About our cover:

Summer-camp swim check -- love it or ... not. Everyone doesn't take to the water with the same confidence. So how do you deal with the anxiety this essential exercise can create? It's all in the leadership. Photo illustration by Tom Hussey Photography.

In the March - April 2011 Issue

The New Brownsea Boys

Are your first-year campers interested? Excited? Passionate? If not, the experienced staff at the Maryland camp gives you some easy tricks for getting young Scouts fired up enough to stick with Scouting from Tenderfoot through First Class. Maybe even longer.

Dreading Water

If the summer-camp swim check, a vital demonstration of a boy's ability to take care of himself in the water, turns some of your Scouts' stomachs into square knots, we're here to help -- with proven techniques to make the experience easier on you and less intimidating for your guys.

Every Issue

• From the CSE How does the BSA's network of summer camps contribute to the personal growth of Scouts and the future growth of Scouting? Bob Mazzuca analyzes the importance of the outdoors to our boys and our organization.
  
  
• Boys' Life Preview Celebrating 100 years in March, the premier magazine for boys offers some still-relevant tips gleaned from the publication's first century. And in the April issue, Boys' Life invites your guys to tag along on an Arctic Circle fishing trip where Scouts cast their lines hoping to catch some of the big ones. Mission accomplished!
  
  

Trailhead

• Start your journey with a trail mix of news, ideas, and fun

Roundtable

• What I've Learned Steve Miller: A Scouter Who's High on Adventure
• Advancement FAQs What It Takes to Earn A 50-Miler Award
• What Would You Do? Good Advice for Helping "Aspie" Scouts Succeed
• Ethics Turn Leave No Trace Into Action
• Cub Scout Corner Why Outdoor Crossover Ceremonies Make Sense

Outdoors

• Great Gear Five Easy Pieces Of Purifying Perfection
• Fitness How a Sandbag Can Build Real Muscle
• Survive This! What to Do When A Sting Could Kill
• Dutch Treat Cheesecake From a Dutch Oven? Believe It!
• Where Am I? Along for the Slide With 5,000 Cross-Country Skiers
• Cool Camp A Great Place to Get Your Giddyup On