Non-scout Scout Kaley McKinnon prepares a list of non-scout activities for her Troop’s upcoming campout, to be held at the Rancho Bernardo Inn. “The Scouts motto is, like, be prepared,” says McKinnon. “So I figured I’d prepare this list, just so nobody gets any ideas about hiking or woodworking or any of that nonsense.”

It wasn’t long ago that the organization Scouts BSA was known as the Boy Scouts of America. The name still appears at the top of the scouting.org website, and the “BSA” part of Scouts BSA could easily be read as an acronym for Boy Scouts of America, except that would be redundant, like writing “Please RSVP” on an invitation. Besides, according to Director Billy Quiver, it stands for Blissful Sylvan Adventure.The decision to change the venerable designation came when Quiver & Co. realized that “there was simply no good reason to restrict membership in the Scouts to just boys. Because anything boys can do, girls can do as well, and that’s an important message to send to both our sons and daughters, as well as our children who identify as intersex or asexual. Scouts BSA isn’t about to exclude people who want to participate in our activities just because of their gender. And it’s in that same spirit that we’ve decided to make another change, and open our ranks to people who don’t even want to participate. The essence of Scouting isn’t outdoorsmanship or skill-building. It’s learning to get along together and build the virtues that will make for a better tomorrow. And that’s something everyone can do, whether or not they learn their knots. Welcome to the future; welcome to the SBSA.”