Scouts Canada is different I’d guess for history/reputation, not that I’ve looked into it. Wasn’t any religious stuff at least in my experience.

I was a Cub and a Scout, didn’t continue further. It was rather useful here since we learned winter survival and often did winter camping trips in Alberta. We’d hike out into a forest and set up camp, build tables/kitchen out of snow and stuff like that.

Then there were summer and winter Jamborees where troops from across the prairies competed in various activities. My favourite was capture the flag in chest deep snow in a field after dark, that was so much fun. They’d also bring out staff from Space & Science centers with telescopes or radio guys with portable radio stations. Besides the fun there was more in depth survival training at jamborees too like how to stay warm or warm up somebody else who is freezing, competions on starting fires without matches/lighters. On and on.

Of course there’s the badge earning and indoor regular meetups too but my memory is foggy there, too long ago. Sometimes involved carpentry. I still have a wooden chest I made in a school gym with a wolf head crudely drawn into the top with a soldering iron containing a bunch of old model rocketry stuff from when I was that age.

Also did the wooden model car races. At first it was cars and then later we built semi-trucks including the trailers. I’ve kept all of them my dad and I made.

Bottle drives and selling caramel popcorn and shit for funding too.

Only positive for me, my leaders weren’t pedos or overtly religious thankfully. I don’t really remember much about them except one guy going on a passionate rant about how only the first “The Matrix” film was good. I think Reloaded had just come out. Other kids were mostly fine. Didn’t really befriend them but also no bad blood.

My kids have been on scouts in Canada for 2 years now. They love it. I’m an active adult helper and I really like it as well. I’m working on doing the training to become a part time scouter.

I am an eagle scout and I highly recommend people to join Scouting. It’s boys and girls now and the nature of scouting is a little decentralized with how each troop does things. Troops vary in leadership culture, activities, etc so you might need to shop around for a troop you vibe with around you but I am all for getting outside and learning life skills.

I was a scout, I made it to life then stopped going to church around 15. Even though it was largely connected to church, I remember it fondly. Scout is some of my best memories.

I think it’s a shame that they have fallen, however, I understand why it has.

I’m a former scout and current adult leader in BSA. It isn’t for everyone, but for the kids who click with the program I have seen it be a very positive activity in their lives. Individual experiences can vary greatly depending on the immediate peer group and the environment set by the adult leaders.

I am very glad that BSA has opened up to girls and LGBTQ+ members, and de-emphasized the religious aspects. I also appreciate the modern focus on youth safety and abuse prevention, though like the Catholic church it’s unfortunately too little too late for a whole lot of past victims.

it seems like the organization & movement as a whole has fallen by the sociocultural wayside.

After decades of steady decline, 2019 was a particularly hard year for scouting in the US. The remaining BSA membership was suddenly cut in half when the LDS church closed all their scouting units. The abrupt drop in membership is an ongoing financial crisis for regional councils, who have been closing camps, merging with neighboring councils to reduce overhead, or shutting down entirely. It’s rough out there.

It’s an essential part of any battle. You need to get an idea of enemy numbers and movements before you formulate a strategy.

I volunteer with them here in the UK after being a youth member most of the way through. I know our respective organisations differ in some ways and I don’t know a great deal about USA Scouts.

I think we do legitimately help young people gain life skills and care for others. If I had kids, they’d be on the waiting list well in advance of joining age.

I’m proud that we’re an LGBT+ and neurodivergence inclusive space, by national policy as well as practical local example in many places. I have seen variations between groups though and I don’t think we get enough training on that. I would also say we’re pretty bad at race and class inclusion.

The biggest downside I feel is organisationally. We suffer from all the usual issues of a big organisation including internal politicking, shitty managers, disconnect between different teams, and putting the organisation’s interests above its professed values.

Was never a scout but was in the Air Training Corps which is kinda like the teenage air military equivalent (at least in those with “Royal” in their name). It felt like “RAF-lite”, and I think many of my corps ended up in the service after they completed school. Taught lots of skills including firearms, tracking, stealth operations, radio operations, flying, bridge crossing, capturing bases, teamwork, abseiling and how to march, follow orders, hierarchical teams, hospital corners and polish brass and shoes.

Also, a great place for a bunch of teens of all persuasions to hang out together and get together in some instances.

My parents made me make eagle because “it would help you get jobs when you put it on your resume” but nobody gives a shit so I stopped putting it on there.

I begged and pleaded with my dad to take me to scouts, which he wasn’t really inclined to do. Finally I convinced him and at the first meeting, after like 20 minutes I turned to him and said, “I’m bored, can we go?” If I’m being honest, I think I just wanted the uniform.

Between the outdoor education program at my school and going camping with the families I grew up around, I feel I got most of the skills you learn in scouts: I could tie all kinds of knots, start a campfire, use a map and compass, ride a horse, first aid skills, CPR, etc. I think stuff like that is wonderful for kids to learn, along with the values of honesty, thrift, helping others, and stuff like that are great. But I’m not sure you need to be in a regimental organization to get that. I learned it all from hippies in a coed environment.

So, some of the stuff seems a little old-fashioned and for that and similar reasons, I didn’t encourage my kid to join Scouts. I should have taught him orienteering, though. That young man couldn’t find his way out of a paper sack.

I learned a lot in scouts, but I wasn’t comfortable with the nationalism, pseudo military and Christian overtones.

I just went camping instead.

I was a scout. All the way from age 6 until around mid highschool, where I really fell off it. I think overall it had a positive impact on my life. I got to learn about nature and bushcraft and first aid and things like that. I think the worst part was that a number of adults really pushed the “military” shit. Like they wanted to larp as drill seargents to a bunch of 12 year olds. Having too much fun was generally looked down upon. As if we were camping with our friends for some other reason. When I heard the scouts were going co-ed, I thought that would be a push in the right direction. When I was going, most of the leaders were very old. Pretty much all white men. Many were great, but the entire place could use some diversity of thought.

Overall a positive experience, bit authoritarian, bit militaristic, but lots of useful skills, fostered a great appreciation of nature and wilderness. Principle seems sound, implementation has shown its flaws.

Honestly, I can see it being in a good place for a reinvention. Maybe socialist scouts or solarpunk scouts, maybe a whole slew of loosely connected (ideologically distributed even) scouts to give kids a choice. Could give it a chance to become more inclusive and safer. I’m using ‘scouts’ in a gender neutral form, applies to all genders and I see scouting as more exciting than guiding, which may appeal to all kids. Part of the diaspora could be each troop (and their parents) deciding where they stand on gender exclusion. Democracy scouts perhaps (direct at that scale).

I’m a fellow Eagle scout and I have an intrinsic bias toward other scouts that have completed their Eagle. It shows me that they hold values consistent or similar to my own. Namely the scout law and oath. Scouting taught me a deep emotional connection to nature and the way I interact with it. As with any organization, there’s going to be failures and tribulations, but I treat BSA guidelines as I do Catholic morality. It is what I make of it and if I take the core values that are meant to be gleaned from what it’s supposed to teach, then it’s difficult to argue that it’s had a negative impact on me or the people around me.

I would love to see a scouting Renaissance in the next few decades with the inclusion of women and queer members. There’s few other organizations or programs that are as well equipped to teach youth about nature and what it has to offer.

When i was a kid, i was so enthused by the idea of scouting. When i finally joined up i realized quick it was all a front to recruit kids to the church and I got out of there as fast as I could. I have hated the scouts ever since