Troop 1, Brownsville, Texas, May 20, 1916 - photo by Robert Runyon (The Center for American History and General Libraries, University of Texas at Austin; via American Memory, Library of Congress)
On June 15, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed the law granting a national charter to the Boy Scouts of America, which had been incorporated six years earlier. The charter is now encoded at 36 USC 309.
The purposes of the corporation are to promote, through organization, and cooperation with other agencies, the ability of boys to do things for themselves and others, to train them in scoutcraft, and to teach them patriotism, courage, self-reliance, and kindred virtues, using the methods that were in common use by boy scouts on June 15, 1916.
Good goals then, good goals now — maybe more important now.
Have you volunteered to be a leader?
Resources (and councils where I’ve Scouted and volunteered):
- National Council, Boy Scouts of America (BSA)
- Circle 10 Council, BSA (Dallas area)
- Wisdom Trail District (part of Circle 10, for Southwest Dallas County)
- Utah National Parks Council, BSA (Utah, south of Salt Lake County) (where I did most of my Scouting)
- National Capital Area Council, BSA (Washington, D.C. area) (where I was a Cubmaster)
- Great Salt Lake Council, BSA
- Snake River Council, BSA (serving the Magic Valley of Idaho, including Burley)
- BeAScout.org (help in finding a unit to join — but with a few glitches right now!)
- Troop 355, Duncanville, Texas (First Christian Church, Disciples of Christ, of Duncanville)
Tip of the old scrub brush to the Bill of Rights Institute on Facebook.
Click here for a larger view of the Troop 1 of Brownsville, Texas, in 1916
Click here for a larger view of a second photo of Troop 1 of Brownsville, Texas, in 1916
Posted by Ed Darrell 
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 