Guide to Safe Scouting 34-416 (February 2022)

From Scouts BSA:

All participants in official Scouting activities should become familiar with the Guide to Safe Scouting and applicable program literature or manuals, and be aware of state or local government regulations that supersede Boy Scouts of America practices, policies, and guidelines. The Guide to Safe Scouting is an overview of Scouting policies and procedures gleaned from a variety of sources. For some items, the policy statements are complete. Unit leaders are expected to review the additional reference material cited prior to conducting such activities.

In situations not specifically covered in this guide, activity planners should evaluate the risk or potential risk of harm, and respond with action plans based on common sense, community standards, the Scout motto, and safety policies and practices commonly prescribed for the activity by experienced providers and practitioners.

Included in this post you will find the February 2022 “Guide to Safe Scouting” PDF. However, this document is updated on a regular basis and the online version should be used in lieu of the PDF version whenever possible. You can find both the online and PDF version here: https://www.scouting.org/health-and-safety/gss/

An alternate location for downloading the February 2022 version is here: https://www.pack183.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/34416.pdf

In addition to this post, Scouters should refer to the following associated posts when planning an activity, whether that is hiking, biking, camping, flying, water sports, and driving to and from an event.

More topics, including forms and guides, can be found in the above link to the Scouting.org’s “Guide to Safe Scouting” document. Any updates to Scouting.org forms and guidelines supersede the items listed below, but common forms and guides used by our scout unit are listed here.