The Boy Scouts Journalism Badge

The Boy Scouts of America aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. With over 100 years of character development and values-based leadership training, this organization continues to make a difference to help ensure their scouts are “Prepared. For Life.”

Scout units are led exclusively by volunteers who are appointed by a chartering organization. Chartering organizations include churches, local clubs, and other local organizations. These units and chartering organizations are supported by local councils who employ both volunteers and paid professional staff.

Boy Scouts meet regularly with their troop where they engage in skill challenges, team building opportunities, patrol games, and troop games. Outside of regular troop meetings, there are many other outings, activities, camps, and jamborees for scouts to participate in. It seems there is always something going on for scouts to further their experience. 

Boy Scout programs are divided by age and activity. Cub Scouting is for boys and girls in kindergarten through 5th grade and Scouts BSA is open to young men and young women in grades 6 through 12 which includes 7 ranks: Scout, Tenderfoot, Second Class, First Class, Star, Life and Eagle.

A part of climbing ranks as a scout is earning merit badges. These badges are earned with the help of a merit badge counselor. Scouts are encouraged to select a topic in which they would like to earn and work through requirements to gain understanding and skill. Merit badges are a great way for scouts to explore interests and deepen their understanding of a certain skill, trade, or even career! 

To earn Star rank, you need to earn 6 merit badges, for Life rank, you need to earn 5 more merit badges, and to earn the Eagle Scout rank, you need to have earned a total of 21 merit badges.

The Journalism Badge

One of our favorite merit badges is the journalism badge. The journalism badge has 5 requirements including writing on the difference between fact and opinion, comparative writings, writing on a public event, writing about a scouting experience, and journalism discussion. This badge is a great badge to earn if one is interested in the field of journalism. The journalism badge will help a scout interested in the field to gain valuable experience.

The Problem

Many parents, scout leaders, and scouts have posed concerns with just how to go about completing requirements for the journalism badge. Scout leader Luke shared that documentation for these merit badges is difficult and that he is not really sure where to send his scouts. He said he wishes that he had a secure way to share with his troop what is going on and wishes there were a way for their troops to document everything together.

Of course boy scouts have the opportunity to document via computer documents, handwritten documents, and social media, but in our digital age many troops are looking for ways to communicate, document, and share in a secure way.

A Solution

The Camping.Tools app has everything a scout and scout troop needs to be able to document, communicate, and share securely. The camping app was created for adventurers like scout Scott who wants to be able to see what his fellow scouts are doing and documenting. 

With Camping.Tools, scouts have a unique opportunity to document the written requirements for their journalism badge in one place. They can share their favorite articles with the whole camping community, or choose a few with who they would like to share.

Not only can writings be created and shared on the app, media can easily be added. Before uploading you can add tags, descriptions, and set privacy settings. Photos aren’t all that can be uploaded. Also upload videos and add youtube videos to your media!

Camping.Tools has really worked hard to make their site as user friendly as possible, which makes media a breeze!

https://youtu.be/hmwNOeIbARA

In Conclusion

Camping.Tools is a great app for all nature lovers. Scouts and leaders, you won’t want to miss out on this incredible app. The app is user friendly, offers a great community, and will be a great place to organize documents, trips, media, and more for your troop!