All Scouting is local.....

[Stosh]

I'm sorry, but that just isn't true. 

Your unit is local, everything else isn't. 

Camporees are not local. 

Summer camps are not local.

Jamborees are not local. 

HA bases are not local.

This misconception is tantamount to the old no-smoking sections in restaurants.  Someone lights up 20' away, everyone in the no-smoking section knew it  .

Unless some unit decides to be a BSA hermit and only go on non-scouting activities, this trite phase is not correct.

Let's at least be honest about it.  Only your local unit is local.

 

[gblotter]

Yes - all Scouting is local.

And nobody is forcing you to accept any of these changes from BSA National. You can continue on just as before.

Unless you participate in a merit badge midway, or a camporee, or a JLTC, or an OA induction, or a summer camp, or a Jamboree, or a high adventure base, or a ... 

[Cambridgeskip]

Quite right.

While most of what goes on week to week is local the fact remains that scouting hasn't been local since pretty much the first days of scouting.

It is a global movement that doesn't belong to one single culture, religion, country or belief. 

And so it has been since pretty much 1908 or so.

And more the better for it.

[ValleyBoy]

Yes Scouting is a global movement but the core building blocks of Scouting are still based on the local unit.

[Stosh]

Local option in America traditionally means:

Trail Life/USA

Heritage Girls

Royal Rangers

Campfire Girls

Pioneers

etc.

And these choices don't have the branding, glamour and glitter that BSA has.

But then again, BSA doesn't have the branding, glamour and glitter of a whole ton of other highly subsidized youth programs it has set itself up to compete against.

[qwazse]

My unit growing up wasn't even local. It had an Indonesian exchange student for a year - first person I knew who didn't say the pledge of allegiance. The CO intentionally promoted missionaries and those of us who attended its youth program were unwitting students of cultural contextualization. I later learned that our SM and his sister invested heavily in that CO's mission portfolio.