Hi, Andy, When I became a Scout leader five years ago I found that Morse Code was no longer in the Boy Scout Handbook, because everyone now has a cell phone. But when our Scouts go camping at remote campsites, there’s no cell phone service. So is there a good reason why Morse Code is […]

Dear Andy, On “Green Bar Bill” Hillcourt being an Eagle Scout, I’ve looked at multiple web pages in search of a definitive answer. I’ve found multiple answers. Only one of them says that he earned the BSA Eagle Scout, and that’s Wikipedia. All the others say he earned the Danish equivalent. As I read the […]

Dear Andy, After hours of research, I can’t find anything about a “recruiter strip” for adults. There’s plenty of information on these patches for youth (including local incentive patches), but I have a volunteer who insists she’s seen an adult wearing one, and she wants one, too. If anyone has information on this, please advise. […]

Dear Andy, I agree with the advice you gave that new Den Leader in your September 10th column. I’d add this: GO TO ROUNDTABLE! Learn from those who have experienced the trail you’re traveling. Leaders, especially new leaders, will learn from the Roundtable staff, but perhaps even more importantly they’ll learn from the folks sitting […]

Three readers—Bob Reeder from the Grand Columbia Council in Washington State; Martha Parks from Circle 10 in Texas; and Greg Buliavac from the San Francisco Bay Area Council—all noticed in my August 30th column that I referred to the camping requirements for the foundational Boy Scout ranks as “adding up to six overnight campouts,” and […]

Dear Andy, I just read your column on the Scout program in Iraq. I can say officially that being in the same council as Captain John Green is both a pleasure and an honor. That our soldiers are attempting to re-establish the Scout program in Iraq is nothing more than phenomenal, and I especially hope […]

First, we must note the passing of a national icon… and a fine Scout and Scouter: Arthur Robert Hamilton.   Arthur Robert “Bob” Hamilton is best known as the steely-eyed saluting Scout in Norman Rockwell’s 1944 painting, “We, Too, Have a Job to Do.” This painting helped rally Scouts and their families nationwide to collect […]

This summer, I had the pleasure and honor to meet Captain John Green personally. Turned out that, quite by coincidence, we were both attending the International Scouting conference at Philmont Training Center… if you believe in “coincidence,” that is! Thanks to a huge response from readers like you, John was able to fulfill his financial […]

The main point Stanford University management professor Robert Sutton makes in his book, The No A**hole Rule, is that although some people are jerks all the time, all of us are capable of turning into insufferable martinets under the right (wrong!) conditions. One of the key initiators of what I’ll call The Jerk Syndrome is, […]

Boyoboy do I have a bunch of sharp-eyed readers! Remember that question in my last column, from a dad whose son was elected to the OA by his troop last spring but didn’t do his Ordeal and can’t do it in the fall, but there’s a bunch of Ordeal weekends running at the Scout camp […]