Now I have another on my list!

[Amoskeag]

Greetings all!

So my son has been doing Cub Scouts for a few months now. And I being the suck... er, um... good father that I am, volunteered to be his den leader.
JamesA

First order of business, Good for you! Scouting is a great program. I have been a leader since my 13 yr old son was a tiger. He was just elected patrol leader tonight. Thanks to caring adults the scouting program works!

Now, to the more important stuff. I just got a SWK Thrifty McLaren for hiking and camp. I don't have my "ticket" and I may never do Wood Badge, we'll see, but it does serve as a sort of default BSA tartan. BSA doesn't authorize one hint, hint, anyone in Texas paying attention? and the only official ruling that I have come across is that Scouters who have received their Wood Badge ticket may apply for honorary membership in the Clan McLaren Society. This info come from another post on this site, I'm just to tired to search it out right now. I agree with others, get the kilt and wear it!
Bob

ps I couldn't get the Cub Scout tartan link to work, I'll keep trying

[Riverkilt]

The Cub Scouts of America tartan is also mentioned in Brian Wilton's book Tartans. He says the tartan is the only one used on neckerchiefs in the American based Webelos Cub Scouts...he says Webelos is for We'll Be Loyal Scouts. I haven't been a Cub Scout since the 50s but I remember Webelos as an abbreviation of Wolf, Bear, Lion....

Whatever, its a sharp looking tartan. #4119 at the STA. And I'm sure it'd go well with a matching neckerchief.

Ron

[Amoskeag]

Uh, Yeah, WEBELOS ya' know, the neckerchief? DUH! I only looked at dozens of them for 4 years! I'm gettin' old

[Bugbear]

Thanks for that tartan info Ron. I think I might go join the STA.
I've heard all kinds of explainations for the name Webelos, but my favorite is that it simpley means "wee below" the Boy Scouts. LOL! I don't know, someone probably just made that up.

The Cub Scouts of America tartan is also mentioned in Brian Wilton's book Tartans. He says the tartan is the only one used on neckerchiefs in the American based Webelos Cub Scouts...he says Webelos is for We'll Be Loyal Scouts. I haven't been a Cub Scout since the 50s but I remember Webelos as an abbreviation of Wolf, Bear, Lion....

Whatever, its a sharp looking tartan. #4119 at the STA. And I'm sure it'd go well with a matching neckerchief.

Ron

BTW
What the Tiger Cub handbook says and you are teaching them, is probably right; I really wouldn't know.

[JamesA]

Well, I can tell you what the current Tiger Cub handbook says. It has it as an acronym of "WE'll BE LOyal Scouts." I just got all 21 of the Tigers from the 2 dens to memorized that last week.

JamesA

Thanks for that tartan info Ron. I think I might go join the STA.
I've heard all kinds of explainations for the name Webelos, but my favorite is that it simpley means "wee below" the Boy Scouts. LOL! I don't know, someone probably just made that up.

[Mark Keeney]

Whatever, its a sharp looking tartan. #4119 at the STA. And I'm sure it'd go well with a matching neckerchief.

Ron

I will have to dig out the old neckerchief but I believe the tartan on the neckerchief is slightly different.

[Dirk Skene]

You are hooked in a big way

[fluter]

Well, I can tell you what the current Tiger Cub handbook says. It has it as an acronym of "WE'll BE LOyal Scouts."

I think the Wolf, Bear, Lion, Scout derivation is true, but it no longer fits. Those were formerly the Cub "ranks" in order, described the progression toward Boy Scouts. I'm pretty sure both this one and the WE'll BE LOyal Scouts were in use circa 1965, and there may have been other overloaded symbols in use.

And JamesA, well done.

[O'Callaghan]

There is some confusion surrounding MacLaren tartan and scouting. All scouts, not just those with Wood Badge, are entitled to wear it, and this right was conferred by someone who was at the time both the chief of the clan and the commissioner of the Scouting Association (the UK member organisation of WOSM, just as the BSA is the US member of WOSM).

Wood Badge is offered worldwide as training for leaders in scouting (in fact it's the only scouting award that's worldwide), and entitles you to wear a scarf with a square of McLaren tartan, amongst other regalia, but you don't have to have your Wood Badge to wear this tartan in the form of a kilt, you just have to be in scouting.

My wife has her Wood Badge, FWIW, which she obtained as a BSA leader in the US, and is also a Queen's Guide (UK female equivalent of an Eagle Scout). OTOH, I never progressed beyond being a cub myself, and besides that have only been a merit badge counsellor and have never worn an adult leader's uniform. I suppose either of us would be entitled to wear the Maclaren tartan, but she can also wear a scout scarf with a patch of Maclaren tartan, whereas us lesser mortals can't.

Uniform rules are something else entirely separate from the right to wear any particular tartan, though. BSA rules don't recognise a kilt as uniform, but IME non-standard trousers and jeans are so common that I'm not sure it's a big deal. I suppose it depends where in the US you are located.

SA uniform rules on kilts in the UK are complicated. They allow kilts of any tartan for all scouts in Scotland, but in the rest of the UK outside Scotland you have to be of Scottish descent to wear a tartan kilt, and it must be either in your own clan's tartan or ... Maclaren.

The SA also allow plain saffron kilts for all SA scouts in NI and for scouts of Irish descent in the rest of the UK. However, Northern Ireland is also covered by another WOSM member organisation, Scouting Ireland, based in the Republic of Ireland, which appears to consider anyone wearing a troop scarf to be in uniform, although I think that for parades they require full uniform including regulation trousers.

I'm aware I haven't been consistent on how to spell McLaren/Maclaren/WHY, but I think they are all variations of the name.