Scoutbook), the remainder of handbook’s over 400 pages contain absolutely vital information on patrol and troop life, leadership, and Scoutcraft skills: Fitness, First Aid, Swimming, Nature, Outdoor Ethics, Hiking, Camping, Navigation, Woods Tools, and Personal Safety.

This handbook is so valuable that, so the long-told story goes, World War II military pilots and aviators in the Pacific Theater carried these three personal items with them: A knife, the Bible, and the SCOUT HANDBOOK!

I was a Scout myself, over 60 years ago. I still have my original handbook and wouldn’t part with it for all the tea in China!

You can share this conversation with any Scout parent in your troop, to whom I’d say this: The most valuable Scouting gift you could ever give your son or daughter is a brand-new SCOUT HANDBOOK.

Okay Readers – It’s your turn! If you have some hints or guidance for Dave, please write directly to him at kleinds@gmail.com and be sure to copy me, so I can publish your ideas!
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Dear Andy,

I’ve been trying to find out more about an award I was told I’d received back in 2009 at Camp Victory-Baghdad, where I was deployed in 2008-2009, and where I had joined a group of other military personnel with Scouting backgrounds. It’s called the Iraqi Scouting Service Award. Unfortunately I was redeployment to northern Iraq before I was informed of this, and contact was lost. Can you help? (Gary W, Schubert II, US Army Veteran, Eagle ’96, ASM, Circle Ten Council, TX)

First, for my Readers, a bit of background… Scouting had been a part of the Iraqi culture as far back as the 1920’s but was abolished in the 1980’s by the then-ruler (read: dictator) of that nation, Saddam Hussein. Fast-forward to Baghdad 2008 and “Operation Iraqi Freedom.” Shortly after the capture and conversion of Saddam Hussein’s palace in Baghdad, a small, then fast-growing, group of military personnel and military employees with Scouting experience from the US and other Scouting-rich countries volunteered to work alongside the new Iraq Ministry of Education & Youth Affairs to restore the pre-1980’s Iraqi Scouting Association, first by rebuilding Baghdad’s national training center and then, with boots-on-the-ground in their free time, restore Scouting for the street children of Baghdad. This became the unofficial “Green Zone Council.” Shortly following this, the “Victory Base Council” was also formed, again by military volunteers, to introduce Scouting to the children of the area. These initiatives were and—now more than a decade later—remain successful. Scouting has been restored to a country much in need of the movement’s values after some three decades of oppression, thanks to dedicated volunteers in the service of Scouting and Freedom. To honor individuals’ exceptional service to these initiatives, both “councils” award the “Kashafa-Iraqi Scouting Service Award.”

There are several online citations available, but I’m going to bet that your best resource will be John Green, a military man himself and a recipient of the Kashafa Award. I’ve included the most current email address I have for John here. Last we were in touch, he was a US Army Captain stationed at Ft. Bragg, in Fayetteville, NC.

I hope this is helpful, and please accept my personal thanks for your own service to Freedom and Scouting!

Happy Scouting!

Andy

Have a question? Facing a dilemma? Wondering where to find a BSA policy or guideline? Write to askandybsa@yahoo.com. Please include your name and council. (If you’d prefer to be anonymous, if published, let me know and that’s what we’ll do.)

[No. 598 – 5/7/2019 – Copyright © Andy McCommish 2019]