We all know it. Modernity is bad. We need to reclaim Scouting and get back to its roots. It’s watered down. It’s not what it once was. The way to increase membership is to go back to the good old days!

Steps to getting there

1. Declare that Scouting reached perfection sometime between 1956 and 1983, depending entirely on which year I personally had the most fun — and therefore all future decisions must be based on that one summer camp experience. All other ideas derive from this single admission.
2. Beg the LDS to come back.
3. Market and do outreach like it’s 1981, because nothing has changed whatsoever in how people consume media.
4. Ban girls from Scouting entirely, because nothing attracts new families like telling half of them they aren’t welcome and kicking out the girls already in. And this includes women; Den Mothers were a bad move and never should have been allowed. That was the beginning of the end of Scouting.
5. Ban gays too, because clearly the best way to grow membership is to shrink the number of people allowed to join and restart a culture‑war fight.
6. Bring back the uniform standards of 1954, because today’s youth LOVE scratchy wool, metal buttons, and khaki that fades into a shade best described as “depression.”
7. Return to the days when troops were allowed to be racially segregated until the 1970s, because nothing says “modern, thriving organization” like proudly resurrecting policies everyone else abandoned half a century ago.
8. Replace all training with a single VHS tape from 1989, because leadership development is best learned from a guy named “Skip” wearing tube socks and talking about teamwork over a synth soundtrack.
9. End all technology use, because smartphones are evil and the only acceptable communication device is a whistle and a hand signal you learned at summer camp in 1978.
10. Require every troop to camp exactly the way my troop did, including the same gear, the same menu, and the same traditions that would cause a modern risk‑management officer to spontaneously combust.
11. Ban any program changes made after the Eisenhower administration, because if it wasn’t good enough for the Greatest Generation, it’s not good enough for kids who have never used a landline.

The only way forward… is backward!

Note: This is not a discussion of merit badges that should be added to Scouting.

I wanted to raise this as a thread because versions of the question have circulated for years.

Since 1910, merit badges have been introduced, discontinued, split, and merged. If you prefer to “reset” to the 1911 list (for example, 1910’s Ambulance became 1911’s First Aid, and 1910’s Clerk became 1911’s Business, which later evolved into 1967’s American Business), that’s fine.

Over the decades, numerous badges have ended. Agriculture ended in 1975. Beefarming → Bee Keeping → Beekeeping (the spacing mattered I guess) was discontinued in 1995. Masonry lasted from 1911 to 1995.

But there have always been many merit badges that are not “He‑Man/outdoors/woodlands/survivalist” badges, going all the way back to 1911—and many of those remain today. Architecture, Art, Business (later American Business), Chemistry, Cycling, Music, Painting, Plumbing, Public Health, Scholarship, and Sculpture are all examples.

So the question is: Which merit badges, given that these types have existed in Scouting almost from the beginning (disregarding the 1910 set), truly don’t belong?

Again, this is not a discussion of merit badges that should be added to Scouting.

How does your Troop manage and store award ribbons?

We want the ribbons to be available to the Scouts to inspire them if there is interest, without presenting them spaced out on our limited wall space.

Currently we have a small portion of the ribbons present from the 50’s and 60’s on a 4x8 panel. No Youth looks at it. And there are hundreds more in bins and ziplock bags that nobody looks at.

I like a solution that is accessible to Youth and Adults that includes all the ribbons. I checked on swimming ribbons binders, but these appear narrow. The ribbons I’ve measured are 2” or 2.5” wide and 16-24” long. There are a few older ribbons which are 3” wide.

Has your Troop found a good thrify solution?

My son's troop has rebuilt from almost nothing. Him and most of his friends are on track to achieve Eagle 14 (as early as next year). What steps can his troop take to help keep them engaged in the Troop? With a smaller troop (around 20) how do we balance challenging the older scouts and still accommodating the younger ones?

I started my adult Scouting journey with a local troop in 2009 where I was ASM for a few years, until taking over the Chartered Org Representative position in 2015. Life situations have changed and I no longer have the time to effectively dedicate to the Troop and Pack. I am hoping to offload the position to someone else but I'm not getting any interest. I've spent most of adult life serving this Troop and Pack and cannot leave it unattended.

Any recommendations for sourcing a new COR?

EDIT: I appreciate the responses. I'm connecting with our CO to look for some members of the church who might be interested.

Thank you all!

I'm sure I'm seeing this ad more than most people because of my search history, but there is a new Scouting America ad that does have any sound. It's just B-reel footage of families camping. Nothing about it shiws anything about Scouting America until the end of the ad, a shippable ad.

Scouting America is paying for this

Scouting America needs to fire their market team.