Swiss Guide and Scout Movement

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Logo of the Swiss Guide and Scout Movement

Membership badge of the Schweizer Pfadfinderbund

The Swiss Guide and Scout Movement (Pfadibewegung Schweiz (PBS), Mouvement Scout de Suisse, Movimento Scaut Svizzero, Moviment Battasendas Svizra) is the national Scouting and Guiding association of Switzerland. Scouting was founded in Switzerland in 1912 and was among the charter members of WOSM in 1922 and among the founding members of WAGGGS in 1928. The originally separate Swiss Guide Federation and Swiss Scout Federation merged in 1987. The PBS has about 50,000 members in 700 local troops.

The Swiss Scout Movement is mixed at all levels. The only thing that still reminds of the old separation between Girl Guides and Boy Scouts is that some of the terms for different levels (in one or more of the three major languages spoken in Switzerland) are different.

The young age of Swiss leaders is a tradition. Even members of the district or national committees are rarely older than 30. The result is more freedom at the unit level, no discrimination, and a very important experience in leadership for young people.

Special Scout units include Sea Scouts around the major lakes and PTA Scouts for handicapped kids (PTA means "Scouts despite all" in German).

The mandatory parts of the Swiss uniform are the shirt, the tie, any kind of good hiking boots, a fire lighter and a Swiss army knife. Optional parts are belt, Scout jeans, hat, dagger, etc. A youth receives his/her tie and vulgo (Scout name) from his unit leader in an initiation ceremony.

Troops, patrols and packs meet every Saturday afternoon for 3-4 hours. Swiss Scouts spend 98% of their time outside in the woods or in the field, and inside three or four times a year, when the weather is clearly unbearable (temperature below -25 Celsius or snowstorm).

The Swiss Scout Movement is a member of J & S, a governmental institution which promotes sports among youths. Camps for youth in the 12-18 age range are subsidized by J & S, and also receive some basic material (tents, denim square units, ropes) from J & S for these occasions. J & S is also deeply involved in leader training, because unit leaders are basically special youth sport trainers.

As Switzerland is divided in four language areas, there's not too much documentation available from the National Office as a result. There is not a national Scouting handbook per se. There is a handbook on Scouting techniques which has become the de facto reference book distributed by the National Office. This book however is purely technical and does not handle the human and ethical aspects of Scouting.

1 Program Sections
2 Scout Motto
3 Scout Promise
4 Scout Law
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] Program Sections

The different languages---Swiss German, French, and Italian---have different terms for different sections:

Bienli/Wölfli (De), Lutin/Louveteau (Fr), Lupetti (It) (Brownies or Cubs) - ages 8 to 11
Pfadi (De), Éclaireurs (Fr), Esploratori (It) (Scouts)- ages 11 to 15
Pios (De), Pionniers (Fr), Pionieri (It) (Venturers) - ages 15 to 18
Rover (De), Guide/Routier (Fr), Rover (It) - ages 18+

The age groups overlap because Swiss Scouts move a Scout to the next level according to his/her maturity, not his/her age.