Scouting Nederland

Scouting Nederland
Headquarters	Leusden
Country	Netherlands
Founded	1911/1973
Membership	110,000
Patron	Princess Máxima
Affiliation	World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts, World Organization of the Scout Movement
Website http://www.scouting.nl
colours for ages above 14

Scouting Nederland is the national Scout organisation of the Netherlands with approximately 110,000 members (53,324 male and 54,663 female, 87,000 youth members, as of 2010.

The official patron of Scouting Nederland is Queen Máxima, the wife of the Dutch King, Willem-Alexander. From 2005 Scouting Nederland has been affiliated with the International Scout and Guide Fellowship. In April 2011 the ISGF suspended that affiliation.

Scouting for boys was started in the Netherlands in the summer of 1910 when the first Scout troops were formed in a few cities. Scouting started about a year later for girls. Dutch Scouts were among the founding members of World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts in 1928 and also among the charter members of the World Organization of the Scout Movement in 1920.

On 7 January 1911 the first national organisation was founded, the Nederlandsche Padvinders Organisatie (NPO, Netherlands Pathfinder Organisation). They merged with the Nederlandsche Padvinders Bond (NPB, Netherlands Pathfinder Federation) on 11 December 1915 and became known as De Nederlandse Padvinders (NPV, Netherlands Pathfinders). In 1933 some Scout Groups broke away from the NPV to form the Padvinders Vereniging Nederland (PVN, Pathfinder Association the Netherlands), because difficulties concerning the Scout Promise arose. The difficulty was that boys who recognised no god still had to promise "To do my duty to God and my country". The Scout Groups found that one grew hypocrites this way. The NPV and the PVN almost reunited in 1940. The PVN was not refounded after World War II. Although the NPV was open to boys of all religions, a Roman Catholic organisation was founded in 1930, the Katholieke Verkenners (KV, Catholic Scouts). First inside the NPV, but after 1938 as a separate organisation. After World War II the Roman Catholic Church wanted to merge all Roman Catholic youth organisations. After negotiations the Katholieke Verkenners were allowed to go on as Verkenners van de Katholieke Jeugdbeweging (Scouts of the Catholic youth movement). The Katholieke Verkenners became a separate organisation again in 1961.