Safe Scouting Leadership Guidelines

As scouts and leaders, we all must abide by the BSA leadership requirements that were put in place to ensure the safety of scouts.

What are the two-deep and "no one-on-one contact" leadership requirements?

According to scoutingbsa.org:

Two registered adult leaders, or one adult and a parent of a participating Scout, one of whom must be at least 21 years of age or older, are required for all trips or outings. There are a few instances, such as patrol activities, when no adult leadership is required. Coed overnight activities require male and female adult leaders, both of whom must be 21 years of age or older.

scoutingbsa.org, Guide to Safe Scouting

This means that at any outing or meeting, there must be two leaders present. As a girls’ troop, we have to be especially mindful; on overnight outings, there must be at least one female adult leader 21 or older present. At least one of these two leaders in any scenario must be 21 years of age or older, and overnight,

In addition,

During that outing, there should be no one-on-one contact between an adult and a youth. The “no one-on-one contact” rule also applies to leaders interacting with youth outside of the Scouting program where grooming of youth, parents and other adults could occur.

blog.scoutingmagazine.org, What’s the difference between ‘two-deep leadership’ and ‘no one-on-one contact’?

This means that there should never be any one-on-one contact with a scout and a leader (unless that leader is the scout's parent). This includes online communication platforms: texting, emailing, or any social media.

What does Troop 32 do to ensure safe leadership?

We remind scouts and leaders to always copy another person on any email or test communication between a scout and adult. On all of our outings, a minimum of two leaders are present, including one female leader, and we never allow a leader to be alone with a scout unless they are the scout's parent. On top of this, all leaders must go through a Youth Protection Training program.

Thank you all for abiding by safe scouting!