Scouting, Volume 1, Number 18, January 15, 1914 Page: 1

SCOUTING
Published semi-monthly by National Headquarters, Boy Scouts of America
For Scout Officials and Others Interested In Work for Boys
Vol. I.
NEW YORK, N. Y., JANUARY 15, 1914.
No. 18.
PLAN ANNIVERSARY WEEK
OBSERVANCE RIGHT AWAY.
It Should Be Made Significant in Every
City and Town—Program
Suggested.
Anniversary day of the Boy
Scouts of America comes this year
on Sunday, February 8. This is
the red letter day of the Scout calendar
and the beginning of a week which should
be dear to the hearts of all Scouts and
Scout workers as the birth-week of the
Scout Movement. It should always be a
day and week of celebration, and a com-
memoration of the causes and principles
which have made the Scout Movement
possible.
What are your plans to celebrate this,
our Fourth Anniversary? How do you
intend to interest the public in the ob-
servance of this week, and impress your
Scouts with the importance of the occa-
sion? Of course, we all want to do some-
thing, and want it to be worth while. We
want to awaken greater public interest. We
want to do some distinctive Good Turns
to our home-town or district. And, more
than all else, we want to increase the feel-
ing of fellowship and loyalty and helpful-
ness between the Scouts and their leaders,
their friends and their community.
It's up to the Scout officials in each city
and troop to make the occasion count for
something in the Scout world. Get your
Scouts and Scout friends into the birth-
day spirit. Plan a special program for the
week. Start something, and make it lively
and significant. Let's make this Anniver-
sary memorable in Scout history.
A suggested program for the week is
published in this issue of Scouting. Plan
especially to have a sermon on the Scout
Movement in your own church on Anniver-
sary morning. Don't fail to carry out the
grand Good Turn of visiting the sick. Let
it be known as the Scout Movement Birth-
day Good Turn. Make it distinctive in
that every Boy Scout in America wiil do
this same good deed at the same time.
Carrying out the spirit of brotherhood,
arrange for a special Troop Good Turn
for the benefit of your community. Every
town or district has some one or several
things which need attention, and which a
group of boys, working together and co-
operating with the community authorities,
can easily attend to. Consult and co-oper-
ate with the civil authorities. Plan ahead
for this event as well as the others, so that
proper announcements may be made to
your Scouts at the regular weekly meeting.
At the pubic meeting or reception for the
Scouts on Friday evening, or at another
time in the week more convenient, ask the
mayor of your city, the superintendent of
(Concluded 011 page 8.)
IN THE NEXT ISSUE—
44The Spirit of Chivalry"
By ARTHUR A. GARY
Chairman of the National Committee on Sea
Scouting.
A splendid discussion of the Eighth
paragraph of the Scout Law, its mean-
ing and application, and its relation to
the other features of the law. Scout
Masters can read it to their boys and be
certain they will understand it and be
impressed. •
DON'T MISS IT.
NEW PLANS MADE
FOR SCOUT WORK.
Executive Board Adopts a Program
For Further Development
It Relates to Councils, Field Work, an
Educational Department, Admin-
istration, Etc.
Many Pastors to Preach
on Scouting—Will Yours?
THE attention of all Scout workers is
directed to the copy, printed below,
of a letter which the Chief Scout
Executive has sent to some four hundred
ministers in various parts of the United
States.
Following the suggestion made in the
Jan. 1 issue of Scouting, that Scout Com-
missioners, Scout Masters and members of
Scout Councils request their pastors to
preach, on Feb. 8, 011 the subject of the
Boy Scout Movement and the opportunity
it affords to churchmen to do each a work
which will benefit boys, the church, the
community and the nation, National Head-
quarters has received letters from many
cities and towns saying that ministers have
gladly consented to do so; and not a few
expressed their thanks to the men for giv-
ing them the definite suggestion.
The letter, which the national office has
sent out to a necessarily limited number of
pastors, reads:
" The week beginning Feb. 8 marks the
Fourth Anniversary of the incorporation
of the Boy Scouts of America. In fitting
ways this anniversary will be observed in
every part of our country. Recognition
of the work of this National movement
will be incomplete, save as proper emphasis
is laid upon the moral and religious in-
struction given Boy Scouts through the
Scout Oath and Law, as shown hereon—
Note Law No. 12.
" Inasmuch as this anniversary will as-
sume national importance, our feeling is
that opportunity is offered for religious
leaders to call attention not only to the
moral and religious instructions given Boy
Scouts, but also to the gospel of service.
The need of the hour is a church member-
ship alive to this responsibility, and we
believe our anniversary week presents a
fine time to emphasize this vital truth.
" We take pleasure in enclosing to you
our information bulletin, giving in brief
' The Boy Scout Scheme,' together with a
(Concluded on page 8.)
AT the meeting of the Executive Board
of the National Council of the Boy
Scouts of America held on Janu-
ary 14, a policy and program for the na-
tional work in 1914 were adopted. The
plan is the result of months of earnest
study and investigation of conditions and
needs in the field and in the headquarters
office and the carrying out of it means a
great improvement of the service rendered
by the National Headquarters and its rep-
resentatives, wherever situated, to the men
in the field who are working with the boys
themselves.
Following is a copy of the policy and
program which the Board has adopted:
I—Local Councils:
Further development of responsibility
and authority of Local Councils, especially
those organized with executive officers.
(1) Modify organization policy so as
to extend the jurisdiction of councils in
large cities when desired by the parties in-
volved so as to include supervision of work
of troops just outside of the city limit or
in smaller adjacent communities when in
the judgment of the parties concerned and
the National Council it will best serve the
interest of the Scout Movement.
(2) By further development of plan of
having correspondence and questions of
administration concerning Scout Masters
under the jurisdiction of Local Councils
handled exclusively through the officers of
Local Councils.
(3) By encouraging Local Councils to
handle printed matter and Scout equipment
for the benefit of those under their juris-
diction with a view of reducing the expense
and delay in serving their constituency.
II—Development of Field Work:
(1) By the appointment of a Director
of Field Work.
(2) By division of the country into
eight territories as per memorandum at-
tached with headquarters in one or more
of the principal cities in each territory with
a field secretary employed for each such
territory.
(3) By organizing an Advisory Com-
mittee of representative men for each ter-
ritory, the field secretary and this commit-
tee to be definitely responsible for the
supervision of work in said territory and