Any Wood Badgers out there?

[O'Callaghan]

O'Callahan, I agree that the right to wear and the uniform rules are two diffeerent animals, but I do want to clarify.

I have it on authority from several Scottish Scouts I met at the 2007 World Scout Jamboree (wearing Scott, MacKenzie, Bell, Stewart, and Black Watch, among others) that the Scottish Scouts wear kilts in any tartan they care to (mostly cast-offs from the hire shops, their granda's, or whatever they can scrounge), usually in their family tartan if they can get it. Usually they don't wear MacLaren because of the association to the clan and to Wood Badge.

Other Scouts in the UK (England, Wales & Northern Ireland) with Scottish heritage can also wear a kilt in their own tartan. There are also a couple of Scottish Scout corporate tartans in the tartan registry.

As has been noted in other Scout-related threads, there's nothing in the Boy Scouts of America Insignia Guide about the wearing of kilts or anything else tartan-related beyond the tartan swatch on the Wood Badge neckerchief. Adult members of the Boy Scouts of America are authorized to become members by the Clan MacLaren Society of North America only if they have completed Wood Badge.

This is just my take based on my 30 years in Scouting, but if a troop chose the MacLaren tartan for a neckerchief, that would probably be accepted since the troop chose it (nothing requires a troop to have a neckerchief at all), but some people might raise a stink about it being reserved to Wood Badgers. In a similar vein, if a Venture Crew (a co-ed unit for older kids) chose the MacLaren tartan and kilts as their regular uniform (they'd still be expected to have the standard Venturing uniform - dark green shirt and gray slacks/shorts - for regional/national/international events), it would probably be accepted, but some people may object.

You are absolutely correct re scout uniform in the US and Scotland. I agree that scouts in Scotland itself are allowed to wear any tartan they like, and that this means they are not all that likely to choose Maclaren, but I didn't want to complicate my post unnecessarily.

However, scouts of Scottish heritage in parts of the UK other than Scotland may wear a kilt either in their own tartan or in Maclaren as uniform. The rules refer to Maclaren only under the name of 'the scout tartan' in that clause, but what it means is Maclaren. They have a picture of the sett of the 'scout tartan' on the UK scout website, and it surely looks like the Maclaren sett to me.

I also agree that it would be a bad idea for a troop or pack to choose the Maclaren tartan for their scarf.