One of our goals in Outdoor Service Guides is to be radically inclusive. Why “radically inclusive”? Because there have been many people denied access to scouting, we seek to fix that. We want to be the place where everyone can scout together. While becoming truly radically inclusive and having scouts of all background is a process, from our founding, we...
In 2020, the Baden Powell Service Association announced that we would be making a change to our name. After months of work, debate, and voting, we have arrived at our new name: Outdoor Service Guides, or OSG for short. You can read the official announcement from the Chief Commissioner here. This change allows us to set a new direction for...
Rover Richard Sowdon recently completed his Project Badge with a project on laminated spars. He created spars for his pathfinders to use in pioneering projects that are stronger, safer, and more sustainable than harvesting young trees to use as spars. Richard wrote up the directions for how to make these spars, as part of his badge work. If you’d like...
Sometimes, an opportunity presents itself and we get a chance to do something that we didn’t plan on. As a scout leader, this is a great chance to let everyone, including us, try something new. But how do we take something that isn’t in the plan, and make it a scout project? Is it the same as any project you...
Forms and Leader Guides / GSM Tips / Pathfinders / Timberwolves
by Laura Sowdon · Published April 7, 2021 · Last modified August 26, 2021
As a fully inclusive program of all genders, scout leaders need to be knowledgeable about menstruation and provide appropriate support for scouts who experience menstruation. The typical age for a first period is 12, with most people starting to have cycles between age 10 and 15. However, there are those who get them earlier and later, so age alone does...
by Laura Sowdon · Published March 15, 2021 · Last modified March 31, 2022
As OSG scouts, we wear large, traditional neckers. But what are those and why do we wear them? Scout neckers go back to the start of scouting in England in 1908. They are “original equipment” if you will. Each group in OSG selects their own necker color or pattern, and chooses when and how to give those to group members....
Learning how to identify trail signs is an important part of hiking safely. It is also one of the skills pathfinders need to know for their Tenderfoot badge. Need an easy way to show these to your group? You can download this presentation here in Google Slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1MKuAlzI1esViVt4utbWcXyLXzEIifZydaiVM5a2xiCM/edit?usp=sharing
As we continue to meet over zoom, our group needed a lesson plan to work on some leadership skills and to do the second class first aid skills. This meeting outline could also work in person, just make appropriate adjustments to assign roles. As written, the plan requires 4 adults, but can be adapted. Leader 1: Okay pathfinders, today we...
Story time is part of many otter meetings. Kids just love stories, and picture books can help them relate to others, grasp new ideas and develop empathy for others and our natural world. Amazingly, you can even do a story time over zoom, if your group can’t meet in person. But if you aren’t a children’s librarian, how do you...
Okay, forgive my bluntness, but there are some key differences in leading girls vs. boys. In big, general terms that don’t apply to every scout, girls and boys tend to have some differences in where they most need us as leaders to push them along. Part of the challenge of the program we offer, is that we have mixed gender...
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