What kinds of controls are there in place to ensure that all activities will be completely safe for the youth, some of whom are merely children?
The next time you read in the paper about someone who got lost in the woods, or went out boating in bad weather and had a near tragedy, you are witnessing what happens when people don’t know how to evaluate the risks, and probably didn’t have proper training to begin with. What we in Scouting do is to separate the risk and danger inherent in an activity from the excitement and enjoyment it is supposed to provide. We achieve this, first of all, by doing an adequate amount of training before the activity, and then provide supervision during the activity, so that eventually what we end up with are experienced youth and young adults, who know what the dangers are and won’t take unnecessary risks. Finally, we have a set of guidelines that specifies what kind of supervision is needed for the many acceptable and popular Scouting activities. The booklet also contains a list of risky activities that are not appropriate for Scouting. Our procedures are ultimately dictated by the realities of the
