Well, a 25 year old handbook might. The Fieldbook is pretty good.
The best advice is RTB.

Read the book.

I sort of agree. I've read the fieldbook and the handbook cover to cover. I'm still a little in the dark on a lot of common practices and traditions having no personal scout experience past cubs. (no troop near me and unsuportive family). I've seen a lot of info scattered on different sights throughout the net though that have helped.

I'm thinking more like an introduction/orientation handout...something you might give out to new scouts that says "here's how things work in boy scouts." Does anyone use anything like that?

Our district tried a "new scout orientation" Saturday program for a couple of years.
But really, the best new scout reference I can think of is a courteous and friendly older scout!
For parents, courteous and friendly committee members are a big deal.
We have a troop website with the link to a troop handbook, but it's really the personal touch that helps us adapt from year to year.

Brew,

You're right. Our troop has different outlines, but we're still not good at orienting new parents/scouts. It's sorta like weaning puppies.

But since every troop is a little different, I'm not sure that national compilation would really be able to help much. (Do they ever?)

As Scout-Parent Coordinator, I'll keep watching this thread. (And who designed that butt-ugly shoulder patch?)
http://www.meritbadge.org/wiki/index.php/Image:Scoutparents_unitcoordinator.gif

With our former troop, I developed a welcome kit. When we moved out fo state and had the opportunity to start a new troop, I updated it and we've used that. I was meeting with a new scout and his dad last night and realized that it could use some editing to add a few things. It basically discusses Scouts, the meetings, campouts, what uniform and gear is needed, where to get it, dues, the committee process, leadership training etc. About 3 pages.

I think someone wrote an entire book about scouts and all the buzzwords, traditions etc.

Here's where I am coming from on this.

In the ideal world mentoring between older and younger scouts is strong, everybody remembers to do what they are supposed to do all the time, and young scouts are willing to approach anybody and ask for help when they don't understand something.

But what happens is that the real world isn't perfect and these things don't always happen. And what I've found is that scouts, particularly those that have been used to "following the leader" since Tiger cubs, are a little lost and frustrated when they get tossed in the deep end of boy scouts despite everyone's best efforts.

They also get hit with a lot of new info and, at least in the case of my son, if it's not written down somewhere it's like he never heard about it.

So I was thinking that a supplement to the in-person mentoring would help the whole new scout onboarding process. I figured some folks out there would have created something already that could serve as a template and that could be tweaked and customized to the specific procedures of our troop.

We have a binder that each family gets....

Our scout account policy

Behavior policy....prior to my time and the CC won't scrap it.

Physcial form

Map to the scout shop

Leader roster contact info and bio

Calendar

Map to all of the camp sites we attend

We have a guide that the CC wrote about how rank advancement works...discusses the SMC and BOR

One discussing Meritbdges......


There is nothing your going to do to get the new scout parent, especially cub parents to relax....

Brew,

Must respectfully disagree with you on the comment that the current BSHB has everything you need to know. When I conducted IOLS in January, I needed to create a booklet with basic, traditional, T-2-1 Skills as I saw major problems with the book. From misquotes ( "OUTING is three-fourths of ScOUTING" not 2/3 of scouting. Just do the math on that one), to outdoor checklists missing items, to skills not being shown.

In regards to orientations, let the PLC come up with one for new scouts, and the SM for the parents. Every troop is different and unique.

Eagle....we have the same complaints.....

Read the operators manual...Heck they can't struggle thru 4 pages of a vcr or dvd player manual....

they are not going to read a couple of hundred pages of a scout book.....

Think cliff notes...

Eagle, I don't disagree with you...my preface was meant to keep the thread on topic for as long as possible.

Any chance you'd be willing to share said document?