In the time since we started this web-site, we have received many inquiries from Church members wanting suggestions about implementing various aspects of the scouting programs in LDS settings.  Listed below are some of the most common questions that e-mail writers are sending us.  If you have some experiences or successes in any of these areas that might be helpful to others, we would like to hear from you so that we can share these ideas with others. 

Question 1: In the Church, we typically run the 11 year old scouts program as a separate program. There is a constant flow of boys in and out of the program, and the boys in the program are often at different stages in their rank advancement working on Tenderfoot, Second Class, or First Class requirements.  There is also the limit of three camping nights for these boys to consider. The recommended BSA procedures for calendaring in scout troops seems not to fit these LDS 11 year old scout programs very well.  What methods have you found successful in building a good 11 year old scout calendar and program.  What should a good calendar look like (give us some examples)?

Question 2: We have had lots of inquiries about how to support the new Duty to God requirements in LDS scouting programs. What approaches have you found successful?

Question 3: We hear constantly from people who have been called to work with the Teachers and Priests quorums despairing over their lack of understanding of how to make the Varsity Scout and Venturing programs work as activity arms for these quorums (how to get support both from BSA and from the priesthood, how to find training, how to help all involved catch the vision of these programs or do the mechanics of the programs to make them work, etc.). While we have some ideas which we are trying to share in this web-site, we think it would be helpful to learn and share your success stories and methods in using Varsity Scouts and/or Venturing to assist Teachers and Priests to achieve Aaronic Priesthood purposes.

Question 4: (Added January 17, 2003) Those of us who had the privilege to attend the leadership training satellite broadcast on 11 January 2003, were given a vision by Elder L. Tom Perry of how the organization and programs of the Church may be developed depending on the number, needs, and capabilities of the members living in a specific area.  The Church now provides a general pattern for how to organize a particular church unit, ranging from the tiniest unit in a member home, through establishing a branch, up through having a large ward which is able to sponsor all of the Church's programs in their entirety.  The philosophy for smaller units is to organize only as much of the full program as the members of the unit can successfully lead.

In Scouting programs for the Aaronic Priesthood, the challenge of how much of the programs to use and how to organize or consolidate them to be most effective, not only exists for small developing units and branches but also for full size wards with demographics that provide only a small number of Aaronic Priesthood holders.  These may be in some housing areas, even in Salt Lake City, where, for example, most ward members are older and have already raised their children or include large apartment complexes where mostly singles who live.

What ways have you found to successfully organizing Aaronic Priesthood Scouting programs, to include all quorum age groups, when only a small number of young men are available?

We invite and welcome your responses.

Please send a response to Robert Lewis (rlewis@ldsscouting.org)